Michael’s Pizzeria

I’ve been wanting to try Michael’s Pizzeria in Long Beach but never had the chance to go. Funny thing is, Long Beach is closer to me. When I saw that there was a Michael’s Pizzeria across the street from the Omni Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage, I jumped at the chance to go. I heard it was better than Pizzeria Mozza and in some cases it is. The dough is incredibly soft and delicious. As for the Funghi pizza, I prefer Pizzeria Mozza. As for a Salame Pizza (Fave Pizza minus the beans), Michael’s is much better.
I also love their Nutella Pizza! It was heavenly. We were stuffed after the meal and wasn’t sure if we had room for dessert, but we finished it all!
The arugula salad was fresh, not drenched in dressing and plenty of onions! Just the way I like it!
Service was great, although there were a lot of flies in the restaurant.

A little surprised when our bill came. Two beers $ 16. Each pizza $ 16 with little flavor to no flavor. The crust was delicious. We had to walk around to check out the beer selection as it was not offered to us when we were ordering. Nice environment and décor. No silverware on our table. Don’t see us coming back.

The pizza here is incredibly fresh and delicious! Our server Giada was really great. Super helpful and friendly! And whatever that chili oil stuff they have on every table is-​yum! One complaint is that they are WAY over priced! WAY! Go on a night when they are having a special like Mondays. Also their lunch specials seem to be good deals as well.

Pizza, not excellent. Service ok. Small place and not kid friendly. Expensive for what they offer. Wish I went to another restaurant in the lakes on our vacation.

Honestly pizza is my buff. Maybe because it was to go, but… It was bad… And that’s hard to do. it costed $ 100 for 4 6×2 and 2 appetizer.,. That wasn’t even the problem. At first the kids didn’t want it, I assured them it would taste amazing! Thinking it was a high class pizza. After watching their expressions I tried the pizza. I couldn’t even fake it, honestly I don’t know how these guys are still in business. The only solution to your high class bland pizza that I see is to add more sauce or get a tastier one. Sorry Unilocal,this was 100% truth.

I finally dined in! Service was fast and friendly. The pizza was awesome as usual. Bonus: happy hour wine prices! I like this place.

D.O.P margherita pizza with a bottiglia of aglianico may not quite get you Italia, but it gives you a «slice.» Bravo!

Sadly disappointed with this location. We were in cathedral city for vacation and ordered delivery. We had to go through a separate service which was confusing «la bite». When we got our pizzas they were not cut, the requests we asked (no Lima beans on the pepperoni pizza and the basil and the side for the margarita) were not met. The cheese was on the side of the box on one of the pizzas. Wish we had a better experience, but this pizza was not worth the $ 120 we paid for 6 pizzas. The delivery guy was nice though.

For the desert its OK, however they wouldn’t stand a chance in NYC. Did not seem flexible in toppings, asked about some different options and was always referred to the menu. Beer selection is limited to Craft beer only.
Service was ok nothing special.

Sad that this place didn’t turn out to be good. We ordered something not on the menu which was the egg pizza. Interested concept and pretty to look at but taste/​flavor wasn’t there. Very bland and unflavorful. $ 14 for clams that came with 10 baby pieces and was not worth it at all, the marinara was way too salty and thick like it was sitting for a long time. Worst was my arugula salad. I wish I took a picture. It was Yellow! At first I thought maybe it was supposed to look that way but when my other friends saw it they all agreed it was old that’s why it was yellow with the brown little spots. I was too grossed out to finish and we just left and got some Ben and Jerrys ice cream next door :) Service was good so that why I gave 2 stars.

Place is half empty, told no tables for over hour and half and not offered a wait list, Rudely sent packing, oh well food looked decent. Pencil neck up front very unfriendly.
Not too disappointed, it is after all Mall Pizza, maybe there’s a Sbarro nearby.

My husband and I had a nice Monday lunch at Michael’s Pizzeria on our way out of Rancho Mirage. It was an easy spot to eat, right in that big mall, with table service and plenty of seating, at least when we went (admittedly not a peak hour). Service was good, and it turned out to be Margherita Monday, so we got two pizzas for the price of one – a free Margherita with the purchase of another pie.
The food was solid, not amazing, but definitely good. Michael’s makes personal size pizzas with decent crusts and a traditional array of toppings. We had a Margherita D.O.P. and a capricciosa, and both were tasty. The Margherita was a satisfying version of the standard – tomato, mozzarella, basil, olive oil – and the capricciosa came with tomato, mozzarella, artichokes, mushrooms, prosciutto cotto, and olives. I had half at Michael’s, and half cold the next day, which worked pretty well, actually. I was not into the tiny $ 3 bottle of Diet Coke, but our lunch was a good deal overall.
I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in this area for Neapolitan style pizza, so I’d hit up Michael’s with some frequency if I lived in the desert. We have better options closer to home, but this was still worth our while.

Very average pizza. Good service aside from the request for a high chair that never arrived. Feels and tastes like more of a fast food joint than fine dining. Had the olive appetizer, kale and pear salad and margarita pizza.

I don’t know what pizza everyone else was eating that gave a favorable review but I struggled to give it two stars. This is the typical personal thin crust that you get at the newer chains such as Live Basil or MOD Pizza. The only difference is that at MOD pizza will give you twice the pie, twice as fast and half the cost. Plus you can actually read the menu and chose toppings that are to your liking at MOD and Live Basil. Michael’s thinks that if you write the menu in Italian that you can charge more for a cheap pizza. We had high hopes but Michaels definitely fell way short of the mark in our book. You can get much better pizza somewhere else for $ 65 (two personal pizzas, a salad and a two happy hour glasses of wine).
Service was good but still couldn’t save this place for us.

What can I say that I haven’t said before. The salad the pizza all amazing the crust a little charred crust and amazing the marinara was delicious

We decided to try this restaurant after walking past it several times on the way to and from the movie theatre in the shopping complex. The restaurant is small in such a busy complex that it is easy to miss. The décor is very modern and in a fresh white and orange color combo.
My salad was the insalata di cesare (no croutons, $ 9) and my entrée was the house-​made salsiccia with fresh vegetables ($ 16). My entrée was a little spicy and it was good. My husband ordered the rotolino prosciutto e formaggio ($ 13) and he liked it, too. My husband wasn’t sure about a particular beer on the menu, so he was given a sample to try before ordering. A nice touch.
The tables are very close together — just inches apart — so we could easily hear the conversations of our neighbors and they could hear us, too (and I’m a quiet person), so they joined in our conversations! Luckily, they were nice and friendly, otherwise it could have been annoying to be seated so close to strangers.

Everybody raves about this place and I’m not sure why. The servers are rude to indifferent and exceptionally slow. I’ve been here three times and the servers just don’t get better. That last two times, I was with groups of six to eight so admittedly, that can be a challenge in a small restaurant. Each of us received our food at different times over about 10 – 15 minutes. One of the pizzas was badly burned and you could tell that they threw extra cheese over that as well as the holes in the pizza crust to hide the mistakes. We were comped for that pizza so management steps up to the plate but really, you need to train the wait staff to care for the customers.
The pizza is okay but I’ve been to Italy and lived in NYC so I know what good pizza is. Locally, we have lots of pizza places but few that impress me. Sammy’s or Billy Q’s seem to be the best in town at their craft.

Michael’s was recommended by our hotel concierge, who raved about how delicious the food is, and she was absolutely right. Every bite was completely delicious, and perfectly executed.
We started with the calamari, which were beautifully fried and not too greasy, paired with a bright tomato dipping sauce. Next came the fried zucchini blossoms, stuffed with ricotta. The ricotta was fresh and creamy and the blossoms were so delicate and lightly battered and crispy. Then came the margarita pizza with soft pillows of house-​made mozzarella on a beautiful tomato sauce. Simple preparation with beautiful ingredients, that pizza was amazing. Then the meatballs, oh wow, tender nuggets of savory deliciousness, bathed in a deep tomato sauce, almost sizzling in a little skillet. And finally, the lasagna. Super-​thinly rolled layers of pasta filled with cheese and a bolognese sauce that tasted like it had been tended to for hours by an Italian grandmother.
I am already looking forward to my next visit. Oh, and there’s a sister restaurant in the Long Beach area — that one’s next on my list!

I came here purely for takeout of a Calabrese Pizza. I was surprised to see how modern and small the space was behind the entry door. A cozy setting with TV for games. (Check says my brain)
Todd was very nice when he took my order and he was the same when I paid for the pie. When I arrived home the pizza was not cut and it was not warm anymore. I dug into it and found it decent but not great. I must have caught them on an off day.
They will get one more chance.

Rated by Zagat in 2013 as having the best pizza in the country, I salivated even at the thought of driving to Michael’s Pizzeria.
—The Food—
Carbonara ($ 17) — My pals and I all agreed, this pizza was the best of the evening. It’s a thinly made pie blanketed with mozarella, provolone, pancetta, two eggs and sprinkled with asparagus. The rich, decadent cheeses stretched gloriously while the pancetta and eggs contributed to most of the flavor. The crust was a charred a little which only nicely added to the taste too. It was gone in less than a minute.
Prosciutto E Arugula ($ 17) — We all agreed that this was the least liked pizza. It has tomato, mozarella, parma prosciutto, and arugula. We added sausage to it too. The aroma that the prosciutto elicited was delicate, sweet, and salty, but the taste did not exhibit that wonderful type of balance. Perhaps it was the mozarella or the arugula, but my friends and I found this pizza to be a little on the bitter side. The prosciutto was a little too chewy too. The sausage had a nice kick though.
Ionica Pizza ($ 17) — This was the «Tonights Special» and was promised to be the meatiest. It had marinara sauce, pesto sauce, mozarella and pepperoni. The pepperoni were sliced thin and pretty large, but I felt they could’ve been more generous with the protein. While the pesto sauce added a zesty, unique taste to every bite, I wouldn’t say it’s something I’d crave at another time.
Nutella Pizza w/​seasonal fruit ($ 10) — This is a delicious dessert for all Nutella lovers. Lavishly spread with Nutella, real strawberries, powdered sugar, and gelato, I’d elect to have this pizza pie over pizookie anytime!
—-
Conclusion: 3.5 Stars. With such an exclusive honor as having the best pizza in the country by Zagat, Michaels Pizzeria had gigantic shoes to fill for this Pizza Aficionado. Did they actually fill it? I’d have to reluctantly say no, but their service and Carbonara and Nutella pizza are worth experiencing. I applaud them for making everything in house though… including the dough, mozarella, sauce and gelato! They have two other locations in OC, so check it out if you must – One in Naples and another in Long Beach.
Extra Notes:
–Accepts credit card
–Mondays are Margherita Mondays. Buy one pizza, get a margherita pizza for free.
–The décor is modernly done and reminds me of the Aria hotel in Vegas
–Fantastic service
–All pizzas baked in an 850 degree wood burning oven. Pizzas come out fast!
–Restrooms could be cleaner