Goat Hill Pizza in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

Note: this review covers all three Goat Hill Pizza locations in San Francisco - 715 Harrison, 300 Connecticut and 525 Howard. They have different special offers, and delivery is only offered from the Harrison location, but the pricing and pizza quality has been consistent across all the locations from my experience.

For a city that has a reputation as one of America's top food spots, San Francisco struggles with a surprising but decided lack of good pizza delivery options. Oh sure, there's some really fantastic artisan pizza here - at like $30 per pie before the tip. In the sub-$20 range, where most delivery pizza is expected to fall, I'm hard pressed to think of any place that fares better than a "meh" or "gets the job done" at best.

Goat Hill Pizza is the one reliably better-than-average choice I've come up with in my experiences here so far, that still keeps the prices reasonable. They are one of the bigger pizza operations in San Francisco now, with three downtown locations and a few billboard ads posted up here and there around the city.

Delivery operates out of the 715 Harrison Street (near Third Street) location and you can phone them up at 415-974-1303. They also do large-scale catering for the numerous offices nearby, and are open daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The other two locations, on Potrero Hill and on Howard Street near 1st downtown, are sit-down establishments that offer up differing "all you can eat" specials, which is an even better draw than the delivery. The Potrero Hill location constrains "all you can eat" night to Mondays, and asks a flat $10.95 per person (kids under 12 are 5.95.) The location on Howard downtown offers this special every weekday, however, and from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. They do keep office hours since they are a Financial District location, but they only charge $7.95 per person for lunch and $9.95 for dinner. The lunch is really one of the best pizza deals in the city at that price, if you are really hungry and looking to stuff yourself on some decent pizza.

The pizza tends to be a little more decent (and nutritious) than average as they use a sourdough crust for all of them. Cheese is also a tasty mix of provolone with the standard mozzarella. Pie prices are reasonable for the city, given the very decent quality. Plain cheese runs from 12 dollars for a small to 20 for an extra large, and you can construct your own from there at 1 to 2 dollars per added topping (depending on the pizza size.) They have all the standard toppings you would expect available, as well as chicken, linguica, feta cheese and artichoke hearts. While the topping price might sound like a bit of a rip, keep in mind it's a flat price for all toppings, so chicken costs the same as olives or pepperoni. Something to factor in when ordering. They also have pre-made combo pizzas from about $15 for a small to $25 for an extra large. These include a Meat Lover's, Chicken Florentine, Californian, Portuguese, Vegetarian, Hawaiian, Greek Gourmet and a three topping Pizza of the Day. You can save a couple of bucks with these combos over constructing the same pies on your own, especially Pizza of the Day.

They have some other options but they are a bit thin, and pricey. A full size order of spaghetti with meatballs is a pricey 12.75. Ravioli and lasagna are the same. There's only three types of sandwiches - Hot Italian, Vegetarian, and Meatball, all 6.50 to 7.00, and I didn't think they were bigger or much better than Subway or Quiznos. There's a few generic salads for about five bucks each, but other than that sides are pretty much limited to hot wings and garlic bread.

If you happen to be downtown during lunch and really hungry, the Howard Street buffet deal is pretty good, and otherwise they are a solid choice for delivery if they fall within your range. It's not quite enough to rave about, but I'm happy they are here as a reliable delivery choice.