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"I was starving so i yelped this place to see if it was good. I was not disappointed! The pizza was hot and fresh. Plenty of sausage and…" read more »
Seems like every other person who reviewed Volare gave a bad review. I must be very lucky.
I order from Volare every couple of weeks and always find the food and the service excellent - first time I ordered the lasagna though - and it was really good. the portions were generous. got a side of garlic bread - quite tasty. they deserve their 5 stars, damn it!
$2.50 for a cheese slice is cheap, but it was like eating melted cheddar cheese on a cracker bread....not my kind of slice.
I think in my drunken state, I wanted to go here because I thought it was called "Voltaire's". The first thing I thought was, "This pizza isn't very enlightened!"
I'd say about 2.5 stars. The pizza is OK, but I give the benefit of the doubt since it's open late. Since you'll be drunk, you'll drown the pizza in parmesan cheese and red peppers and it will fill your hunger. There's definitely worse pizza out there.
I'm naturally a curious person. So normally when I would find a slice of pepperoni pizza that somehow tastes like cold blue cheese mixed with corn syrup, I'd kind of be in awe, and want to learn more. That said, I find that my wonderment of the world around me is dampened somewhat when, after spending four hours in a drunken sports-watching marathon at Mad Dog, I find myself with pizza that rivals Mythic in pure shittiness (as an added bonus, I was overcharged by a dime).
Seriously. It's pretty fucking sad when the best pizza within walking distance is Cybelle's at 14th & Church.
Wow, yelpers just don't like Volare's (except my girl Nicole C)! I remember going here late night, back when I was just a whippersnapper, and being pretty happy with the slices here. Then again, I was not very sober either.
So a couple of nights ago, we tried delivery from them. The guy who took the order was not the brightest, and was even a little negative (we have a wooden gate you have to go through to get to our buzzer, and our house is not that clearly labeled from the outside. I let him know that and he was like, "Hey, we'll do our best to get the pizza to you, but it sounds kind of difficult").
Luckily, it seems Volare's hired the best and the brightest from Pizza Delivery College since our guy showed up in under thirty minutes with a piping fresh pie.
Coming in at $16 for a medium two topping pizza, this was certainly a great deal. And as for the quality of the pizza, well it was fresh and fine, a nice mix of cheese to sauce and a crust that was crisp and lean. I'd call this a NYC style of slice, up there with Arinell, well almost.
While I can't currently swear by the slice, if you do get a whole pizza picked up or delivered from here, I think you'll be pretty happy with the results.
For some reason many restaurants won't deliver to my neighborhood. I find it partcularly strange since I'm in the center of the city. Volare's will however, as they're right nextdoor in the Haight.
And, with all the bland pizza in SF, Volare's Pizza is strangely refreshing! actually taste the sauce & cheese! It didn't do so well here on Yelp, but it did in my mouth.
And that's where the decisions are made.
Oh, the dangers of drunk pizza ordering.
Tuesday night, 1:30 am, post Yelp bbq, hammered out of my mind. Fortunately I am at home, where I can do no harm to anyone but myself. But I have the munchies, jonesin' for greasy, bad, regret-it-the-next day food. Kind of like sex with the ex. And miles away from the patron saints of ravenous drunk folk, the Tamale Lady, Bacon Dog Cart, who do not, to my knowledge, make house calls.
The cupboard is bare. I scramble through my kitchen drawers, menus flying left and right. Miraculously, a flyer lands right in my hands. I can just barely make out the writing, but the words appear to me like Jesus' face in the shroud of Turin. Volare... Volare, by the way, is the Italian patron saint of hungry drunks stranded at home, residing in the vicinity of NOPA/the Western Addiction/and Haight Street.
So I place my order, which they some how manage to interpret, slurry words and all. Then promptly pass out.
30 minutes later, my buzzer rings. I must be late for school, the bell is ringing! Huh? Disoriented, confused, still crazy drunk. I hand the dude some money from my wallet, smile, and start to shut the door.. Pizza dude puts foot to prevent me from shutting door. "Lady you gave me $6 ." "Uh-huh, I say still smiling, "Keep the tip." "Lady, I still need $6 more." "Oh, sure, how silly," pulling out my wallet, handing him $2 more. "Okay, now we're up to $8, still $4 more to go." This little exchange of wills goes on for about 10 more minutes. I felt like an 80-year-old with Alzheimers. Open wallet, bring out dollar. Open wallet again, take out another dollar.
This poor guy had the patience of Job, but what would I expect coming from the Patron Saint of Drunk People Pizza?
Eventually I paid the man, got my pizza, which I promptly threw up afterwards. It's not the pizza's fault. Blame it on bottomless vodka crans I was drinking on an empty stomach still recovering from the flu.
As for Volare, I'll never order from them again, because I don't want to hear the tickles of laughter that will erupt when they see my number and address on the order.
Two nights ago, I was walking down Laguna to catch a bus on Haight and I decided that if I started heading west, I could probably grab a slice before the bus got there.
Tragically, I walked onto the scene of a double homicide across from SF Underground about thirty seconds after the cops got there. It wasn't pretty. I think because it didn't really set in, the gravity of the situation, I continued on and ordered a slice.
The three guys working at Volare were all lurking in the doorway, watching the commotion, which I think is a natural human reaction to this sort of situation, but as I came inside and ordered, they were making jokes about it. Disgusting, bigoted jokes with no concern for basic human dignity targeting the two people who were lying dead on the sidewalk.
Totally secondary, but the place was filthy, the pizza was of the poorest quality (I've had much better frozen pizza), and there was no cheese shaker on the counter. I like a little parm on my pizza. This is a business that I would never bother with again based on quality, but now feel so disgusted and violated by the people that work there that I would warn anybody not to support them.
Bad for your stomach and bad for your soul.
Needed some greasy grub to soak up the beers from our drinking at Toronado. It was still a bit early - midnight- before for the late night bar crowd rush, so no one was inside when we ordered. A cheese and veggie slice and diet soda amounted to $8 (which wasn't bad). We had to wait what seemed like forever for him to heat up the slices. Sat at the table, which I had to bus myself, and ate my lukewarm and not so greasy (surprisingly) slice of pie. It got the job done, but would only come here for a late night snack post drinking. For real pizza, I'd rather go to Pizza Orgazmica or Little Star.
So kids, it turns out that I don't only want pizza after a long night of imbibing. See, I can't drink for a while, so I figured I'd lose a whole bunch of weight NOT eating all that greasy crap at 1 a.m. per my usual drunk diet.
WRONG!!! 11 p.m. last night saw us scrambling to order something NOT pizza to squash the late-night yearnings for junk food. No such luck. Since we've worked our way through every pizza place in a 3-mile radius, we went with Volare's.
After much discussion, we went with the Athens (pesto, olives, garlic, etc) with extra tomato sauce. Finally! SOMEONE honored my extra sauce request!!! One whole star for that alone! I thought I'd died and gone to customer-service heaven when I saw all that sauce oozing out of the sides of my slices...until I tasted the pizza. It was actually more what I DIDN'T taste. While the pizza is well-textured and filling, it kind of doesn't taste like much of anything.
On the upside: not greasy, filling, fast delivery, cheap
Downside: little flavor, unremarkable crust
Bottom line: I'll probably stick with stella doro or the kosher pizza joint from here on out but Volare's didn't let us down, they got it to us in half an hour, and Matt ate almost half of it, so it couldn't have been that bad.
btw- I had more this morning, and the flavor didn't improve one bit overnight.
We were both sick of pizza and we'd told ourselves we were going to have something else, but after 20 minutes of sifting through take out menus we found ourselves ordering a pizza. My impressions of Volares may have colored by my frustration with limited late night delivery choices and my own lack of imagination. Keep that in mind.
The pizza here is acceptable, and our order was correct, and the whole 'greek' pizza concept (kalamata olives, pesto, etc.) was executed well. It's hard to describe why I'm not totally satisfied. 'Chewy' is the first adjective that comes to mind. Maybe if we'd ordered pepperoni or sausage or something properly greasy it would have fallen within my expectations.
I feel I should give some credit to the driver though. Not being familiar with my neighborhood, he drove a bit too far up the block. Upon realizing his mistake, he threw it in reverse and booked it down Ellis street backwards, coming to a stop right in front of my apartment. A delivery driver who puts your satisfaction ahead of his own safety deserves at least a star or two of his own.
This is decent pizza, but at 3$ a slice and not being anything incredible, I really can't think of any reason to go here over Mythic pizza, unless you were absolutely starving while in Underground, maybe.
What these people consider pizza is insulting to pizza everywhere.
Light years beyond inedible national chains but still mediocre pizza. Try Deja Vu Pizza & Pasta instead.
This place is the definition of hit or miss.
The first few times I ordered pizza from here, it came quickly, and it was delicious. The next time, I had to call back a bunch of times to make sure they had gotten my order, and when it did arrive, it was the completely wrong order. The delivery guy was nice, but they called me and gave me a hassle about it. When the right pie finally did arrive, it was cold, and the dough was undercooked. I had a wonderful experience right after that--I had decided not to patronize this place anymore, but a friend of mine had ordered it at her house. That was followed by another good experience, and that was followed by an OK experience.
The music on the website is funny but gets annoying quickly when you're trying to find their number because they screwed up your order.
The boyfriend and I order from Volare at least once a week! One of the only places I've found that will deliver a quality deep dish pizza to your door. It's not Little Star mind you...but did I mention they deliver?
They're fast, relatively inexpensive, and good quality for just sitting on the couch having a movie day. Also, reheats just perfectly. Something to note: on every flier, they have a coupon for a free two-liter of soda - just mention you have it...they never ask for the coupon.
Volare necessities for the perfect lazy couch day - 1 deep dish pizza any toppings (though they do put too much onion on). I'd recommend, sausage, mushroom, bell peppers and feta. One order jalepeno poppers, one order chicken tenders, one order garlic bread w/cheese and you're pretty much set to eat for 3+ days. The chicken fingers can be a little bland...so have some tobasco on hand.
They also deliver til 3AM on the weekends - perfect for the post-pub nosh session.
In the time that it took for them to get to my place, I could have-
walked down fillmore to get some coffee
ran into an old friend, listened patiently about her breakup
decided that while I was in the neighborhood, I should visit another friend
go to said friends house, smoke a pipe, watch arrested development
get to Volare, smoke a cigarette
Go in, place my order, and then smoke another waiting for it.
A funny thing happened here while I was waiting for a slice the other day.
A mother and her son (let's say 9 years old) come into the place. The son looks up at the menu, and then up at his mom's face. She briefly chats with him about the selection of slices and the son prompts the mom to order a slice, it's on him. The mom orders and the son pulls 3 grubby dollars and some change out of his pocket, reaches up and slaps it on the counter.
"I never mind paying for my mom, especially if I'm buying her really good pizza!" he proclaims.
The slice comes and the mom start chowing down. She's almost finished when suddenly a cascade of barf comes from her mouth onto her son, with some spilling onto the floor. She yells in horror and dashes out. Her newly soaked son slips in the puke pile and falls but gets up and follows her out.
Ok, so I made that last part up. The first part is true and it made me want to laugh, although I did remember when I was 9 and thought Domino's was gourmet pizza and the best burgers were at Carl's Jr. Anyway, the kid has a lot to learn.
Mainly, the slices are pretty average, if not sometimes bad. You can order any of the slices, but beware that unless they have something ready, they just re-bake a slice of cheese pizza with the ingredients that you want on it until the cheese melts enough to hold them in place. Other times the slice is greasier than a Chinese chicken wing or so salty you can feel the sodium levels in your body increasing to unhealthy proportions.
This place gets one star because one time we got one of their Athens pizzas delivered at 8pm and it was delicious and excellently prepared.
It gets another star for being open until like 3am. If we weren't so strapped for pizza or places that are open late in the Lower Haight, I definitely wouldn't come to this place as much as I do.
Hands down my #1 standby for late night food. Always super friendly and they actually make their pizzas fresh. Plus, the extra toppings (garlic!) they have out make the pizza somehow HEAVENLY. Exactly what's needed after a night of drinking or for a lazy night in.
Personal favorite: Mushroom and Pepperoni slice. I don't know why something so simple can be so DAMN GOOD, but it is!
Decent slice of Hawaiian pizza and great entertainment
After attending a birthday party at Nickie, great music by the way, we rolled over to Volare's, right next door. Inside we ordered a slice and were entertained by two gay guys. They decided to play straight, gay or bi with the customer entering the establishment. As one can imagine they were boisterous and rambunctious and the reactions from the owners/workers of Volare were hysterical. Some how they ended up walking out and stealing one of the contestant's scarf and proceeded to get beat down.
Random. Like I said, "Pizza and great entertainment."
I love Volare's pizza. The Athens is by far my favorite, but the other slices are pretty amazing as well. My boyfriend and I get pizza from here quite often it's close to our apartment, and has some of the best pizza either on of us has ever had. you can order a slice or two or a whole pizza, sometimes the whole pizzas come with more toppings than the slices, for example with the athens, the slice you get feta, pesto and cheese, and on the whole pizza they also add olives and tomatoes. They also make amazing calzones. Try it with sausage and olives! so good. Not much of a seating area and i wish they had beer, but it is great for a quick dinner or lunch to go! they also deliver, but we're so close we've never needed to use that service.
Some would say that everything in life serves a purpose.
For a friend of mine, the purpose of Volare Pizza is to provide an optimal combination of low price, large slices, high greasiness and open-until-3am-ness so that he has something to puke up after a night of drinking. Then he won't be hungover the next day.
I think the slices are fairly palatable (at least at 3am), but I wouldn't order a whole pizza from here.
All I remember about last night is getting a slice of pizza on the way home from the show... I think the pizza was good, and I was the entertainingly stupid drunk giving this place its real Haight street feeling.
Results as of this morning: I ended up with extra cash, no hangover, a debit charge from this place and no cell phone.
Meh. There's better pizza in the city. My advice- walk on up Haight and find a slice worth your time.
I debated taking off another star for the squishy olives on my Greek salad but I'm feeling generous. What can I say, I'm a giver.
Two stars for the memories, zero for what it is now. I've been completely ignored the last four times I've been in there. The one time I actually did get a slice, It was overcooked and they wouldn't remake it (I'm talking crust burnt to a crisp).
It used to be an awesome place that I went to every other night.
Bummer...
It's way better than Mythic, the slices taste fairly fresh as well. They also have great deals and all sorts of pizzas to try from. It also tastes a little better if you've been drinking at the SF Underground or Nickie's. I like the pizzas they make for delivery better though, I've had some surprisingly good ones in the past.
This is the second worst slice of pizza I've ever had in my life. There were CARAWAY SEEDS in the pizza sauce! WHAT??? HUH??? Horrendous.
Volare's fresh pizza is pretty good- hate the style of slices they (and Mythic) serve- but the made-to-order whole pizzas aren't bad. They use some sort of herb in the sauce that I haven't noticed in other pizza sauce, but I think it's okay. Free delivery, open ridiculously late, decent pizza- a good neighborhood pizza place. I wouldn't bother going across town for it, but if you're nearby, it's worth it. They're open later than the corner store and they have a pretty good selection of bottled drinks- good to know for hangover prevention purposes if you're out drinking in the neighborhood. And the guys who work there are always nice.
I lived around the corner from this place for years, so I have a lot of experience with it. So here goes:
GOOD-
- Pizza is pretty good. Not excellent, but I enjoy it.
- Location is primo
- They're open late
- They never gave us a hassle when we ordered delivery for around the corner... yes, we were that lazy and/or drunk, we couldn't go get it.
BAD-
- This place can fill up with the worst kind of drunk idiots imaginable. I'm talkin' first-weekend-at-college type of drunk. There's also the obnoxious people screaming into cell phones, gangs of sororoity-type girls shrieking and giving the lowdown on local gossip at volumes approaching Who concert levels, dummies not knowing what they want to order and taking 20 minutes on line, people drunkenly SCREAMING a conversation at other people standing right next to them, and sketchy looking dudes milling around.
Get there before bar break or pay a hefty price.
This is one of our favorite pizzas in the entire City (others: Bowzer's and Patxi's).
We've always placed our orders online - and they've always gotten the orders right. And the pizzas have been BEAUTIFUL... absolutely thick with toppings, fresh, tasty veggies, and smothered in cheese (and good cheese at that).
The delivery guy is really cool and friendly. Well, the regular guy I mean. One time, this other fellow delivered, and he was friendly enough, but not too bright and also got lost on the way to our place and had to call us for directions, which we had explicitly detailed on our online order because our street is very short and people tend to not recognize it... but anyway.
This pizza is top notch. Never dined in or ordered just a slice - but they're pies are consistently delish. I don't recommend the "Chicago deep-dish" - but the thick and thin crust pies are awesome.
Wow. 2.5 stars, that is bad. People need to back up off of Volare's. This pizza isn't going to win any awards but I'd say it's clearly the best in Lower Haight and very high value. The 3 topping 12 inch for $7.99 is thick and more than enough for two. I suggest going BBQ chicken w/ onions. Probably the best deal in the city, I get pizza from this spot all the time but then again, it's walking distance from my house.
Anyone in need of a late night pizza fix should bypass this dump and call Mythic Pizza up the street. Delivery to Alamo Square generally takes forty minutes or less, and you'll get an infinitely better pie.
I hate Volare b/c I've ordered pizza from them soooooo many times... They have not gotten my order right half the time. Horrible.
Now, I wouldn't say that Volare is the best pizza in town, but for a place that's open til 3am (or so) and has a fast delivery service that has always been hot, and pretty decent, you can't complain. They are polite, fast, and may be no Little Star, but you're also not forking out as much as you would as those kind of places. If you don't like them, STOP GOING BACK!!! For what they give you, they're pretty good.
This is a pretty good pizza joint. The guys who run it are cool, although they are Algerians, and not Italians. I dont think they poison the pork. The pizza sub is delicious as well. The main feature of volares, however, is their extremely AWESOME CLOSING TIME OF 2-3 AM EVERY NIGHT cowabunga coke scene!!!
Pleh...For the size of slices you can get up and down Haight St, this one comes in smaller than most. They do have ice cream which is good. See? Im friggin bored with this review. What can i say? Boring pizza begets boring reviews. They stay open later than most, but if bars close at 2, how friggin long does it take you to get from Toronado to Volare? And if it DOES take you an hour, then shit...you deserve this pizza, Homes.
Not nice, the slice.
i hate this place. the only reason i eat it is because they deliver late night to our place when we close down the bar. everytime i order they get my order wrong... "i'd like a sausage slice, a sausage and pepperoni slice, and a house salad with ITALIAN, got it?" they say they do. what do we get? a sausage jalapeno slice (wtf?), sausage and bell pepper slice (huh?) and a "house salad" with ranch... their house salad changes every night. sometimes it comes with cheese, pepperoni, olives, croutons, cucumbers, tomatoes, and the fixings. lately? once i had it with romaine, cucumbers and tomatoes. another time? romaine and cheese. next time? romaine, cheese and pepperoni. sigh. i started bringing my food to my work instead.
however, their garlic cheese bread sticks are great. chicken wings even better when drunk. and i guess they deliver late night. two stars. i hate this place.
It's not gourmet, but it's a large step up from Pizza Hut, etc. and their prices are fantastic. The toppings are quality, and the shop is kept really clean, which is refreshing.
The best thing about Volare is the manager who my friend and I have loyally nicknamed "Mr. Smiles". Every time we walk by he waves, and when we go in, he knows exactly what we want and he always has a smile on his face! One time, one of his delivery drivers accidentally took my 6 piece chicken wing order out. But Mr. Smiles apologized and made me another order. When I got home, there were 10 chicken wings. It's just that thoughtfulness that wins me over. The pizza is hit or miss....right out of the oven or sitting there for a while. But they will heat it for you so it's good as new (if you're drunk). MMMMM!!!
Slice + Salad + Drink = $5.30
Neighborhood: Mission
50% off selected bottle of…
Neighborhood: Mission
Neighborhood: Lower Haight
Category: Pizza
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Category: Thai
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