Carino’s

I’m a pizza snob so I know a good piece when I see/​taste it and this spot doesn’t come close to my expectations.
Way too thin of crust, I think the mozzarella came out of a bag from vons.
This place just doesn’t have good pizza period.
I really wanted to like it bc it’s right down the street from where I live.

This is our go to pizza place. Best ingredients and best taste. Highly recommend this place as I lived in Chicago for years and this place is comparable!

We ordered 2 large pizza’s and 4 soft drinks the bill came to $ 65.00! This was the worst pizza ever, service was bad and took 50 minutes to get our pizza and one was wrong:(Do not recommend go to the frozen pizza isle in your supermarket you would be better off!

Pizza is really good! I’ve always had good service but food takes a while. Pizza is kinda greasy and pretty expensive. The same people are always there working and it’s nice to see familiar faces though :)

Carino’s is my favorite place to go on a Sunday night when I want home style Italian cooking without having to cook! The family italian recipes are always consistently delicious.
Tyler and his team give Carino’s such a warm neighborhood feel. I always feel welcome and I keep coming back.

This was BY FAR the worst customer service I’ve ever had in my entire life. Our server was very rude to us in our first interaction– although we had been nothing but nice to him. We decided to give him the benefit of the doubt as the place was pretty busy. After we sat down it took 30 minutes to get our sodas. The server was busy serving/​moving everyone else around us but would not make eye contact with us or come over to us even though we smiled and tried to get his attention. When we asked for water he told us not to drink it– and then brought it out 15 minutes later. We were never asked how our meal was, and when I asked to used the restroom he rudely told me where to go, seemingly figuratively and literally. He seemed attentive to all the other customers around us.
When we left a small tip (for the extremely poor service and mediocre food) the waiter chased us down the street and yelled at us for «not giving him a tip” — which we did. Frankly, we shouldn’t have left one at all.
The only thing that saved me was that I was with a good friend on a well needed weekend getaway. I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone.

Love this place! Best pizza in SD. I drive from Poway for it! Marinara sauce, meatballs, and antipasto salad are amazing too.

Awesome pizza. Staff are great and super friendly. Right by the beach. Has a nice vibe and they serve beer.

Good pizza??? Yes
Horrible service! I along with 3 other people got told the wrong pick up time and it’s been an hour… I wish that was the worse part, but because this place is so small they made us wait outside in the cold, we were taking up too much room inside. THATS HORRIBLE customer service! Plan accordingly so you’re able to inform customers the right time.

I love this place. Old school pizza joint. Great tasting pizza and 1 beer on tap. Michelob. I always get the Chicago pizza and have not been let down yet. Good pizza is so hard to get in this town, especially good sausage. Their sausage is truly Italian. I read about people not liking it cause it’s too cheesy or kinda greasy. Sorry people that that is how pizza should be. This is a pizza joint not a health food store.

Worst. Pizza. EVER.
Very small restaurant. Outdated. We walk in and the owner? points to a table so we sit down. After about 10 minutes, he moves us to a booth. He could have asked us if we wanted water while we waited? But no. He proceeded to do everything else BUT ask us. When we moved to the other table, we ordered the Chicago style pizza and the bear bread. We went with the bear bread based off reviews. Unilocalers! You did me wrong! It was literally a piece of toast that had melted cheese on it. Oh and it ONLY took 15 minutes for us to get. As for the pizza, it was so bland! Tastes like plain dough with pizza sauce that was craving for some seasoning. My fiancé doused his pizza with parmesan cheese because there was no taste. I ate three small slices hoping I would get some flavor somewhere but nope. When we got our check, my fiancé put his card down. The owner? asked «can I add the tip to the card?». I mean what if we didn’t want to tip? We would course but I think it’s rude to assume but more so ASK. Our pizza and bread came out to be $ 44.71. Terrible meal for a lot of $$. Let me go to Costco and get 4 quality pizzas for $ 40 instead! Definitely don’t recommend.

Decent pizza but a bit overpriced. We had really good service though. Just know you’re going to a «gourmet» style pizza place and not your standard standard pizza joint.

Seriously the best pizza I have had in the thirty years I have lived in San Diego. What more is there to say?

Ok, wasn’t what I was expecting inside. Don’t let it scare you off or the tiny bathroom through the super tiny kitchen. :) Service was super friendly and prompt. And the food was really good. Had spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, soup, and cheese and pepperoni pizza. Sauce and meatballs were really good, even the seasoned salad with a simple oil and vinegar was super tasty. The pizza has a thin, crispy crust and generous cheese. Yummy! Give it a try.

Because pizza, bear bread and beer. Really that’s all you need to know. (Note the five stars up yonder) been going here since.uh.forever !! Growing up, The whole «fam» worked here, so I’ve prolly spent way too much time at Carinos. I love this place. I crave their pizza when I am not in town, and beg my parents to somehow ship me one.
I love the fact that there are only 8 tables, and that’s how it’s been, and that’s how it has stayed. Just like at the Ranch, next door, if you get here and there’s a wait, well, dummy, there’s a REASON! Either wait, or call your order in to go. Either way, you won’t be disappointed, the guys (and sometimes gals) here will take good care of you, and if your server happens to be named Larry or Russ, treat them extra nice, cuz they are extra awesome! (And Larry owns the joint, couldn’t be a more pleasant, friendly smiley guy!!) So. once again, this is pretty much all you need to know about Carinos .
1. Five stars
2. Pizza
3. Bear bread
4. Ice cold Beer
Oh, and for gods sake, get a dinner salad, I literally drink the salad dressing. Love that sh*t!

Really disappointed. Ordered a cheese pizza to go. Really oily and expensive too.
:-(

Definitely worth the wait! We ordered The Works and Sausage and Mushroom and they were both delicious!

When I first stepped into Carino’s, I felt like I was transported back to a pizza shop in Italy! The paintings of Italian cities on the wall combined with the rustic furniture brought back memories of my time in Florence and Rome two years ago.
Most importantly, the pizza at Carino’s was some of the best I’ve had stateside. We ordered a large pizza: half Gunslinger Special (garlic with pepperoni) and half Veggie Special (onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, black olives, artichoke hearts). The freshness of the ingredients combined for an incredibly flavorful experience. If you’re looking for the best pizza in La Jolla, look no further than Carino’s!

Deep dish pizza! So yummy! Came here with the boyfriend and split a salad and a 9 inch pizza per our server’s suggestion (his name was Larry, I think) Food was delicious and our server was sweet. We would definitely come back!

We had dinner at Carino’s on a Saturday night. There were only a couple of tables seated, but by the time we ordered all but 1 table was full. It’s a small joint, 3 booths on either side of the restaurant and 2 tables in the middle. It has great atmosphere, kind of divey but clean. It’s dark and felt very homey, I felt very comfortable upon entering. It’s got a lot of character.
The beer/​wine menu is short, but very reasonably priced. We had the half carafe of house burgundy which was only $ 9.00. The wife had the lasagna and I ordered a small sausage pizza. Be advised that a small pizza is 8 good sized slices, easily enough for 2 people to share. The lasagna comes with soup, salad, and garlic bread. It’s quite a meal for a reasonable price. The salad is a basic salad: iceberg lettuce, olives, tomatoes and pepperoncinis. It is large however. The soup (minestrone) was great. The veggies are soft and the broth is rich and flavorful.
The pizza was large, as noted above, but it had some issues. The topping was used sparsely, 2 pieces only had 2 pieces of sausage on them. I think the piece that had the most had 5. The crust is thin, which I prefer, but lacked any crunchiness. There is lots of cheese, which is great. It’s a lot of pizza for the money, but I’ll probably try a multi-​topping pizza next time to make sure it’s adequately topped.
The lasagna is a large portion of basic meat lasagna. It was baked and the cheese was nice and bubbly. This was not earth shattering, but it was a solid interpretation of an Italian standby.
Service was great, the place is so small that drinks/​refills get to you very quickly. We had a nice evening, but weren’t blown away.