Oak Fire Pizzeria and Pub

Dear Oak Fire,
My boyfriend and I miss you so dearly. Your brisket pizza was the best in the WORLD! If only you didn’t have a crappy owner and have to close two weeks before Christmas.
We miss your thin crust and your deep dish pizzas. EVERY SINGLE ONE! The Perfect Pie, the Brisket, the Steak House Special, the Margherita (especially the Margherita), the Pepperoni, the Mesquite BBQ Chicken, the Crispy Bacon and Pineapple, the Proscuitto and Goat Cheese (a throwback), the Veggie Deluxe, the No Name, the New York White, the Wild Mushroom, the CRACKED EGG, the Pepperoni and Sausage, the Pesto Pizza, even the Vegan Soy!!! We miss your skirt steak with truffle fries and your delicious employee burger of the week with Gorgonzola, bacon and jalapeño aioli. We miss your amazing grilled vegetable salad and your prosciutto and brie sandwich, press style. We miss your sliders and your mozzarella marinara. We miss your phenomenal meatballs and your delicious BBQ salmon. We miss your pear, pecan and poppyseed salad. We miss your crispy proscuitto and fig salad. We are both having a hard time living without the braised & smoked brisket enchiladas. We miss the baked chicken parm and the papparadelle bolognese. We miss the tiramisu and the Rocky Road Deep Dish Cookie with candied pecans, chocolate chips and marshmallows!
More than the food, we miss the staff. They were great people!
We think about you and them all the time. Every time we are trying to decide on where to go out to eat, one of us always says, «I wish Oak Fire was still open!» You have impacted our lives so greatly. Nothing will ever compare to you. We will never forget you.
Rest In Peace.

I have always wanted to try this place. Yesterday was finally the day. We were so excited. We pulled up, found a parking spot, paid for the meter, and made it to the front only to see a «change of ownership» sign.
PERMANENTLY CLOSED =(
Drove a few miles to Lido Pizza and had a really good meal despite this little snafu. Definitely recommend it.

Thin crust pizza (while I rarely indulge) happens to be my favorite type of crust. So naturally, Oak Fire was a great choice for an after work lunch. Came with a few friends and we each ordered a different pizza. While they also have honey wheat crust and Chicago style deep dish (beware: the deep dish can take 40 minutes to make), we all decided to go with the thin crust.
I tried the pesto pizza. It came with a choice with shrimp or chicken, I went with chicken. It was amazing. The mixture of shrimp, pesto sauce, pine nuts, and gorgonzola cheese was almost too good to handle! I hate to admit it but I actually ate the whole thing.
One of my friends ordered the BBQ chicken pizza and pretty much inhaled it. I’m guessing it was good? My other friend ordered the No Name pizza but substituted the sausage with grilled chicken. The pizza was good, but the chicken was not meant to be on that pizza. Not Oak Fire’s fault, just a poor decision by my friend.
Overall it was a good experience. The food was good and the service was quick. The only downfall is the parking situation. Street parking can be pretty crazy on Ventura on the weekends so be prepared to park far and make sure to have quarters on hand for the meters (unless it’s Sunday). Don’t worry though, it’s so worth it!

They have an amazing bloody Mary bar during Sunday brunch.
Happy hour is multiple times a day and it is fantastically priced.
The outdoor seating is also perfectly arranged so that my dog can sit under my chair when we stop by for a quick bite during our walks.

I felt obligated to update my review because while I loved the food the first time I was there, I was a little underwhelmed by the beer list. I’ve been back since, most recently this past Sunday night.
It may have only been because it was slow, but the manager took time to introduce himself to us and to ask our names. We then got into a discussion about beer and he seemed genuinely interested in listening to our opinions. The beer list has definitely evolved since my first visit, and now I understand why; the management here is clearly interested in knowing what their customers like. What a concept!
Oh, and the BBQ Brisket Pizza — still frickin’ amazing!

Happy Hour from 3 – 7 pm EVERY SINGLE DAY? Hell yeah!!!
Went to Happy Hour with my girlfriend and some friends. Met up at this trendy laid back feel restaurant /​bar. They had a bloody mary bar set up and had bacon, slim jims, and beef jerkey ready to be added to your bloody mary if you were brave enough to try.
During their Happy Hour. ½ off of their appetizers, $ 10 pizzas, and $ 4 beers? Can’t beat that!

Ordered the deep dish for takeout.
Showed up 10 minutes late, just in case. (You have to order the deep dish «40 mins» in advance.
First:
I had to double park since the valet guy in the alley wouldn’t let me use a space for 5 minutes to pickup a pizza. There was ONLY like 25 spaces open, and I no one other than me was showing up. I don’t mean to be spoiled, but I had my GF in the car, so just in case if all of a sudden 25 cars showed up, she could have moved it. I don’t see why I had to double park on Ventura blvd…
and the reason double paring upsets me is because…
even though I showed up ten minutes late, it still took a few minutes for the pizza. Just a few, but hey: I was double parked.
Other than the valet guy being lame, (which might be or might not be their fault – the lot was shared amongst a few restaurants), I have to complain about the size of the deep dish. Their online website had it’s menu down. So, I called and the host emailed me the menu. No size specification at all towards the deep dish pizza. I know deep dish is pricey and all that, but since there was absolutely no size info on the menu, I assumed the 23 dollar deep dish pizza was bigger than 10 inches across.
Needless to say, I had to call for delivery on the way home because I thought the deep dish was going to big enough to feed 4 people. I thought it was going to be a large size, 14 – 16 inches across. I was wrong.
The pizza IS DELICIOUS THOUGH!!! COME HERE FOR THE PIZZA,
but takeout sucks if you’ve never been here because they have menu issues (both visually and descriptively).
THE DEEP DISH PIZZA IS DELICIOUS!!!
The valet guy is lame.
The menu does not dictate the sizes of the pizzas, so ask questions.
Oh yeah,…IT IS CRAZY LOUD IN THIS PLACE!!!

Went here with friends and my daughter Little BIt. We went on MNF for the Bucket of Crab Special.
My 3 friends and I ordered the Bucket of Crabs and it was $ 36.00 plenty of Alaskan Snow Crab tedious to get to but they supplied lots of different sauces for you to dip in.
We loved the Mini Kobe Sliders Trio it was BY FAR my favorite item that we ordered the wings were spicy and delicious and as a whole the group was not impressed with the Calamari but I think most would find them just fine to order.
I ordered the Sam Adams Octoberfest… it was cold and complimentary to those sliders appetizers. I’m not sure if people are aware of why those were orginally called sliders but just in case you are… these did NOT slide through me HA! ewwww I know =/​
They offer valet parking as street parking is for the residence in the neighborhood I parked down the street around the corner next to the Church since it was after 6:00pm.
Happy Hour prices can NOT be beat and at first we were supposed to go to the Los Angeles location but it is now closed.
Respectfully Reviewed

Food: Only had the Ceasar Salad (Good) and 2 thin crust pizzas that were decent. The BBQ sauce tastes like it came out of a can (on my BBQ chicken pizza).
Service: Pretty lousy. It took us 15 minutes to get the bill once we were done eating, plates cleared and all. Not acceptable. Waitress was nice, but clearly overworked, and the place– understaffed.
Drinks: Iced Tea tasted was awful, my Guinness on tap– Excellent. Huge fan.
Ambiance: Nice, but LOUD LOUD LOUD. Unlike other reviews, there weren’t kids running around, or big parties, or annoying drunken happy hour goers, it was a simple Monday Night, 7:15 dinner, and it was still VERY LOUD.

Great Happy Hour Spot in the Valley. $ 4 Pints of Craft Beer, ½ Off all appetizers and Cocktails, and $ 10 Pizza’s. HH until 7pm.
Of the things I ordered here’s my suggestions
Chicken Skewers — Tender, flavorful, good.
Drinks — Good. Beer Selection — Decent.
Cajun Style Ribs — Mediocre at best. Not strong at all.
Pizza’s — Have had 3, all amazing. Try the N.Y. White, its great.

I’ve been to Oakfire a handful of times, for happy hour, lunch and for dinner. It’s my opinion that they do a pretty bang-​up job at the food and service. They have a really good happy hour, so you should go for that. I recommend the thin-​crust pizza and the appetizers. Also, if you like sports (I personally don’t) they have many large tvs carrying a plethora of sporting events. It has a nice atmosphere, décor and vibe.
The beer selection is good, the wines are well-​priced and they have good bar food.
Also, it’s two seconds from Menchies… so you can get your fro-​yo fix after dinner!

We were about to walk out of the place. After about 5 minutes of sitting around on a quiet Saturday afternoon without anyone even greeting us or even giving us menus we started heading for the door. That’s when the owner told us their wait staff was a no show, it was car-​mageddon afterall.
We decided to come back inside as two waiters that were called-​in just showed up. AND MAN ARE WE GLAD WE STAYED! The food was fantastic! great pizza, great salads. I highly recommend the no name pizza, the sausage is great. Awesome beer list as well. It’s obvious that alot of care and thought went into selecting the ingredients and coming up with the menu.
I think Oak Fire is going to a be a regular weekend thing for us from now on.

Came here the other day for my cousin’s birthday. The ambiance is cool but its not worth much when your food isn’t up to par. The only reason I’m giving them 3 instead of 2 stars is because their staff is awesome. Super friendly and really accommodating for the big party we had. We took up half the restaurant and they didn’t seem to mind.
The pizza just wasn’t that good, especially the thick crust pizza. The sauce tasted like it came out of a can or jar and the crust was horrible. The thin crust was better but not memorable at all. I would not recommend this place to a New Yorker looking for good pizza shop in LA. I’m sure there are better pizza places on Ventura.

I’m really surprised by the mediocre reviews. My husband and I ate here and loved it!
The cracker thin crust of their wood fired pizzas is so delicious and light, doesn’t leave you feeling stuffed or guilty. The fig and prosciutto salad was fantastic! Oak Fire definitely has some craveable dishes that will have me return for more.

Don’t go here if you:
A) Want to talk to your companions
B) Mind children running around you while you eat
C) Cant meditate while eating
The food here is pretty good as far as I experienced. Steak salad– a typical yummy 1000 calorie salad. My hubby had the Ahi salad which was tasty too. The selection for the pizzas look great and once I am off my latest diet I’ll try it out.
I am not old, stodgy or care about a lively ambiance. But the noise and chaos level of this place makes it near impossible to enjoy your meal. When we went on this Thursday evening at 7 PM there were 2 jr. high graduation parties, one ballet class of 8 year olds, about 10 drunk baseball fans, and a couple slimy happy houring men and a few first dates that we apologizing to their partners for bringing them to such a noisy place.
If they could figure out how to reduce the noise level or make it less kid-​crazed, I’ll come back for the pizza

Went on a wednesday night. This is just my opinion.
The pizza is overly saucy. The sauce itself is too sweet. So sweet that i coudnt taste the jalapenos or pepporoni, which is what i always order. the bottom of the pizza was hard. like eating cheese and sauce on top of a biscotti.
All of this, I had to wait 45 minutes and $ 23 later for. Yes again, the pizzas take 45 minutes.
The upside, the manager took %20 off my bill. Which i am most most appreciative of. Alas, I continue on with my search for the LA’s perfect pizza.
–Nana nana boo boo. I get music before you do.

I had been so excited for this place to open after reading about it on urban daddy. so when I finally got the chance to go, we made it a girls night out. I called for reservations and they hostess asked if I wanted inside or the patio. I asked if there were heat lamps on the patio because I knew the evening was supposed to be a bit chilly but inside the restaurant was probably going to be loud. She told me it’s just a patio.. .moral of the story, they have heat lamps and she wasn’t that bright.
I was dying to try one of their deep dish crust pizzas, because they take 45 min to cook, you have to order right away — so we did. Or as the waitress told us on the way out, you can all ahead and order. That would have been smart. A few of my friends decided to try the thin crust pizzas that they are so famous for. The comments included — this is like matzoh :-(and there was not enough cheese. For our thick crust pizza, it definitely took 45 minutes or more and I was so excited. But very disappointed when I sank my teeth in the pizza. Yes it was served in a deep dish but when I think deep dish, número uno pizza comes to mind — thick crust, sweet taste and cheese. This was not that. Yes deep dish, but not thick, it was a thin crust with cheese filling the deep dish. We had ordered artichoke and sun dried tomatoes and ended up with regular tomatoes. Knowing it would be another 45 min wait we opted to keep our mouths shut. The pizza itself kinda tasted funny to boot.
Service was ok. Waitress was friendly, but definitely not super fast. Ad the whole thing when i called to make the reservation.. .
Needless to say, I don’t need to return.

The pizza here is GREAT!
Try going out to dinner with 1. Soy allergic vegan. 1. Gluten free vegetarian child. 2. Vegetarian children. And 1. meat eater.
It often ends in tears…
HOWEVER this place was the answer!
Gluten free crust was the best I have tried. The grilled artichoke went largely untouched because it just wasn’t that good. The grilled vegetable salad was just okay. The wine was borderline hot.
The biggest downer about this place and was a BIG one…
Parents of the near by elementary school seem to converge here and take part in the happy hour while they allow their children to play and yell and fight as if it’s a playground. I have kids of my own who I couldn’t even hear over the other screaming and running children, that was annoying and very stressful.
I understand its a pizza place and I understand having kids but, this place was louder than a pizza place with a mouse and an arcade.
This is a huge downer!
Too bad because the pizza is great!

Take it from a native south-​side Chicagoan, where pizza is a religion. Oak Fire (Sherman Oaks/​Studio City) gets a 5 Star («Woohoo! As good as it gets!») because in the southwest portion of the country its one of only two places that can hold a stick to a TRUE «Chicago Style Deep Dish» pizza pie. The design and structure of the pizza is dead on. The taste [ingredients] is slightly different but, they get an A++ for the effort. Still a must try. And aside from the deep dish comparison the wood fire thin crust is very good also.
Having read previous reviews, disregard the service comments, and keep in mind that this is a new establishment. There is a learning curve for the staff and customer traffic flow. Having spoken to the owners/​mgrs there’s nothing they won’t do to ensure your experience is a good one.
They have a love for pizza and it shows in their preparation and selections.
Keep in mind the style and the design of this location lends itself to small groups of 2 – 4 people, anything more I would call ahead. As far as portion sizes, the thin crust looks to feed 1 – 2 ppl and a deep dish 2 – 4 ppl. There are two HD TVs over the bar area, which appears to be well stocked with drinks to average persons liking. Seating outside with a small patio area as well.
Bottom line, from a «real» pizza lovers prospective it gets my recommendation.

Husband and I shared a Southwest Chicken Salad and deep dish pepperoni with jalapenos and mushrooms. The deep dish takes 45 minutes, so go with good company to pass the time if you’re thinking of ordering it. They had Lakers and Dodgers games on, so that was nice.
We didn’t drink, but the bar seemed nicely stocked.
The pizza was definitely worth the wait – perfect crust, excellent sauce that’s not overly tangy or salty and full of chunks of tomatoes, which I personally love. The salad was good, made better by the dressing that had a decent kick to it, and a was good filler while we waited for our pizza.
Service is excellent and very friendly.
We’re looking forward to going back on Slider Night, where they apparently have fifteen different types of sliders!