Five10 Pizza

I have given this place so many chances. When they made their big announcement asking their disgruntled former customers for another opportunity, I went for it. My mistake. After being told on the phone my pizza for pickup would take 40 minutes, I arrived just over 40 minutes later only to find out they hadn’t even started it. I watched the cook put the cheese on with one hand while holding the phone to his ear with the other. I was told when I ordered they were busy, but there are eight other people here. And this level of service has been the case here FOREVER. Never again.

Pizza was burnt and cold, wtf!!! If the pizza is burnt it should be hot, but it was cold. They probably gave us old pizza they fucked up from earlier in the day. The only good thing about this place is it opens till 2am.

Lame. Nobody greeted us. Tons of young kids. Didn’t look like anyone was even working there. Hello? What happened. Used to love this spot. Couldn’t get the one bartenders attention as there were too many friends talking to him. Apparently there were «16 pizzas» ahead of our possible order. So we left. Get it together. Hi-​Life used to make a mean pizza served in reasonable time.

Has rebranded as ‘Five 10 Pizza’. Ordered off of Caviar, looked decent from the top, but as I bit in I realized the pizza was completely burnt on the bottom. Was awful. I have two stars because I believe it probably would have been good had it not been burnt.

Kind of a divey spot for pizza located on the corner of 15^th and Franklin, right next to the Layover. We came to watch the Warrriors finish the series against the Rockets, and ordered a large pizza: half Warriors and half anchovy pizza. Pizza took awhile to come, but when we received the pizza, it was half pepperoni and half anchovy. Not what we ordered. We ended up giving the pepperoni half to some guy sitting next to us, since neither of us liked pepperoni. The kitchen was nice enough to make us another Warriors pizza on the house, but we ended up taking most of it home since we were already full from the other pizza.
Food: I liked the distinct flavors of the duck bacon on the Warriors pizza over the anchovy one.
Service: Slow, but wasn’t expected since we sat at the bar. I also didn’t appreciate the bartender not coming back with our $ 7+ change. It’s not like I wouldn’t have tipped her, but I didn’t like how she assumed it was okay to keep the change
Overall, not a bad place to catch the game and grab a slice. Expect to wait longer if you’re ordering a whole pizza.

This place is bulls**t. Placed an order online. Order never arrived and no one answers the phone. BUYER BEWARE

Cheap pizza and beer in the middle of Downtown Oakland. Don’t miss the hidden room of pinball machines upstairs. Not the sort of dive I would order delivery from.

I also have a love/​hate place with Hi-​Life.
Their pizza is dirt cheap and if you’re a fan of NYC style pies this is probably the closest thing I’ve had to authentic east coast pizza on the west coast. This is one of the few places in Oakland that is actually open pretty late, which is a blessing for my late night drunken munchies. I’ve been to the actual pizza place a few times, it has a gritty… yet extremely charming appeal; plus there are pin ball machines!
On the flip side, their delivery service is unpredictable as hell. Some days orders are placed without a hitch… other days they inform me that their delivery guys called-​in. Weird right?!

Another place in Oakland I have a love/​hate relationship with. On the surface, this place is right up my alley. Good cheap pizza and beer. I’m not familiar with a lot of the beer they have on tap, but it’s been decent so far. I personally really like the vibe in this place. It looks a bit seedy, but it’s actually not. I mainly just see a bunch of twenty somethings hanging out here. I’m not much of pinball person, but it’s cool checking out people when they’re playing on the various pinball machines here.
My main issue with this place is the service. What is wrong with the people that work here? It’s a bunch of hipsters that barely acknowledge your existence. It takes forever to get their attention, and even longer to get your food if you’re ordering more than a slice.
I still come here, but the service sucks.

I heard a rumor that this place is supposed to close soon, is that true?

This is for their delivery only:
I’ve ordered from them a handful of times and the quality of the pizza is always inconsistent. The last few times I’ve been pretty disappointed. For $ 30, I waited over an hour for delivery (not a big deal) and when it arrived the pizza was cold and the sodas were warm. Hi Life wasn’t concerned about fixing this error.
If you want good vegan pizza, go to Zachary’s.

I would give Hi-​Life 0 stars, but rate it 2 stars to account for the people i see there who look to be having a good time drinking. ONLY drinking. because they probably didn’t order pizza.
TL;DR:
«How can a pizza place get a cheese slice wrong??»
«I dunno, but this place does it.»
1^st visit:
Stoked that there’s a late-​night food option in Downtown Oakland. Order a cheese slice. Wait quite a long time. Finally receive slice of cheese pizza. It’s been in the oven so long I can’t even taste the cheese on the pizza. It’s more like a thin slice of bread. ughh what a waste of money. I would’ve rather gone home to bed slightly hungry.
2^nd visit, after being turned off so badly after the 1^st visit (but really, I shouldn’t have given them a 2^nd chance):
No one at counter. Another customer who came in at the same time goes to the back to see where they are. Two female employees emerge. ??! Shouldn’t you at least always have one employee available? What were they doing together?
Order cheese slice. See the pizza girl very haphazardly TOSS my slice into the oven. Wait quite a while. The pizza girl walks out of the kitchen, then halfway out the door – freezing in place just remembering about the slice of pizza she threw into the oven. She hurries back to the kitchen to retrieve my cheese slice out of the oven, before hurrying back out for her smoke break.
I am feeling such a mixture of *sigh* disappointment and *ughhhhh* regret.
Thankfully this slice didn’t get burnt as badly as the slice I had the first visit, and I could still sort of taste the cheese. Nevertheless, not worth it. You’d agree with me if you’ve been to any other decent NY-​style pizza joint.
Bottom line:
There are many better pizza places in the Bay Area. Even any one you think is just «okay» or «decent» is better than Hi-​Life. Trust me. Suggestions: Bobby G’s in Berkeley, Lanesplitter, Whole Foods, or even Domino’s or Pizza Hut (I’m not kidding). Or spend a little more $ at Rudy’s a couple blocks away for more filling and actually decent quality late night food.

Thank you Hi-​Life! Finally the years long search for good NY style pizza is over with extra delicious benefits of friendly divey vibes, cheap prices and late service. Genuinely relieved.
If you’re looking for best the pizza available in the Bay area this is it by far. Don’t expect corporatism here. Pizza is an art. If you need things like expedient GrubHub fulfillment to enjoy your pizza you don’t deserve Hi-​Life pizza. Go in to the place, sit down and order.

Hi Life is awesome! They have super yummy pizzas, a great selection of beers, friendly service, and really fun pinball machines. The vibe of this place is really chill and relaxed. This is the perfect place to distress after work and have fun with coworkers or friends or to come on the weekend to relax and have fun.

There are great things about hi-​life: the pizza, the beer, the pinball.

No comprehensive review needed. I ordered «The TOP» (Tower of Power) pizza with no onions through the Caviar app and it took around 40 minutes for the pizza to be made (only 5 minutes to deliver per the Caviar app). The food was still hot when I got it but the when I looked at the pizza the ingredients looked to be lacking a bit. Ignoring the looks I took a few bites and came to the conclusion that the pizza was not very flavorful either. Now skimpy ingredients and a slightly bland taste is not a big deal normally and I would have given this place three stars and gone on my merry way buuuuut this pizza cost $ 29.00 without tax (this does not include the service fee or delivery fee charged by the Caviar app) and took 40 minutes to make. Considering all those things I would not be able to bring myself to order from here again in the near future. I’ll chalk it up to an off-​day and probably try it again in the distant future to give them a fighting chance.

Had a HORRIBLE experience with them last Saturday night. This is my first bad Unilocal review since I usually don’t bother to give energy to negative things, but this was just too much for them to get away with.
I should’ve probably known better, since my neighbor recently also had a bad experience where they didn’t receive their delivery order for hours, but I figured, what are the odds that would happen again? Bad choice.
At 6:15 pm we put in an order for two pizzas through GrubHub. It said the delivery time would be 7:50 — 8:00 pm. At 8:00 pm (no pizzas) we called Hi-​Life and received a very dismissive «they’ll be there any minute now» response. At 8:30 pm (no pizzas) we called again and received another similar dismissive response. At 9:00 pm (still no pizzas!) we called yet again and were told the delivery guy said he had delivered them (absolutely untrue.) We had to argue with them in order to get them to agree to a full refund. At 11 pm, a delivery guy shows up with ONE pizza. FIVE hours after we ordered two pizzas (which cost $ 66, by the way, not exactly cheap.)
To add insult to injury, I STILL have not received a refund on my credit card! They took my money and did not deliver what I ordered. Unacceptable!

If I can give this place a negative rating I would !!! Perfect for next door pizza place after a drunk night ! But ordering is the worst ! Workers don’t have a clue what’s going on ! Don’t understand what a phone or Internet app is ! Sam the go to guy was a complete asshole and response for not knowing why the food was not ready was «welcome to Oakland » ! Seriously worst service in my life !! Still did not get my order and after words worker followed us and went to smoke a cig with their friends ! Ps They will still run ur card after that bs!

Being from Chicago, I know what good pizza is, and Hi-​Life has amazing pizza. The atmosphere is great, the workers are amazing, and they have cider. I wrote them a thank you card once, and I’d do it again.

The late night slice I was dying for, and it was good! So many times post-​bar pizza has disappointed me. Too doughy. Horrible crust. Greasy. Gross. But Hi-​Life was delicious. The tomato sauce was tangy, the crust was thin and crispy, and the balsamic onions were perfect. GOOD JOB

So much potential. So little energy. Staff needs to get what makes places great. It’s not just great pinball tournaments. It’s not just a good location or interior. Staffing lacks much interest in doing much. Or in any timely manner at all. Food is bottom-​level mediocre. Small selection of beers too. But, there is pinball. They do have that going for them. Insert sad face here.

Stood in line for about 15 minutes just to have a brand-​new customer who it happens to be a regular get his order before I can even make my order, I’ve been standing here this place doesn’t have the best pizza is definitely not worth your effort to come here but it is also a good place to go to if you’ve gone to the layover which is directly next-​door for a few drinks. You’ll need a salty snack to keep it down

Not impressed. The 15 inch pizza came in a 19 inch box so it was kind of all over the place. The dough was undercooked and the meatballs or beef tasted like it had been left out all day. Would never order from there again. Also wasn’t very hot nor did it have the extra cheese we asked for.

Can’t believe we actually paid for hard pizza. Last night we got two slices to go– two minutes later the cheese cut my mouth. Not sure if the kid behind the counter was stoned or what, but he was out of tune for sure. This place has potential– been here a few times, hate to see the direction it’s going. If we weren’t trying to catch our Bart train I would have wanted my money back and just stayed hungry.

Hi-​Life is deserving of more than the 3 stars it’s currently getting here. It’s a tale of two business goals. If you look through the reviews, almost every 1 star is a complaint about delivery times. I’ve never ordered delivery from Hi-​Life; it’s never really crossed my mind to order delivery from Hi-​Life; and maybe they would be better off not offering that service. But that’s not my decision to make.
Hi-​Life is probably the best game entertainment location in Downtown/​Uptown Oakland, and it’s open late into the night. At 10 pinball machines and 3 additional video games, they’ve got enough distractions to keep you there for hours. The machines are well maintained, and they make a point of bringing in the newest machines on the market in addition to classics, and machines are periodically rotated. As I write this, they have 3 of the 4 newest machines in America (Game of Thrones, Kiss, and The Walking Dead), and they only recently cycled out the fourth (Wizard of Oz). They have regular pinball tournaments here and two pinball leagues, including one just for women players.
The beer selection is almost all craft and local; the food is good; and the music is always something different but almost always something I respect and enjoy (honky tonk to Golden Era hip hop to left of the dial 80s college rock, you never know what you’ll get until you get it). They have two TVs that will air the big sporting events, but that’s not really their focus. They have a projector that they like to silently play kung fu films from sometimes, which is a nice aesthetic touch.
It is not a perfectly run business. I wish they were more rigorous in keeping all the beer taps occupied, for example, and the single occupancy restroom is a drag on the busiest nights. Recently, they ran out of wine (how do you run out of wine?). But if a divey pizza joint with good beer and good music and the best selection of well-​maintained pinball machines in a bar setting in the Bay Area that’s also open late is your cup of tea, it’s served to you at Hi-​Life.

Well, Oakland continues to surprise me with each passing day of my first week here…
The other night a friend of mine brought me to Hatch (which is right nextdoor), and after a few hours of drinking and socializing, the usual «booze hunger» crept in.
My friend, and all of the remaining meetup folks suggested getting a slice nextdoor, and so I stumbled through the door hoping only for a mediocre pizza experience, at best.
I was pleasantly surprised to bite into one of the most delicious, well-​prepared pizzas I have ever eaten. The sauce was that perfect blend of sweet and savory, the cheese was flavorful and just stringy enough to fulfill that inner child’s need to play with your food, and the crust… oh my god… the crust was crunchy on the ends, with a slight chewiness in the center, and seemed to have a garlicky taste to it.
Oh, and as a recently single person, the tattooed bartender taking the orders wasn’t a bad touch either…

Delivery is lacking — took about three hours to get the pizza and I live 10 minutes drive away…
Update: it’s 11am the next day and nothing was delivered, no call, no contact at all…

Looking for a beautifully dirty, locally beloved spot to eat some vegan (or non-​vegan) pizza and maybe watch a football or basketball game? Hell yes you are.
Hi-​Life is rad. Good pizza. Good vibes. They deliver as well, and their delivery drivers are great.

We live about 4 blocks away, and it took 2 hours to have our pizza delivered. Repeated phone calls to check on our order went unanswered.
When we finally did get our pizza, it was cold and the wrong order, which is simply unacceptable. The pizza itself was lackluster and nothing out of the ordinary.
Overall, it was a bad experience, and we won’t be eating here again. Stay away!

I came to Hi-​Life right before a concert because I knew that standing in line with pizza is always better than just standing in line. Contrary to other reviews, the service wasn’t terrible and I got my slice in 10 mins or so. I wouldn’t chill in this place or eat in but it’s pretty cool that they have various video games and pinball machines around.

I placed an order for delivery at 8pm.
My order should have been delivered by 10pm. That’s a pretty generous time window as is.
My driver called me at 10:45 confused about the location. When I told him I lived on Oakland Ave, he explained that they had incorrectly written down my address as Oak St. I ordered online, where I typed in my address. There was no reason for them to mess that up, not to mention on top of how ridiculously late they were.
I had already been waiting almost 3 hours, only to have my pizza end up on the other side of downtown. Don’t bother with this place.

As a lover of cracker thin crust on a pizza (you can blame my Dad for that one), I really like Hi-​Life. I come here for slices all the time during work, and enjoy finding myself here for happy hour or late night.
The pizza toppings they offer include classics, but also some eccentrics. Don’t be afraid to try something new, because it’s worth it here.
My only complaint is inconsistency with staff. I’ve had super attentive nice bartenders, and really tired to the point of ignoring you bartenders.

First of all– I NEVER write Unilocal,ever.
After coming here for years, I came in on a mellow Saturday for a slice.
I heard 4 or 5 people’s names called but not mine.
Literally, 30 – 35 minutes later I politely asked if I could just get a refund as my slice had probably been forgotten about on accident.
Instead of simply giving me a refund the woman rolls her eyes at me and drops the cold slice on the counter and say’s…
«We called your name 4 times, we don’t give refunds.» My name was not called.
I heard every one.
And she claimed that I had NOT been sitting right outside the whole time? Huh.
There were open seats at the bar, it wasn’t even ‘busy’
Luckily, one of the 2 newer Women was nice and helpful and gave me my money back.
They can keep the tip I left for the food that I never got.
I have been coming here for years.
Never again will I spend money here.

How is this place still in business?
Oh yeah, they sell alcohol.
We arrived to an empty bar. And met with a bartender who told us he was feeling loopy and wanted to go to home.
Not only were we charged for our pizza and then told (with no apology or reason) that all of our toppings would be replaced with other toppings because they were apparently running short on toppings. The bartender also insinuated that it was our fault for ordering a vegan pizza («so many people ordered vegan pizzas»).
It then took us almost an hour to receive our order. Not only that, about four other people who had arrived long After us received their pizzas way before us. The waitress’s/delivery person DID NOT GIVE A SH1T. She barely mumbled an apology and made us feel uncomfortable for caring more about her failing business than she did.
only go here if you want to waste your time or get wasted. DONT GO FOR DINNER. ESPECIALLY if you’re hungry!

Expected something decent got a huge Hassel rude service and the delivery guy didn’t have change so I had to tip him 10 bux
The pizza was crap, reminded me of lane splitters on San pablo.
Little ceazars makes a better pizza

Honestly, if you can’t deliver a pizza a few blocks away inside of 2 hours, don’t offer delivery. The pizza is just ok compared to other places, so the delivery is the feature. Except deliveries have taken longer and longer. Calling to inquire after 2 hours was met with rudeness and complaints about how bad of a night they’re having. Not good.
At 2 hours and 5 minutes the stoned driver showed up with a cold pizza and mumbled an excuse.