I have been wanting to try out Shuggie’s Trash Pie since I heard they were opening. I mean the name alone sells it for me, as they called themselves because they use “trash” parts of the meat and vegetables for their pizzas (and for other dishes too). They are huge proponents of cutting down food waste, so using these parts of food is very important for them. It has been getting tons of buzz around the city, so one day when we were wine bar hopping around the Mission, we decided to stop in for dinner.
I didn’t have a booking and the place looked slammed, but thankfully there was room for walk-ins at the bar, although it did look like the bar was mostly full too. The decor is as outrageous as their name, as we were seated in the green room where the bar was bright green and highly sparkly. We first looked at the wine menu, and they had a large variety of natural wines by the glass or bottle, and we decided on a fantastic bottle of Spanish red.
Foodwise, we decided on several small sharing plates and one of the pizzas. First up was the spicy beefheart meatballs ($17). They were definitely some of the best meatballs I’ve had. The heart was soft and succulent and the spice level was definitely up there as they didn’t hold back. It was such a great start and really made me excited about what else was coming. We also had some fried pickle kakiage ($15) which was some shoestring sweet potatoes and fried pickles served with a shiso ranch. It was also a really tasty dish to snack on, even if it was a bit hard to dip into the mouth of ranch. Luckily, a spoon fixed that problem, so we managed to eagerly finish it up.
We also love fish collars, so the sweet and spicy fish collar ($25) seemed like a no-brainer. It was so well cooked and incredibly tasty. It also was pretty much the entire fish head which we discovered after digging through the pile of toppings on top, and it made it that more exciting for us. And finally, the trash pie! We went for the black ragu pie ($23), which was topped with blood Bolognese. (Because who doesn’t love a good blood sauce?) And it was so good. The toppings were perfect and it’s a very thin, pub style crust. I honestly just wanted more when we were finished.
Shuggie’s Trash Pie definitely exceeded my expectations and any hype it is getting is well deserved. Not only was the food fantastic and based on cutting down on food waste, but the service was absolutely excellent and everyone made us feel welcome even if we were just walk-ins sitting at the bar. It’s definitely a place I would bring any adventurous eaters who are visiting from out of town, as there is amazing food, wine and atmosphere!
Score: 5/5
Recommendation: Find a pie you like and go for it! And those meatballs…
Shuggie’s Trash Pie
3349 23rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
