Besta-Wan Pizza House

We had road our bikes to The Lost Abby & met a new friend, happens to be a CHPS, recommended we go here for pizza. Sat outside, had a wonderful draft on tap, wasn’t sure what Pizza to order. Our server made a recommendation & BAAM, amazing! Lovely hidden spot!

If I was writing this review on alcohol alone it would definitely be five stars! The manmosa is to die for. I don’t know why it’s called a man Manmosa except for the fact that it has an obscene amount of booze in it. It’s a mason jar filled with champagne and a splash of orange juice or cranberry. It was just what we needed on a Friday night after a long work week.
We also had a white pizza. The toppings were perfect, and the crust was the right thickness. We ordered a small which was 6 pieces. The focus of the night was alcohol not food!
The ambience was loud. We were on the patio which was great because you can bring dogs, but there were many families that were letting their children run wild. They had turned the corn hole game out the front into a game of throw the beanbags at each other’s heads. They were also hanging out of the moonroofs on the cars. It was hard to have a night to catch up with friends with such chaos around us. Maybe will try to go a little later next time so the kids will be in bed and we can have a grown-​up night!

Let me ask this… if this place didn’t allow dogs and had no hula-​hoops for children, then how would you rate it?
The food here is mediocre at best. The customer service is extremely lethargic and inconsistent. And they have extremely overestimated their seating capacity… unless your like people constantly bumping into your table. I say, you deserve better than this. There are so many other great places to experience in Cardiff and Encinitas.

Solid place — always good food always a good time — come as you are and get whatever you want!

This place was really pleasant! We went for breakfast on a Saturday morning at 10:15am. Seated immediately. I love the coffee cart, which you can help yourself to and the waitress just adds the coffee charge to your bill. Service was just okay — I felt like we waited a long time for 2 glasses of water. Egg scramble was yummy though and I like the chill vibe of the place.

Bestawan is a Cardiff classic! The ambience, food and vibe is perfection. It is probably one of our favorite places for brunch in San Diego. I love that it is pet friendly as well. The service is very attentive and everyone is super friendly. The portion sizes are big and definitely fill you up. I love the variety of the menu. It’s not your average pizza joint… it’s so much more than that. Some of our favs:
*The Manmosa! You can’t go wrong with this option. :)
*Dr Love is so lovely!
*All of the scrambles are amazing.
*Wings
*Huevos Rancheros
You can’t go wrong here! Great place to sit outside and enjoy the San Diego sunshine.

Very happy with this place. Been a few times before but they have great brunch. Staff go above and beyond to make your experience a good one.

First time, pizza is fantastic service is fantastic! Ordered the largest to-​go, it was up in 15 minutes, very fast, liked the smaller cut, thinner crust, help in ordering! Only downside was seating… Limited, small, location, all negative. Outdoor eats with your own parked car, inside has 3 tables and the register. But the food is outstanding :)

Still possibly the funkiest and most laid back restaurant I have ever been to. And it’s organically funky (although the food is certainly not organic). It’s funky and laid back without trying.
I could knock them down a star for stealing a buck for not playing my songs selected on the jukebox but whatever, I just ordered another beer and I was happy.
I am pleased to announce that the hula hoops for the kids are back in force. I don’t care if I have to pay for them myself, this location should always have hula hoops available for the kiddos. It makes for entertaining (little) people watching.
Besta Wan is: Dogs licking my shoes below the table, kids running around everywhere, beer flowing, music blasting, outstanding pizza, train horns roaring, super friendly service, making friends with the people around you, and just about as local and laid back as a place can be. It is definitely not for everyone but if you can roll with punches and don’t mind a little dog slobber on your shoes or some beer spilled on your shirt, it is a real party.

Best breakfast place in Cardiff, I love the My Corona sandwich! Cool beach vibe as well.

A place with personality and great service. Good for big crowds and not only with a tooth for pizza and beer. Kids and dogs friendly, parking not an issue. Good music as well.

Fantastic! I love this place. I came here with my boyfriends family today for my birthday. We are in town for a wedding. Great lunch pizza is delicious and so are the cocktails. We are now chilling on their patio. Everyone is friendly and if you are a dog lover this is the spot for you. I hope I have the chance to come back soon!

My favorite place in the entire world. Food wise. drink wise. people wise. Lol the food is great and the atmosphere is better! Staff is always super nice and I never have a bad experience. Love that the place is so dog friendly. the mimosas are the best mimosas ever, manmosas technically. Sometimes it is really busy and the service can be a little slow but it’s still getting 5 stars from me! woo!

First of all the atmosphere was great!
Service was okay, it took us awhile to order anything but completely understandable with how busy it was.
The food was fabulous! I love the verity of dishes they had on their menu. Drinks were delicious and strong enough to buzz of off one.
Close to the beach and pet friendly!
Looking forward to trying other dishes and their man-​mosa.

I forget about this gem because I’m not a local but when I do, I see that no one else has! It’s always busy but we were taken care of quickly! No judgement here when you order a beer or mimosa mid morning :) Man-​mosa to be exact, Hampshire with a splash of orange juice and I was sold! The breakfast was a perfect size and I could get enough of that English muffin on the side that melted in my mouth!

Today was the first time I’ve been in here where I did not like the pizza didn’t have very much sauce and it was burnt. Your bathroom smell like a bars bathrooms very smelly of urine need to be cleaned badly!
Very very loud need bigger building and parking lot. Building is too small to be a restaurant and a bar you need to pick one or the other

Great place to eat and relax. Family fun atmosphere with good music playing. The menus are cool and there is a ton of stuff to pick from.
Pizza, salads, sandwiches and awesome fries!
Beer is cold and the patio is dog friendly. I mean there is always a dog there! Super good!

We came here around 10am on a Saturday morning. They had their breakfast menu out, but I was really craving pizza. They were nice enough to accommodate! It’s a really cool little local spot, but get there early because it gets pretty crowded!

I need to start with full disclosure here. This is my local place, like once (or twice… or thrice) a week for years. I personally found a good vibe here and have never looked back. As always with such perspective involved there is bound to be more forgiveness for flaws than someone showing up for the first time.
So with that being said I will try to offer more of a beginner’s guide to making the most of your experience at Besta Wan. It can get crowded for breakfast on the weekends and most week nights you can expect to see it pretty packed, often with families (it is a very family friendly restaurant). If you want quiet your best bet is breakfast/​lunch on weekdays or the lull between lunch/​dinner on the weekends.
Be prepared to see dogs on the patio, often off leash. Most owners are attentive and respectful of other diners and keep their dogs from begging, but sometimes well… not. So if dogs are not your thing you may want to consider somewhere else.
Regarding the food it’s a big menu and they do a remarkable job preparing all the food well and consistently over time. For first timers I would say that the pizza is probably the way to go. It’s thinner crust and generally has a perfect amount of crispiness. Their gluten free curst is also surprisingly good, I personally prefer it to their traditional crust. Another great option is the street tacos, particularly the carnitas, but the fish are also great (batter fried or grilled). They even offer a skinny taco sans shell (lettuce wrap instead). For the vegetable eaters I think the spinach salad really stands out with the egg and bacon (oh wait that may not work for vegetarians) but be aware that it’s a lot of spinach.
For my value the best meal of the day is breakfast and Besta Wan nails it. Of course you can get your standard omelets and Benedicts (and the house hashes are great too) but if you are looking for a few more non traditional options I suggest looking at the chorizo scramble the (in)famous AT Slinger which they lovingly refer to as the The Hangover Helper. It has ground beef, hash browns, eggs, chili, cheese (and maybe a few other things) it’s redonkulous.
From the bar they have a solid selection of beers, although the wine selection is limited you can find something passable for the mood. Oh and definitely have a «man”-mosa, which is like a mimosa only manly.
So stop by, relax and remember that you are among friends. Cheers.

I decided to take my dogs out to lunch as I love to spoil them rotten and I found Besta-​Wan listed as a dog friendly restaurant. I never thought I’d say this but I think that Besta-​Wan is a little too dog friendly. The off leash dogs on the patio was strange. We had several random dogs end up begging at our table and it just seems like having dogs off the leash at a restaurant is a recipe for disaster. One little frenchie, who was super cute, wandered over to our table but then got territorial when my pug hopped down to say hello. It seemed that the frenchie didn’t want to share begging rights and it nipped at my pug. Not a big deal because it was a little dog that couldn’t really do any harm but this could just easily happen with a bigger dog and then it would quickly become a bigger deal.
As for the food, it was decent but not anything spectacular. Perhaps we ordered the wrong thing though considering that it’s advertised as a pizza house and we ordered sandwiches instead.
I ordered the Grilled Chicken sandwich with no bacon. Instead it was topped with swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato and I asked for a side of ranch to add to the sandwich. I was super glad that I did as the ranch was delicious and added some much needed flavor to the sandwich, which was otherwise rather bland. My boyfriend ordered the Tuna Salad Melt sandwich and thought it was pretty good though.
The sandwiches come with a choice of salad, fries or cheddar mashed potatoes. As a big potato fan, I decided to try the mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, it was a poor choice as the potatoes were desperately in need of seasoning and had a weird texture. My guy’s french fries were much better though and I’d recommend getting them as a side.
I’d be down for trying Besta-​Wan again but will probably leave my dogs at home as it’s just a bit too overwhelming to have to keep a constant eye out for wandering dogs. And I’ll have to do some more research to figure out the best items to try here. The menu is super extensive though so I’m sure there are some amazing items that I’ll just have to discover.