Best pizza in New York
The city's finest pies.
New York’s pizza wars are legendary, with every chest-thumping Gothamite jockeying for the last word. The mystical combination of dough, sauce and cheese is as much a part of the culinary identity of NYC as hot dogs and soft pretzels. That’s why we combed the city’s grimiest slice joints and upmarket Neapolitan pizzerias to bring you this list of the very best pizza in New York City. Did we miss your favorite NYC pizzeria? Join the conversation in the comments.
Franny’s
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Thin, bubbly, locavore pizzas are the soul of this operation, helmed by husband-and-wife team Francine Stephens and Andrew Feinberg (Savoy). A sausage-and-cheese pie isn’t just a cravings-sater—it’s a work of art. The chewy, charred pizza, with coins of funky house-cured meat, buffalo mozzarella and fragrant Parmesan cheeses, a sauce that’s so sweet it reminds you that tomatoes are fruit, plus a drizzle of olive oil, is among the city’s best. Note: The place is popular, and they don’t take reservations.
- 295 Flatbush Ave, (between Prospect Pl and St. Marks Ave), 11217
Wild Rise
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Bringing pizza back to its preindustrial origins, the team behind Wild Rise eschews consistent one-strain commercial yeast for wild yeast—a collection of strains of the microorganisms, imported from Campagnia—to leaven its dough. The diversified yeast produces more complex flavor in these funky pies, which are dolled up with milky buffalo mozzarella, sweet Italian plum tomato sauce and fragrant torn basil, then baked in a custom-built, steel-insulated cylindrical oven. The springy char-kissed crust boasts deep earthy and tangy notes that stand up to the bold flavors of the spot's primo ingredients—ultra-porky pepperoni and pungent hard-neck garlic. Choose from winners like marinara, Margherita, cremini with pepperoni, and shiitake and garlic.
- 68 Jay St, (at Water St), 11201
Motorino
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Pie-maker Mathieu Palombino is a born-and-bred Belgian, yet his pizza pantry hits every Neapolitan note. His imported flour is of the doppio zero variety, while the tomatoes he uses are San Marzano, canned at the peak of ripeness. His cheese of choice is either tangy buffalo mozzarella or fior di latte, which is house-made at Motorino each morning. Then there’s the oven, a bell-shaped, ceramic-floored colossus that’s fed a combination of cherry, oak, birch and hickory woods and fired up to 900 degrees—each pie requires about one minute inside. That fancy flour produces a bubbly crust and the sauce more than holds its own: The DOP tomatoes come across bright and tart, an ideal foil to the dose of grassy olive oil and hit of musty pecorino that anoints each pie just before it’s served. Stick to one of the Margheritas to get the most out of the tangy buffalo mozzarella or the milder fior di latte. Motorino strays from the classics with seasonally inspired pies, including a version topped with brussels sprouts and speck.
- 349 E 12th St, (between First and Second Aves)
Forcella
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Pizzaiolo Giulio Adriani’s pies boast all the vaunted Neapolitan bona fides: Caputo 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes and a blistered, pillowy crust. But his montanara, a flash-fried pie inspired by a version he grew up with in Naples, is the real star here. This nouveau round—puffy and golden with a kiss of tangy sauce, creamy mozzarella and torn basil—has earned its rightful place in Gotham’s pizza pantheon.
- 334 Bowery, (between Bond and Great Jones Sts)
Kesté Pizza & Vino
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
If anyone can claim to be an expert on Neapolitan pizza, it’s Kest’s Roberto Caporuscio: As president of the U.S. branch of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, he’s top dog for the training and certification of pizzaioli (a former dairy farmer and mozzarella maker, he’s also intimately familiar with that most essential cheese). In addition to all the hallmarks of the Neapolitan product—San Marzano tomatoes, doppio zero flour, scorching-hot wood-burning oven—Caporuscio uses a slow-speed mixer to work his dough. Then, he gently stretches it into a round with his hands, since it’s far too soft for tossing. Man, does he get it right. Puffed with warm pockets of steaming air, it’s tender yet resilient, stretching ever so slightly as you tear it with your hands. All over the golden surface is an even spotting of tiny black blisters, just enough to deliver that brick-oven sear, but not so much that any single bite tastes burnt. Whatever you put on it, from the classic Margherita toppings to butternut squash puree with smoked mozzarella, it’s as close to the platonic ideal as we’ve found.
- 271 Bleecker St, (between Cornelia and Jones Sts)
Lucali
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Brooklyn’s pizza legacies are legion—from Grimaldi’s in Dumbo to Ditmas Park’s fabled Di Fara. To this noble lineup add Lucali. The artisanal intent at the candlelit pizzeria is visible in the flour-dashed marble counter where the dough is punched and stretched, and in the brick oven from which it later emerges crisp and blistered. There are just two items on Lucali’s menu: pies and calzones, adorned with milky, elastic mozzarella and simple toppings like chewy rounds of pepperoni or slivers of artichoke. There’s no wine list, but the unobtrusive staff will happily extract a cork from your own bottle—Grimaldi’s could learn a thing or two.
- 575 Henry St, (between Carroll St and 1st Pl)
Don Antonio
- Price band: 2/4
While tourists bumble into Sbarro looking for a New York slice, pizza aficionados have been busy colonizing this pedigreed newcomer—a collaboration between Kesté’s talented Roberto Caporuscio and his decorated Naples mentor, Antonio Starita. Start with tasty bites like the frittatine (a deep-fried spaghetti cake oozing prosciutto cotto and béchamel sauce), before digging into the stellar wood-fired pies, which range from standards such as the Margherita to more creative constructions like the Rachetta, a racket-shaped pizza with a “handle” made of ricotta-stuffed dough. The main event, however, should be the habit-forming Montanara Starita, which gets a quick dip in the deep-fryer before hitting the oven to develop its puffy, golden crust. Topped with tomato sauce, basil and intensely smoky buffalo mozzarella, it’s a worthy new addition to the pantheon of classic New York
pies.
- 309 W 50th St, (between Eighth and Ninth Aves)
Di Fara Pizza
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
For more than 40 years, Italian-born Domenico De Marco has eaten a slice of his own pizza every day—a one-man quality-control outfit. You know he’s doing something right. His painstakingly crafted Neapolitan pies—cracker-thin crust with a pleasing char and a subtle Parmesan zing—are widely considered to be among the city’s best. Herbs growing in the window boxes flavor the sauce, and the dough is made fresh several times a day. The wait can feel interminable and the scruffy surroundings lack charm, but you didn’t trek to Midwood for the scenery.
- 1424 Ave J, (at 15th St), 11230-37
Paulie Gee's
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Pizza hobbyist turned pro Paul Giannone produces truly original pies at this rustic Greenpoint eatery. The best pizzas here are mixed-media masterworks with gorgeously blackened crusts covered in crispy nooks and pillowy bubbles. The Honey Jones—a frequent special featuring honey from a Brooklyn beekeeper, Gorgonzola, mozzarella, cherries and wispy prosciutto—beautifully balances sweet and salty. The Rooftop Pie includes crunchy Brooklyn-grown kale, gorgeously singed atop mozzarella and sausage. Ask for a seat in the back for a view of the roaring oven—a custom-built, while-tiled dome that burns up to 1,000 degrees.
- 60 Greenpoint Ave, (between Franklin and West Sts)
Co.
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Sullivan Street Bakery owner Jim Lahey applies his bread-baking skills to the pizza trade at this unassuming north Chelsea pizzeria. The pies here live and die by Lahey’s famous no-knead pizza dough, which produces an exceptional firm-chewy crust blistered crisp and fast in a searing 900-degree oven. Individual, minimalist pies include the "flamb" (bchamel, Parmiggiano, buffalo mozzarella, caramelized onions and lardons) and the balanced Boscaiola with mushroom, sausage and a hot chili kick.
- 230 Ninth Ave, (at 24th St)
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