Whenever someone asks me where to find the best pizza in the city, I always just simply say Arinell. When it comes to proper zest and sourness of the sauce, appropriate reservation of cheese allotment, perfect texture and crispness of crust, timeliness of service, and fair pricing, Arinell proves adept mastery of all categories.
The only area fit for improvement was accessibility, as the pizza maestros were only open until 10pm on weekdays and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Well, no longer.
Arinell is now open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, as proudly proclaimed on their new vinyl sign. Look for neighboring Thrill of the Grill to go out of business within the next month.
Previously:
Rules Signage at Arinell Pizza
Mission Mission 
Again, Hipsters never leave the mission so Hipsters don’t actually know what the best pizza in the city is. News flash: It ain’t the geasy, warmed up Chuck E Chese shit at Arinell.
actually fell for arinell while doing neuro at berkeley. feel kind of guilty for admitting that i prefered their little shattuck location to cheeseboard and zachary’s.
I read about Arinell here, went there, color me disappointed.
Arinell is an excellent NYC-style cheese slice, my question is the over/under on the first “new hours 911 call”
Exactly, Arinell is FAR from the best pizza in the city. Not even close to the best pizza in the Mission actually.
Delfina, Gialina, and Tony’s Pizza Napoletana are the best pizza spots in the city.
Bull shit.
STORY: Someone went to this place and got a slice. Got the slice, went to the table to shake out some delicious pepper flakes and parmesan cheese. Cheese started…moving.
MAGGOTS.
I’m glad overhearing an urban legend hasn’t kept me from trying delicious pizza
I really don’t think their pizza is any good.
Real pizza isn’t gourmet foodie crap like Delfina et al.
That’s good food too, but it’s not real Pizza, and obviously the maggot story is BS -they sell those slices too fast and too hot for fly reproduction, slander troll.
I think you have it backwards; real pizza is not the bastardized slop that they produce at Arnell’; While Arnell’s is fine for a cheap slice (though not as good Serranos), it pales in comparison to pizza where attention is paid to the ingredients. etc.
The parmesan sits in a can on the table for hours and hours and hours. It’s plausable.
Either way, Serrano’s is neither yuppie nor trashy, and far superior.
I’m all for the punk rock pizza place though. I’m sure it’ll never be as bad as some of the stories I’ve heard about “Shaky’s” in LA.
arinell’s is my favorite slice in the city – hot, crust somehow crisp yet tender, cheap, straightforward, and served up by raggedy cute boys. warms my cold east coast heart.
ARINELL RULES
I have to admit, Arinell’s is vastly overrated. I just attribute this to it being “New York Style” pizza, but I never got a warmed-up St. Mark’s slice that had been sitting out for hours.
dirty city pizza all day everyday!
arinell’s is goooodddd
Arinell’s Pizza = Convenient, cheap, good pizza makes it in the running for the best pizza. Fast, hot, and leaves you not feeling like shit.
i concur, reasonable opinion stater.
I don’t get the pizza polarization. Commercially, pizza is pizza; it’s really hard to screw-up, and it’s really hard to do perfectly, and I’ve never seen either extreme in a store. Pizza is always somewhere in between: more-or-less pleasurable but far short of heaven or hell (I could do heaven, but my home oven doesn’t go up to 700 degrees). And, so far, none of you folk are telling me what’s so great about your faves.
And is it only my opinion that if you’re going to claim to have “street pizza”, you should sell it either from a cart, or from a street take-out window? Having a counter where it can sit is cheating.
nah. Serrano’s beats it.
Best Pizza? Wrong city.
There are slice places and pie places and they’re different beasts. Tony’s in North Beach makes a great pie, but you don’t go in there for a slice. Just like Delfina. Arinell’s is mostly a slice place, and one of the best. Unless you go at the wrong time, which happens.
I don’t get the Serrano’s preference at all, but I’ve never had just a slice there. The pies, fine but typically meh SF pies.
The slices at Serrano’s are made-to-order, not just heated up after sitting for hours. So they make your slice as if it’s a whole pizza. The resulting crust is fresh-baked, thick and more substantial, ingredients more fresh, piping-hot instead of re-heated. Also generous slices. I think you get more for your money. It is simply BETTER pizza by every standard measurement.
Of course, Serrano’s isn’t open at 3am when I’m WASTED, but unless one has a some kind of slumming-it junk food preference in general, I can’t see how you could think Arinell’s is better.
made to order slices are nice until you realize you’ve been waiting 15-20 minutes for A SLICE OF PIZZA
15-20? 10 min maybe…but just put it on speed dial, walk, grab yr slice, enjoy.
here’s a little secret, you can actually order a whole pie at Arinell’s, and they’ll make it for you….but ordering anything but cheese is a mistake…
the best part about this is that it costs $22, which is exactly the same price as eight cheese slices at $2.75. gotta admire their moxie.
Arinell is the best NY-style slice in the area, fact. If you want California, Italian thin-crust, Chicago deep dish, gourmet etc etc there are other places for those.
Now if only they’d start carrying daiya cheese so I could eat there again ;D
did i just read “not as good as serranos” seriously, seriously?!!! serrano’s is great after every good place is closed and you want delivery quick. but better than arinell’s, ehhh?
and
“Again, Hipsters never leave the mission so Hipsters don’t actually know what the best pizza in the city is. News flash: It ain’t the geasy, warmed up Chuck E Chese shit at Arinell.”
I don’t know why I even bother reading the comments on this blog, to classify all that enjoy arinells as a hipster, and to be as narrow minded enough to judge a resident of a portion of a city that you apparently like so much to come all the way from where ever to eat and drink is really ridiculous (did I mention reading a blog called “mission mission”).
Thanks for making me hate being in the upper mission on the weekends, ruining my favorite bars and restaurants (and yes I am putting you in a category that you may or may not feel is correct). And you know this term “Mission Hipster” is just as bad as some calling you a marina asshole, or as derogatory as bridge and tunnel.
As for Arinell’s it’s a good slice, wayyyyy better than nasty cable car or whatever it is now. I am thrilled that they are open till 3am. that’s all i wanted to say originally.
No. Thank YOU!
Still waiting to hear what is good about any of these pizzas. Not denying or hating, just waiting….
You’re kidding right? This pizza is shite. If this is what all you New Yorkers are claiming is “real” pizza, you can have that fuckin slop. Make sure to order a large pepto with your day-old slice.
Seriously people? Arinell is some great fucking pizza!
The pizza is OK and I do like the crunchiness of the dough, but I will not eat here again after seeing the guys handle my money then throw on the toppings to my pizza wihtout so much as a hand wash. And not to be mean, but some of the people there look like they haven’t showered in well… You are working with food. Look clean at least. Just can’t do it!
This place has sentimental value and a slice very close to the ones we used to buy for $1.25 back in the East Village when drunk before bed. To say ‘best in the city’ is something similar to having a bumper sticker on a car that says ‘word’s best dad’.
Win?
they play G.G. Allin in there…your pizza joint don’t.
Horrible pizza. Not even remotely good. That’s why the hipsters love it.