Olio Pizzeria

Best pizza in town, diavola pizza is absolutely amazing. It can get a little busy in there so show up early to avoid the crowds.

Very disappointing! The management should be ashamed of themselves. My wife and I MADE A RESERVATION (which required a credit card btw) for Valentine Day dinner. When we got to Olio Pizzaria there were 20 people standing in the doorway waiting in line. When we went to check in we told them we had a reservation and a credit card to reserve the reservation… the girl at the front desk told us «great, but the wait will be an hour to an hour and a half». WHAT? But we had a reservation? And she says, «so does everyone else that’s standing in line». So Olio lets everyone make a reservation, takes a credit card, but then makes them wait in line for over an hour? Really? You guys should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. Don’t take more reservations than you can handle! We will NEVER go back.

One of our favorite pizza places anywhere. One of the best wood fired pizza venues. Great service, well balanced, authentic Italian menu and bar. Reservations recommended. It’s that good. Can’t wait for next time.

My fiancé and I had dinner here during our Valentine’s weekend trip to Santa Barbara. The restaurant was packed and we had to wait about 5 minutes to be seated even with reservation. The atmosphere is fun and cozy – great place for a fun date or catching up with friends. Everything tasted good but what really stood out to us was the Umbra pizza with mushroom and black truffle. Oh. Em. Gee. So goooood. My mouth is watering as I write this! It was delish!!! Another item we really enjoyed was affogato, which was not on the menu but our awesome server gladly accommodated our wish. My fiancé is not a dessert person and he’s never had affogato before but he ate the dessert up, which never happens! Even when we were returning home after our awesome weekend in SB, he said the best meal was the pizza and affogato. Yeah, next time we visit SB, we are definitely returning here.

When i first went here two or three years ago was blown away by the thin crust pizza. Was among the best I’d ever had. Went last weekend. Orders margherita DOC and added peppers. I get the pizza. There’s a layer of water on it. WTF. I pick up slice. Everything falls off and I’m holding a unbelievably soggy piece of dough. I’m guessing that they either grabbed a handful of peppers juice and all and dumped it on. Or just tilted the can or container the peppers were in and poured it on. It was awful. Either the person making it has no idea how to make pizza or they just don’t care. Took most of it home in a box which was rendered a soggy cardboard mess within 20 minutes the pizza THAT soggy and wet. It ate through the box like acid blood in «Alien» and did a job on my car seat. So disappointed. Doubt I’ll ever go back.

Umbra pizza was so delicious, tastes different with great aroma and interesting flavor due to the black Italian truffles

We decided to try the food here after a visit to the Natural History Museum. We hit it around 3:00pm so it was rather quiet.
We decided on the Margherita pizza, fried artichoke hearts, chicken salad and butterscotch pudding. All of the food was good. We had our five year old with us so we had to keep the food rather basic. There is no kids menu and even though it’s casual I wouldn’t call it kid friendly. It was a great restaurant but none of the kid-​centric stuff like kids menu, crayons etc. No big deal though.
Margherita pizza was very good, very standard. Made in a pizza oven. The artichoke hearts were breaded and delicious, and had an aioli type dipping sauce. The smoked chicken salad with endive was not as big a hit with us. It was very standard, although the flavor was a tad bland, but still good. It was basically a chicken salad mix with mayo etc, spooned onto endive leaves. The best part was the butterscotch pudding and we really enjoyed it. We even got one to go for our 88 year old aunt. You don’t find butterscotch often anymore. Her words, «mmmm, oh my goodness gracious is that rich! Yummmm! I bet there are a million calories in this! I hope you guys like fat old people, cause I’m going to be one.»
Lol! She really loved it too.
The service was a bit slow… but that’s common at 3:00 pm in a restaurant.
All in all, we really enjoyed it!

You know you’re eating at a great place if they make even the simple things well. Very good!

Came here for Christmas Eve. Pizza is amazing and freshly made. I had the carbonara pizza and loved it. The crust is crispy and homemade. Customer service is ok, the lady checked on us maybe twice in total but maybe she was busy.

It was relatively packed at 8 PM on a Friday, which is always a good sign. At first we thought there were a lot of people because there was a group waiting outside. But we found out that they were just waiting for tables to be cleaned. We got seated quickly and a waiter gave us the menus and glasses of water the moment we sat down.
The friend who brought us here ordered everything she thought was good; so we ended up trying the black ink calamari, burrata, and butterscotch pudding.
I like that they had this net wrap around the lemon for the black ink calamari. This ingenuis contraption prevented lemon seeds from getting into our calamari. Other restaurants need to start doing this, heck, I need to get it for my lemons and oranges at home. The black ink calamari may seem a bit off-​putting visually since it looks like the calamari is burnt. However, looks are deceiving and it tastes like normal calamari but better. Nothing tasted burnt or out-​of-​place. The ink doesn’t add a strong taste or any one specific taste for that matter. However, I don’t think I can ever eat normal calamari again.
I generally do not really like to eat pork but the burrata was delicious. The prosciutto was so soft that it just melted in my mouth. The portion was large, which is good because it costed $ 19. The butterscotch pudding tasted exactly like butterscotch candy. We shared it amongst the three of us, which prevented us from being overwhelmed by how sweet it was but still allowed us to enjoy it.
They have one room for the men/women’s restroom and there was a table inside it. A table in the restroom is not strange because the staff may use it to hold toilet paper or other supplies. The table can also be used for patrons to put their purse or other belongings on while they are using the restroom. However, there was also a chair right next to the table. Did they want people to sit in there and watch someone else do their business? To this day, I still do not understand the need of the chair in the restroom.
Nonetheless, service was great. They had a server that went around pouring water for all the tables, so we never had to ask for more water. Our waitress checked up on us twice, which is more than most waitresses at other restaurants. Overall, I had a pleasant experience and would definitely return to try more items on the menu.

I’ve been here a couple of times and enjoyed the food (mine and my friends’ food I’ve tasted). I was disappointed with the service during my last visit – it was right before dinner time and the place was empty, and our server wasn’t good about giving us enough time with our menus or checking back with us to take our orders, etc.
The bruschetta is delicious.

We stayed in SB for the weekend on a last minute whim and decided to try Olio pizzeria for dinner. While called a pizzeria, it’s actually a very nice Tuscany style restaurant with a huge stone pizza oven and a lively crowd.
We sat at the bar as it was quite warm in the place and started with the Bruschetta Classica. Served in perfectly crusted French bread, the fresh tomato salsa and shaved Parmesan was balanced with basil, sea salt and lots of fresh garlic. Careful, there were some deliciously marinated clove chunks in the mix!
Next we selected a classic carpaccio with arugula, shaved Parmesan and a lemon oil. It was good, really good actually but not outstanding.
Finally we ordered what we came for –Pizza! Olio has many different types of brick oven pizzas, different sauces, toppings etc. V and I despised to ask our expert Scott the long time bartender what he would recommend. Without hesitation he suggested the Mushroom and cheese.

Went in for pizza. left without it, but that’s not a bad thing!
Drinks: Great selection of Italian beer and wine. We went for a California wine only because I knew what it was and the list of Italian wines was a bit intimidating.
As I mentioned, we went for pizza but that didn’t happen. We noticed the salumi e formaggi assortiti and inquired more about it. Upon asking a few questions, we learned that we could pick the cheeses and meat on the board. Not only that, all of their meats and cheeses are cut/​sliced when ordered.
All of the meats/​cheeses were delicious and there was so much food that the two of us could barely finish it. If you like bread, be sure to ask for it! The cheeses plates don’t come with it and it is all priced a la carte. Too bad we didn’t know this until we were almost done.

It is rare that you have such a sublime, relaxed and yet perfected experience at a restaurant. For us Olio Pizzeria was such an experience. David our server was as polite, professional and as helpful as could be.
The margarita pizzas with buffalo mozzarella was simply Devine. The San Manzano tomatoes were exquisite. The insalada Mista with fresh vinaigrette was so flavorful and tasty. The Sauvignon Blanc was fresh light and flavorful with no harsh aftertaste.
The peace de resistance was the torta di chocolate with hazelnuts and caramel was a smooth yet full bodied dessert which is sure to please.
We will certainly be back. This clean quaint and rustic atmosphere sets a great mood for a divine meal ahead.

Great food and service! I have tried olio y limone plenty of times but never at the pizzeria.
Great portions and food! Drinks are strong and tasty which compliments the incredible food. The pizza is heavenly! Get the mascarpone and egg pizza!

What a plesant surprise. We had a hankering for some pizza and got a reservation at this hopping place. The asparagus appetizer with the soft boiled egg was excellent as was the tropea pizza — an interesting combo of ingredients I have not had on a pizza. And I really liked the olive oil infused with red pepper — a nice condiment to add to the pizza. The staff was very professional and really hustled. We did not expect this quality experience.

Really enjoyed our meal here, excellent food and very nice location/​décor etc. We were seated upstairs, the only people there, but service was very attentive and friendly.
We got the black ink calamari which many people had recommended and weren’t disappointed. Also had the fried cauliflower with a Diavolo and Calzone for main course. All really good.
Free wifi also, always good when visiting from overseas :)

Olio, I love the name almost as much as I loved this place.
You can’t make reservations but you can get yourself on some sort of priority list through open table, which worked out like reservations for me when I got there.
Hostess was very nice, genuinely nice.
Something cute that was missing was a bread basket, maybe I’m just craving that because I’m hungover but that’d be a nice touch with some olive oil dip. Not losing points in my review for that, just thought I’d mention it.
Our waiter whose name I forgot wasn’t bad. Professional but very black and white. He knows his menu though and could translate the italian to english pretty well.
Drinks–
I kept it at a bare minimum as I wanted to measure myself out for the rest of my night (that failed eventually)…
Isn’t that peachy– Any time you can mix ciroc with lemonade you have to do it. The taste to this drink was better than I expected and I already expected good. soooo definitely recommending it… it went well with the meal as well. 4.5÷5
Food–
Calamari al nero– This calamari put the last one I tried at Lure’s Fish house to shame. Loved it. Cooked perfectly! The lemon aioli didn’t taste Heinz like at all (I’m sure it wasn’t), liked it. 4.2÷5
Boscaiola– mushroom and fennel sausage basically. very good pizza. a lack on the sausage though, but everything else was great, it’s thin and the cheese isn’t layered on too much but to me that’s a perfect equation. ⁴⁄₅
Dessert–
Nutella Crêpe– Delicious 4.5÷5
White Chocolate Gelato– Delicious 4.5÷5
Cute comfortable ambiance, I enjoyed my meal here. Quality stuff. I’ll be back again and if you have not been here, it’s a must.

Amazing fun atmosphere!
Try the calamari, you won’t be disappointed!
All the pizzas are divine!
Go hungry!

Always a favorite. Generally I stick to the pizza (umbra or mushroom are faves) and appetizers (love the squid). I haven’t had a miss yet.
The dessert selections are pretty fantastic.