Amina’s Pizzeria

This place sucked. I don’t normally delight in others’ misfortune, especially that of small-​business owners, but Amina’s was bad from the day it opened. The crust was too thin, the service was bad, and the tires on my car are cleaner than this place’s floors ever were.
Amina’s deserved to die, and justice was done swiftly for once.

The Power of Unilocal compels you!
This place is already gone, at least I think it is cuz i saw signs on the window. Ive been meaning to write a craptastic review for a while and I’d like to think that the power of Unilocal did this… but I’d probably say that it was just the crappy pizza, deserted restaurant, and awful service.
I’m super stoked to find out what is going to replace it. I love new additions to my already awesome neighborhood.

I just saw a for sale sign on this place today… perhaps it is over for these guys.
I really wanted to like this place and I came back a couple times to try it. But the only thing really going for it was the hours. Inside is devoid of any life or design. The staff are weird and were pressuring me to tell my friends how great it was, even though I never said it was great. The pizza was almost really tasty but it was not fresh or hot. It wanted to be fancier and better than Stelladoro but everything worked against it.
To survive, they would have to make sure pizza is fresh, train staff to be cooler and more trained and redo the interior. I actually liked their pizza, deep down, because it was thin and had nice toppings and I could get it almost anytime…

just walking by on an off hour– 3pm on a saturday, and walked in. crickets. you could do that water drop sound and it would echo throughout. the ready pizza was probably sitting out there for a few hours. the dude threw my rather expensive for what is was ($ 2.75) plain slice in the oven and literally just one minute later, maybe less, i was chomping on a cold rubbery slice of pie. good pizza is still good cold. this was not.

I can’t believe anybody thinks this place is even mediocre. The décor is deplorable, completely uninviting and you could hear a pin drop. Just a little little little bit of thought into ambiance should have been considered. The pizza is quite possibly the worst I have ever had. The first slice I got when they first opened was pathetic. Barely any toppings and the crust was dryer than Al Gore. I wrote the first experience off as a fluke. This couldn’t possibly be what the original creators of the place envisioned? So after 1 year, tonight, I have given it a try again. HORRIBLE. First of all the pizzas that they «pull» from to heat the slices looked like they had been sitting out for hours. You assume a slice takes 5 mins to heat up right? So I told the lady I would be right back cause I had to drop something in the mailbox down the street — NO — she says…“it won’t take that long?”. I was tempted to tell her that it does but she must know what she’s doing right? Low and behold, the slice I took home was luke warm, dryer and more flavorless than any pizza i have ever laid lips on. The crust might as well have been made from Saltines — bad bad bad bad bad and bad squared. My friends are waiting outside at this very moment to take me out on the town and I am holding them up just to let you know just how much of a waste of time this place is to even walk by. I rooted for this place because it was in my neighborhood when it first opened. Now I can say for sure it’s an insult to have a place this bad in the midst of so much good food in this neighborhood. Compared to Little Star… this place is the red headed step child picked up from an orphanage in the poorest nastiest ugliest town in Latvia. Now that’s bad folks. Stay away.
Addendum: Looks like this place went out of business since I saw for lease signs on it over the weekend. SHOCKER!

An odd place, but fitting for the multi-​personality disorder that is Divisadero.
You enter at 2am, post drinks– just when you need a slice the most… and OUCH— you are hit with extremely bright lights, and an interior the color of Mars. You forget why you entered, but then you smell some thin sliced goodness and see familiars who skipped last call. You quickly choose your slice and get out of there. It’s not pleasant.
With their unpredicatable hours, you may not return for months. You realize it is only there when you need it. It’s just pizza karma.

Here’s how to not start your day: a 10 minute phone conversation with your ex, in which he plainly states that he has no interest in seeing you in the flesh, but you know, you are welcome to «email him» and continue to be posted on the state of the once shared cat (which was a gift for me) because he doesn’t «feel the same way anymore» (that’s right, brainiac, that’s why we are BROKEN UP, right?). However, the money shot comes later as he reveals the real reason for his new-​found jerkiness, a reveal that was zero surprise to me because you learn things after spending every single day of the past 3 years with someone (save for 2 weeks and 12 hours), and wouldn’t you know it, he had started «hanging out» (his words, not mine) with someone else. And then I hung up the phone. And then I bought some furniture and moved into my new place with the help of a new moving company, Irish Wino Bus Movers. They’re very exclusive and only cater to VIPs, so don’t bother looking for them because you’re probably not a VIP. Sorry, that’s the truth.
And then, at the end of this day, which went really well after it started so fucking horribly, I ended up at Amina’s where I was greeted with some speculation on my age and how I could possibly be legal to buy myself a nice bottle of Peroni and where I took home some decent, but not mind blowing thin crust pizza. The plain cheese was the winner of the night, as it so often is, while the pesto and tomato was not so hot. When your only other option is Popeye’s (open after 11 on a Saturday!!) and you’ve lost the desire to cross the street, Amina’s will hook it up.

Have you ever been sitting around with a friend on a lazy Saturday afternoon and you ask your friend ‘Remember when so-​and-​so said such-​and-​such or did thus-​and-​thus?’
And it’s not necessarily all that big of a deal, you’re just asking your friend if they remember a particular incident or comment or event. And when your friend draws a blank, you realize that the particular incident you mentioned might have just as well been part of a dream you had.
But here’s the thing: it could have been happened in reality too. It’s just that the particular incident or moment in question is so unremarkable, so average, so undistinguishable and so everyday, that it doesn’t even really matter if it happened in a dream or reality because it bears no significance either way.
If you know this feeling, than you know what’s like to eat at this pizzeria. The pizza was ok. I like pizza with roasted red peppers and feta cheese, but I’ve had it elsewhere and better too. The staff was ok — not friendly, but not mean. I may have even bought my slices from an automated teller, kind of like the ones you buy movie tickets from at the Metreon. Who knows. I left full. It was OK. Maybe it never even happened.

I can’t stand this place. I think it has to do with the fact that the first time I ever went there, it was the only place open on Divisadero (props for being open at 12), but they had NO PIZZA made. None. They told us they’d have it ready in 15. It took 40. And it was undercooked & bland, at that.
If you need to get pizza on the fly in the West Add, you’re better off hitting up Stelladoro’s at Divis & Fulton. Maybe it’s not exactly gournet over there, but they’re at least fast, friendly & cheap.

I’ve ordered their pizza’s for delivery and have been very happy with them, reasonably priced and excellent taste. They serve them in generic boxes that keep your cost down and their delivery is quicker that most other places I’ve ordered from, probably because I live close by, but still… I think they’re pizzas are hum-​dingin!

Tom P nailed the problem. The sauce is bad. Way too sweet.

yuck. Here’s the problem, as an east-​coaster who grew up in the «pizza belt» (roughly defined as from new haven, ct to newark, de), I love me some thin-​crust pizza.
The problem is, it was worse than pizza in Boston (which is quite possibly the worst). The crust was thin, true, but it tasted more like toasted pita bread. The sauce wasn’t very tasty (it was a little spicy), and there wasn’t nearly enough cheese. All things that rule out pizza in my book.
The redeeming quality is that it is supposed to be open late, and everyone knows pizza, even not-​great pizza, is awesome late night. But, the two times I tried to go late at night (2:30-ish), the open sign was out, but the gate was closed and I was waived off by someone on the inside.
Also, last time I was there, there was space for tables, but not a table in sight. So I took my slices to go.
Total bummer. I’ll give it a couple months and try again.

…Closer to four stars based nearly on the fact that it’s located a half a block from my house. The slice was perfectly sized and no complaints on the toppings, but there was a strange floral note eminating, although I can’t really tell if it was the pizza or the jo malone frangrance I tried on earlier.

Yup it sucked and it closed. What is wrong with people; if you don’t want to attempt success why bother opening a restaurant?
This place needs to get it’s act together in a big way. I live 2 blocks away and have been observing the preparations for opening with great anticipation and dreams of delicious pizza by the slice available just round the corner. I went here for the first time last week after passing a guy eating a slice while walking down the block. very spur of the moment, I was barely hungry but just wanted to try it. I went in, the lights are off, there’s a funky smell and the whole front of the restaurant is a big empty space. But there was someone else eating pizza at one of the counters so I assume they are open for business. I walk up to the counter and someone from the darkened back area says hello, I say hello back and continue reading the menu while waiting for someone to come take my order. and wait and wait and then finally leave. Second visit, two days later I go in with my boyfriend and we get a slice to split, the lights are still off, the funky smell is still there, the front room is empty and the fridges are haphazardly stocked with some soda’s. The slice was AMAZING! it was so tasty and delicious we kept exclaiming over it on the walk home, is it so good cause we are hungry? Am I imagining that this tastes like a real NY slice? Have I been too long without decent pizza? We went back two nights later to get some slices to go on our way out. The lights were on! but, it still had the funky smell and the empty front area. This time the pizza was just ok, mine was tepid you can’t leave pizza out on some sort of warming tray uncovered and expect it to stay warm, better to let it get cold and then put it back in the oven when a customer orders a slice. and finally there was some kid there watching movies on a giant computer at the counter. I think he was supposed to be working but he sucked and the screaming at the movie playing on the computer was incredibly obnoxious. Here’s my advice to Amina’s if you are not open close the damn doors and stop serving people. if you are open, turn on the lights, air the place out, fully stock the fridges so you look like a legit place and get rid of the useless counter rat you have there and the giant computer, why do you have that on the front counter? oh and the random basket of Certs can go too. I’m pulling for you Amina but there are only so many chances that you will get. Get your act together now cause you have some good pizza in you and I want it. You can have 4 – 5 stars or you can have one, it’s all in your hands now.

I was stumbling home with some friends after closing our local bar. We were all walking home and happened upon Amina’s. To find a place open so late in NOPA and accommodating to messy drunks gets high marks in my book. Slices are extremely thin and pleasing when a need to fill the belly at this hour (not nessecarily for a great dinner). I recall the sign saying open till 3am…
*update: went again after another late nite, and the pizza was great, good toppings and even have a bathroom.*

Went to this new pizza joint the other night, after a night out, and was happy to find them still open, something a little rare in this neighborhood. The staff served up some pretty good slices, very sizable too, with a nice mixture of sauce, cheese and toppings.
It’s a nice addition to the neighborhood, that should satiate locals and anyone who’s out looking for a relatively decent slice of New York style pizza. I wouldn’t go out of my way for Amina’s, but considering I live a few blocks away I have a feeling I’ll be ordering from them with some frequency.