Paradise Pizza & Pasta

Came here since 1991, the thin crunchy pizza crust and calamari is what keep us coming back.

Pizza sauce is a little too sweet for me. Owner was very friendly and made sure the kids were having fun — they were. I think next time I’ll try the pasta and calamari

Thanks for a nice meal, Paradise. So glad to see a wide variety of specialty pizzas, pastas, salads and specials.
Size of the restaurant is just what we were looking for — cozy comfortable excellent service.
We had the San Francisco pizza with moz, tomatoes pesto and shrimp. Warm spinach salad, garlic bread (pillow soft) and chowder.
Service was personal efficient and friendly.
Also paradise is easy to spot on the corner and parking isn’t as difficult on this end of west portal.

This place is so yummy! Big portions and they don’t sacrifice flavor! Great for families as well.

Delicious food & great service. Thank you for seating us even when you were Very busy when I walked in!!! It was really worth the wait! My family is in the restaurant Busness & I’m very fussy & picky. And I enjoyed my meal & my time with my family at your restaurant

Have been here a few times now. Really good food. I will say that this place has one of the best tasting pizza’s in SF. The toppings are fresh, the texture is great, its not that greasy and the crust is to die for.

Love love love this place. The carefully prepared sumptuous food & great service never disappoint. Sal, the owner is so personable & warm.

I was «jonesin’» for some pizza. I am so happy I finally tried Paradise Pizza in West Portal. I have been passing by this place for years. I have eaten at other nearby pizza places and now I know I was wasting my money and my taste buds. For one I could tell the ingredients they use are authentic. The dough was not some pre-​packaged chemical laden bread, it is fresh no aftertaste and delicious. I ate the crust and all. The cheese is high quality also, I can tell by the melt on the pizza it was not high processed cheese. I grabbed a menu because I need to go back and check out other Italian dishes on the menu. YUM!

The meatball sliders bad as they used hot dog bun and just cut of the ends. The meatball itself was light on seasoning as it tasted a bland.
The calamari is dark brown as they probably had not changed the oil for quite sometime and the batter was coming off. The calamari as was not cleaned well either as I could see the spotted purple skin of the calamari was not been removed.
The lasagna was cooked well, but again was light on the seasoning so the flavors did not pop.
The pear salad good, a bit overdressed but the kicker is the metal scrub brush!
I could have overlooked it but the waitress never gave us any bread or refilled our drink. Plus she could come back to bring us the check, she had another waiter bring it and all they did was comp the salad.

Despite waiting several minutes to try to order our food, the food at Paradise is really good. We came on an off day during dinner time so the place filled up quickly. It is definitely a local hot spot.
There was three of us and we decided to do an appetizer (calamari), Cesar salad and a medium pizza. The calamari was really good. Perfectly breaded and just enough spices. There is a half and full size and the half was plenty! I can only imagine what the full size looks like/​feeds. The Cesar was good and refreshing and complimented our meal nicely. For our pizza we ordered half clam and garlic and half ultimate which comes with different meats, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. The pizza was really good. Nice and flavorful and their crust had cheese on it and I actually ate it! (I never eat my crust…)
I definitely want to go back and try their pastas and more pizza toppings in the future. Glad it’s in the neighborhood.

This is my go to pizza and pasta place.
Every time I come here with my hubby, family or friends. We always leave with a satisfy tummy! From delicious pizza to pasta, its always great!
I would highly recommend to start of with their calamari then move on to American pizza (meat lovers) meat lasagna for pasta. Very delicious!
Oh, don’t forget their pizza stamp card! Every 10 pizza, you get 1 free!

Some of the best pizza in town. I can eat their crust like water. Like Bing says parking sucks if you have to go pick up, but honestly if you guys have not come and eat their pizza and you love it you are missing out!
My fav is the Paradise Pizza, its like their supreme or aka King Arthur. Ask for it slightly toasty so its not soggy… I can’t stand it when its soggy unless you like it like that. Salads in there are also very good. If you are ever in that part of town give them a shot!

A month ago, my mother in law was in town visiting and on her first night here she was craving a big, heaping plate of starchy pasta. Apparently she doesn’t get to eat much of it back at her home. So after a Unilocal consultation we decided to head out to this way to West Portal.
Parking in area is a breeze however we were surprised to see a wait for a table. Having heading out early we were certain there was not going to be a wait but we ended up waiting about 20 – 25 minutes for a table for four. It’s most likely due to their early opening hours (4:30) for dinner so many early bird diners head out this way since many of the other SF establishments don’t open up until about 5:30.
We started off with some of the starter bread but tried not to fill up which was difficult to do because of their amazing dip. I ordered their special — Pappardelle with Portobello mushrooms. The pasta was thin and eggy and didn’t have that chewy/​al dente bite to it but nevertheless I enjoyed it. The MIL (I am envious as she was blessed with a metabolism that enables her to eat whatever she wants while having maintained a trim size her entire life and does not work out) and my husband had the fettuccine carbonara which they both killed. I had a sample and it was creamy and delightful although it needed a dash of salt, which I hate using and some pepper. SIL had the fusilli chicken.
We had to decline dessert as the generous portions of our dinner would not allow for another morsel in our stomach. The server understood.
I had no complaints. If anything, my only (minor) critique is their logo on their website which has nothing to do with their restaurant itself. It looks very Windows 95 or selected from a free clipart site, if I’m being honest. I couldn’t help but get the impression the restaurant was might be slightly cheesy or theme-​y. I’m aware this sounds incredibly silly and/​or nit picky but given that these days, a restaurant’s first impression might be their website, stuff like this might make a difference. However, we heeded the great reviews, gave it a go and we were not at all disappointed.
There are several Italian restaurants out in this neighborhood to choose from but found that Paradise is perfect for a big (and good) pasta feast with family with the price range being extremely fair for SF. We’ll be back the next time my MIL comes out to visit again.

At first my boyfriend and I were looking for a sit-​down pizza place since we were both randomly craving pizza. Little did we know that we’d be walking into a quaint little joint where you’d find yourself being intrigued by the interesting choice in décor: it’s a toss up between the zebra head that you probably want in your own living room or the smiling sun with multiple eyes that you can’t help being fixated on. You can even see the inside of the kitchen since they have an open concept counter, so you’re constantly smelling the aroma of freshly made food. It was pretty intoxicating so we 86’d the idea of pizza and just went with the pasta. Clever move Paradise!
My boyfriend decided on the Fusilli with Italian Sausage and I set my mind on trying out their house special meat lasagna (paradise style). We split a large Caesar salad for our starter, it wasn’t anything special, just your typical Caesar. Then our food came out piping hot and our server says the typical, «enjoy.» My initial thought was that it looked like a cross between a deconstructed lasagna or one of those skillet lasagna dishes since it didn’t have the typical square-​like form.
Who would’ve thought that immediately after taking the first bite of that lasagna I’d be blown away?! I think I can say that Italian food is my favorite go-​to cuisine and I haven’t been too impressed with some of the Italian joints in SF since I’ve been to Italy and had the real deal… until NOW. It had just the right balance of lasagna noodle layers, ricotta, cheese, and meat that I felt like I died and went to heaven. THAT was by far, the BEST damn lasagna I have ever had in my life. I think they should call it «Italian Ambrosia.»
After that pleasant surprise, it doesn’t matter how full you are… you better go and try the dessert because how could you not? It was basically one of those moments when you gotta pop the top button off your jeans cause you forgot to wear your stretch pants so you’re just desperately trying to make more room. I had to make it happen somehow. Fortunately, I was not disappointed at all with the Tiramisu. It was so light and airy and the cake was so moist. The crunchy cookie crumble added a nice texture on top too and was the perfect way to end an unexpectedly amazing late-​night rendezvous. Thank you Paradise, I feel like I just earned my wings.

My stony bestie and I hit Paradise up for our 420 feast. Post blueberry swisher and we was way onnn, ready to grub. Our server Riley, was outstanding.
I could barley function, let alone read a menu or order and she masterfully decoded my my cottonmouth gibberish and made me feel right at home. What a sweetheart.
The food was alright, nothing amazing but definitely did the job. But one of the male workers there was creepin the entire time watching me eat my gooey Gorgonzola garlic bread. I SEE YOU *emoji eyes* Creep on Creeper.

Mmmm their clam linguini is so good here! For me seafood linguinis are either a hit or miss. They be missing a lot of times because the sauce is always too watery. And then my linguini just tastes like the ocean water. Bleh. But not at Paradise! Their pasta sauce is so on point! Filled with so much flavor and they are super not stingy with their clams. Come early if you want to order this. They WILL run out of clams!
And order the calamari! You won’t regret it. Just look at my picture! Drooooool

3.5 stars. Great service. Cute and cozy neighborhood place. I showed up at 5pm and saw only one other table occupied. Food came out fast. I really liked the fried calamari especially the light breading around it. But I was disappointed by the pasta. It came out mushy and I like it al dente. The server was super nice and made another plate for me. I wanted to try spaghettini (much shorter and thinner than Spaghetti), it seems to be very kids friend– one could avert the situation where kids could be splattering sauces into everyone’s clothes, but just didn’t love the texture of the pasta — prefer Spaghetti. The meat sauce was solid.
The portion was huge. I had half portion of calamari and kids size spaghettini and I was pretty full.
Traditional fare. Not bad for neighborhood place.

Five stars for Riley the server. She is without a doubt the best server this restaurant has ever had. She’s kind, quick, intelligent and attentive. I wish all the servers who work here were as thorough and sweet as her.
A few years ago I would have given this place 2 stars. 1 star for being close to my house and another star for serving toasted bread with the special olive oil blend.
This place has recently stepped it up in the following ways:
1. Most of the terrible servers no longer work here.
2. They finally added an outstanding pasta dish: the naked ravioli.
3. The calamari is better than ever. The breading is flavorful and is accompanied by two delightful dipping sauces.
Things I don’t like about this place:
1. On our last visit the owner who was facilitating table assignments said it would be 15 minutes. As we saw people eat, pay and leave it took forever to turn over empty tables. At one point there were 4 two tops open, yet no one being sat. The 15 minute estimate turned into 60 minutes. Annoying. If it weren’t for the fact that I was craving naked ravioli we would have gone somewhere else. Though the owner apologized for the wait it dampened our experience.
As the night went on and I watched diners come and go. There was an utter lack of urgency in flipping tables for hungry patrons. I’m assuming this is due to management trying to keep certain tables open anticipating the arrival of larger groups? Or maybe they’re just overwhelmed by the amount of people waiting to eat? Regardless, if multiple tables are open it would be nice to sit down since I’ve been waiting a long time outside in the cold.
2. Sometimes I order the pizza and the dough isn’t cooked all the way through. Pro Tip: Ask for it extra crispy.
3. I’d be REALLY great if they added more outstanding pasta dishes to their menu such as the naked ravioli. I’ve tried all their pasta dishes and the others are just mediocre. But, I’m sure the menu is targeted towards simple style Italian fit for families with small children.
Overall, it’s a pleasant surprise to see this restaurant improve over the years.

My family loves coming here so you can say it’s a family favorite. However, this past Monday, the owner wasn’t there and it was just not on point that evening. Service was so so slow. It took our waiter a really long time to take our order even though we had been sitting with our menus closed.
This is what we ordered:
Bowl of Soup of the Day (Tomato)
Lasagna
Garlic Clam Pizza
Ultimate Pizza
They brought us a cup of soup instead of a bowl and when we requested a switch, they said it would take about 7 minutes to change it to a bowl so we said it’s okay, we can just have the cup of soup. Too bad they messed it up too because it was the BEST tomato soup (or bisque, I can’t remember) that I’ve ever had. If I just had that for dinner, I would’ve been satisfied. My brothers love the lasagna and get it every time so I’m sure that’s a safe choice if you’re considering it. Both pizzas were good. The Ultimate is basically like a combo and the Garlic Clam comes with pesto so it was good we got both that were pretty different. Love the crust here because it’s got cheese cooked on top of it, yum.
Overall, food here is normally about 4 stars to me but service that day was just not up to par and not what we’re used to receiving from Paradise. I hope to update this review with a better one in the future as I know we probably won’t stop coming here.

Came here last weekend and really enjoyed it! Finally found a yummy, affordable Italian restaurant close to home.
We had to wait about 10 minutes before we were seated and we ordered the Italian paradise gourmet pizza. My fiancé ordered a pasta dish off the specials board– a beef mushroom ragu with parpadelle.
Both dishes were cooked to perfection. The pizza base wasn’t too thin and crispy but also also not too thick. I really enjoyed the flavour of the cheese and pancetta. It also wasn’t at all greasy. Big thumbs up!
I also had some of the pasta dish which was also great, cooked al dente and tasting really fresh and well seasoned.
Overall I really enjoyed my meal here and will definitely be back!