Pitfire Artisan Pizza

Generally Tasty stuff… the pizza is good if small but the take out orders of pasta we have been getting have been consistently small in portion. $ 14 chicken pasta should have more then a couple of handfuls of pasta? I fear the value proposition for Pitfire has taken a turn for the worse. We’re gonna have to look elsewhere for new take out Italian :-(

Okay so I’ve been eating here since the week they opened. I love their food — HOWEVER, I’m only giving 2 stars today because the last few times I’ve ordered the Pitfire Chicken Salad to go — the portion keeps getting smaller each time. For $ 12 the box is half-​filled. Not worth it.

The manager at this location has his SHIT TOGETHER! Everyone on his staff is so well trained. How do I know? Because I was greeted by THREE people when I walked in. Also, I waited fifteen minutes for my pizza (not long at all), and he apologized for the «wait,» checked to see that my pizza was still fresh, and gave me a cookie + lemonade for the «wait.» Talk about customer service!!! Meow.
Oh, and the food is delicious as always.

It’s been a while since I’ve dined here. I came in on a Monday night, which was pretty slow. The great thing about that is, there’s no line and plenty of open tables. You’d think on a slow night the service would be better, but it’s still the same — too casual and unorganized.
I started with my usual Turkey Meatballs, which are still very good. However, they used to serve them with bread (which was fanatic for dipping in the delicious marinara sauce), but for some reason they don’t anymore. Also, on previous visits, I didn’t have to ask for plates (I was clearly sharing the meatballs with another person). It should have been obvious to bring them.
Finally, when did beer get to be $ 28 a pitcher? Maybe I’m old school, but that seems excessive.

Overpriced pizza. The waiters were nice and kept my refills coming.
Would I return? No.

How can a delivery order take over an hour and being less than 1.5 miles down the street for a Pizza & Salad? This better be the absolute most amazing pizza ever. 2 stars for merely The dismal delivery system, and I plan on updating my review when my food arrives if I don’t gnaw off my arm in the process.

If you ain’t talkin’ pizza, I don’t wanna talk.
I don’t care if people make fun of LA for making «artisanal» pizzas or how many competitors (think Settebello, 800 Degrees) this place has — I think Pitfire is amazing.
The Food: If you like shrimp, get the Big Sur. Just do it. The cheese, basil, shrimp, tomatoes and I think red pepper flakes? work together in this amazing harmony of flavor, slight heat, and texture. This is my go to pizza. If I’m feeling in the mood for something a bit meatier, the sausage pizza is an excellent choice. Want something richer and/​or basil-​y? The chicken pesto (it’s folded over so it’s almost like a pizza sandwich) could be a good way to go. Something different? The bacon and brussels sprout pizza is killer. This is the real question to ask yourself: are you in the mood for quality pizza made with quality ingredients? Order literally anything off the menu and it will be good (assuming you like the stuff on top of it).
But maybe you were dragged here by your pizza fanatic friends. That’s fine. There are delicious salads and a super delicious baked mac and cheese dish calling your name. If you like pizza and pasta, it could be a good idea to split entrees. Usually I can finish ¾ of a pizza and I can just have the leftovers the next day.
The Service/​Parking: Who are we trying to kid? This is a popular restaurant in a busy location (Costco is just down the street for all of your bulk shopping needs) and parking anywhere in LA can be a struggle. You may have to pull out of the lot into the residential areas to find a place for your car. And because the food here is so dang good, the service at this particular Pitfire can be slow, especially during peak hours. The line to order can be long and the time spent waiting for your food to arrive can seem to stretch on. However, the staff are very nice and are trying their best to get everyone’s food out on time. Trust me — it’s worth it to wait.
The Restaurant Vibe: THERE WILL BE FAMILIES. WITH KIDS. This location is in the general Venice/​Culver City/​Mar Vista intersection, which are three neighborhoods where many families decide to settle and raise their kids. There will be, as a result, many families eating here. In addition, Pitfire likes to be kind and donates part of their proceeds to local schools (i.e. Venice High School), which can add to the clientele that some people have a problem dining with. If the family scene isn’t for you, you can always try visiting the other West LA Pitfire branch on Westwood Blvd. That location is a little smaller and usually less crowded.
I think Pitfire does a great job of balancing quality artisanal pizza and food, a great interior design, and a wide clientele. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

I’m not a fan of pizza or pasta. But I had a crazy craving for it and I’m glad I came here for it. Since they have the best of both. I love Burrata cheese and when I was looking for a pizza pasta place that pizza caught my eye. So when you walk in someone approaches you and gives you a run down of how the place works. So you grab a menu then wait for the next available cashier to call you. You place your order and they give you a # and then someone is suppose to seat you but no one was around, so we sat ourselves. By the way they have no fountain drinks. Everything is canned. Our sodas were those cokes in glass bottles. They have communal tables which I don’t like and also booths. I don’t know if there was a kids and toddlers event in the area or something but omg there were kids running around, screaming, crying and making me crazy. Super loud!
So we sat and waited. We got the Burrata pizza, Sausage Party pizza and the Spaghetti and Chicken Meatballs. Our Spaghetti came first and spaghetti was a little hard. It was as they call al dente. I like mine a little softer but definitely delicious. Those chicken meatballs were so good and juicy and full of flavor. The Burrata pizza was amazing. Nice thin crust, more than enough Burrata on there, grilled onions, lots of arugula and peanuts. It sounds like a crazy combo but it was amazing. The Sausage Party was a bit too greasy and it seems as though they cooked the crust first then put the toppings on last. Like they weren’t even cooked together. Everything was falling off.
Overall though the food was great. Also they have a nice sized parking lot. Might get our food to go next time if its always that loud.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the food at Pitfire.
We arrived at 6:20 on MLK eve and because there was no seating, the staff was VERY slowly taking orders so that there would be places to eat. Needless to to say they overcompensated a bit; after waiting to order for 20 minutes there was more than enough seating.
We didn’t get our food til 7pm. I was there with my daughter, who is 7 and her cousin, who is 10. I was concerned that we were out late on a school night. But evidently that wasn’t a concern for the parents of several young kids (2 –4). They were constantly running/​screaming as they made a loop by the back tables. At one point a toddler stopped running picked-​up and ate food from the floor. Unlike their parents, I was very concerned that the kids would fall, or run into a server. It was certainly making the servers’ job more difficult. It isn’t a safe place for kids to run. Pitfire is way more upscale than Chuck E Cheese, but that was the vibe. Yuck.
I think that Pitfire should implement a take your kid outside, if they want to run policy. A kid is going to get hurt and Pitfire will be taken to the cleaner.

I really really enjoy pit fire… The pizza is great the kale salad is amazing! The issue though is the clientele and that is the reason for three stars.
Parents! I get it that it’s hip to take kids here but this isn’t a freaking discovery zone or chucky cheese. If you want to allow your children to run around literally screaming their heads off take them to chucky cheese. This is a restaurant, it’s not ok to have kids running on the benches, jumping down the stairs or playing tag in between tables.
We literally will not eat inside the restaurant anymore cause this is such a problem

Pitfire is a great «upscale» pizza joint that also serves pasta and salads. There’s a small little parking plaza but that tends to be filled most of the time. Parking can be found on the surrounding streets. It’s a very modern, hipster vibe inside and the pizzas are pretty good! It’s a great spot to take your family or grab a bite with a group of friends. I think the best part of this place is that there’s no corkage fee! So feel free to bring your own bottle of wine and the servers will gladly open it right up for you. The service is fantastic. Everyone is super friendly.
We got a couple of pizzas: Big Sur, Pitfire Sausage, and a pumpkin pizza. All of their pizzas are between $ 10 – 12 and usually cut into 4 large slices that can be further divided by two. My favorite was the Big Sur and Pitfire Sausage, not a fan of the pumpkin… The pizzas have a decent amount of toppings and there’s just the right about of dough in the pizza. The shrimp on the Big Sur was fantastic. We got an order of the baked mac-​n-​cheese and added bacon… talk about BOMB. Some pretty good, creamy mac-​n-​cheese if you ask me. I’m a mac-​n-​cheese fiend and I would go back just to eat it. I love orecchiette pasta. We also got an order of the farmer’s market place and it was okay. Just a lot of veggies if you’re into that kinda stuff. I like my meat at a pizza place.
For dessert, we ordered Pitfire’s version of BJ’s pizzokie which is ice cream on top of a cookie. The cookie here isn’t as big but there’s way more ice cream. I believe they only have vanilla ice cream… They even sprinkle on salt and olive oil at the top which gives it a unique touch. I think the ice cream definitely beats BJ’s but I’m not so sure about the cookie.
I would definitely come back… with my own bottle of wine next time!

I like Pitfire a lot. I have eaten here plenty of times and I want to write a definitive review to help guide others.
The food at Pitfire is very, very good. What i like about it is everything they serve is made fresh. The pizzas are made fresh from dough every time you order and the pasta must be made fresh daily. What tops this place off is the price. The cost of the food here is very reasonable. For freshly cooked food made from fresh ingredients every time this place is excellent and what they do right is they have got consistency as well. They can make your favorite dish time and time again exactly the same by following very simple steps, fresh ingredients, prepared freshly every time and freshly cooked each time. This is genius and they must have a good management system in place to ensure this happens. The staff are well presented, professional but within a causal dining atmosphere.
My only 3 grumbles with this place are:
1. The price of the wine. The wine here is quite pricey. I am disappointed at the cost of the wine here as i would like to get sloshed at a reasonable price while eating good food.
2. They only do the short rib beef pappardelle during the winter months. This is an amazing dish and should be available all year round.
3. Attracts hipsters, don’t like hipsters as they are pretentious and a fickle bunch with bushy beards, fake glasses, and flannel shirts. They make the place look too ’ thrift and vintage’ for my liking.

I’ve passed by this restaurant for over a year and so when the friend suggested going here after our photoshoot… hell yah please!
The place is a bit dark on the outside (not quite inviting) but the inside is quite the opposite.
Parking is a hit or miss… was fortunate enough to find a spot literally in front of the restaurant.
Ambiance: very vibrant… (for all you Bay Area folks… think Crepevine)
You order first… then they bring it out to you via numbers… Friendly staff… fast service… and delicious pizza! I don’t quite remember what I got (long day /​night) but it was good.
Will probably come back… and this time I’ll make sure to remember what I got :)

Yuck, yuck, yuck. Ordered the Margherita and got a pizza with hardly any cheese or sauce, overcooked and no flavor. After dousing it in salt and pepper I choked it down. Ate here years ago and remembered how good they were. It was a mistake coming back. On a positive note, our server was awesome.

Meh. Boring salad. Pizza sounded way better on paper than it was in reality. The place is spacious and they have outdoor seating which I liked. Our waiter, while a little spacey at first, was very friendly and accommodating. We ordered the cookie soft serve dessert with caramel and sea salt which was tasty. It still remains difficult to find good pizza in Los Angeles.

Everyone here is so nice! Like old school, general, nice, and I really appreciate that.
Pitfire has one of the best kale salads I’ve ever had. With some steak and avocado, it’s ah-​may-​zing.
The cavatapi is really good, as are the pizzas.
Mushroom pizza is excellent, but you a fun must try is the folded chicken pesto is like a huge calzone. Have it with a side of marinara to dunk in.
There’s a live DJ and plenty of smiles to make his a happy meal!

I’m alright with this pizza place.
The interior design of it is pretty cool, and the staff are really friendly.
But I think the pizzas are just alright.
The second time I came here I got ther farfalle pasta and that was too oily for me. I felt like if it weren’t so oily, the taste itself would be wonderful.

I like the way this place is set up on the inside. It’s really modern and has a trendy vibe. What I don’t like is how BRIGHT the lights are at the tables. Oh my Gosh! I mean, talk about really having a hot spotlight on you while you eat. You can see every little flaw in someone’s face, teeth etc. It’s a no go for a first date, or any date. I would definitely consider getting better mood lighting. Not ONE of their lights was dim.
The food — the food was great. I ordered a pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, pineapple, mushroom and chicken and it tasted great. Very fresh and light.
Drinks — I had the Watermelon Lemonade. Awesome. Tastes just like summer.
I’d recommend this place to friends but I would warn them about the lighting. XO

I like this Pitfire pizza location. It’s a little more hip and cool than other ones I’ve been to. Darker lighting, more spacious, and all around trendy hipster vibe. I also think this location makes better pizza for some reason. I know! It’s a chain! They should all taste the same, right?
On to the food…
My favorite pizzas are: Margherita and Field Mushroom. I know everyone talks about «The Burrata Pie» but personally I’m not a big fan. I like my burrata cold/​room temp, not warm on a pizza.
Chicken salad is pretty good, but not that exciting. You can definitely make the same at home.
Their sangria is pretty good, but not great. I feel like it’s a little too watered down.
All in all, I like this particular pitfire.

I am skeptical about pizza joints in general, and when I first walked in to Pitfire I was struck by the atmosphere: very loud music, DJ, queue to order, hipsters… OK, so this is a bar that serves pizza. I can live with that as long as the pizza is good. Which it is: we ordered one with field mushrooms, and one with pepperoni. Both were excellent (the dough prepared in their special ovens really does make the difference), but what was most surprising for me was the quality of the kale salad I got as a starter. It was so good that I would come here just for the salad.
Service was friendly (although a bit cloying) and attentive, and we managed to secure street parking across the way rather than deal with the overly crowded parking lot. Based on your preferences, you might want to stick with takeaway rather than dine in here, but either way it’s worth the hassles.

Muy buen lugar, entretenido, buena música, comida y los tragos especiales. Me gustó también el concepto de atención y la variedad en vinos y cervezas.
Muy buen lugar para compartir una tarde de domingo. La gente muy amable y servicial.