Three pizza businesses opened or reinvented themselves in Millbrae between late January and April 2026. That comes to roughly one a month. Domino's held its ribbon-cutting at 1135 El Camino Real on January 27. Slice House by Tony Gemignani celebrated its grand opening at 357 El Camino Real on February 21. In April, Jeff Chin moved his Spinning Dough pop-up into Modern Eats at 414 Broadway and rewrote the menu.
Read as a list, that sounds like a town that suddenly wants more pizza. Put the three on a map and a clearer pattern shows up. Each business is built for the street it opened on. The El Camino Real openings are small counters designed around pickup, delivery, and people passing through. The Broadway opening is a room designed for sitting down and staying a while. A fourth concept, Tandoori Pizza, is headed for the station area. That's the part of Millbrae changing fastest right now.
El Camino Real got the counters
Slice House is a small shop. The Millbrae location has 13 indoor seats and 12 outdoor seats. Dilan Yuksel Valenzuela, whose family runs it, told the San Mateo Daily Journal that the small dining room was part of the plan. She expected families, commuters, and students from nearby middle and high schools, and she said the layout would suit delivery and pickup.
"That's the clientele we're expecting with the size of the dining room."
The Yuksel family owns and runs this Slice House. They also operate Slice House locations in Belmont and in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, and a Menlo Park location is planned. The family got its start with Italian restaurants in North Beach before partnering with Gemignani. The menu covers several regional styles, with New York, Grandma or focaccia-style, Detroit, and Sicilian crusts, plus pasta, wings, garlic bread, and meatballs. One slice is made only in Millbrae. The Hot Ron comes with mozzarella, hot-honey sausage, ricotta, and pepperonata.
Domino's opened a month earlier, about eight blocks' worth of El Camino to the south at 1135. It's the most delivery-focused format on the corridor. Further south, two familiar names complete the stretch. Mountain Mike's Pizza is at 1395 El Camino Real and runs on practices the chain says date back to 1978. Zorbas Pizza takes orders for its Millbrae restaurant at 1567 El Camino Real.
So El Camino now has four pizza addresses along one arterial. Two are longtime names, and two arrived in the first eight weeks of 2026. They all serve the same basic purpose. El Camino is where Millbrae drives through, picks up, and heads home, and the newest shops were sized to match.
| Spot | Address | Style | How it's set up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slice House by Tony Gemignani | 357 El Camino Real | New York, Grandma, Detroit, Sicilian | 25 seats total, pickup and delivery in mind |
| Domino's | 1135 El Camino Real | Chain delivery and carryout | Opened January 2026 |
| Mountain Mike's Pizza | 1395 El Camino Real | Chain pizza parlor | Longtime corridor name |
| Zorbas Pizza | 1567 El Camino Real | Local pizzeria | Online ordering |
| Modern Eats with Spinning Dough | 414 Broadway | Asian-fusion pies | 45 seats, nine-seat beer bar, patio coming |
| Tandoori Pizza | Gateway at Millbrae Station | Indian fusion | Coming soon, no date announced |
Broadway got the room to stay
At 414 Broadway, the setup works the other way. Modern Eats celebrated its official opening on January 18, 2025. The bigger change came this April, when Chin brought Spinning Dough in as a partner. The restaurant kept the Modern Eats name and now serves a hybrid menu. Chin's pizzas share it with the existing appetizers, salads, and desserts.
Chin grew up in San Francisco. He started Spinning Dough as a pop-up in Oakland in 2017 after leaving a career in healthcare reimbursement. In 2025 he moved to a San Francisco ghost kitchen, and a year later a mutual friend introduced him to the owners of Modern Eats. After years of pop-ups and a stint in a ghost kitchen, his pizzas now have a full dining room in downtown Millbrae.
Chin's light renovation shows who the space is for. He added wood paneling, a mirror, and a craft beer bar. The bar seats nine and has nine taps, and Chin hopes to reach 16. Current pours include Ghost Town, Standard Deviant, Barebottle, Alpha Acid, and Brewing With Brothas. The restaurant seats 45, and a patio with about 50 more seats was described in June as opening soon. As of this month, Spinning Dough's own website still lists the patio as coming soon.
The pies suit a slow sit-down meal. The ube pizza starts with ube-infused dough and adds sliced potatoes, housemade pork sausage, red onion, ube ricotta, scallions, and bechamel. The Eats By Rachel Blackberry Pizza, created with the influencer @eatsbyrachel, combines blackberry bechamel, Parmesan, ricotta, blackberries, pistachios, honey, and basil. Chin's personal favorite is the longanisa pie, with eggs, onions, tomatoes, fried garlic chips, honey, and spiced vinegar. Specialty pies run $27 to $36, and a Margherita runs $21 to $30. The menu also includes okonomiyaki, Thai green curry, and bulgogi pies.
Modern Eats is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. That schedule fits a downtown block where people linger. Broadway is also where the city holds its big gatherings. This month's 55th annual Millbrae Art & Wine Festival on September 5 and 6 was expected to draw more than 50,000 visitors, and SamTrans ran a free shuttle from the station. A 45-seat room with a beer bar and a planned 50-seat patio is built for that kind of street.
The station area is next in line
The third part of the map hasn't opened yet. A San Mateo Daily Journal development update named Tandoori Pizza as an expected tenant at Gateway at Millbrae Station, along with RockSalt Pilates. As of its September update, Tandoori Pizza's locations page lists Millbrae as "Coming Soon." A company release dated August 24 says the Millbrae location is still in development and gives no opening date. No storefront or suite number has been published.
The concept pairs Indian sauces and spices with classic pizza. The Mercury News described butter-chicken and achari-gobhi pizzas alongside margherita, pepperoni, wings, pastas, and desserts.
The location makes sense given what's already happening around the station. Caltrain's administrative offices now operate from 166 N. Rollins Road. SamTrans lists its office and ticket booth at the same address. Eikon Therapeutics is open at the nearby Alexandria Center for Life Sciences. Each of those brings weekday workers who need lunch within walking distance. A draft plan for a multimodal station combining Caltrain, BART, and possible high-speed rail is targeted for the end of December 2026. Until the Tandoori opening is confirmed, treat it as a spot to watch rather than a dinner plan.
Matching the pie to the evening
Once you know which street suits which kind of meal, choosing gets easier:
- A slice on the way home from the train. Slice House at 357 El Camino Real. Its small dining room was built for exactly this.
- Delivery on a school night. Domino's at 1135 El Camino Real, Mountain Mike's at 1395, or Zorbas at 1567. These are the established delivery and carryout names on the corridor.
- A sit-down dinner with a local beer. Modern Eats at 414 Broadway, Wednesday through Sunday. Go with a group so you can split one of the stranger pies.
- Something new near the station. Tandoori Pizza at Gateway, once it posts a real opening date.
Broadway's fall calendar gives the third option on this list a natural companion. The free Beats, Brews & Vines series wraps up its 2026 season on Thursday, October 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Broadway and Hillcrest, with the As Is Band. Modern Eats is a short walk down the same street and open that evening, which makes an easy pairing. Earlier in the month, the 21st Annual Millbrae Japanese Cultural Festival takes over the Civic Center Plaza at 1 Library Ave. on Sunday, October 4, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
This year's openings tell residents something useful about how Millbrae's streets work. El Camino Real keeps adding places you pass through. Broadway keeps adding places where you stay. The blocks around the station are starting to fill in for the people who now work there.
Let's Connect
I pay attention to how a neighborhood's streets get used, because that shapes daily life as much as floor plans and finishes do. If you live in Millbrae and have questions about your home, a remodel you're considering, or how nearby changes like the station-area projects fit your plans, Sydney Pok is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
