Papa Joe's Italian Dinners

I saw this place as I was perusing around the side streets of downtown South San Francisco a few months ago. now, during the coronavirus shelter in place order, I wanted to try to do my part to support local small business. Despite the Yelp title (which I've submitted a change request) and even an old faded 'Italian' sign hanging above the outside of the restaurant, this restaurant is mostly a Mexican restaurant now. Tacos, burritos, plates, etc. I actually tried to call ahead to order a super burrito. The person who happened to answer the phone, however, didn't speak much English, and didn't understand I simply wanted to get some Mexican food to go. So, I ended up just driving to the restaurant and ordering in person. The woman I spoke to at the counter did speak English, and she told me her colleague thought that I was trying to order some pizza, which, again, they aren't a pizza or Italian restaurant anymore. That was his confusion.I ordered a super al pastor burrito, with all the fixin's. I thought it was definitely a solid burrito, for less than $10. the ratio of all the various ingredients for good. The al pastor was not overly greasy. not a lot of taquerias do this, so I'm not surprised, but this burrito did not have even a little bit of lettuce, which is what I usually like. Next time, I would probably simply request it. they provided a side order of chips and three salsas, which I only asked for the one tomatillo smoky salsa. The salsa was good and medium spicy. The chips were a little bit stale, but I wasn't there for the chips. I would recommend others to give this place a shot for a typical super burrito if they don't want to get caught up in all the busyness of Grand avenue, just to see how it compares to other places like El Farolito.

Pizza restaurant, that went Mexican, hard to find a good pizza in South San Francisco.The worst Pizza I have ever had.

This review is for the Taqueria Papa Joe's part of this restaurant. Ordered 3 burritos to go as we were in the area and wanted burritos. The super they forgot to put what makes it a super, the guacamole, cheese (minus the sour cream) so I paid for super and got a regular. The regular one I ordered it was smaller then the other two. Hardly any meat. The other one was a regular without rice. They got that one right but again, and this one despite not having rice was bigger then mine. So....either the person preparing the food isn't concentrating or they just don't care. Oh, and one of the people who consumed one of the burritos has been having digestive issues ever since. And this person has a stomach of steel. So.....I won't be back and neither should you. Don't waste your money or your time with this place.

Sunday 04/13/2014 This place deserves negative stars.Lemme start off that the guy behind the counter was rude as fcuk!Came here to check it out because they claim to be the best pizza in south San Francisco (it says it on the window)... Man in his late 50's with salt and pepper hair was speaking with another patron maybe even friend on one end. Place was not busy and it is a small establishment. For a good 5 minutes we were not even greeted because it must have been a good conversation. (Let me remind you it is empty except for another man) He looked annoyed asking us what we wanted. We asked if there was any menus since the board on the wall behind the counter was empty with a faded column print of meats. He gave us a menu that had breakfast items on it. It looked like there were only 4 menus. The other two menus might have been the pizza one but he just walked away to continue his convo. My husband and I looked at each other because the window says pizza and taqueria. The only thing I see are drinks, tostada, pasta, and appetizers. We looked through the 2 page menu (for a good 15min) to see if we wanted to try anything. The employee didn't bother asking us if we had any questions or check up on us. So we walked out and went to di'napoli where service was better.

I work 2 blocks from papa joe's and i always pass buy it thinking this place is just some hole in the wall. but today i took public tranportation to wotk and i wanted to eat lunch close by so i walked to papa joe's.Immediatly i was taken care off papa joe is hella cool i ordeded a steak sandwich and it was only 6.50 where can you get a steak sandwich for 6.50 these days with fries i'll tell u where....no where! and it was real good it had sauteed mushrooms and onions. papa joe even gave me a steak taco for free to just taste how good the steak was tender and seasoned. i would go back he had regulars there that absolutly loves the place. so if you have $10 and ur in south city and you want a real good steak sandwich with fries and a drink GO TO PAPA Joe's Italian Dinner!

I got 3 words for this place, thin crust pizza!It hard to find a thin crust pizza place, but this place has it. I always go for a simple cheese and salami pizza. This place does it old school, they even cut their pizza with some pizza scissors. This is not your typical pizzeria , they also have Mexican food and American food.

Visiting from Phoenix and found this place on the GrubHub app and they delivered to our hotel. Hands down, THE BEST calzone I've ever had. Chewy, crispy crust, fresh ingredients. Amazing - wish we had one at home. The delivery man was so nice and friendly (possibly the owner) and also thanked me for my "generous tip" (who does that??") Since I complain when food us bad, I try to rave about the good so I called to tell them. The lady who answered (owner also?) was SO appreciative of the feedback! I clearly made her night. Great food, great people - highly recommended!!

I have only tried their carne asada burrito recommended by my sister for take out after coming out really hungry from work. Instead of getting the rice, she asked for the fries. And it was so good. I'm still craving for it. Oh, i was told they only accept cash. So be ready.

The pizza had thin crust, but was still chewy and cheesy. We showed up on a whim close to closing but they were super nice and made our pizza to order... and it was delicious. Oh yeah... and we drank lots of beer :)

Now, I came here because of one Yelp review saying this place had great Tortas. An Italian place with great Tortas? I had to check this place out. Papa's is kind of hidden off a side street in downtown SSF, parking was easy as there was plenty of street parking. I came in about 3:30pm to get a torta, I was the only one in there. Now, I love hole in the wall places, as I frequent many of them as you'll be able to tell by my other Yelp reviews, however this one was maybe a little bit too holish for me. I walked in and there was a good smell of food in the air, but there were flies. You know, the kind of flies that swarm together on a hot day and fly in circles in one place? Yeah, that was kind of a turn off. I went up to the counter and there was a girl there, probably the owner's daughter, she took my order (Torta Milanesa (pollo)) and I paid then sat and waited. She gave the order to her father and resumed watching her tele-novela. The Torta was cooked fresh right in front of me. After about 5 minutes, I took it and was off!Now, I've had a lot of tortas in my life and this wasn't really a torta, but it was more of an Italian sandwich. There was no jalapenos, no avocado, no queso. Instead, there was this spicy type spaghetti sauce on it. The sandwich was GOOD, but it wasn't a torta and it wasn't the BEST sandwich, torta or not, that I've had. This "torta" did come with fries, though, which made the price seem more like a deal. Oh, and tortas never come with fries... lol. Bottom line: Good Italian sandwiches, need to get rid of the flies. If you're looking for a GREAT Mexican torta...move on.