Kukar’s House of Pizza

San Jose, United States

2.1

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards
Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 408-292-6882
Website:
kukarshouseofpizza.com
Address:
527 South Almaden Blvd, San Jose, CA, 95110
Downtown
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.3 miConvention Center
0.3 miChildren’s Discovery Museum
0.4 miPaseo de San Antonio (NB)
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
No
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Dinner
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Loud
Alcohol
Full Bar
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
Yes
Waiter Service
No
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 10:30 am – 11:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (San Jose) 02:23 Monday, 23 June 2025

Business hours

Monday 10:30 am – 11:00 pm
Tuesday 10:30 am – 11:00 pm
Wednesday 10:30 am – 11:00 pm
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:00 pm
Friday 10:30 am – 12:00 am
Saturday 10:30 am – 12:00 am
Sunday 10:30 am – 11:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Welcome to Kukar’s House of Pizza with our authentic square cut pizzas.

Owned and operated by the Kukar family since 1950, we are known for our chunky spicy pepperoni pizzas made with plenty of cheese. In addition, our famous George’s Special with beef, onion, & jalapenos is a family favorite.

Our restaurant has an old school atmosphere. It’s a place where friends meet with a cold beer and hot pizza to reminisce and catch-​up.

We are located in downtown San Jose, off Almaden Blvd between San Carlos and Highway 280

We welcome you to dine-​in our restaurant, enjoy the atmosphere and our full bar.

History

Established in 1950.

George Kukar built a two-​story 40×40 foot building at 395 S. Almaden Ave, San Jose, CA in 1950. Lorraine Riddle was hired to run the kitchen while George Kukar entertained locals at the bar. Thus, Kukar’s House of Pizza was born. Armed with a World War II army surplus oven, the two would continue working together over the next thirty-​five years.

In the beginning, George Kukar worked at San Jose Steel during the day & the restaurant at night to pay the bills. After seven years, the restaurant was able to hold its own and Kukar’s House of Pizza was here to stay

.

In 1985, the future of Kukar’s House of Pizza was threatened to make way for the new San Jose Convention Center. A petition was signed by 14,000 dedicated customers and a campaign was started to «Save the House of Pizza». Due in part of the outpouring of support, the restaurant was «Saved» & relocated two blocks south to its present location, 527 S. Almaden Ave

Meet the Business Owner

George K.

Business Owner

After 54 years as the owner & founder of Kukar’s House of Pizza, George Kukar passed away in 2004 at the age of 87. He was very proud of his Native American heritage and was a registered Costanoan-​California Mission Indian, evident by the Native American influenced décor scattered throughout the restaurant.

Today, House of Pizza continues to set the stage for a family business and carries on George’s vision. George’s three daughters Joan, Sandy and Patty help with the restaurant. While his son, also named George handles the day to day business of the establishment.

Great food, good times, fond memories and history, makes Kukar’s House of Pizza a San Jose Institution.

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20 reviews of Kukar’s House of Pizza

No registration required
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
Most people seem to talk about the poor service and lack of the staff accommodating groups… Well my gripe has to do with neither. Lets talk about the pizza dough that is made out of cardboard. What in the world is that awful mixture. We also ordered the wings which were clearly frozen and then just microwaved. A frozen pizza would have been better than this place. The food was not edible.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
First time coming to this place with my boyfriend and friend. Sat at the bar to watch the game and have pizza. The pizza is amazing! The customer service was on point. Very friendly environment with a cozy setting.
Place rating: 1
Santa Clara, CA
Kicked out our party. All because we wanted to be sat near family and be seated within distance of everyone. Told us they would refuse service, then proceeded to provide even more rude service upon us asking for a refund after placing a LARGE order for a LARGE party (+15 people). They must have been shocked after realizing how large of a party was about to secede their order. And the games in the arcade area don’t work. So, nothing to really do there other than lose your money and receive poor service.
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
The supervisor cut me off because my nephew was visiting from Utah… He is a veteran in the army! She refused to seat us together!!! I asked her to and she said no, there is plenty of seating!!! This place sucks for veterans!!!
Place rating: 1
Santa Clara, CA
Earlier today:
Won’t serve those of who have served. Can’t say this is the best place for pizza any more. Just got kicked out for being paying customers. Not sure how that works but I guess Round Table it is. Think twice about creating memories here. They may not happen. They don’t care about our vets or our service people. I don’t recommend this place anymore. They don’t even deserve one star.
A few hours later:
It makes me curious as I read the other reviews left regarding this place.
As a consumer, who wants to support local business, I can honestly stand by my word and say no one should do business here. Not just because of the rude comments made but a blatant display of not accepting the diversity of the community and visitors.
The ease of dismissing their customers was just shocking!
We had placed our order, paid and we’re excited to hang out as a family. Not something we get to do all the time. Within 30 seconds we were asking for our money back because 13 of us were not allowed to sit together.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to sit together to celebrate a birthday or gather with friends and family to remember your loved ones who have passed?
We just wanted to sit together as a family.
The highlight of the night:
«I don’t care if he’s a vet»
Need I say more?
There are way better pizza places in San Jose with way better service.
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
I wish i could give 0 stars! Like most people I’ve been coming here for years with family/​friends. The service has always been mediocre but the food was delicious. Since they’ve come up with a wait to be seated rule the service has gotten worse. To the point where you feel so unwelcome, and when you threaten to take your business elsewhere they welcome that by telling us okay go ahead. I never want to eat there again and I advised anyone not to waste your energy with such bitter and rude customer service, BTW the pizza doesn’t taste the same either. The place is all bad.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
House of Pizza is a chill place to have a nice, greasy pizza and drinks with friends and family. I usually get a pepperoni pizza or a beef pizza — keep it simple — with a pitcher of Coke.
This place is also perfect to celebrate a birthday without breaking the bank.
Place rating: 2
San Jose, CA
This is more of a bikers pizza place. If you are thinking of bringing your family and enjoy pizza for dinner … Think about it before you make a decision. The place is really loud, very hard to carry a conversation, people are almost screaming on top of their lungs in addition to the loud juke box (which I think they should control the volume). We got seated at the very end far left corner with eclectic fosters all around us (no theme at all) … Same as their pizza. We ordered a medium size all meat pizza for 27.00 bucks, taste wise it’s ok. If you are interested in a so so pizza in a very loud environment with unpredictable crowd, this is the place.
Place rating: 1
Fresno, CA
We used to come here alot when I was young before we moved. So we were in town and decided to stop by.
Such a disappointment.
The bathrooms were filthy and disgusting.
You pay 2.25 for a medium sized drink they pass off as a large and you only get one refill. Apparently we’re in a soda drought.
And the machine ate my nephews dollar, when I approached the staff the lady said I can only give u 50 cents sorry.
Customer service is terrible, they are money hungry people. I will never go back after this.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
The pizza is good but it takes very long to come to your table and it gets very crowded on Saturday nights
Place rating: 4
Hayward, CA
I came here yesterday for the first time with my family. We loved it. We got a medium pizza with Ham& pineapple and jalapenos on half. And an order of chicken wings and 2 root beers. The chicken wasn’t anything special but it was yummy. The pizza was awesome! The crust was the best along with all the gooey yummy melty cheese. The staff was friendly and professional. The service was quick and the restaurant was clean and what you would expect from a pizza restaurant. I’ll definitely go back.
Place rating: 3
Milpitas, CA
After hearing about this place for years now, I finally decided to give it a try. I was a little hesitant at first after reading the reviews here. I’m kind of a pizza snob, most places are just «meh» to me. This place gets 3.5 stars.
The only thing I didn’t really like was the pizza sauce. It was a bit on the tart side. But the copious amount of cheese and the roasted jalapeño peppers made up for it. I don’t eat meat but the mushroom and jalapeño pizza made up for it. Delicious! I will definitely be back for more.
Place rating: 1
Vallejo, CA
This is by far the worst place in the Bay Area I have never been to a pizza place that won’t play football games on Sunday it says on the wall no raiders games will be played total BS…
Place rating: 1
Gilroy, CA
Very poor service, sorry but not sorry to say that this pizza was the worst I’ve ever had. Sauce tastes like prego, crust tasted like tostitis, toppings completely falling off the crust. I swear they put something in their food because my friend and I started having stomach pains after a few peices (NOT SLICED) I ordered a pitcher of Stella Artois on tap and it tasted like bud light. Very unsatisfying meal even though I feel like I ate only 2 slices.
Place rating: 1
San Jose, CA
Bruh really? One would think that an establishment such as this would want a big group of people coming in and spending money on their food and drinks… however that does not seem to be the case… I am ok with that, there are plenty of other establishments that would be happy to take our money.
So we came in before 6pm for a party we were having and we were told we would have to wait… it is now 7:15pm as I write this we have just been seated… which ok, sometimes places get busy and it becomes a little difficult to accomodate large groups. but the fact that we were told we could only come in a few at a time and then their hostess became upset that we tried to sit with our group… she got a real bad attitude. Anyway so now we are seated… but away from our main group.
So yeah… not like its the first time here and last time I came the food sucked, overly greasy pizza. if it was not for the fact that I was invited here by family I would not have even come in the first place.
Place rating: 2
San Jose, CA
So… I have very mixed feelings about this because like most San Jose faithfuls have said, this place USED to have good service. And it seems like every time I eat there, it is always a hit or miss experience.
Mind you, the pizza is good. I don’t have a complaint about the food itself. But unfortunately the quality of a restaurant can’t be measured by the food alone. If you treat your customers poorly consisently, best believe that you will get a poor review.
The last time I was there I had sub-​par service. It was my friends’ graduation and we wanted to celebrate her special day there. Tell me why, in such a big place, is it SO difficult to seat a party of 10 – 12 people? They had plenty of space. We addressed them several times on this and they had no other response other than «They would have to put the tables together in order for all of us to fit.»
Um YES. That is YOUR JOB which you get PAID to do. If you have to shift tables together to make it fit then that’s what you got to do. Don’t make it seem like we’re asking you to give an arm or leg to serve us. That’s NOT customer service. And it wasn’t a safety issue either, the prospective area that we were asking to be seated at didn’t block any doors or pose any obstruction to a walk way. The staff were just unwilling to help. And it was not a busy day at all.
I don’t ever think I’ve experience such unwillingness to help and downright laziness. To the management: You’ve got A LOT of cleaning up to do with your staff. This is unacceptable.
Place rating: 1
Morgan Hill, CA
This place used to be okay to have some food, but I have to say that the customer service starting with management and owner have changed the system for the worse, and have ruined it for me and will not be coming back in this lifetime.
They tried to revamp their pizza place and incorporate a resteraunt approach with a whole check in process to be seated, but then again you need to order your meals at the counter. This place is huge but cannot handle a party of 20+ people??? They wait until you are seated and then ask you to leave? That makes no sense whatsoever for a «so called restaurant»
This place wants to act like a restaurant but they fail in their approach on a few levels.
This place is a joke, never again
Round Table on Stevens Creek was more than happy to accommodate 20+ they were more than happy to have us, no fuss. House needs a major Uhaul because whatever they are doing is not the right approach.
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
The unlucky House of Pizza has been chased out of at least two locations by Caltrans. Each move has hurt the quality of their pizzas, and there has been at least one change of ownership, which probably didn’t help, either.
It’s a semi-​biker bar (No, I don’t mean for semi-​bikers). It’s not really the ideal family atmosphere, unless half of your family rode in on choppers. No, I exaggerate. It’s just a noisy place frequented by loud people. I don’t think folks come here for the ambiance, frankly. The come for the pizza. And beer. And good times.
I recall being in one of their prior locations, before Caltrans found out they needed yet another freeway parcel, all the pizzas looked the same: White. White cheese. No visible toppings. All the toppings were hiding under the mozzarella.
Not nowadays, though. There are visible toppings, much to the relief of the waitstaff, probably. The pizza is good, not excellent, and I liked the crust, sort of crunchy, and not too thick. The taste was quite good, too. The sauce was mild, but certainly not tasteless.
It’s a great place to meet with old friends, and that’s exactly what happened last time. Two pizzas and two pitchers of Stella later, we were well fed and well lubricated. I enjoyed both the pizza and the draft beer, no question about it. I am not a pizza snob, people tell me. Not a beer snob, either. But I know what I like.
The House of Pizza is a great «guy» place, not so good for families, I suspect. But I’m a guy, and I’m a fan.
Place rating: 2
San Jose, CA
Ya know, we’ve been coming here for years. My mother in law always suggests it, so when the family’s in town we all congregate there. Tonight we all sat there, got their $ 27 large pizzas, couldn’t hear each other, kept looking around at the crowd there rather nervously and all decided to compare notes at the end of the evening. The consensus? We’re not going back.
I love the fact that it’s an old institution in San Jose and I tend to support those. The pizza is mediocre. The place is dated. It’s just a pain in the butt to order, long wait times, etc.
As a family we sat down my mother in law and had an intervention tonight — we’re not going back.
Place rating: 2
Santa Clara, CA
House of Pizza have been around for many years in San Jose. Born and raised in San Jose I have been here several times with my time. The pizza has never really changed over the year. Same horse shoe bar. I did notice the table are a nice clean change. The even still have the game room for the kids.
The inside of the House of Pizza has interesting antique memorabilia that serves as great conversational while your waiting for your pizza.
Now my take on the pizza… Sorry House of Pizza but This is just not my cup of tea. The pizza has chopped up pepperoni. I found the pizza crust to be soggy and thick with no real taste. One thing about them is they have always cut their pizza up in squares. It seems to be their trade mark.
The other thing that I found to be very irritated my family. Is the Several big guys drunk at the Bar being loud and obnoxious. For a family trying to a nice dinner this not what we had in mind.
So will i venture to the House of Pizza again… probably not…