Newport Pizza & Ale House

Bar, Eatery

5050 Newport Ave
San Diego, California, 92107-3010
United States

(619) 224-4540 | map
obpizzashop.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.73
Reviews:
13
Ratings:
18
pDev:
17.16%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by DeanMoriarty:
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Rated by DeanMoriarty from California

3.5/5  rDev -6.2%

Jan 13, 2014
More User Ratings:
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Reviewed by cratez from Canada (ON)

3.32/5  rDev -11%
vibe: 3.25 | quality: 3.25 | service: 3 | selection: 3.75
Visited with my wife on a recent trip to San Diego and Los Angeles.

Tried the following:
Second Chance Seize The IPA (draft)
Second Chance & Maui Brewing Imperial Pilsner w/ Jasmine Flowers (draft)

The IPA was tasty while the imperial pilsner left something to be desired. Service was friendly enough but neither of the bartenders knew what was on tap. So that made it difficult to navigate the large draft list. Major hippy / surfer vibe here, which I guess is to be expected in Ocean Beach, but it’s not really our scene. Our overall experience was average, and I don’t think we’d come back.
Mar 29, 2020
 
Rated: 3.65 by SDRedDevil from California

Aug 24, 2016
 
Rated: 4.31 by Hoppedelic from California

May 10, 2016
 
Rated: 3.75 by EyePeeAyBryan from Arizona

Sep 15, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by heffIPAlover from California

Jan 22, 2014
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Reviewed by Dowlers from California

4.34/5  rDev +16.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.75 | selection: 5 | food: 4
The best beer selection in OB (Ocean Beach for visitors), although Raglan Public House just around the corner is a close second. Always changing and always current with the latest local releases. They also always have something for the non beer enthusiast.

The pizza is really good, using a thinner crust than Pizza Port OB also just around the other corner.

It is a small place, a little cramped and without AC so it can get a little hot a sweaty summer nights. If you can get a spot on the deck for people watching as it is right on the main street of the always entertaining OB.

Staff are very knowledge and friendly, if you make the effort to approach them. In true OB style there is no fake smile or have a nice day attitude here. Also usually customers at the bar are more then willing to engage in some conversation, some of it not even beer related.
Oct 07, 2013
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Reviewed by applesandoranges from California

1.7/5  rDev -54.4%
vibe: 1 | quality: 1 | service: 1 | selection: 3 | food: 3
The people that work here are really assholes. Will not honor coupons. Don't give this place any business. One of the employees made fun of a person, yes, actually laughed and pointed like a middle schooler, when they asked if they had Heineken. We don't need people like this in OB. They charge gratuity, "20% or something like that" when you order more than 4 pizzas. They will not tell you this until you actually go to pick up the pizzas. If you care about this neighborhood and seeing business who care about the community thrive, shut this place down.
Dec 21, 2010
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Reviewed by Floydster from California

3.86/5  rDev +3.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4
My friends and I went to eat at Hodad's last Saturday and parked right in front of this place, had no idea it was this close, but we had to stop by after lunch after eating at one of the best burger joints ever, walked in and saw pizza on the right, bar in the back, there was around twenty taps of quality craft beer, mostly local which was nice too, I had a Bacchus which was around seven dollars if I can remember correctly, other taps had stuff from Stone, Green Flash, Coronado, Ballast Point, and Port, prices were decent, pizza looked good but I just ate an enormous bacon burger down the street, cool atmosphere right off the main drag a couple hundred feet from the water in Ocean Beach, place was wide open and had sports on, good beer, pizza, and football, cannot ask for much more, ran into Chris Fisher later this day and he said he was working there now too, which is good to know, hope to check this place out again when he is there, recommended
Nov 08, 2009
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Reviewed by yemenmocha from Arizona

4.33/5  rDev +16.1%
vibe: 3 | quality: 5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4
Keep in mind the context - this is a beer bar that happens to service pizza by the slice. The location was nice as far as proximity to the beach, but dear god don't come here in a decent car with decent attire. In fact, many patrons were missing items of clothing - shirts, shoes, etc.

Beer selection was among the best in San Diego. Hands down, excellent. Actually it was almost too good - too many of the rare, limited release high ABV beers. This is a non-air conditioned pizza joint, it's hot, and everything is high ABV and/or very hoppy. Oh well, we had local hoppy beers and passed on the rare stuff.

Pizza wasn't anything special. Wasn't bad. Selection of pies for your slices was good though.

Service was alright.

Very inexpensive.
Aug 10, 2009
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Reviewed by Llewellyn9 from California

4.33/5  rDev +16.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4
When i first saw the words "ale house" on the sign, i figured that it might at most have a couple decent beers on tap. I was plesently surprised; the selection was great! Lots of local beers as well as some much harder to find stuff, even had some sour ales too!!

Pizza was good, had creative names (the meat pizza was called the "ron jeremy" ), this was the first time i had ever seen someone toss the dough, that was a plus.

atmosphere was pretty relaxed, lazy weekday afternoon, chilled out beach vibe, this might have become a favotite spot if i weren't leaving San Diego in a couple weeks!

The bartender spilled a little of our beer when she opened the bottle, but knocked a little of the price. The employees seemed knowledgeable and friendly, it was a little slow, but i wasn't in a hurry.
Jul 16, 2009
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Reviewed by Spacegrass from Virginia

4.4/5  rDev +18%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 3
Well, just when I thought I had finally tried most of the wonderful beers available in San Diego I walked into this place and swear I heard my liver start crying.

What a great selection of local beers. The place isn't much if you're not into beer and watching bartenders pull tricks on late-night drunks. But if you ARE into beer (and why would you be on this site otherwise?) then you'll definitely enjoy the selection here. They have a lot of local and rare brews available. The guys I met really knew their stuff about beer and were fun to talk to. The place closed but they kept serving my wife and I for at least an hour or two. I think we were a breath of fresh air from the typical drunken morons who ventured into this place late at night. The bartender/guy who stocks the kegs told me he is a part of the San Diego Brewer's Guild. He also hooked up an entire Slayer album on their stereo for me. If you like video games they even have a Nintendo available for anyone to play.

We had some of the pizza, it was pizza, pretty good, not bad. This was the best tap selection I came across while staying in Ocean Beach.
May 20, 2009
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Reviewed by HopHead84 from California

3.8/5  rDev +1.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4
Cool beach vibe. This place reminds me of Portland. It may or may not be the hippies. The Pizza is good and you can order it by the slice, which is fantastic. The tap list is always rotating and it's always good. They usually have something interesting on that I don't see anywhere else around town. The bottle selection is good and they usually have new releases.

This is the sort of place where one might meet up with a group of like-minded individuals and talk of anarchy, the evils of capitalism, and that new Che Guevara t-shirt you want to buy. Cool spot. Check it out.
Mar 11, 2009
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Reviewed by RodBurg from Missouri

4/5  rDev +7.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4
Went to Ocean Beach to visit a friend and hit this place up right after Hodad's. The pizza is awesome and about as close to NY style as you're going to find in Cali. The taps are in the back and the ceiling has hundreds of old handles hanging from it. At first I thought that was everything they were serving. That would've been insane. Anyway, there's a great selection of craft brews, most of them being local SD county choices. A decent size refer is also there with quite a few bottle selections. Typical laid back Ocean Beach crowd here. Not very crowded at first, but as the night wore on, people started pouring in. There's some good beer to had in OB and this is probably the best spot to get it in. Had a good time there.
Nov 11, 2008
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Reviewed by 2ci from California

2.73/5  rDev -26.8%
vibe: 2 | quality: 3 | service: 2 | selection: 3.5 | food: 2.5
I make it a point to come to this bar about twice a week usually with my girl.
The only reason we frequent this place is because it has the better selection for beers in ocean beach.
The ambience is really lacking.Too many loud young ruffians who come in and get free samples of beers and in general act like idiots.
A few tv,s with just the basic cable and one huge one which has the beer menu on it.
they have a happy hour 3-6 everyday in which you can get a dollar off all beers,the problem is they tend to jack up all the prices normally so you dont get much of a deal compared to other bars in san diego.
Pints are around 5$ and higher alcohol ones can be around 7$.
The pizza is not very good at 3$ a slice i expect more quality then they give.
At night when the bars are in full swing and at closing time there are usually a few fights, so be careful if you have been drinking.
All in all it isnt the worst place especially if you live in the area and i suppose comparing the prices with the new england area it isnt the worst deal.
Mar 26, 2008
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Reviewed by mrkrispy from California

3.75/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4
I have been going to the Pizza Place since it changed over from NY Giant Pizza to its current incarnation. The pizza is thin crust and fairly tasty if you like Bronx/New York style. They also have some salads and sandwiches. It is located a block from the beach and they have a nice little patio to sit on when it is nice out (11 months out of the year in San Diego). The place isn't swanky but more representative of the OB style, and this may include the occasional drunk homeless person and a few piles of dreads.

The tap and bottle list are very impressive. They tend to have a great mix of local beers as well as other good craft beers you don't find at the other good beer bars in San Diego (o'briens, Hamiltons). They get some good Belgium bottles and usually have at least one on draft.

The employees are really friendly and try to help you out as much as they can even though they are pretty busy. Most of them are pretty good at recommending beers for people that might like craft beers but don't know what to order.

Depending on who is working the music can be waaaay too loud, distorted speakers and everything. It is only really bad if you are on the patio where the speakers face.

9/2008 edit: The pizza ordering/pickup procedure seems to have been tweaked (computerized) and the last few times I have been there they seem to have it down. The ridiculously loud music seems to still happen a lot though.
Mar 12, 2008
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Reviewed by stoner420 from California

4/5  rDev +7.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4
Good selection of beer, Pizza Port, Stone, Ballast Point, Green Flash were represented among others, 16 taps total. The bottle selection seemed decent too. The pizza is good. They give the different pies names of celebrities like the MC Hammer (pepperoni), the William Shatner, and the Chuck Norris. I'd given up finding any good beer in Ocean Beach, so I'm happy this place is there.

Some reviewers mentioned that the music is loud. It wasn't while I was there, but they were in the process of installing a 5 speaker surround sound system plus subwoofer. So I think once the new system is up and running it could be real loud, but I don't know.

The service was good while I was there too, but the bartender was covering for another bartender who hadn't show up yet. So it makes you wonder. The smoking patio was put to good use by the clientele and the bartender. But it never interfered with my service.

The clientele were all friendly and typical for OB, young, dreadlocks, tatoos, beards, etc. Bars in OB can attract some really sketchy people, but everyone there seemed cool. There are closed circuit video cameras everywhere to keep an eye on things.

Overall, I had a great time there and will go back.
Jan 30, 2007
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Reviewed by dbalsock from Vermont

3.85/5  rDev +3.2%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5
After moving to OB and finding most bars don't have a wide variety of interesting beer, I was delighted to walk past a little pizza place with signs for arrogant bastard, maudite and other brewing wonders from around the world. They have 16 taps, most are made up of CA beers, all of them micros. Above the taps is a sign, "No crap on Tap", which is completely true. There's a chalk board for writing beer requests, and it seems to be listened to, as the other day Chimay appeared on tap, and disappeared shortly after. New beers seem to come and go every day or two, and thats pretty fantastic; always keeps me on my toes. They also have a few beers in the bottle, a lambic, a cider, hop devil and I think they just added a load of samuel smiths to their fridge. The inside looks like a pizza bar should, stools and tables, a few seats at the bar, and local art/beer posters on the walls. There's also a little patio in front if you want better lighting and to sit outside. They always have music playing, and it's pretty loud. For those of you from Boston, I would say about 10% of the time its as loud as Bukowski's. Usually it's pretty manageable. The food is all pizza or pizza related. Buying by the slice can be risky if the piece isn't fresh. However, that's the only complaint about the food. It's pretty standard pizza (except for the spaghettios pizza I saw yesterday), nothing special. The price is about right too. They have specials and a happy hour which is a great deal, and that can really save a beer lover some money. One note: They serve beer in chilled glasses, so make sure you specify when ordering.
Aug 04, 2006
Newport Pizza & Ale House in San Diego, CA
Place rating: 3.73 out of 5 with 18 ratings