Oak Fire Pizzeria & Pub

Went here with my guy on a Sunday afternoon around 4pm. Saw on the Yelp page that they offer $10 specials during happy hour, so we wanted to try and catch that. I had a Groupon, which I was glad that let us use towards the happy hour specials. Usually businesses don't let you use a Groupon with any other deal going on, so props to Oak Fire for letting us get happy hour prices.

The food wasn't bad. We ordered three of the thin crust pizzas: buffalo, sweet pepper sausage and veggie deluxe. The buffalo was the best of the three, with shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, thin strips of carrot and drizzled with ranch. Sweet pepper sausage was ok; could have used a tad bit more basil, in my opinion. The veggie deluxe was pretty bland, but my boyfriend suggested it may be from the lack of meat? We don't tend to get veggie pizzas, but the toppings sounded enticing to me. Overall, we thought the better tasting pizzas were worth the $10 happy hour price, but the regular prices (from $14-16) are too high considering each pizza is a sufficient size for one person.

Some other reviews mention a very loud atmosphere, but it wasn't bad while we were there. (Perhaps since it was between regular mealtimes?) My only complaint was that we sat near the back and one of the waitresses walked out the back door and let it slam disturbingly loudly both when she went outside and came back inside.

Now the downsides...I thought $6 valet parking was a bit steep for a pizza and bar place. On top of that, when we were leaving, the valet told us it was $7, even though $6 is clearly posted in front.

Service was a huge letdown. Since this was our first time eating there, we didn't really know what to expect. We walked in the front to what I now know is their patio area. You have to walk through this section to get to the inside of the restaurant. At this entrance, there were a couple of guys standing talking and, after several awkward minutes of waiting for someone to let us know about seating, one of the guys turned around and told us to sit anywhere. We chose a booth near the back that was a bit more secluded and had a better view of the basketball game on TV. Our server was friendly when speaking with us, but we had to wait so incredibly long waiting for her to come over that I wondered if she had forgotten we were even there. It was also irritating that a group of four people came in AFTER us and were waited on and served food BEFORE us.

To sum it up: if I'm in the neighborhood during their happy hour and don't mind sub par service, I may go back. But I won't go out of my way for it.

Stone Fire Pizza was kind enough to host a University of Arizona Media Arts Alumni "mixer" about 6 months ago that I attended.

After valet parking the car and we stood in line, waiting to be checked in. I thought that the place had a cool vibe from the outside and I wasn't let down once we got inside...the lighting was dark, almost romantic, and there was a good amount of dark wood and raw, rough stone was used in the construction. The restaurant consisted of primarily two main areas...the first level you come to upon entering and the latter is a few steps up and to the back.

We had a kind of buffet going of various pizzas, two which stood out were the No. 23 Wild Mushroom and the No. 6 The Wheat Garden Tomato.

The first was HANDS down my fave! But then again, I'm such a whore for anything truffle! Give me one lil truffle and I'll melt in your hands I tell you...and this pizza basically consisted of Wild Mushrooms, smoked Mozzarella, Fontina cheese, Tomato Sauce and a TOUCH of Truffle Oil. Oh heavenly.

The latter consisted of Yellow and Red Tomatoes with Mozzarella, Fresh Herbs and Garlic oil on whole wheat Honey crust. Nice and light.

It's not your typical pizza joint, not that I experienced anyway. More of a gourmet type place where the pizzas are uber thin akin to an appetizer pizza and not so much a thick crust traditional marinara pizza. More, um, swanky shall we say?

Great place to host a party! I'll definitely be back again to sample more of their fare...might even have to order more than one (and possibly one to go!) of that truffle pie!

I'm the type of person who really tries not to stereotype. In fact, I have a Rita Mae Brown quote up in my office (How Berkeley of me), "People aren't grapes, you can't weigh them in a bunch". That being said, these aren't people, these are restaurants... so I'ma go ahead and generalize.

Restaurants that use Groupon to drum up new business do so for a reason... their food and service aren't enough on their own to make it happen for them. This is my third Groupon restaurant in the last month, and it's my third 'meh' experience.

My buddy and I popped in for dinner due to its proximity to his apartment. First impression... fun vibe. Seconds later... damn, people are REALLY talking loudly. You know when it's loud in a place so everyone talks LOUDER to be heard over everyone else, until it's a deafening roar though only about 40 people? Yeah, it was like that.

Our waitress was nice enough, took our orders and made recommendations. We started with some buffalo calzones, then ordered a southwestern chicken salad, and finally a "no name" pizza. Seemed like a nice variety.

Buffalo Calzones - Could take them or leave them. Definitely reminiscent of frozen TGIFridays Appetizers from the grocer's freezer.
Southwestern Chicken Salad - Not a ton of flavor. Chicken tasted unseasoned, for lack of a better word.
"No Name" Pizza - Tasty, but super-thin crust and greasy.

Glad we used a Groupon, I would've felt ripped off for $46. People say happy hour is good here, inexpensive. Would I come back if it was cheap? Maybe. But honestly, right now, if I never made it back, I'd be okay with that.

Yum! This has got to be one of the best pizza places I've been to. I came here with a friend on an early Sunday afternoon. We showed up and the place was relatively empty except for a few folks watching football at the bar. Our waitress was very nice and actually seemed like she enjoyed her job. There's nothing worse than having a server that doesn't want to be there.

I ordered the No Name pizza (sweet pepper sausage, mozzarella, goat cheese, caramelized onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pesto sauce). Whoa. This was one of those meals that I wanted to savor for as long as possible. However, I scarfed it down in seconds and licked all of my fingers to top things off. Rude? Whatev, I didn't want to waste any of the amazing pesto sauce by wiping it on my napkin.

Oh, an amazing added bonus is that every Sunday until 6pm (i think) ALL the stone fired pizzas are only $10!! No matter which one you want, all the way down the menu! This was a great relief from the rest of the expensive restaurants on La Cienega! I can't wait to go here again!

Haven't actually been to THIS location...

Went to the Sherman Oaks one before that one closed down. They have a bomb Happy Hour ($10 pizzas / $4 beers) ...and 1/2 off appetizers.

Their CALAMARI is THE BEST I've ever had. I uploaded a pic into their business photo's section... absolutely amazing!!!! I tried the Beef BBQ Brisket pizza and the Steak one on another trip and they were pretty good as well.

But definitely get the Calamari with their "GARLIC AIOLI" sauce.

Came here on a Friday night with a couple of friends. The place looked packed because of all the people smoking outside, but it was actually pretty open and (although not empty) nowhere near full.

As an appetizer we got the buffalo calzones and the bbq chicken pizza and wheat garden tomato pizza to share. The calzone were small and not very spicy. Overall, pretty disappointing.

Both pizzas were fine, but nothing great. The bbq chicken lived up to the usual expectations but didn't add anything extra. The wheat garden pizza, which sounded really interesting, was actually fairly bland and boring. For the price, I expected more.

Service was friendly and the place had a great feel. Perfect to catch up with friends.

Been to this spot a couple times and each time had a great time...
On Wed. they have penny pitchers and the food is great!
What more can you ask for and Its not super crowded like other spots...

The servers and staff are nice and friendly and always asking if we needed anything else...

Parking was great! You just get valet and dont worry about having to look for somewhere to park, since it is a busy area.

Highly reccommend it good times!

9/2011- UPDATE: This place closed down, so it's too bad if you didn't get to enjoy it before they did.

Nice decor - you have a little patio area and then you have seating inside as well. The music is wayyyy too loud that you're screaming the entire meal.

The pizzas had some of the thinnest crusts around and very crisp. Some of the crusts came out burnt and inedible. But I usually don't eat the crust anyways. The wild mushroom pizza had an incredibly smoky flavor to it. It was too dark to see what kinda mushrooms they were. The margherita was tasteless and disappointing.

Parking is a pain in the butt. There's limited metered parking and you can't park on the residential streets without a permit. So really, your choices are to find metered parking or pay $6 for the valet.

Came to an event /mixer here hosted by WB and Sony and boy did we pack it in. The restaurant is situated on busy La Cienega and the parking can be a pain, so I decided to valet. I'd rather pay the $6 than deal with a $50 parking ticket (it takes me awhile to figure out the posted parking signs, one on top of the other...can i park here or not and do i need the permit if i park after the posted times allowed or during???)

What saves this place for me is the Pizza. I shared a thin crust Margherita and a sausage/pepperoni - both were very tasty, which they should be at $14-16 each. What do you expect it's all about the location. The drinks I thought were weak. I had a vodka tonic and a lemon drop - both were just OK and the lemon drop was not cold enough.

The restaurant itself was open and airy in the sense that even in shoulder to shoulder confinement, you can still feel the air blowing natural air flowing from the open windows (sans the screens).

I would totally go back for the pizza and maybe just have an iced tea or something. Oh and Toni was great - she took care of us in the sea of mixer attendees.

BEST PIZZA EVER!!
Definitely go during Happy Hour!

$10 for amazing thin crust pizza and $4 beers!

what else could you ask for?

oh yeah, ask for their signature desert! :)


P.S. Mad props to Oak Fire for doing Groupon and letting people use them during Happy Hour! Much respect for that!
I'll be back... with more groupons in hand ;)