Note: Flour + Water Pizzeria is temporarily closed. They will reopen in North Beach in winter 2022.

When we were kids, the ultimate moment was when someone said, “pizza party.” Finding out that we were going to watch a movie in class, or that it was Parachute Day in P.E. was never as great as knowing we were about to eat our weight in pizza (or die trying). It’s been a long time since we felt that level of excitement. But when we go to Flour + Water Pizzeria, we get pretty close.

Flour + Water Pizzeria is the second restaurant from the people behind Flour + Water, one of our favorite places in the city to get pasta. Here, the pizzas will make you as happy as playing MASH with your friends—they’re all fantastic. The crust is chewy and crispy. You could pick it out of a lineup while blindfolded, especially after it’s dipped in their incredible homemade ranch. There are ten pizzas to choose from that change from time to time, with toppings like eggplant and capers, or sausage and rosemary. You’ll question why your favorite as a kid was just plain cheese.

photo credit: Krescent Carasso

It’s not just the pizza that makes us excited to come here. The homemade mozzarella sticks are perfectly melty and you can actually taste the cheese through their near-perfect marinara sauce. The only thing that would make these more exciting is if each order came with a free pair of light-up L.A. Gears. The food is all great in any context, but it’s even better in a place where it’s easy to get a table and nothing costs more than $25. By the time you make it to dessert, you’ll be enjoying yourself so much that you’ll ask for rainbow sprinkles on your soft serve.

Food Rundown

Ricotta Meatballs

These pork and beef meatballs are dense but tender. They come with marinara, ricotta, and a pizza crust, and will remind you of assembling your own Lunchables pizza—only way better. Order these, but get a white pie to balance things out.

Mozzarella Sticks

These are the mozzarella sticks we imagine Frasier eating as a child. They have melty, stretchy cheese, crust you could eat on its own, and marinara dipping sauce you’ll want to put on everything. Get these.

Caesar Salad

This caesar salad has crisp lettuce, amazing cured anchovies, a soft-cooked egg, and high-quality cheese. Share this with the table.

OG Bear Pizza

This pie has a ton of mushrooms and garlic, and it’s incredible. Order this with confidence.

Margherita Pizza

There’s nothing wild going on here—just tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella coming together to become a very good version of a margherita pizza.

Sausage Pizza

The best thing about this pizza isn’t the spicy sausage or the olives—it’s the rosemary on top.

Homemade Ranch

Flour + Water Pizzeria makes their own ranch for dipping the pizza crust in. It’s light and tangy, and has a lot of dill. Even if you hate ranch and are in some sort of anti-ranch-on-pizza league, you need to get over yourself and try this.

Soft Serve

They have two flavors of soft serve: fior di latte, which is like a very creamy vanilla, and salted caramel. Both are so good that toppings aren’t necessary and may just get in your way. They also have this at the takeout window, and we’d stop here just to a cup of it.