Pizza Port Ocean Beach

bkett01

Massachusetts

4.29/5  rDev -0.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.25 | food: 4.25 | $

Very cool open beachfront community atmosphere here. Came in during a slow weekday afternoon and had a couple of beers with the wife before wandering down to the beach to watch the sunset. Then wandered back over to the bar for more beers and pizza. The crowd steadily picked up as the after work folks started coming in and filling it up.

Beer selection was large and local. Lots of real small local beers represented on tap and it was nice to get to try some of San Diego's lesser known but still delicious beers. The pizza came out quickly and didn't disappoint. This was a fun and not really planned out stop during my beer trip. If you're in Ocean Beach, give it a try.

04-27-2013 02:18:26 | More by bkett01

jjboesen

Maryland

4.38/5  rDev +1.2%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $

Pizza Port Ocean Beach (PPOB) was the first official stop during my recent trip to SDBW 2012. It is a medium sized venue, a single room containing several rows of communal tables where beer geek and family meet. It is light and airy with a slightly rustic decor to it. The small bar is to the left upon entry. There is a counter for ordering the delicious PPOB craft brews adjacent to counters where hungry patrons can order food - which I did not try given a giant enchilada lunch at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town San Diego (at which time I also quaffed a Ballast Point Yellowtail Ale.)

The beer is great; during my visit, the following were greatly enjoyed: Dandy IPA, Shark Bite, Tarantulas and ABLE stout. In fact, the Dandy cask blew and the attentive bartender gave it to me on the house. (Oh, if more kegs would blow!)

PPOB is the definitive beer bar: great quaffs, non-pretentious environment where everyone can enjoy themselves; plus, it is a block from the mighty Pacific.

It is also accesible to Bus 35 from Old Town. One down ...

11-19-2012 01:55:33 | More by jjboesen

DocJitsu

California

4.45/5  rDev +2.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

My wife and I were recommended this location over the other Pizza Ports in San Diego. Cute place. Roomy inside with Oktoberfest-style seating. Walk up order windows--one for food only and the other for beer and food. The service, in true San Diego fashion, was friendly, helpful, patient, and accommodating. The young woman who helped me seemed like she really enjoyed her job and really loved their brews. The gentlemen using the PA to announce when orders were up made it fun. My wife and I sat outside on the sidewalk patio. It's a little tighter fit out there, but still, relatively roomy. Flights were available of all the Pizza Port brews--of which there are several on tap. The BBQ chicken pizza was amazing. The soft pretzel was described to me by my wife as, "not very good." How can you beat a place that offers a friendly atmosphere, an opportunity to sit in the sun (or shade), drink some magnificent beer, and have a great pizza? This would be an every Saturday afternoon place for me if I lived in this neighborhood.

11-04-2012 14:59:54 | More by DocJitsu

Johnsontj61

Minnesota

4.73/5  rDev +9.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

Best visit of our SD area tour. Great food and great beer. Imperial Red was the highlight of the night for our group. Will make a point to go back every time
I go back to SD. Pizza was very good and bartenders
were very knowleable of beers that were available. Lots of families at this location?
Maybe it was the Monday night visit but it seemed to be very welcoming to kids. Reminds me very much of a pizza place I grew up with in northern
Minnesota called Zorbaz. Self serve counter for food and beer orders but nothing to complain about. Location is very close to anyone staying near Sea World.

10-07-2012 04:55:13 | More by Johnsontj61

portia99

Massachusetts

4.13/5  rDev -4.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

Stopped here for dinner and beer after making sales calls on a recent trip to San Diego. Located a couple blocks from the beach on a somewhat quiet street with a mix of businesses and residential buildings. Parking is on the street only and seems like it could be difficult at times, but we were pretty lucky and found a spot about a block away. Pretty large inside with basically one wide open room - brewery and bar on the left, kitchen straight ahead and the bulk of the room lined with picnic tables to form kind of a beachy feeling beer hall environment, communal seating type place. Bar is small with about 6-8 seats and also a small rail type area with a few more seats available. A giant 60ish" tv is behind the bar, the whole time playing crazy 40' wave type surfing video. Good selection of beers with a mix of Port's own house made beers and a good selection of guest beers mostly representing other CA breweries and of generally high quality. Service was fast...seemed like there was quite a bit of staff while we were there (especially for the small group of customers at the time, but it was early, so maybe it gets busier later). Hardly any wait to get a beer. Bartender was knowledgable and helpful with suggestions and let us sample several beers to help us find something to our liking. Pizza is surprisingly? good...a deeper dish type pizza that is quite filling but complemented the beer nicely. Crowd was a mix - mostly younger, 20 something locals seemingly from the neighborhood, a couple of families with young kids...basically, I was the oldest person there, probably by a good 10yrs, but never felt out of place or uncomfortable. Great place for a casual, low key meal and a couple of beers. Another place I'd definitely come back to.

03-07-2012 13:27:51 | More by portia99

corby112

Pennsylvania

4.36/5  rDev +0.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Stopped by during a recent trip to San Diego. I planned on visiting all of the locations but only made it to this one. It's located in a nicer section of OB, a few blocks away from the homeless, hippies and panhandlers.

The space is basically one large, spacious room with the bar and brewing to the left and the food counter straight ahead. Lots of picnic style tables fill up the rest of the room. There's also a small little arcade section in the rear right corner next to the restrooms. In addition, they have an outdoor patio that faces Bacon Street with seating for around 20 people. This is one of the best feature of this location. Being able to drink their beers while enjoying the beautiful SD weather is a definite plus.

The place wasn't very crowded when I was there so the service was pretty good. You have to order at the counter but I never waited more than a minute for beer. Also, if you order food they call your name over a PA system when it's ready. The bartender was friendly and patient while I looked up all of their beers and also answered all of my annoying questions.

I didn't order anything to eat but everything looked pretty good. Being from the east coast I'm kind of biased when it comes to pizza but this place seemed legit. I came for the beer and I was not disappointed. The selection was pretty impressive with a bunch of their beers and an excellent guest list. They had fourteen of their own beers on covering a wide range if styles. Honey ale, cream ale, heft, golden ale, pilsner, belgian golden strong, three different hoppy beers, three stouts and a scotch ale! Lots of really good guest beers including Bruery, Dupont, AleSmith, Avery, Pliny, Flying Dog and a few Belgian offerings. They even had an interesting cider and a dry hopped mead.

This place was one of my favorite stops on my trip and if I lived in the area I would probably hang out there at least once a week. Really cool vibe with lots of cool locals, families and beer nerds. The service is pretty good and the selection is stellar. I wish I was sitting on that patio right now sipping on a fresh IPA.

01-21-2012 02:32:42 | More by corby112

sholland119

Pennsylvania

4.4/5  rDev +1.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

One of our favorite spots in San Diego, so much that we went out of our way to get there twice. This Pizza Port is probably one third the size of Carlsbad with a 7 or 8 seat bar and a bunch of picnic tables for dining. The nice plus here is the outdoor counter for dining that sits faces Bacon Street. I also liked the location a block from the beach and pier. We took a nice stroll both times before we stopped in to eat, watching the surfers while weaving around the homeless and the hippies.

We had great service here on both visits. Friendly and knowledgeable bartenders with great recommendations. The garlic buddies were quite good, as was the pizza. Like most breweries with pizza, the crust is thicker than I would like but the flavors were very nice, and the servings generous for the price.

I would be thrilled if this were my local brewpub.

HV

11-28-2011 15:48:21 | More by sholland119

Rhettroactive

Virginia

4.5/5  rDev +3.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

The wife and I spent quite a bit of time here on our recent visit to San Diego. We love OB, and hope to land there in the very near future. What better way to scout it out then imbibing at the local watering holes?

Easy to find, clean, and stacked to the brim with awesome suds. Everything about the OB Pizza Port is top notch. They had some killer house brews on draft, and a ton of guests taps too. The proper glassware was used for each beer (including my wife's fruit lambic).

The entire staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and they certainly all seemed to be enjoying their jobs.

We typically just plowed back the beers, but on our last visit we ordered some Garlic Buddies. Crunchy, chewy and well seasoned. Next time we hit up PP, we'll definitely grab a pie.

Prices are beyond resaonable too. From beer to food, everything is affordable.

Overall there ain't much better then a cold beer a mere couple of blocks from the beach. Seriously, what more could you ask for? If you're in the area, make a point of stopping in, as this is a top shelf beer destination.

11-26-2011 16:36:24 | More by Rhettroactive

cbutova

Massachusetts

4.58/5  rDev +5.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

During my stay in San Diego, I found it necessary to visit at least one Pizza Port, I didn't get out to Carlsbad but this one was great!

The exterior looked like a new building and blended into the surrounding beach neighborhood nicely, a very cool area with awesome shops and a nice beach. This location had a small bar (which I sat at) and a ton of huge picnic tables with some small tables outside on a patio. The crowd varied from little kids getting pizza to people trying the beer like us.

The beer and pizza selection were both awesome. They had a huge list of house-made and guest beers. I stuck to the in-house beers for the night but there were plenty of great selections from other breweries. Somewhere around 40 taps I would guess. The selection varied across a ton of different styles, things for the hop and malt lovers. Everything was served in proper glassware and the bartenders were very knowledgeable about the beer. They helped me with a few selections I was unsure of by providing good information on the brew.

The pizza we ordered came out very flavorful and was cooked to perfection. The thing looked like it came out of a sun-powered oven, they must have a hot oven to get a pie cooked that nicely. I would suggest trying a few different personal size pizzas while there, they are awesome!

Out of all the places I visited, I wished the most that I had something like Pizza Port where I lived. It is very simple, a huge selection of beer and pizza, quick service and good prices. This place ruled, I will certainly get out to it more when I go back to San Diego.

11-23-2011 16:27:07 | More by cbutova

berley31

New Brunswick (Canada)

4.55/5  rDev +5.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

Visited last Thursday at around 1 pm...

A: Nice spot... seems like a restaurant first, I guess, but it works. The bar has some places to sit, then there's a bunch of long picnic tables inside, and some smaller tables. Pretty roomy deck as well, for people watching. Speakers throughout that call you when your food order is ready.

Q + Selection: Pretty damned impressive... lots of their own beers, and then about equally as many guest taps. I had a Goldmember, While the Wife's Away IPA, and something else I can't remember... anyway, they were really tasty.

Service: The bartender was great... very friendly, helpful with beer selection and picking out a shirt... no complaints at all.

Food: Split some garlic buddies and a pizza, both were really tasty. A lot of the pizza looked great, actually.

Value: Very reasonable, for both beer AND food.

O: A great spot... definitely worth making the trip from downtown.

09-27-2011 21:50:44 | More by berley31