Bella Pizza on Geary

The exceedingly nice people at Bella Pizza are clearly trying in earnest to make a decent pizza. That must be applauded. Their ingredients are not particularly low grade and the end product is not dissatisfying. With some changes to their ratios, this could be an acceptable walking-down-the-street-and-feeling-hungry-for-a-slice slice.

CHEESE: Too much, but it's real mozzarella, at least.

SAUCE: Neither sweet nor salty. Entirely serviceable.

CRUST: It serves its purpose, but is otherwise unremarkable. Another cornmeal job that is too flimsy to hold the weight of the cheese. No discernible char or tooth.

Just missing the magic intangible...

Try it for yourself.

Bella Pizza

4124 Geary Boulevard (between 5th & 6th)

San Francisco, CA
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond

(415) 668-4150

Flour + Water

Holy smokes, this place is amazing. As you likely know, this isn't necessarily a pizza place, but it is rather an establishment that serves many varieties of incredible treats, pizza amongst them.

The menu changes daily and everything is good. I can't recall exactly which non-pizza selections we ate, but it definitely included two pastas. The selected pie was a salsiccia pizza. All plates were highly excellent.

CHEESE: Straight danks.

SAUCE: White pie!

CRUST: Excellent char. The crumb is a little chewy (too much rising time?) for this style of pizza, especially toward the top. Maybe I got a thicker pie... Crust was still great, just stating that it was the only thing holding this pizza back from sheer and unbridled perfection.

The only downside is that this place is pretty expensive. Not sayin' it isn't worth it, but it's expensive.

Glad that pizza napoletana is available here (miss you Paulie Gee's, Roberta's, Motorino), but the search continues for a satisfactory slice.

Flour + Water

2401 Harrison Street (at 20th)

San Francisco, CA 94110
Neighborhood: Mission

http://www.flourandwater.com