Tribute Pizza birthday dinner - San Diego, CA

While searching for a birthday celebration location, I was pointed in the direction of Tribute Pizza in North Park. This pizza spot can tempt taste buds with its popular house made dough and inspired toppings, baked in a hefty wood fired oven. The website points out free customer parking one block away but we found all five marked spots already occupied by 5:30pm on a Saturday evening! The restaurant was busy so I made sure to greet my guests at the entrance before we ordered food.

Dirty Dancin' Pizza at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Dirty Dancin' Pizza ($17) - crushed tomatoes, mozz, shaved red onion, jalapenos, fresh pineapple, harissa ranch

"Tribute to Roberta's, Brooklyn, NY and Ben Adler, the Washington Post" was written on the menu between the pizza name and the ingredients. Surprisingly, I only remember seeing ingredients during our visit and just now realized the association to the restaurant name... Tribute Pizza. Wow, foodie brain distractions of toppings and talking to friends, yet I remember seeing the funny descriptions at Kafe Sobaka!

Patatas Bravas at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Patatas Bravas ($8) - heirloom fingerling potatoes, smashed & fried, w/lemon basil aioli

A few friends opted to share the sweet and spicy delight of the Dirty Dancin' pizza as well as these patatas bravas.They don't look like much but I didn't hear any complaints about it either!

Molto Autentico Pizza at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Molto Autentico ($17) - tribute to greezy cardboard pizza nostalgia - crushed tomatoes, fresh mozz, garlicky mushrooms, calabrian chile and fennel sausage, house smokedd chedda' 

Thin crust pizzas could be seen flying into the air as staff prepared them for toppings and the wood fired ovens. For our friend's pizza, the crust was a little too charred, which gave the pizza a bit of a burnt taste. The pizza was quickly remade, and actually came out before our order arrived! I guess customer satisfaction made it a top priority. The flavor of the fennel sausage just popped amazingly! This meaty, rich flavored pizza turned out to be my favorite pizza of the night. I'll just call it the birthday foodie perk that allowed me to sample all pizzas. 

Super Vegan IV: return to Krypton Pizza at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Super Vegan IV: return to Krypton - tribute to all of our vegan barista friends - heirloom Japanese purple sweet potatoe puree, kabocha squash, leks, crispy hazelnuts

The next pizza grabbed our attention with the eye-catching purple hue! This vegan pizza had plenty of potato mash as well as some nuttiness from the squash. Overall it didn't have any strong flavors and I found it satisfactory. For Dennis, it was on the drier end and seemed to be missing a little something. I'd say that something was meat or cheese haha! Some of our friends enjoyed this more than others so it really depends on your taste preference.

Biancoverde with prosciutto di parma at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Biancoverde - tribute to Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix, AZ - mozzarella, ricotta, fresh garlic, crushed red chile flake, arugula

Our food blogger friend Mary ordered this one with prosciutto and ricotta. It was simple in ingredients though a little oily so I wasn't blown away by this sample.

Half and Half pizza at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

We didn't know about this option until our friends got this half and half pizza! It wasn't mentioned on the menu or if it was, we totally missed it! So jealous! This was a combination of our pizza choice and the first pineapple one.

Focaccia and Burrata at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Sea Salt Focaccia w/ Burrata ($8)

Tribute Pizza offers several toppings to go with their house made award winning focaccia. We chose the burrata, which appeared with an olive oil / balsamic vinegar dip. I happily topped the thick crusty bread with soft and silky burrata dipped into the fabulous balsamic mix. The beautifully fluffy bread soaked it all up! We'd definitely recommend this item with whatever toppings you prefer.

Mademoiselle Chanterelle Pizza at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

The Weekly Tribute: Mademoiselle Chanterelle ($30) - a tribute to the finer things in life, and to PizzaHacker - garlic butter sauteed chanterelle mushrooms, wood roasted king trumpet mushrooms, 150 day cage aged gruyere, homegrown crispy white sage, toasted pine nuts, fresh meyer lemon zest, 18 year white balsamic, alderwood smoked salt crust

Our pizza choice that day was sans meat. This packed rich mushroom flavors and a great cheesiness into one small package. The crusts on these pizzas were thinner style and not too crunchy. Each pizza was approximately 13" inches in diameter and sliced into 8 pieces. Pizza and an appetizer easily satisfied two people's appetites.

Tiramisu dessert at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Tiramisu

Later in the evening, the server brought out a free birthday dessert... tiramisu! This bad boy had an alcoholic appeal to it, due to its concentration of "liquor" in the layers. Is it possible to get drunk on dessert? On the sides were coffee beans that gave extra crunch. We passed this dessert around the table because we're friendly like that.

ice cream dessert at Tribute Pizza in San Diego

Mary also picked up this super amazing looking desserts. Since ice cream is one of my favorite desserts, I would love to try it next time!

Tribute Pizza has an open kitchen so you can really see what's going on behind the scenes. They also have 16 beers on tap as well as some wines so you can have a pleasant meal with food and drink. I'm thankful to be able to enjoy a night out with friends and hope to stop by again for more items, if not just more of that dreamy focaccia!

Tribute Pizza
3077 North Park Way
San Diego CA 92104
(619) 450-4505

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Comments

Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table's picture
Submitted by Laura @ Sprint ... (not verified) on Tue, 01/16/2018 - 9:42pm

I loooooove this place! Have you had their charcuterie? I like it almost as much as I like the pizzas! fin side note: I've been to Pizzeria Bianco in AZ too. I like this place better. LOL!

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Fri, 01/19/2018 - 11:20am

have not had their charcuterie! we recently visited for breakfast too but those photos are sitting in the "to do" queue... i decided i should get my 'birthday' post out sooner haha! i might try some more items before doing a revisit post :)

Kirk's picture
Submitted by Kirk (not verified) on Thu, 01/18/2018 - 7:29am

Hi Lynn - Tribute is one of our favorite places in that area. You should try the roasted vegetables, cheese, charcuterie board which comes with the foccacia of the day. Also the foccacia with N'Duja is really good as well.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Fri, 01/19/2018 - 11:23am

this is definitely a well-respected place in my foodie community so i'm happy to finally make it there. i'm interested in charcuterie now that i have two recommendations already! more focaccia is an option too! :)

Mary's picture
Submitted by Mary (not verified) on Fri, 01/19/2018 - 12:32pm

Happy birthday again!! Thanks for the invite, it was fun trying out this spot and man, I did love that dessert!

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Fri, 01/19/2018 - 3:29pm

i don't have a picture of the dessert menu so i didn't even have a clue what you ordered. i'm sure we'll be back again for more food and i'll try again! :)

Faye's picture
Submitted by Faye (not verified) on Fri, 01/26/2018 - 3:17pm

What a fun birthday dinner with friends. I want to carb out like that for my special day :( You're so tiny and skinny - jealous. I can't wait to try this place out. Soon.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Wed, 01/31/2018 - 10:35pm

Carbs are yummy but gotta work out harder if you overdo it!

 

caninecologne's picture
Submitted by caninecologne (not verified) on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 7:13pm

Happy belated bday Lynn! Great choice for a bday dinner with friends! I loved seeing all of the different pizzas you ordered, especially the one with the purple potatoes! That was really striking looking! There were so many pizzas yu ordered that I hadn't seen in my previous visits. They must change up the menu from time to time, which is good. It keeps you coming back for more, heh heh! There was one time we sat near the open kitchen; it was fun watching the workers toss the dough into the air.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Wed, 01/31/2018 - 10:36pm

it's cool how they dedicate a pizza to something so that's how the flavors change up. great chefs in the kitchen too. i like an open kitchen which also stays cleaner!

Michael Johnson's picture
Submitted by Michael Johnson (not verified) on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 11:53pm

Wow!! Looks like some great pizzas! The mademoiselle looks amazing. My wife Tasha and I always look for new places to eat. This might make our list.

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Sun, 02/11/2018 - 8:47pm

if you travel to SD, you know where to find some good suggestions! thanks for visiting us back! :)

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