If you were to dig deep below New York City’s streets, past the subway tunnels, you might expect to find thick layers of schist, gneiss and marble. But what you’d actually find is pizza, the cultural and emotional bedrock of a city that can’t even coalesce around a single baseball team. Here, finding a decent slice is as easy as jaywalking. But finding a great slice, one that’s worth eating down to that last bite of crust, is much harder.
So we set out to do the hard work, sampling more than 100 of the city’s most popular and beloved pizzerias and landing on the 22 best. They offer a variety of styles — Sicilian, Neapolitan, New York and others that haven’t even been classified yet — but they’re all well worth the miles of subway (and ferry) travel. NIKITA RICHARDSON
Flushing
Amore Pizza
If you’re crawling through LaGuardia traffic and spot a line of flashing blinkers veering off at Farrington Street, let them through. These are people with taste. Hunkered in a Flushing strip mall, Amore Pizza has been turning out excellent pizzas since 1973. You may think you need to shower your pizza with garlic powder and oregano, but the plain slice needs no help, with its crisp crust and a layer of bubbling cheese served on a grease-slicked paper plate. LUKE FORTNEY
30-27 Stratton Street (31st Road), Queens; 718-445-0579; no website
Park Slope
Brooklyn DOP
One lesson from the pandemic is that anyone can make great pizza: artists, musicians, even the operator of your local gym. That was the story for Thomas Ardito, who turned his apartment into a socially distanced pizzeria to pay the bills at Brooklyn Fitness. When he opened his slice shop Brooklyn DOP in Park Slope, the crowds followed. This is pizza the Ninja Turtles would love: floppy and crunchy at the same time with a generous layer of orange cheese baked onto each slice. LUKE FORTNEY
237 Fifth Avenue (Carroll Street), Brooklyn; 347-599-1913; brooklyndop.com
Little Italy
Ceres
After Dave Portnoy rated Ceres a 9.2 in 2025, this Little Italy pizzeria had to rethink its approach. The gas ovens, fitting just six pizzas at a time, were no match for the crowds that descended on Mott Street, so whole pizzas (ordered in advance or at the counter with hour-plus waits) became the new normal. The fermented crust is cooked harder and darker than many are accustomed to, with charred patches and tasty bubbles everywhere. Overcooked, you might think, until that first bite of crisp-bottomed pizza scattered with pancetta, crème fraîche, ‘nduja or aged balsamic. The prices — as much as $68 for a whole pie — are reflective of the quality, and they haven’t deterred anyone from standing in lines that stretch past the nail salons and mini marts of Mott. LUKE FORTNEY
164 Mott Street (Broome Street), Manhattan; no phone; ceresnyc.com
Greenpoint
Chrissy’s Pizza
Every few years, a great pizzaiolo appears out of thin air. They haven’t spent years behind a pizza counter or come from a long line of pizza makers. They’re just obsessives, and Chris Hansell of Chrissy’s Pizza is one of them. After three years of pop-ups, his ridiculously photogenic pizzas — thin-crusted New York-style, perfected in his apartment during the pandemic — found a permanent home in 2024. To the annoyance of some, Mr. Hansell sells only whole pies, but what true pizza lover complains about having too much great pizza? NIKITA RICHARDSON
142 Nassau Avenue (McGuinness Boulevard), Brooklyn; no phone; instagram.com/chrissys.pizza
Kew Gardens
Dani’s House of Pizza
This nearly 70-year-old pizza shop in Kew Gardens, Queens, stands out in the pizza landscape for at least two reasons. First, there is a not-so-subtly-sweet tomato sauce — devised by Ramiz Dani, an Albanian immigrant and the restaurant’s founder — that hints at the fact that tomatoes are indeed a fruit. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Locals hold this sauce in such high regard that they’re known to ask for a slathering of it on the restaurant’s second standout item, a bright green pesto pizza that’s herbaceous, cheesy and impossible to put down. You could certainly take it to go, but it’s best enjoyed at the tiny counter, fresh out of the oven. NIKITA RICHARDSON
81-28 Lefferts Boulevard (Audley Street), Queens; 718-846-2849; danishouseofpizza.com
Castleton Corners
Joe & Pat’s Pizzeria & Restaurant
Only one borough makes thin, crackery crusts sauced right up to the rim. It’s Staten Island, and Joe & Pat’s is the destination. You could stand at the counter of the open kitchen all day, watching the chefs loudly pound balls of dough, and never understand how the pizza comes out so thin. The crust stands zero chance of holding up to toppings like calamari or conch, both offered, but it’s perfect painted with tomato sauce and a few cubes of mozzarella, before they melt into full moons. LUKE FORTNEY
1758 Victory Boulevard (Manor Road), Staten Island, joeandpatsny.com
Multiple locations
Joe’s Pizza
It’s hard to think of a more quintessential slice joint than Joe’s, with its many, many locations across the city. The original one is a Greenwich Village stalwart, bare bones in terms of décor, and cash only, but that doesn’t stop people from lining up for fresh, hot slices of New York-style pizza topped with slightly chewy cheese and pepperoni that shines with a thin layer of oil. Join the throngs of commuters enjoying a slice before heading home, wordlessly staring out the window onto Carmine Street, around 5 or 6 p.m.; or come after midnight for the best late-night slice option. (They’re open until 3 a.m. most nights.) KORSHA WILSON
Multiple locations, Manhattan and Brooklyn, joespizzanyc.com
West Village
John’s of Bleecker Street
All those people standing in line can’t be wrong. John’s is among the oldest of the old-school, even if the exact opening date is disputed. Still, all signs point to this being a well-worn institution: the walls lined with celebrity headshots, the wooden booths carved with initials from another era, divey bathrooms. The pizzas emerge from a century-old coal-fired oven with a charred crust, each one perfumed with the ash of the thousands, perhaps millions, of pies that came before. LUKE FORTNEY
278 Bleecker Street (Morton Street), Manhattan, johnsofbleecker.com
Lower East Side
Jonny’s Pizza
Pizza available until 3:30 a.m. on weekends should not be this good. And yet, multiple visits to Jonny’s confirm that its bubble-blistered pies are excellent at any hour. Jonny Rashtian, one of the city’s few Persian pizza makers, had not touched a commercial oven before 2024, but with the help of a few Reddit threads and obsessive pizza eating, he learned to make thin, crunchy pizza. Try the vodka and pesto pizza, a slice shop staple reimagined with housemade sauces and bubbly, fermented dough. LUKE FORTNEY
173 Orchard Street (Stanton Street), Manhattan; 347-470-1886; jonnyspizzanyc.com
Gravesend | dumbo
L&B Spumoni Gardens
Before hot honey, burrata and sourdough crusts, there was the Sicilian square from L&B Spumoni Gardens, crunchy, char-licked and designed as affordable sustenance, spilling over with tomato sauce. A crunchy corner slice is all you need to understand why this Gravesend institution has endured since 1939, and the scene in the summer is unmatched. Sit at one of the outdoor tables with a slice (or a whole pie with like pepperoni or anchovies) and an almond-kissed spumoni, and revel in what a casual night out in Brooklyn used to look like. LUKE FORTNEY
Multiple locations, Brooklyn; 718-449-1230; spumonigardens.com
Williamsburg | West Village | Little Italy
L’Industrie
At L’Industrie, attention is paid to every detail. The flour is custom milled for the restaurant, the ingredients are imported from Italy and the slices seamlessly marry New York and Italian traditions. This pizza is aided by a fresh-tasting sauce and a crust whose toasty, sourdough-esque flavor stands on its own. A creamy dollop of burrata makes the cheese slice even better, and to further gild the lily, the gelato, with flavors like pistachio with sea salt and olive oil, is as good as any you’ll find at a stand-alone ice cream shop. PRIYA KRISHNA
Multiple locations, Brooklyn and Manhattan, lindustriebk.com
Schuylerville
Louie & Ernie’s Pizza
Anyone who has crisscrossed the boroughs understands that for every chic corner of downtown Manhattan or North Brooklyn, there are dozens more sleepy neighborhoods where change takes decades instead of just a few months. That is more or less the story of Louie & Ernie’s, the pizza spot in the Schuylerville section of the Bronx, where for decades patrons have descended the short staircase in search of margherita pies and sausage pizzas. Blink and you’ll miss it on its quiet residential corner, but you’d be missing one of the city’s most classic slices. NIKITA RICHARDSON
1300 Crosby Avenue (Waterbury Avenue), The Bronx; 718-829-6230; louieanderniespizza.com
Upper West Side | West Village
Mama’s Too Pizzeria
When Frank Tuttolomondo started selling thick, square slices from his parents’ Upper West Side pizzeria, he was shunned as a heretic. “I couldn’t give them away,” he said. He found an audience after opening his own pizzeria a block away, where slices with fried chicken, cacio e pepe and street corn became standard protocol. For all the focus on square pizza, the triangular “house slice” has become a bit of a cult object. The glug of olive oil and grated Parmesan call to mind Di Fara Pizza, with a leavened crust that reflects modern baking trends. Sometimes a square peg fits through a round hole. LUKE FORTNEY
Multiple locations, Manhattan; mamastoo.com
Ridgewood
Mano’s Pizzeria
Any neighborhood would be lucky to have a Mano’s. But it’s Ridgewood that won this particular lottery. For fans of new wave pizza, characterized by tangy, fermented crusts that stand straight when folded, Mano’s has become a destination. The owner, Nick Manopella, takes great lengths to ensure his slices don’t land in your stomach like a dumbbell, fermenting the dough for several days and ladling on unsweetened tomato sauce. It’s all highly technical, but it doesn’t take much thought to enjoy a plain slice at Mano’s. LUKE FORTNEY
62-98 Forest Avenue (Butler Avenue), Queens; 718-418-1112; manospizzeria.nyc
Great Kills
Nonna’s Pizza
Nothing builds up an appetite quite like driving to the heart of Staten Island in a borrowed car. You’re sure to pass venerable stalwarts like Lee’s Tavern and Denino’s on the way to Great Kills, but don’t let your foot off the gas. The slices at Nonna’s Pizza, open for nearly two decades, are in a tier of their own, distinguished by toothsome, char-marked crusts. (That’s because of the oven, in part, a retro model that rotates around a central axis like a water mill. “No cold spots,” an employee said.) Don’t snub the inland clam slice, and be sure to order the “upside down” triangle, a style typically found at brick oven joints. It’s reverse engineered — cheese first, and then sauce — which is exactly what you want when the tomatoes are as good as these. LUKE FORTNEY
27 Brower Court (Nelson Avenue), Staten Island; 718-227-8108; nonnasoldfashion.com
Bushwick | East Village
Ops
When Mike Fadem, an aspiring pizza maker, took over a former car garage in 2016, he figured it would make a good natural wine bar. Customers had other ideas. From the moment they bit into his wood-fired pizzas, Ops was fated to become a pizzeria. Just look at them: the puffy sourdough crusts, the black bubbles crackling around the edges and the tangy tomato sauce that sputters out of the oven with a wisp of steam. Whether you order the Juno with scalloped potatoes or the Cicero buried under “many onions,” one thing is for sure: Your pizza will arrive on a jumbo can of Bianca DiNapoli tomatoes, like a U.F.O. touching down. LUKE FORTNEY
Multiple locations, Brooklyn and Manhattan; opsbk.com
East Harlem
Patsy’s Pizzeria
The original Patsy’s Pizzeria was founded in 1933 by Pasquale Lancieri, known as Patsy, in what was then called Italian Harlem. The name of the neighborhood changed, but the approach is rooted in that past. The allure after all these years is coal-oven pizza dispensed by the slice and, critically, that you can purchase a whole pie for under $20. Here is a pizza that’s better without toppings, thin and soft with big circles of aged mozzarella throughout. The pale outer crust is nothing special, but everything leading up to it is. LUKE FORTNEY
2287 First Avenue (East 118th Street), Manhattan; 212-534-9783; instagram.com/patsyspizza
Bushwick
Roberta’s
Going to Roberta’s is like taking a trip back to 2008, before Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood abounded with trendy restaurants and third-wave coffee shops. More than 15 years later, the restaurant retains its indie, pseudo-punk spirit and millennial crowds, and the pizza remains excellent. You go for the Bee Sting, a thin but sturdy pie with a charred crust lined generously with hot honey and soppressata, whose edges are crisp and curling up. Roberta’s has since branched out into frozen pizzas, festival pop-ups and even locations in Los Angeles and Nashville — but nothing hits like the original. PRIYA KRISHNA
261 Moore Street (Bogart Street), Brooklyn; 718-417-1118; robertaspizza.com
Bedford-Stuyvesant
Rocco Pizza
This mini-chain of family-owned pizzerias has been a neighborhood secret for decades, but it’s high time the secret got out. Nothing about Rocco’s low-key exterior would clue in a passer-by to its status as the home of one of the city’s best grandma pies — a recipe created by an actual grandmother. A pool of tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil is framed by a shatteringly crispy and buttery crust that tastes as if it were deep-fried but is prepared simply enough on a sheet pan, a testament to the glory of a really good dough. NIKITA RICHARDSON
Multiple locations, Brooklyn, roccopizza.com
Coney Island
Totonno’s
Fires, hurricanes and rumors of an impending sale: Nothing has been able to stop Totonno’s of Coney Island, one of the country’s first pizza makers. Walking through the worn screen doors of this pizzeria, opened in 1924 by Antonio Pero, feels like stepping back in time, to when Coney Island was a Brooklyn beach town and pizza was simply made with little more than mozzarella and rococo splatters of tomato sauce. The toppings are limited. The coal oven is an endangered species. And the paper plates are waiting in a stack by the door. “Help yourself,” says Antoinette Balzano, a third-generation owner who takes orders from the back booth on a scratchpad. When pizzerias like this are gone, they’re gone. LUKE FORTNEY
1524 Neptune Avenue (West 16th Street), Brooklyn; 718-372-8606; totonnosconeyisland.com
Lower East Side
Una Pizza Napoletana
Set a 9 a.m. alarm two weeks in advance, and you still might not score a reservation at Una Pizza Napoletana. Such is the well-deserved demand for Anthony Mangieri’s margherita pies, which are carefully turned with a wooden peel until their crusts rise like the scorched outer rim of Krakatau. Go ahead, use a fork and knife. No use trying to lift the puddle of tomato sauce and molten mozzarella waiting in the middle. The elastic, deeply blistered dough ensures that nearly every pizza on the menu is worth ordering. (If only: Pizzas are limited to one per customer.) LUKE FORTNEY
175 Orchard Street (Stanton Street), Manhattan; 646-476-4457; unapizza.com
Ditmas Park
Wheated
For decades, pizza makers in New York and New Haven have been at each other’s throats over who makes the better pie. But there’s been little reason to make the trip north since David Sheridan opened Wheated in Ditmas Park. Technically, this is an artisanal pizzeria with a full bar. But the most fascinating portion of the menu is the brief section of New Haven-style pizzas, added to the menu in 2023 and cooked to crunchy oblivion. The dough is pressed thinner than Frank Pepe or Sally might prefer, but it’s just right for the tangy, oregano-flecked tomato sauce. LUKE FORTNEY
905 Church Avenue (Coney Island Avenue), Brooklyn; 347-240-2813; wheatedbrooklyn.com
The post The Best Pizza Places
