Family Dining in Marin: Mulberry Street Pizzeria

There are plenty of pizza places in Marin, but one that comes up as many families' favorite is Mulberry Street Pizzeria in San Rafael. It's one of our favorite family friendly places for pizza, too. This award-winning restaurant has been flinging dough and dishing up gourmet pizzas for 25 years. Mulberry Street Pizzeria has won a whole slew of awards, ranging from the Pacific Sun's "Best of Marin" to the 2005 Food Network Challenge Pizza Battle, where their "For the Love of Mushrooms" pizza took home the top prize.

Mulberry's atmosphere, despite its strip mall location off Lucas Valley Road, is a bit nicer than your run-of-the-mill pizza joint. This is no trendy thin-crust minimalist pizza—Mulberry's pizzas are huge and loaded with toppings; we rarely finish one, which of course means there's some to take home for lunch the next day or a midnight snack. The only drawback of such a hefty pizza is that the crust sometimes gets a little soggy near the center, but we're happy to overlook that. You can always ask for less stuff on your pizza if you like.

Their specialty pizzas are creative and interesting. We often opt for the Greek Pizza, which features pepperoni, marinated green olives, artichokes, and feta cheese. You'll find the usual pizza suspects here, too—as seen in the photo accompanying this review, we ordered a half-and-half pizza for the picky eaters in the family who think they only like black olives. This being the Bay Area, Mulberry also offer some health-conscious options like vegan mozarella and a whole-wheat blended crust.

We've always enjoyed their non-pizza offerings, too, from tasty spaghetti and meatballs to salads that match the heftiness of their pizzas. Honestly, we don't order the salads much anymore because we always end up getting stuffed from the pizza. Mulberry Street Pizzeria always has a good selection of micro-brews on tap, as well as some interesting bottled sodas and cans of Vernor's ginger ale, too.

Since Mulberry is pretty small is can get pretty packed during dinner time, especially on weekends, so be prepared for a wait during peak hours. Takeout is available, and you can order not only by phone, but online, too. Call them at (415) 472-7272 or visit their website at www.mulberry-street-pizzeria.com.

Mulberry Street Pizzeria is located at 101 Smith Ranch Road, Suite C, in San Rafael. Mulberry is directly across the road from the Century Regency 6 multiplex, so it's an ideal spot to dine before or after the movies.