East Coast Pizza

Where Herb & Sea is making Tuesday feel like an occasion with bone marrow and chandeliers, East Coast Pizza is making Tuesday feel like Tuesday — and that's exactly the point. This is the joint you walk into in sandy flip-flops with two kids and a dog, order by the slice, and leave genuinely happy without doing any math in your head.

The differentiator is right there in the name: New York-style, not California-style. We have no shortage of spots along the coast doing wood-fired pies with burrata and microgreens. East Coast Pizza doesn't care about any of that. The slices are wide, they fold down the middle, the crust has actual chew to it, and the cheese-to-sauce ratio is calibrated by someone who clearly grew up doing this. That's a rarer thing in San Diego than it should be.

The pies rotate enough to keep regulars interested — meat lovers loaded with pepperoni, sausage, and meatballs; a pesto pie that punches well above its price point; BBQ chicken that gets ordered and re-ordered for a reason. The garlic knots are not an afterthought. Order them. Daily slice deals make this one of the better-value spots in the neighborhood, full stop.

The outdoor seating faces San Elijo Avenue, which means the vibe is exactly what you'd expect from Encinitas on a warm evening — unhurried, slightly salty in the air, leashes tied to chair legs. Service is fast and genuinely friendly, which matters when you're wrangling a group.

Parking on San Elijo can get tight during peak dinner hours — your best move is to call ahead or just be prepared to circle once. It's worth it.