We have been going to Picco for years as it is walking distance from our house. Â If I had reviewed the restaurant at the beginning, I would have probably given 5 stars. Â Unfortunately, I am reviewing it now and have to tone down my enthusiasm. Â Don't take me wrong, the pizzas are still excellent. Â The crust varies from time to time; sometimes it is outstanding while sometimes it is a little rubbery. Â However, the topping are creative and healthy.
The problem resides in the prices. Â When they opened, they were marketing themselves as a wine shop too. Â As a result, the wines were very affordable. Â This is not the case anymore. Â Paying $40/bottle for an average wine is way too expensive (let's not forget that we are in casual pizza place). Â Last time we had lunch there, we decided to add a burrata to our arugula salad. Â At $8 for the burrata (small piece), we would expect a great burrata; this was not the case.
So, an arugula salad + burrata + 2 pizzas + a bottle of wine led us to $110 with tip. We are not going to continue going there as much as we used to...
Service was great, but I thought the pizzas were just ok - not sure why the big fuss? Â The dough and sauce were a bit too salty and there was just something missing overall in the taste. Â The crust texture was good as long as one eats it immediately (soft + crispy, good gluten) - after sitting awhile while dining, it became noticeably tougher (but that is not uncommon with certain pizza doughs). Â
I'd give just an "ok" rating for the pizza - the flavors didn't seem all that distinctive (Tony's in SF is the benchmark so far for me, Build in Berkeley is really good too, as are some others in SF and the East Bay that I'd rate above Picco). Â I appreciate their local and responsible sourcing, but the pizza just didn't do it for me (other Yelpers seem to like it, though)
The salad with strawberries, almonds, goat feta and honey dressing was excellent, though - one of the better salads I've had.
We went there last night and had so-so experience. We wouldn't go back, except maybe for take-out although I am not sure the pizza would be good after sitting for 10-15 minutes. Seems like you need to eat it right away since the crust is the best part about their pizzas.
The salads were very good - especially the burrata with beets.
The reason we won't be back is because it's not worth the 1 hour + wait we endured to have the privilege of sitting outside. It is quite nice sitting outside but when you make people wait for over an hour they get a little cranky and the dining experience is not so good. The inside was piping hot, pizza oven too close to the bar area, and only bar stools. We were told it would be 35-40 minutes and it was at least 1 hour + 10 minutes. Others were told the same time and waited over an hour. The manager finally took pity on us and placed an order in advance of seating us so that our food was ready as soon as we sat down.
The pizzas were FABULOUS, but I am giving them 3 stars for the outrageous beer prices: $9.50 for PranQster Golden Ale. Â It's Belgian in style, but it doesn't come from Belgium, so I really don't know how they justify the price. Â When the bill arrived, we felt truly punked.
The soft-serve vanilla ice cream with olive oil and salt is quite nice, but the quality of the ice cream could be better.
Don't get me wrong, Picco makes a great pizza. But my question is- is it worth it? Is it worth an hour wait? Is it worth $85 for two pizzas and a few beers? Although this place has charm, great pizza and drinks, its simply not worth it to me. You can get a much better pizza at Delifna or Tony's in the city- without breaking the budget.
Review Source:FOOD: Ummm..very mediocre pizza for having to wait an hour and half to be seated! Was so not worth the wait. Cant believe yelpers gave this place a high rating!
ATMOSPHERE: HELL. First off half of this place is a fancy italian restaurant the other half is the pizzeria. The pizzeria ONLY has bar seating inside and outside 6 tables! We had to wait an hour and a half to be seated. There were so many families here with screaming kids that it was miserable. We ate as fast as we could just to get out of this place. Never going again.
Went to Pizzeria Picco recently with husband & friends.  We were able to sit outdoors which made it perfect.  Waiter was very friendly, engaging, & made some good suggestions.  We ordered to share: Pepperoni/sausage pizza which was very good, nice thin crust.  Enjoyed excellent white wine. We also ordered the houisemade burrata which came with a variety of beets, charcuterie platter, mixed greens salad, & Caesar - All delicious, good sizes. We enjoy dining at this café very much.  Now we look forward to try out the Picco Restaurant.  On the burrata, it originally came with fava beans.  I asked the waiter if they could be removed as I am allergic to the beans; they were removed.  This was a very appreciative gesture as some places when I asked if they could be removed as in most cases the fava beans are on the side or in a salad, the request was denied. Great service, food, atmosphere - We will return!
Review Source:Very delicious pizza, and even on a busy night the service was quick. The marinated olives and soft serve are also very good. It is a very small place and not knowing that we walked right in at prime time. I only docked a star because it was so small and we were unprepared to sit outside on a cold evening.
Review Source:We made a special drive into Larkspur from the peninsula to try their pizza and we thought it was just OK. The bottom of the 2 pizzas that we tried were wet and soggy. I prefer a crispier base. We had a white and a red pizza and now I don't even remember the names of the pizza cause they were forgettable.
However, the softy ice cream with the chocolate shell was fantastic. I would return for their ice cream and if I'm in the mood for pizza, I just might give it another try.
I was over in Marin this last weekend visiting friends. While deciding what we were going to have for dinner, pizza came up. Friends suggested this Picco Pizza place, but its usually packed and the wait for a table might be long, so we decided on the to go option. The restaurant offers a frozen pizza option of many of their flavors they have. The style here is thin crust, and I mean THIN. All the different combos of toppings looked interesting. We opted for the Marin and Cannondale pizzas. I do like the fact that they named a of of the pizzas after the brands of bicycles. But just because they are names I like, doesn't mean the pizza I liked. The Marin came with potatoes as a topping along with cheeses. Now that's a new one on me, too bad I didn't like it. Frozen pizzas are actually par cooked already and they go into an oven for about 4 minutes at "hot as you can get the oven". It felt like I was eating a cracker crust with some toppings that were quite sparse. For the price of $17 a pizza, that's a bit much. They are about the size of any standard medium pizza. The Cannondale had sausage and I liked better then the Marin potato pizza, but still the toppings were quite sparse. I gotta say, this thin crust is for the birds, and the crust itself is more like a pita bread rather then a pizza crust. What these Marinites see in this pizza is beyond me. This is the total opposite if a Chicago pizza.
Review Source:Review on the frozen take-away pizzas only:
Stopped in later on Saturday night for some frozen pizzas to bring back to my brother's place and throw on the grill instead of the oven. Â They offered 4 different ingredient combinations; we selected the 3 that have bicycle brand names (Specialized, Cannondale, and Marin). Â Total was $50+. Â Quick in, quick out.
Each of the two pizzas we grilled that night were excellent in texture and taste. Â The toppings went spectacularly well with the bottle of wine we brought back from a Sonoma County winery that same day. Â The two pizzas satisfied the appetites of three adults.
Wishing we had this same pizza joint in our own backyard here in Mpls/St.Paul...
Can I give zero stars? Have eaten this pizza before and it is ok. Â The problem is when you walk in and no one acknowledges your existence. And you wait, and you wait, and the two year old son you are holding starts getting impatient after ten minutes of waiting and you let him play with the pen sitting on the bar. And then finally they acknowledge your existence by rudely telling a two year old ( yes, this is as ridiculous as it sounds) " I'll take that!" And grabbing the pen like the kid was playing with their iPhone. What a joke. And STILL they have not said to us anything like " I'll be with you in a second" to put our name on the table wait list. What, am I doing you a favor by paying stupid prices for a pizza? We promptly walked out and will likely never to be back again until the awful awful staff is gone. Which is probably never. Good riddance. Stay away, you can do better.
Review Source:Was super hungry after hiking in one of the trails in the area. So, me and my boyfriend wanted pizza. Luckily ,we found this pizzeria just down the street. Ordered the pizza of the day. Which had pesto sauce, fennel sausage, roasted garlic, and cheese. The ingredients tasted fresh and the pizza overall was good. Service was prompt and decent. But, I did not like the dining atmosphere too much. Felt like other people were sitting too close and I could hear the other tables around us so clearly. Too crowded and the people were kind a snooty. Other than the food & service, it just felt awkward sitting in there.
Review Source:I bought two 12 inch pizzas from here on 2.14.2013. Â Take away. Â Price: $37
Pretentious:
adjective
Clytemnestra is a pretentious name for a dog: affected, ostentatious, showy; overambitious, pompous, artificial, inflated, overblown, high-sounding, flowery, grandiose, elaborate, extravagant, flamboyant, ornate, grandiloquent, magniloquent, sophomoric; informal flashy, highfalutin, la-di-da, pseudo.
Thin crust. Â Thin pizza. Â All style, no substance.
5 stars for a pizza joint? Â Why not! I don't hand them out often but it'd be wrong to not give Pizzeria Picco all five stars. Â As some have mentioned, the setup is less than ideal but it's a small price to pay. Â There are only 8-10 bar seats inside and whereas we were offered to squeeze in between two groups (2 on one side, 1 on the other), we decided to wait the 20 minutes for a better spot. Â So glad we did because we ended up near the oven, near the "magic" of this place!
Two pizzas ordered; plain pepperoni and the Ibis. Â Oh. My. Gosh.
The dough was PERFECT - light, crisp, charred perfectly.
The red sauce was tangy and flavorful. Â Pepperoni nicely spiced. Â Cheese was present but not overwhelming. Â Excellent pizza.
For me, it was the glorious moment I watched them freshly shave the proscuitto add to my pizza, then top it with peppery arugula and fresh-ground parmesan....my mouth was watering before it made its way to my spot. Â The anticipation was not wasted as I enjoyed this incredible pizza.
We ended our meal with vanilla soft serve with the housemade "magic" shell and it was good as well.
We are 50 minutes from this place and we will DEFINITELY be back!
Consistently delicious pizza...EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. We come here a lot and we're never disappointed. Every single pizza is good and all their dessert options are good too. The only thing about this place is that you have to sit outside (unless you're a small group, say party of 2 and can sit in the bar area) even on cold nights. It's a small price to pay for great pizza and ambiance.
Review Source:OUTSTANDING - well worth the drive - the ceasar salad could have been one of the best ceasar's I've ever had - the dressing was so creamy yet exploding with garlic and anchovy that I literally licked the plate clean - and then the PIE - WOW - on a bit of a Neapolitan inspired craze lately and this place, thus far, is #1 - close second is Ragazza on Divis, however PIcco did them in - the dough was PERFECT - light, crisp, chard perfectly and just a hint of "flavor" that I am still searching for - dough can be plain and simple yet have that after taste that keeps you dreaming of the next piece - that is what they have accomplished here - the only reason I didn't give 5 stars was the layout of the restaurant is more bar oriented and not sit down and enjoy a pie oriented (yes, picky, but then I don't give many 5's out)
Review Source:I honestly don't know what the hipe about this place is. The Caesar salad was pretty good.. however, the pizza lacked luster especially with the expensive price tag. I think this place is over rated. Bar bocce's pizza is 100% better - in taste and quality. Plus, who wouldn't want to eat on a beach with an outdoor fire pit?!
Review Source:I should have been tipped off by the fact that Picco has a valet service in a slow, sleepy downtown. We called and ordered take out from the Pizzeria on a Friday night, so I was expecting things would be hectic. However, we were told the pizzas would be ready in 10-15 minutes, and I gave them 20 to be sure. I ended up waiting amongst annoying East Marin snobs and their terrifyingly entitled children snapping rudely at the waitstaff another 25 minutes for my pizzas. While the restaurants obnoxious clientele are not their problem, I would not have to endure them if the man who took my order was not wildly wrong about how long I would need to wait for a pizza.
We ordered a Yeti pizza, and it was alright. Nice mushrooms on top, but to be honest, not worth the the money for me. I would stop in when it was slower to eat some delicious Straus soft serve though!
I loved this little pizza place. It's cozy, the ambiance is intimate and the food is amazing.
We sat under the heat lamp outside with the spring salad as our appetizer. I loved it. fennel, radish, furee, feta cheese with lemon vingerette...mmm mmm.
We ordered the Capricciosa pizza...While waiting for it we got served the Marinara pizza. We were so hungry we didnt even notice we were eating the wrong pizza, it was so yummy. Then our pizza that we originally ordered came and all of us just looked at each other like what? just happened even the waitress..lol
They had a mix up, but that happens sometimes. We got to try two pizza's.
They were both amazing.I recommend both.
For dessert we shared some french vanilla ice cream with fruit. Raspberries and Strawberries.
We are definetly going back.
Allow me to count the many ways why I love this place:
Their Marin pizza. Â Who ever thought to put potatoes on a pizza? Â BRILLIANT. Â The crust is divinely thin--it doesn't taste much like a pizza at all! Â (And I mean that in a good way).
The cozy, intimate vibe.
The sweet staff.
Their salads. Â Delish!
And O. Emm. Â Gee: Their soft serve ice cream. Â Try the vanilla with caramel and sea salt. Â It's heavenly.
Great pizzas, I shared a Cannondale pizza (sausage, peppers, onions, and basil). Â The interesting thing about the pizzas here are that some of them don't have red sauce, which they call "white pizzas." Â The Cannondale was a white pizza, tasted great! Â I wish there was a little more basil though. Â But I loved the pizza's overall taste - it was very sweet unlike most average pizzas. Â We also shared a cesar salad, and it didn't seem like enough food. I'd recommend sharing 2 pizzas for 2 people.
MUST HAVE DESSERT: Â staus vanilla soft serve with olive oil. Â YES, OLIVE OIL! Â Sounds so strange...but you have to try it! Â It was damn good though, especially since they sprinkle sea salt on top.
I'd return if in the area, but I think there are better pizzas in SF.
What's better than pizza? PICCO's Pizza!
I'm so happy to finally try this place! I only hear great things about it! I also heard great things about thier YETI pizza, but unfortunately they stopped serving. Â I asked our lovely server, Veronica, why they stopped serving it. Â She told me that Picco wanted their customers to try other pizzas as well. Â I thought this was interesting. Â Piccos was confident enough that they are willing to stop serving their most popular pizza so that customers can try their other pizzas. Â
So we ordered the DELLA SANTA. Â It sounded simple. Â It had broccoli di ciccio, roasted peppers, roasted onion, roasted garlic and mozzarella.
OH MY GAWD THIS WAS SO GOOD!!! Â
Piccos yummy pizza wasn't just thier Yeti...their other pizzas are amazing too! Â Ah, PIcco's I see what you did there ;]
Although I wish I had tried this Yeti everyone was raving about, I was completely satisfied with what I ordered...and writing this review right now is actually upsetting me because now I"m craving some. Â I want to go back and try their other pizzas too!
Veronica was super friendly and was so nice to us. Â I really appreciated her. Â She sat my friend and I at the counter...it was a weeknight on my birthday when we went so maybe thats why it felt a bit quiet and mellow. Â The pizza came out fairly fast. It was DELICIOUS...the toppings tasted fresh and the crust was PERFECT. Â Thin, a bit chewy and crispy...amazing texture overall. Â After having this pizza I can say that broccoli is a favorite topic (I don't even care for broccoli much in general). Â
After we were done with our pizza, my friend and I ran over to their restaurant side where we enjoyed more Piccos foods! Â Yep we made room! Â I cant wait to come back to Pizeria Picco!
Fabulous pizza (thumbs up from a native Roman and a native Venetian): perfectly
cooked, and true Italian style. We ordered the margherita, capricciosa and B
klein. All delicious. The best pizza in Marin county.
The wait was painfully long, with nowhere to stand and enjoy a glass of wine (by
law, you cannot do so on the sidewalk, which is the only area where you can wait
for your table).
Service is terrible: curt, impersonal and overall unpleasant. Our waiter didn't
even have time to take a picture of our group and said NO....are you kidding me?
The wine selection is mediocre at best.
The only reason we gave one star to Picco Pizzeria is for their pizza, which is
really, really good. Other than that, this place is too small, overrated, poorly
set up and unreasonably expensive.
Will not be rushing back there... That's for sure.
I was looking forward to visiting Pizzeria Picco for the Tour de Pizza that Melanie N. and Gene X. and I are doing since I read about it on Jeff Varasano's website (<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.varasanos.com%2FPizzaRecipe.htm&s=4c15509c30492ef95f7af800e441fc9659fa1e881b446eff24f16270b6affa82" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.varasanos.com…</a>). I've never been to Larkspur before, and it turned to be a lovely little town.
Picco isn't big and most of their seating is outside, so it gets to be a bustling place, especially on a warm summer day like that. We squeezed into our table and ordered our baseline pizza (Margherita) and a Cannondale, with house-made sausage, roasted onion and peppers, mozzarella and basil.
Both pizzas arrived at the same time. The crust on them was a bit thin which resulted in too much char and allowed the sauce to soak in and make it too floppy. The cornice (the frame around the edge) was not developed, the whole pie was basically the same thickness (or rather, thinness). There was also evidence of overproofing judging by the big bubbles formed by CO2.
The server didn't couldn't cut the pizzas properly, so we had to finish the job ourselves. The good news was that the tomatoes on the Margherita were excellent; so was the mozzarella. The basil leaves were sporadic, though. The Cannondale had a good combination of flavors as well, helped by the seasoned sausage.
Overall, it was a decent pizza restaurant, but they definitely need to fix their fermentation and dough handling process and also teach their staff how to use a pizza cutter.
We received a recommendation to try this place from a friend since we were passing through the area. Â We arrived right around 5pm on a Saturday night and we manged to squeeze in at the bar. Â (The place is SMALL. Â Only about 10 people can sit inside at the bar of the Pizzeria section of the restaurant. Â There were about 7 or so tables outside but it was cold and I didn't think the heat lamps were serving their fullest purpose...call me a whimp.)
The waitress told us of the special pizza of the day. Â It sounded good but we opted for the Chicory Salad to start then the Son of Yeti pizza.
The salad included with sliced apples, toasted almonds, Parmesan and lemon vinaigrette. Â This salad was fantastic! Â The flavors worked so well together and the dressing was light (in terms of flavor and amount) and refreshing.
The pizza was served piping hot right out of the brick oven and we were asked how many pieces we would like it cut into. Â The pizza contained hen of woods mushrooms, leeks, fontina, mozzarella, Parmesan, and pecorino cheeses as well as garlic and thyme. Â It was tasty but was a bit on the bland side and I was left needing something. Â We opted to order the Specialized pizza to, figuring we could always take home any leftovers. This pizza has pepperoni, sausage, tomato sauce with mozzarella and basil. Â This one worked a bit better for me though for both pizzas, I was a bit turned off by the burnt flavor that resonated through each piece due to the charred bits of dough that were scorched by the brick oven. Â (I, not being a big pizza eater anyway, was told by my husband that this is the nature of a brick oven pizza.)
We finished off the meal with a serving of the swirl soft-serve with olive oil and salt. Â (This was a highly recommended item of our friend.) Â It was great! Â Definitely took a bit of getting used to since it was ice cream on the more savory side but I would recommend it to anyone wanting to try something new. Â The olive oil wasn't over powering and the salt (which I believe was Maldon sea salt flakes) gave it an added layer of flavor and crunchy texture.
As we enjoyed our dessert though, the waitress greeted the guests next to us and mentioned TWO specials. Â One being the pizza she mentioned to us but a second being an Aracini appetizer - smoked cheddar stuffed risotto balls served with marinara. Â I was a bit upset that we weren't offered these as I would have totally taken her up on it. Â I love Aracinis and would have loved to have tried their version. Â Perhaps it was an offering from the restaurant that just came available or perhaps she just forgot since she was running drink service, handling to-go orders and waiting on the guests at the bar but this left a sour taste on the overall experience for me.
I have recently been loving pizza and my mom has been mentioning this place for quite a while now. I was warned that the wait gets really long because the venue only offers bar and outdoor seating so the bf and I Â arrived at around 5:45pm. Even at this time the wait for outdoor seating was an hour but just to my luck there was seating around the corner of the counter so we got seated immediately! I'm so glad we got here at this time because about 30 minutes later, the wait for any seating was over an hour! This place gets packed!
I understand why this place is so popular! The food was delicious! My bf likes to stick to basics so we ordered the Caesar salad, Specialized pizza, and topped it off with beer. The cheese and croutons in the salad were to die for! I love croutons and these were amazing! They were crunchy and you could taste the sourdough! It took about 30 minutes for our pizza to come, but it was well worth the wait. It was piled with pepperoni and sausage. My bf says the best part was the clumps of sausage, but I was a fan of the mozzarella and the thin wood fired crust! I can't wait to branch out of the norm and try another one of their pizzas!
Expect to see me here again!
I'm not sure why you'd be visiting Larkspur but if you do, Pizzeria Picco is a must. They do Neopolitan think crust pizza here, burnt crust and all, and only the freshest ingredients top their pies. Fresh mozzarella pulled in-house. Share a nice bottle of wine (their Otono Malbec is a nice pairing), grab a seat outside (there's not really much room inside, anyway), and embrace the simple luxury of biting into a perfect slice.
Bonus: They have Straus Dairy soft serve ice cream.
Bonus Bonus: It's a very family friendly spot, which is how any pizza parlor really should be.
Updating to 5 stars.
Been back 3 times. Â
- always crowded
- always good
- wait in bar at the Picco restaurant next door, they come and get you
- didn't recognize any rock stars on the last two visits, but met some cool people at the next tables (sat outside)
There are a couple of other pizza places in the Bay Area that I rate right up there with Picco, but this is still my favorite. Â
To bad I live so far away. Â Or maybe that is a good thing because I would eat there every week if I was closer.
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