Pizza Port Ocean Beach

womencantsail

California

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

Fellow lardass, t0rin0, and I came here after a few ticks at Stone for some more beer ticks and a "place tick".

This is sort of fancy for a Pizza Port, the interior, anyway. Maybe it's just because it's so new. But you've got the usual picnic bench style seating as well as some smaller bar table type options. Nowhere to sit at the bar itself as far as I noticed. The bar is pretty much just a beer pickup/order window.

Like all Pizza Ports, you have your choice of several house beers and a nice guest taplist. This one seems to have the most options (other than Carlsbad), but certainly more than Solana Beach.

The beers are pretty good for the most part, but there are a few duds, too. We didn't get any food as we had scarfed down a few dozen double cheeseburgers in the car before coming inside, but it's your standard Pizza Port fare.

It's out of the way for me, compared to the other locations, but it's a really nice spot and I hope to make it back here again.

02-07-2011 22:15:57 | More by womencantsail

DeanMoriarty

California

3.93/5  rDev -9.2%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4 | service: 3.25 | selection: 4.75 | food: 3.5 | $$$

After 10 or so years of failing businesses in this same building (Java Joe's, Bol Weevil, and that piece of sh*t Boston bar), Pizza Port opened up this past summer and I think they're here to stay.

The atmosphere is typical of other Pizza Ports - open, spacious, airy and packed with kids, parents and a handful of locals who like good beer and above average pizza. The juke box is one of those digital ones with a 1000 songs to choose from, so its easy to find some tunes that everyone likes. I generally opt to sit outside on their patio that faces Bacon St. (which is a nice option over sitting inside).

The quality is on point with their other establishments - good selection of craft ales with a wide array of styles, and some tasty ones brewed on-site. They've really cut back on what they are brewing on site right now in comparison to the summer (supply and demand I suppose), but their business has scaled back considerably as well (pretty much just local families and beer drinkers now that summer is over - love it!).Their pizza/beer lunch special (which is actually a great deal) packs the place from noon until 3pm, but then opens up nicely with little to no wait for your beer; which is what brings me to my one major gripe about this place - when it's busy it takes 20 minutes to get a beer, no joke! (2 bartenders serving 30 or so people - just do the math - the process verges on inexperience and lack of bar service knowledge) And you gotta have your I.D. ready even if it's your third time to the bar with the same bartender (this gets old real quick and seems pretty obnoxious if you ask me).

The food is pretty solid, not amazing but consistently above average with fresh ingredients and home made pizza dough - the Pizza Solana and Pizza San Clemente are off the hook! A bit pricey for the area, but I suppose you get what you pay for.

In all honesty though, at the end of the day it's about their beer selection, and what they brew on-site is always tasty and fresh; a bit pricey and no happy hour, but having a place like this walking distance from my house is worth paying a dollar over what the price should be. Also - the "pint of the day" at $3 is a damn good price - they had Green Flash ESB in there this past Monday for the "pint of the day" (always a good one).

12-08-2010 18:42:20 | More by DeanMoriarty

Eriktheipaman

Virginia

4.2/5  rDev -3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

This is a fairly new location and a very nice clean place.

Went there yesterday with a group of 8 and was worried about seating because of the Charger game but was pleased to find plenty of it. We ordered some beers and food and stayed for a few hours to watch the whole game.

Pizza Port always has a big selection of their own beers and are all solid brews but nothing too special. They also have an extensive guest selection on tap.

The food is pretty good and at a fair price. They also have a lunch special with a slice of pizza, salad, and a drink which you can sub for a pint for a total of $6!

I cant wait to go back!

10-25-2010 16:59:06 | More by Eriktheipaman

Yetiman420

Ohio

4.38/5  rDev +1.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I did a three day brewery, brewpub, beer bar tour of San Diego and after a wonderful first stop at Pizza Port in Carlsbad, I decided to visit the other two locations on my drive back to LA.

The Ocean Beach Location is the newest and second best to the Carlsbad location.

They have 14 of their own beers and 24 beers on the guest tap list. I was told that each PP has their own brewer and therefore the beers are all different but I did notice the same names for PP beers at each location.

I had the shark bite red and a veggie pizza which was fantastic.

They had one large screen tv over the bar near the brewing set up and it was on the NFL network.

10-18-2010 03:00:03 | More by Yetiman420

armock

New York

4.2/5  rDev -3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

Atmosphere - When you walk in you see the kitchen right in front of you with the brewery to your left and the dining room to your right. Very cool beach surf thing going on here with beach paintings hung on the walls and surfboards hanging from the ceiling and walls. Theres a cool communal seating setup of rows of picnic tables.

Quality/Selection - Well its Pizza Port so you know they they are going to have some good house beers on tap and good guest beers too. During my visit they had ten house beers on tap and I got samples from half of them and they where all good then I finished off with a guest Berlinerweis.

Service - This is like going to a fast food type of place you wait in line staring at the menu until its your turn to order. When I got ready to give my order the bartender was nice and did know about the beers which is a plus. But the whole process can take quite a bit of time.

Food - This place has some good pizza. BBQ chicken pizza is one of my favorites and Pizza Port came through with the win. My friends where also pleased with their pizzas.

08-29-2010 19:59:02 | More by armock

mithrascruor

California

4.4/5  rDev +1.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$

I've been going to other Pizza Port locations for some years and it is usually crowded, but it is nothing like how incredibly packed PP OB was! This was my only real complaint, as it did make the atmosphere suffer. Packed to the gills, line out the door, takes 15+ minutes to get another beer (hello, pitcher!), etc. But it must be said that we went on the Maui Brewing night/"meet the brewer" thing, AND it turned out to be wing night, AND it turned out that on Wednesday evenings there's the OB street fair/farmer's market 1 block away. (Note to self: never go to OB on a Wednesday night.) Hopefully that wasn't a typical night...

Fairly large location: the inside is slightly smaller than Carlsbad. Outdoor area is pretty small, though bigger than Solana Beach. Typical bench seating which is usually both a blessing and a curse.

All the employees were really friendly, and the food was quite fast. Excellent tap-list with more guest beers than I expected. Wonderful food as always; we tried the San Clemente pizza which we hadn't had before, and it was great.

If I can make one suggestion to Pizza Port OB, please have a beer-only line! The food-only line was dead, and the beer+food line was crazy... plus it seemed like the food orders were what was making that line take so long.

We'll definitely be back! Hopefully at a calmer hour... ;-)

06-25-2010 16:14:43 | More by mithrascruor

squaremile

Oregon

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

This was our first stop on a recent trip to Southern California for a beerventure, and it was one of the highlights. PP does EVERYTHING right: great taplist, great house brews, sports on TV, awesome food, and outdoor seating. This place just screams San Diego. Wide open windows with a deck having the ocean breeze blowing in. The place was packed for the US world cup match. It was super laid back and the taplist was amazing. I had the Russian River IPA. The pizza was even better. So freaking good. There were nice looking women around, the guy announcing the orders was funny, there were surfboards over my head. Bottom line: if there was a Pizza Port: Portland it would maybe be the best all around place in town.

06-16-2010 21:38:37 | More by squaremile

ryannaman

California

4.35/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3 | $$

Just recently stopped into the new PIZZA PORT... wow what a packed house!!!! It was an awesome scene to see the new Pizza Port poppin off... the staff was handling the craziness with a relative ease, the beer was pouring on time, but the food was just ok... Its been a couple years since I have been to the Pizza Port up in Carlsbad so I had a quality expectation in mind well before I went into this new spot. I understand its a new location and kinks need to be worked out and once I get back there... if things on the food side get better... I will definitely reflect the change.!

05-23-2010 05:28:54 | More by ryannaman