85-89 here. Garcia's and PDs were neck-and-neck in the 80s for best pizza. I personally preferred Garcia's sauce, but think more people would have said PDs was their favorite.
Agree that I went back years later and it was godawful. I mean dirty restaurant, cobwebs, filth everywhere. We've not been back since.
My recollection of Garcias was that by '85, the pizza was lots of cheap cheese over a sweet/salty sauce. Whether you liked it or not depended on your view of heavy sugar and salt in the sauce. (Ugh IMO.)
For those in the SF bay area, the closest I have found are:
- Zachary's in Oakland/Berkeley is really good; they give Delz a run for best pizza.
- Blue Line w/~9 locations from Daly City to Los Gatos; a bit sweet, pricey for what you get
- Paxti's in Palo Alto; extremely sweet. I don't enjoy it; others really like it.
If you know of others in the south bay, please direct message me. (How I wish Zachary's would open a south bay branch.)
Now back to our regularly scheduled basketball discussion.