South End

we didn’t have lunch so we showed up at 4:45 on a Wednesday for dinner. can’t remember the managers name — super super nice guy who took great care of us. don’t be put off by the strip mall location! very small inside and mostly communal seating. make a reservation if possible. this place is very popular and from what I hear it’s packed most nights. the menu mostly consists of pizza and wine. extensive Italian wine list. they encourage you to try wine Before committing to it. the manager and the owner are just genuinely nice people. it’s as if you walked into their living room and They take care of you as if you are guests in their home. we ordered the mushroom pizza and one other — it had an egg on it along with ham and a few other things. the pizzas are twelve inch. the crust has no yeast. very light and easy to consume a lot. pizzas had excellent flavor and the wine was very good too. I loved this place and I can see it has a very loyal following. would absolutely go back if I’m in the area again. great happy hour specials seven days a week too!

You have to love Italians! They are warm, welcoming and fun. This is how you feel here. Amazing pizza, delicious wines from various places around Italy. An experience for sure!

Mario made the beginning of our vacation trip to Mexico, the most EPIC ever! He greeted our group of 10 from out of town with exceptional service, the food was incredible, the wine choices perfect, and the atmosphere perfect! From pictures to cheers to a cherry on top birthday celebration, Mario and Enzo took care of us! A perfect 10 night and I HIGHLY recommend! Thank you! Thank you! Gratzi!!!

The pizza here is AMAZEBALLS!!! I just wish they had more room. Went on a Thursday night and it was SO packed. I had to sit at this tiny little nook, and I couldn’t hear anything because it was so loud. Definitely recommend it though!

The good (4 stars for the food):
Pizza was pretty good and they have gluten free crust. (Which is thin and crispy though pretty hard) We had the Brussel town which is my favorite, district 11, trolleyway and gondola.
The last 2 were average.
Friendly owner that comped us a pizza after getting one order wrong (I imagine because it’s so loud it’s hard to hear sometimes)
They brought us some cheese and olives while we wait
The bad: (deduct one star for this)
Super loud I got a headache sitting there
Space is really tight
Overall not a very relaxing dining experience given the Noise, but some of the pizzas are good so I’d probably do take-​out next time.

Mario hosted my 25^th birthday dinner for me and 20 guests. It was a lovely night, from the pre-​set dinner with appetizers, salads, pizza and dessert, to the great wine, to the wonderful waiters. I will definitely come back soon. Thank you Mario and staff for a perfect evening with fantastic authentic Italian food.

Ordered two pizzas from this place around 8:00PM on a Tuesday and waited around 2 hours to get the order delivered to my house WHICH LITERALLY IS DOWN THE STREET. The order was confirmed and then reconfirmed 15 – 20 minutes later so it was actually longer than 2 hours. Called about an hour and a half in a was told the driver was on it’s way, but that can’t be as the pizza place is a few blocks down Washington Blvd and I live by the Venice Pier; this is less than a mile away. Finally called the restaurant to which it then was CLOSED, shocking. Had to reach out to Eat24 to where a Customer Support Rep had to hunt down the restaurant owner in order to find out what was going on. I was finally called back around 10:35PM, 35 minutes AFTER the restaurant closes to tell me the driver drove to my house, but couldn’t find the house and so he went back to the restaurant. He didn’t call, text me, nothing, just turned around and drove a block down Washington Blvd back to the restaurant. Kinda crazy and not impressed. I have picked up food from here once before and did not have an issue with my order, BUT I also did pick up the order myself. Next time, I’ll just bust a mission to Pitfire Pizza down the street on Washington Blvd as I know the order will be completed when stated with no issues. Maybe next time South End!
UPDATE: The two pizzas were FINALLY delivered around 10:40PM, exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes after I ordered them and 1 hour and 40 minutes after the 45 minutes to 1 hour expected wait. Pizza was luke warmish? Felt bad for pizza delivery guy who actually may have been the owner as he seemed like he’d been through the ringer tonight. Order was dropped off with a bottle of wine and 20% OFF the order due to lateness. Accept it, but I would think the order should have been comped if this was the case.
Please take this into consideration South End. If the restaurant is busy, I totally understand, but please be realistic when giving wait times as this was ridiculous.

Come here for the fancy version of beer and pizza… wine and pizza. Great pizza with delicious toppings. The wine menu is extensive and so is the list of pizzas. Its best to go with at least 4 people so you can order different pizzas to share.
We ordered the Trolleyway for the black truffle sea salt. Very savory. We also had the Kinney (Roma tomatoes, Burrata cheese, basil pesto) which was like a margarita with pesto. Very classic and the burrata is delish. The last pizza we shared was the Boardwalk. The egg and mushrooms made this a must order. All were great and the crust was yummy. It almost tasted like sourdough bread.
There is an extensive wine menu which made this an even more decadent meal besides all the carbs and cheeses we were indulging in. The prices were slightly on the higher end but our waitress let us sample 3 different choices before we ordered the bottle.
The restaurant is located in an unassuming strip mall in Venice so make sure you don’t pass it by. Once you step inside there is barely any lighting and there is little to no space. We were right in the middle of the restaurant right between the bar and the long communal tables. People would bump into our chairs and knock our purses off on the ground. It honestly made me a little irritated. The waitress would bump into me and get too close also. At one point she spilled wine on me. Grr… The restaurant is so small that you can hear everyone’s conversations. It gets a little loud inside, especially with people drinking. We needed to keep yelling to have a conversation. Overall a delicious meal but I wasn’t a fan of the atmosphere.

Did not find South End to live up to expectations based on Unilocal reviews. The wine was expensive and the the pizza was okay, but not delicious. We ordered two wine glasses and two pizzas. There are nearby pizza places that offer mouth-​wateringly delicious pizza for a more reasonable price, so I won’t be returning.

Love the staff Enzo is great and friendly makes you feel comfortable and at ease while enjoying great food. We visited twice to dine in and he was very helpful. Friday night ordered take out. The lady who took my phone order was so friendly and knowledgeable. She helped with suggesting pizzas and described them well ! Accurate time estimation too. My pizzas were hot and fresh when I got there. Nice and busy for a Friday night. I love to see a great place do good business!
Pizza is best I’ve had on west coast!

We were visiting from Northern CA and decided to stop by for dinner… pizza & wine bar, doesn’t sound like you can go wrong!
We ordered the Cesar salad, Brussel sprouts, and 1905 pizza. The salad/​app was OK but the pizza was definitely very good and fresh. I’m not a fan of thick crust so their crust was perfect for me (slightly thin). Fair size, good for 2 people. We actually didn’t end up ordering wine so I don’t have any feedback there.
As for the environment, it’s small, dark, but cute! My only complaint is how LOUD it was. But then again, it might have had to do with the crowd that was there. The staff is very friendly and definitely made it a great experience. I did want to call out that JUAN was such a hard worker and very attentive! He checked up on us more than our waitress did (she was good too).
Overall, cute spot, good pizza, friendly staff! But if you are looking to have a deep conversation in a peaceful state, might not be the best place. Otherwise– must check out!

This restaurant is just great across the board. The have a communal table but the seating still feels intimate and private. The also have a number of high tops that are stand alone. Mario — who runs the place — has truly done an amazing job of putting an authentic Italian restaurant in the middle of Venice. Literally everything in the menu is amazing. For starters I just ask either the waiter staff or Mario what is their current favorite and go with that — hard to miss. I also always get a pizza — which is pretty much the best authentic Italian pizza I’ve had in LA. Pro tip — if you ask they will use burrata instead of mozzarella on the pizza — they just put it on after it comes out of the oven to it keeps is flavor — amazing. Wine selection is also amazing and affordable. Here again I usually just ask Mario — very knowledgeable and will help with a good paring for whatever starters you get.
Short version — if you haven’t tried it you are missing out.

Great food, great wine, great owners/​hosts!
Thank you for an amazing experience and for the desert wines on the house, we’ll be back!

Sat at the bar, there was a large party which was a bit imposing but this restaurant is good for one large group, despite it’s smaller than average dining room.
Ambiance:
*Dim lighting.
*Cozy bar.
*One large table for big parties.
*Friendly and attentive bartenders and servers.
Food:
*I had the mushroom pizza, it was absolutely delicious.
*Great wine selection and knowledgeable staff.
I will definitely be back!

South End serves up some of the best pizza in LA. The ingredients are unique and fresh, the flavor combinations are inspiring and the crust is perfectly crisp on the edges, yet bready with a nice chew. This place should be on every pizza lover’s checklist.
We tried the Trolleyway (mozzarella, ricotta, truffle seasalt, arugula), Kinny (tomato, burrata and pesto) and Boardwalk (tomato, mozzarella, speck, mushrooms, arugula and EGG). The were all delicious, and I would order them again. I particularly enjoyed the Boardwalk with the perfectly runny, golden egg.
South End also has a nice selection of wine. I love how knowledgeable the staff is about wines. Our waitress asked us what flavors and qualities we like in a wine, and brought three different types for us to sample to help us decide on which bottle we wanted to buy. Such a cool concept!
My biggest gripe with South End is the limited space. It is very small and the spacing between tables is minimal. Our party sat at a table in the middle of the room and were getting disturbed from all ends… our table was shaken, our chairs were bumped, my purse was dispatched from my lap twice and my person was rattled more times than I cared to keep track of. I wish the space was bigger, or the tables spaced out better. It would also be nice if the tables had purse hangers underneath.
Located on the edge of the Abbot Kinney strip, there is plenty of street parking, and a few spaces available in the strip mall. Best to make a reservation to avoid a long wait during the dinner rush.

The pizza here is delicious. That’s a given. And if you want to read about the pizza in detail, check out the other reviews. This review is dedicated to our waitress whom I will name «Work?»
Work? brought us 2 Peronis when we ordered 2 Morettis. Forgivable.
Work? brought us 2 sets of silverware after giving us silverware 5 minutes earlier.
Work? also brought 4 glasses out for the beer for 2 people. Cause why not?
Work? put in our pizza order. Unfortunately, she only put in half of it. We ordered 2 pizzas and got one.
Work? brought us 4 plates at the end of our meal for phantom desserts.
Work? vanished for a long time and the bus boy had to give us our check.
Work? returned in time to see us out the door… while sitting down and flicking away on her phone.
So Work? needs some work but the pizza doesn’t.

I recently just tried South End and I thought it was delicious. The pizzas aren’t huge (a really hungry person could finish one on their own or 2 moderately hungry people could share.) I did really like their crust. I got the 1905 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am not a pizza expert but I liked how their pies weren’t greasy. I’d definitely go back.

If you love great wine and incredible pizza, this is your spot. Manager Enzo always greets you with a smile. The place is intimate and dark but it’s so cozy and worth it.
Pizzas. They are all so good. There’s no yeast in South End’s pizza which is the true Italian way! You can eat and eat and won’t feel overly full. Our favs are: District 11, Boardwalk, 1905, Trolleyway, etc. District 11 is our fav.
The wines — so many wines that you won’t find anywhere else. Enzo, Michelle, Brenda and crew will let you taste several options before ordering a bottle and always has great recommendations. Lots of delicious Italian reds!
Dessert — two things. The cheesecake — so amazing (Enzo is a classically trained dessert chef). And the fried warm dough with Nutella. I mean, come on. Both desserts are to die for.
We love this place. It’s our fav on the west side and in LA. Check it out. Enjoy.

I read so many glowing reviews before trying out South End, but my experience placing a delivery order through Unilocal /​Eat24 was abysmal.
Delivery time was quoted (and then confirmed) as 60 minutes. But 80 minutes later, there still was no pizza. Finally — after an Eat24 inquiry — the delivery arrived.
To say it was disappointing is an understatement. The pizza was barely room temperature and looked like those slices that’ve been sitting at the movie theater snack bar for hours. The toppings were sparse, and while I could imagine a scenario where this pie would taste good right out of the oven, a reheat on the stove barely saved it from the trash.
When you’re paying $ 16 for a 12″ pie, I expect a hell of a lot better. For that price you can get a large 16″ pizza from Abbot’s Pizza Co. that sets your taste buds aflame with delight.
The Nutella dessert calzone fared much better, despite also no longer being warm, but it was still a sad representation of what I assume is a decadent affair at the restaurant.
In the end, with tax, tip and a $ 4 delivery charge, the total bill was $ 40, which is a ridiculous amount for what I received.
Nowadays I’m only in the LA area once every couple years, so not only was it a huge disappointment to waste a potentially epic meal on this place, but I could’ve had 4+ trips to In-​n-​Out for that price and come away 10x as happy.

This place is the best! This was the first restaurant I went to when I moved to the area. My gas hadn’t been turned on yet so I was eating out a bit that week and I decided to go to an actual restaurant instead of takeout. I came across South End when searching on Unilocal for pizza. I love pizza, and this place did not disappoint.
First off, the owners are SO friendly. I walked in and they both made me feel like a part of their family right out of the gate. It’s a small place with only a handful of tables but it’s a good thing. It has a cozy wine cellar feel to it. So I walked in and the owner greeted me from behind the bar and told me to come sit at the open seat in front of him. I told him I wanted a pizza to go but I changed my mind after placing my order because I just loved the atmosphere! The owner and I were chatting for a bit before ordering and he asked if I’d been here before. When I told him that I hadn’t and I had just moved to the area a couple of days ago, he said «Welcome to Venice! You’re going to love it,» and gave me a glass of wine on the house. The staff is so classy, charming and extremely friendly.
Now, on to the pizza. It is so good! There are so many types of pizza on this menu so there’s bound to be something that interests you. I love pepperoni and usually gravitate toward that, but I did get the Boardwalk on my first visit and it was delicious. I took my boyfriend here a few weeks after my first visit and he loved it as well! The dough is so soft and the pizza as a whole is just perfect.
Stop in to this place, have a glass of wine and enjoy some pizza with a couple of friends. It won’t disappoint.