Search pizza near me in SoMa and you get a list of places making round Neapolitan pies and square Detroit trays, which is fine and also not what is at 510 Stevenson Street. Montesacro was the first pinseria romana in the United States, and pinsa is a different product from pizza in dough, shape and intent. It is worth understanding before you order, because ordering it as though it were pizza is how people end up disappointed by something excellent.
Ask Karpo which service you are aiming for, what to put on the table alongside the pinsa, and how to find the alley without circling the block twice.
Pinsa is a different dough
The base is made from a blend of rice, soy and wheat flours rather than wheat alone, with a high hydration and a long fermentation. What that produces is a crust that is light and airy inside with a crisp, blistered exterior — noticeably less dense than a Neapolitan base and shaped as an elongated oval rather than a circle. The flour blend is imported from Rome.
The practical consequence at the table is that one pinsa does not sit in your stomach the way one pizza does. People routinely order too little on the assumption that it will be heavier than it is.
The room is a fraschetta, not a pizzeria
The interior references the old Roman fraschette — informal countryside taverns that served wine with cheese and cured meat rather than cooked food. That lineage explains the rest of the menu: a serious list of artisanal cheeses and salumi, and cold dishes drawn from Roman tradition, all designed to be eaten alongside wine rather than as a starter before a main.
The correct order here is therefore not one pinsa each. It is a board of cheese and meat, a cold dish, and two or three pinse shared across the table, with wine running through the whole thing.
Two services, and Monday is dark
Lunch runs 11:30am to 2:30pm Tuesday through Sunday. Dinner runs 4pm to 9pm Tuesday to Thursday, 4pm to 9:30pm Friday and Saturday, and 4pm to 9pm on Sunday. Monday is closed entirely. The 4pm dinner opening is unusually early for San Francisco and it is the most useful thing on that list.
A 4:15 arrival on a weekday gets you an empty room, a full menu and a kitchen that has just started. That is the best version of this restaurant and almost nobody uses it.
Stevenson Street takes a moment to find
Stevenson is one of the narrow service alleys that run parallel between SoMa's main streets, and it does not look like a restaurant address from either end. Approach from Sixth or Seventh and look for the lit doorway rather than a frontage. This is a genuine hidden-in-plain-sight situation rather than a marketing conceit.
Once you know where it is, the location is convenient — Civic Center and Powell Street stations are both a short walk, and the whole mid-Market and SoMa grid is on foot from the door.
Practical notes
Montesacro is at 510 Stevenson Street in San Francisco's SoMa, the first pinseria romana in the United States. Lunch runs 11:30am to 2:30pm Tuesday to Sunday; dinner 4pm to 9pm Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, and to 9:30pm Friday and Saturday. Closed Mondays. Order a cheese and salumi board and a cold dish alongside two or three shared pinse. The 4pm opening is the quietest hour. The entrance is on a narrow alley — look for the doorway.
Tags: #PizzaNearMe #SoMa #Montesacro #PinsaRomana #SanFranciscoFood #RomanFood #SFNeighborhoods #WhereToEatSF #SFEats #StevensonStreet #SFFoodGuide #HiddenSF #ItalianFoodSF #SFDinner
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Ask Karpo first
Want to know which service to aim for, what to order alongside the pinsa so the table is not just bread, and how to find the alley entrance first time? Ask Karpo for current SoMa hours, an order built around the salumi board, and a nearby fallback for the Monday this kitchen is dark.
