SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza

We were shopping at Bella Terra today and wanted a quick bite to eat. It was great to have a good pizza place close by. Easy to walk to when we were shopping. Got a pizza to share with my brother and it was enough for the both of us. Delicious!

If you want to treat yourself to a comfortable, delicious dining experience head on over to SPIN! Pizza in Huntington Beach. The food is awesome, and you always feel welcome, not rushed.
Great place to catch up with friends or celebrate a special event
The pizza and salad ingredients are very fresh with great wine and beer pairing in a relaxed atmosphere
Mangia

I hope you like loud country music, because if not your otherwise good meal will be ruined. Pity, we (and a lot of people we know) used to enjoy coming here.

Here for lunch on a Tuesday: not too busy, pretty empty. Spacious restaurant, nicely decorated. Clean. The manager was nice enough to introduced me to the menu. I ordered pepperoni pizza from kid menu for my 4 year old. It’s a good size pizza. I ordered rosemary flatbread for myself with bell pepper dipping sauce as well as the artichoke dip. I prefer the artichoke one. The flatbread was a bit too greasy for my taste. I also ordered their minestrone soup. Very hearty, made on house. It was ok, not the best, but not bad. The service was good, our waitress was nice. I’m not sure I’ll come back.

This is a GREAT place with reasonable prices. It’s a cut above your typical build your own pizza place. It has amazing sangria and a great bar. The other thing is that it’s never crowded. It should be! I hate seeing local restaurants that are awesome with awesome customer service seem like they are struggling. You won’t regret giving it a try. Prices are super reasonable and kids eat free on Tuesday’s and they get a free gelato with their meal any day of the week. They also have amazing wheat and gluten free crust options! Get out there and support the restaurants that aren’t the big chains. You won’t be disappointed!

It was good pizza, but the service was excellent!
If you are in the area, it is a nice place to grab some pie!

I love this place. It’s good quality food & the service is always fast & friendly. Spin is on the outside of the Bella Terra & the area it’s in has plenty of parking. I pretty much always get the grilled cheese & tomato soup with one of their sangrias. Everything is excellent here.

First of all I don’t even get the reviews that are only 3 stars or less. Very friendly and excellent service! I got the mini Mia salsiccia con Mela (sausage and apple with pecans) and minestrone soup today. The soup was surprisingly delish and so was the pizza. I really enjoyed this and will go back for more. I haven’t been here since it opened even tho the food is excellent just due to not in close proximity to me. Not far but not close. But I think I’ll shop at Bella terra more so I have an excuse to come here. Good job Spin!

Came in person who greeted us was very nice and explained the menu very nicely. Ordered our food not that long of a wait. Food was good but first time we asked our server for ranch we waited like 10 minutes and we realized she forgot we didn’t mind it just finished eating. Before we planned on leaving asked for a to go box and we waited 15 minutes until we realized she probably forgot about it again. We ended up just leaving our food. Could’ve been a better experience.

So we gave them another shot and we figured out that they weren’t bad.
He’s the key though; stick with the pizzas they have on the menu and you’re going to come out alright.
There IS NOT one of those «One price design your own» pizza places. There is one of them in this center but this isn’t it. Totally different concept!
Stick with what they want to make and you’ll enjoy it much more.
And this place has BEER (wine?) In multiple flavors. I’m not as beer guy but looked like craft beers or private labels.
Worth checking out for sure if you are looking for upscale pizza joint.
Better than «GOOD» and for me a solid 4 out of 5.

Another place with «Wow» factor! I am not sure why the place was dead when I picked up my phone order, but the turkey/​bacon panini was out of this world! Whatever cheese they used was to die for. The side of tomato bisque was delicious too. Both uniquely flavorful and anything but basic. I am looking forward to coming back.

New lunch spot alert!
I had an errand to run at Bella Terra during a lunch break and decided I would just pick up lunch too when I spotted Spin Neapolitan Pizza. The employee who greeted me when I walked in asked me if I’d been there before and since I hadn’t she briefly explained the menu to me.
I had the Mamma mini lunch special which consisted of a personal sized pizza of my choice and a side salad of my choice. I really like that you have the option of any pizza on the menu or if none of those strike you as good enough, you could create your own. I settled for the Greco pizza on a Gluten Free crust and the 8 color salad sans croutons. The place was fairly empty around noon, which worked out well since my to go order came out in no time. They have a semi open kitchen so I could see them preparing my food as I sat at the bar waiting. I give this lunch a 10! It was so delicious!
I’ll be calling in my pick up orders from now on and can’t wait to try the Funghi, Salsiccia, Melanzana, cipolla e chevre & the Prosciutto e Spinaci.
They also have antipasti, soup, sandwiches and Panini’s.

This place is SO good. I LOVE pizza, I mean, who doesn’t? My boyfriend and I always get the Tre Carni. The meat on this thing is SO delicious. Their crust is amazing. It’s airy, but also crunchy. My favorite. We’ve also tried two of their salads, the 8 Color and Spinach. We usually get the full size salad to split. Their pizza is a good size, I always want to eat the whole thing myself, but my waistline tells me no. So we split a whole pizza and a full size salad.
The service here is always great. Everyone is so friendly and always ready to answer any questions you may have. You order food at the counter, they give you a number, and then they bring your food to you. So you have a semi-​waiter.
We always go during the week, so we’ve never had to wait. Not sure what it’s like during the weekend though.
On Mondays, you get 3 pizzas (or salads or mixed) for the price of 2! Great deal for us fatties!

Pizza and Gelato in the same place? SOLD!
Problem was, the pizza filled me up so I didn’t have room for gelato.
Not quit a make your own like Blaze or Pieology, but a nice mix of order as you come in, then sit at your table and the rest is server based. I liked it. They were constantly making sure we had everything we needed from napkins, to refills. I liked that. No getting up to the soda machine to fill your own. They brought the pizza out to you instead of calling a number.
The pizza was excellent. The greatest? Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but excellent. It’s a wood oven to it’s thin crust. I could be wrong, but I think 12″ is larger than some of their competitors which might only be 10″. Don’t quote me though. They also have a good selection of sandwiches for those who aren’t into pizza.
Check out their wines as you enter, or have a beer. Honestly, this location isn’t inexpensive, plan on $ 12-​$ 15 per person with a beverage. More with an adult beverage.

The pizza in this joint is piping hot out of the oven — not sure if it is wood fired, but there’s a lot of flame and heat coming from it!
Pluses:
I really do love the pizza when it’s crusty with crispy parts, and not that whole mess of chewy dough you get from the bigger chains.
Got two medium sized pizzas, and three of us pretty much devoured it: (Pizza Bianca) Prosciutto with spinach and a (Pizza Rossa) Sopressata & Calabrian Peppers.
Beers on tap available and sodas with refills.
I don’t always have a beer or soda, and when I do, it’s with PIZZA!
Super plus: they serve the best gelato around:
Try my favorite: white chocolate with raspberry. There are at least 12 flavors to choose from; The blueberry sugar cookie mix is mmm-​good. Chocolate is very dark and very rich, there is also peanut butter with banana, tahitian vanilla and more.
Each serving of gelato comes with the most delectable little sugar cookie, also available all by itself!

I have been to Spin in other locations, so I knew what to expect. What caught me by surprise was how quiet this location was on a Saturday afternoon. We were one of like four parties in the restaurant. Needless to say the service was excellent.
Same concept as the other places– order at the counter, take your number and find s seat. Then your food is delivered lickety split. We both had the sausage and mushroom pizza, and my daughter had the arugula salad, I had the spinach salad with goat cheese, Carmelized onions, and candied pecans. We were both members of the clean plate club.
Very decent pizza, delicious salads at a reasonable price, I will definitely be back!

Firstly, I want to get my main issue out of the way. SPIN! is NOT a Neapolitan pizza. The owners are either ignorant, deceitful or they just don’t care. In any case it doesn’t speak well of their respect for the history and craft of pizza making. By definition Neapolitan pizza uses unmalted 00 flour, is baked in an oven at 905 °F or higher (usually wood-​fired), and baked in 90 seconds or less. So this is a «three-​strikes ‘yer out» NON-​Neapolitan pizza. This is not a matter of opinion. It is a fact.
Based on the flour they use (regular pizza flour), the oven temperature (550F) and relatively long bake times (5 minutes+) this is closer to the pizza you get at the Chipotle-​style pizza chains, except the dough is hand stretched instead of being flattened by an ungodly sheeter machine. Hand-​stretching does make for a better pizza, but whether that makes it worth an extra $ 5 or so is up to you. To be fair, the ingredients are a cut above what you’d get at the Chipotle-​style chain places, and there is alcohol available, but it’s short of the «elite» destination pizzerias.
Overall the pizza itself was a solid B+. I ordered the #8 with sopressata (spicy salami) and Calabrian peppers. Together they had a nice amount of heat, but it was just a bit too salty. Next time I’ll ask to skip the sea salt on top.
The service model is a bit unusual. You order at the register when you enter, but then they hand you a bill wallet and a wooden number marker. I guess this speeds up service by cutting out the seating rigamarole, waiting for your server to show up to take your order, etc. However, paying a tip for just having someone bring you food that you ordered at the front register is a bit odd. In my case, the pizza maker brought my pizza to my table, so it made it doubly odd that I tipped my server for delivering my lemonade. They might as well just cut out the serving staff altogether and just call out numbers to pick up your own food.
The dining room design is OC-​hip and there was ample parking during lunch hour.

***REVISED 3/​26/​2015***
Hi everyone! The manager of SPIN!, Bradley H., contacted me via private message last night and explained the cash out process to me. Don’t worry, he was super cordial. This is what he said:
«Thank you for visiting SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza. I sincerely apologize that you did not enjoy our service. We use team service and have no intention for you to tip each server that visits your table. We use a tip pool and split the tips amongst the team or you don’t have to leave a tip at all. I appreciate your feedback and am happy to hear you enjoyed our food. We hope to see you again soon!»
This is an example of excellent customer service. I appreciated the fact that Bradley took the time to reach out to me via private message (which tells me has a pretty good handle on PR/​social media) and that he explained this concept to me. I’ll be sure to give an updated review the next time I visit SPIN!
***Original review below***
So…SPIN! spun up my colon pretty bad last night. I really think it’s just the fact that I love food and sometimes food just doesn’t love me as much. And honestly, I need to stick with cooked spinach instead of the fresh sort as I had a delicious spinach salad with my Mini Mia (personal pizza) deal. For my personal pizza I chose the mushroom pizza on the original crust.
Aside from my personal tummy issues, the reason I’m giving only 3 stars instead of 4 is because I was turned off by the idea of paying for my meal at the register and then being handed my bill to be signed once I seated myself at a table. This is a strange and new concept to me. I was served by 3 different people who all handed me different items: one girl handed me a glass of water and my fork and dish; the manager brought out my salad; and a guy handed me my pizza. So was I supposed to tip for all 3 people? It was confusing and a major turn-​off.
Food wise everything was delicious. If I come back it will likely be with the kids and I know in the future to just stick with soup or pick a different salad.

I walked in SPIN! expecting Pieology or Blaze but it ended up being a much different experience.
SPIN! still caters to fast casual diners. You order up front from a selection of red or white pies. I’m sure customization is possible but wasn’t feeling like making too many decisions so I stuck with their specialties. I got their mini-​lunch special, which comes with a personal sized pizza (it comes in four slices) and your choice of any salad. I got the five cheese pizza– it definitely wasn’t revolutionary but not bad either. For $ 10.50 or so, it is a pretty decent combo. Once your order, you find a seat and they bring the food out to you. They have refill on drinks and soda. If your sweet tooth needs a hankering, they have gelato here (didn’t get to try).
Overall verdict, decent. I do find myself coming here if I’m shopping around Bella Terra but don’t think I will specifically come back just for this place alone.

SPIN is good pizza, not great pizza. It just doesn’t provide that same pleasure that I get from a hearty pizza with strings of cheese coming off with each bite. I also think that the toppings are oddly small. The flavors are good and the crust is very good, but there is just something that doesn’t satisfy me as much as a pizza should. The salads are ok. I’ve had Caesar which was not tasty enough to order again, and the Arugula Salad which tasted nice and fresh but was too bitter from all the lemon.
Soups, sandwiches and gelato are offered in addition to the salads and pizzas. As far as pizza goes, you can select from one of their menu pizzas or create your own. I go with the Mini Mia deal. For $ 10.25 you receive a 4-​slice personal pizza and a half salad, both of your choosing. Always a necessity at a pizza place, there are a few beers on tap.
I found the ordering process to be a bit awkward. You have to stand off to the side to see the menu, then order at the register, then sign your receipt at your table. I guess the idea is that you tip right before you leave, since you have waiter service bringing your food and refilling your drinks. But I’m not waiting until the end to sign and it seems like a lot of people would forget. A plus is that the employees are VERY friendly. They explain the menu to you, and always have a big smile when they come to your table.