London’s best restaurants for pizza

What kind of pizza is it? Crispy and perfect New Haven pies.

Ozzy’s is the second New Haven pizza joint to call the lowkey Bedford Tavern in Finsbury Park its home – the first was Lenny’s Apizza, which has just moved to a slick new space in Covent Garden. Chef Milo learned the ropes at the original Ozzy’s in New Haven, and the menu here is mostly classics – a cheese, a pepperoni, a sausage – with a few crazies in there too. But what we love most is that New Haven base: crisp, charred and entirely unfloppable, with a serious, satisfying chew.

What should I order? The Fish & Chip pie is a British twist on a New Haven classic – clams, potato scallop and dollops of tartar sauce.

What kind of pizza is it? Crispy New York-style with London sass.

Dough Hands is a roving pizza proposition currently in permanent residence at the always lively Spurstowe Arms by London Fields and at All My Friends in Hackney Wick from May 7. The project of chef Hannah Drye, her mega New York-style pies are big and heartily topped behemoths, with brittle (in a good way) crispy crusts and a pleasingly oily array of toppings. If you don't like getting your fingers dirty, then Dough Hands isn't for you – red oil runs down your elbows, ready to stain shirts and shorts with little compassion. You'll let it though. The garlic and herb dip is a must for any leftover crusts.

What should I order? The Jode (tomato, mozzarella, n'duja, hot honey and stracciatella) is a masterpiece. 

What kind of pizza is it? New York-style.

Bad Boy Pizza Society started out as a parody university society before it became a serial award winner with a series of revered pub and market locations. The best one can say about Bad Boy Pizzeria, the group’s first proper pizza joint on Bethnal Green Road, is that all the hype was extremely well-deserved. These 18-inch New York-style pizzas – served both by pie and slice – are masterpieces of the form, from their flashy vodka sauce to the base’s meticulously balanced crisp and in-no-way-scrimping toppings. Racy hot honey and fresh-dill ranch dips, as well as a very drinkable collab lager with Pretty Decent Beer Co, chilled New Theory red wine on tap and cutesy red-tiled, wood-panelled East End pie ’n’ mash shop décor only goes to sweeten the deal.

What should I order? The ‘vodka-roni’ is BBP’s signature and the obvious choice, with piled pepperoni, slathered vodka sauce and delicately weighted cheese. This a pie on which a pizza empire will no doubt be built. If you’ve got spare stomach space, the vodka rigatoni – delightfully sloppy, with creamy, tickling spice – would be well at home in a proper, dedicated pasta place. 

What kind of pizza is it? Romana-style with Chicago thin crust.

There’s a scene in Saturday Night Fever where John Travolta’s dad tells him: ‘yer mudda’s spaghetti sauce don’t drip. It don’t taste. And it don’t drip’. Well Leyton’s finest don’t drip, but it certainly do taste. Big time. This thin crust, zero-flop pie acts as a canvas for Short Road’s Italian founder Ugo to paint all kinds of crazy flavours. Paying homage to his grandfather Gigi's ‘a bocca o forno’ (on the edge of the oven) technique, they pair the light crispy dough with exciting flavour combos (nduja bechamel) and creative takes on old favourites (marinara with garlic puree and spicy chimichurri). Get it at the William The Fourth in Leyton, and Three Colts in Bethnal Green. 

What should I order? Get the marinara and add burrata and anchovies. It's an extra fiver but well worth it.

What kind of pizza is it? Thin, crispy and elegantly topped New York style slides.

Covent Garden has always, for some indeterminate reason, felt a little like New York. It stands to reason then, that a New York-worthy slice shop would open here. Carmy’s - a drop-in, spin-off of Islington pizza restaurant Carmela's - doesn’t just offer fast and breezy service, but a short, impeccable menu of five pizzas that range from simple, unadorned cheese slices to a potent vodka sauce, pepperoni and stracciatella. 

What should I order? Go for the monster ‘loaded pep’ slice. It’s a true feat of culinary engineering, in which a pepperoni slice is dolloped with huge splodges of fresh, creamy stracciatella and smeared with hot maple syrup (hot honey who?), yet retains its enviably thin and crispy base. Sogginess? Not even the merest suggestion.

What kind of pizza is it? Fresh Hot Pizza does a solid take on the London slice; crispy bottoms, tasty dough and left-of-centre toppings. 

Chef James Fox has excellent pizza pedigree, with stints under his belt at modern London classics; Ria’s, Dough Hands and Crisp. Find him pushing out pies at the Fresh Hot residency at The Fox, a great Haggerston pub that reopened last year after being shut for almost a decade. The Fresh Hot take on the most controversail of all slices; the Hawaiian, might just change minds. A perfect pie with san marzano tomatoes and stringy mozzarella, it's topped off with cute cubes of Spam, sweet splodges of pineapple and a tangy dusting of Tajin to bring the whole thing together. 

What should I order? Take a punt on the special if there is one. A recent collab saw Fresh Hot Pizza teaming up with The Macbeth in nearby Hoxton for a sloppy yet sturdy take on the meaty and saucy Portuguese sandwich, the francesinha.

What kind of pizza is it? New York-style with a university education.

Spring Street is the brainchild of Michelin-starred chef Tom Kimble, a man more associated with mise-en-place than mozzarella. Can a career as a top-ranking purveyor of hoity-toity haute cuisine prepare you for the salami-slinging world of 'za? It turns out yes, it can. The pizza at Spring Street - made using dough that ferments for two or three days - is sensational. As light and crispy as London's finest NY-style slices, but with a crust that isn't going to crumble into dust in your mouth. Great variety of colour across the slice too (not just slabs of orange). Someone (Tom) has thought long and hard about flavour balancing and texture. And it shows.

What should I order? Go for the 18-inch pies, as they create a better slice than the smaller ones. 

What kind of pizza is it? A chewy New York/Neapolitan hybrid.

Ace Pizza does a good job of breaking up the undeniable smugness of Victoria Park Village with its uber-casual attitude. Five Points Brewing Co’s Hackney home, the Pembury Tavern, is where Ace started out, and you’ll still find them there as well. Ace Pizza’s stonebaked pies owe their deliciousness to their cold fermented ‘biga’ sourdough starter, which means the dough and base remains crispy at the bottom as well as on the crust. They come as 12 inch individual pizzas, with local specials like the Hackney Hellboy with vegan nduja. Add a chilli-honey drizzle to your pizza or some rightfully addictive crack sauce for crust dipping purposes. 

What should I order? The Double Pep comes with extra, extra pepperoni. How could you refuse such an offer?

What kind of pizza is it? Light Neapolitan-style pizza.

This rapidly expanding pizza chain does extremely tasty pies. They serve up all the  traditional classics (marinara, marghertia, capricciosa, calabrese etc) as well as regular specials and banging desserts. Don’t forget to order chilli honey and nduja aioli for drizzling and dipping purposes and a potent rum baba for pud. The Shoreditch location joins outposts in Soho and on Tottenham Court Road, as well as others across London.

What should I order? The vegan nduja ortolana, with plant-based nduja, roasted tenderstem broccoli, chestnut mushrooms, and rocket pesto. 

What kind of pizza is it? Detroit-style.

Detroit-style pizza is on the up in London – but which of the capital’s pizzerias will perfect it first? Ria’s in Notting Hill stylishly flicks its hat in the ring. Detroiter pizzas have a rep for being weighty on both the scales and the stomach – instead Ria’s are delicate and scrupulous, each bite meticulously measured to sink just the right amount, to crunch at exactly the right depth. The toppings are equally weighted, dollops of mozz, sweet caramelised onions and tangy lemon basil sauce all sitting atop airy crispness. Motor City flawlessly refined in the heart of west London.

What should I order? Roasted king prawn pizza with slow cooked marinara sauce, a parmesan crust, salsa macha marinated king prawns, and gorgonzola cream drizzle.

What kind of pizza is it? New York-style, crispy crackly pizzas that are way lighter than their comparatively doughy Neopolitan cousins. 

An atmospheric, noisy spot off Marylebone High Street, Alley Cats is an ideal place to indulge. The menu’s short, but who needs choice when the standard offerings are so effective? There are seven styles of pie on offer, all served at a hunger-busting size of 14”. If you are in the market for starters, both the candied bacon and sauce-slathered meatballs should not be missed. There are now four locations across London, including Portobello Road, Westbourne Grove and Chelsea.

What should I order? The fantastic pizza take on the classic penne alla vodka is every bit as moreish and comforting as the dish that inspired it.

What kind of pizza is it? New York, via London’s commuter belt.

Bushey’s ultra-hyped slice of the Big Apple has officially landed in London. Just a few steps from Brick Lane at 122 Bethnal Green Road, Vincenzo’s east London location not only feels like New Yoik – a grand showcase of pies, dark wood panels and rich green tiles, proper parlour-style – but has the grand tastes to match. Featherweight, wondrously non-oily pies, crusts draped in lashings of parmesan, never overburdened nor stingy with the mozz, refined sweetness in each daub of vodka sauce. The trim and thoughtful menu has classics (cheese, tomato, pepperoni, vodka) as well as more ambitious pies (burrata, spanakopita), all served as a whole 16-inch pizza or by the slice from a 20-inch. And yes, sigh, it all passes the ‘flop test’. With ease.

What should I order? The ‘spanakopita’, which is Vincenzo’s boldest diversion from the NYC classics. I was so enamoured with the Greek-pie inspired pizza, with its creamed spinach, crumbly feta and sprawlingly spiced honey, that I got halfway through before realising it had a white base.

What kind of pizza is it? Thin and crisp East Coast style, with simple but serious toppings.

Not content with serving one of London’s best burgers at his iconoclastic Finsbury Park gastroboozer The Plimsoll, Ed McIlroy is now coming for London slice supremacy. And working with Joe Beddia of Philadelphia’s Pizzeria Beddia (which was once declared ‘America’s best pizza’ by Bon Apétit magazine), he stands more than a fighting chance. There are four pizzas, all of them are customisable with mushroom, pepperoni, sausage and anchovy, making for a much larger number of possibilities.

What should I order? Feeling experimental? Go for the curry pizza which is essentially saag paneer on a taut and torched base with an exactingly crisp bottom. Or keep it classic with Calabrian chilli, greens and Coolea cheese.

What kind of pizza is it? Wood-fired Neapolitan with creative toppings.

Yard Sale pizzas are served fresh from the oven in either 12" or 18" stone-baked sourdough rounds. Toppings range from classic margherita to the crowd-pleasing TSB with tenderstem broccoli, parmesan and pine nuts. They peddle gluten-free bases and fully vegan toppings too. There are 13 branches spread far and wide across London – from Clapton to Tottenham, and with the latest outposts in Hither Green, Tufnell Park and Earlsfield – so you’re never too far from one of their sublime pies. 

What should I order? Check out their latest collab - recent decents include team-ups with Tayyabs, Ottolenghi Test Kitchen and What Willy Cook.

What kind of pizza is it? Proper Neapolitan, knife-and-fork required.

Despite recent growth in the parishes of New York, Detroit, Sicily et al, the Neapolitan church still dominates London’s pizza scene. And if you’re after by-the-book Naples, very, very few do it better than Fatto a Mano. The mini-chain’s core ingredients are top of the range: a teeth-smothering sweet tomato base and gloopy splodges of mozz with ginormous leaves of basil. Combine that with a top bake (thin in the middle with miraculously airy clouds of crust), thoughtful flavour combos (like spicy arrabbiata and succulently sweet shallots, smoked ricotta and crispy aubergine) and resplendent sides (the Sicilian fried olives are godly globules of crisp and tang), and it’s all too easy to see why every outpost (Soho, Covent Garden, Bethnal Green, Kings Cross etc) is rammo most nights.

What should I order? Don’t be intimidated by Fatto a Mano’s grand, fluffy crusts – they’re anything but stodgy. And they’re a great reason to indulge in the dip selection, which are three for a fiver (my fave: the peppery, silky, genuinely-quite-hot spicy mayo).

Visiting between October 19 and November 22? Consider ‘The Champion’ – it’s a special charity pizza which will help raise money for Brighton Table Tennis Club, and it’s available at all branches of Fatto A Mano. They’re a tenner each on launch day and after that, £1 from each pizza sold will be donated.

What kind of pizza is it? Thin, crisp (naturally) New York pizza. Crisp Pizza moved to The Marlborough in Mayfair in October 2025.

Had enough of the ubiquitous, doughy Neapolitan-style pizza that's taken London by storm over the past decade? Then taste the pizza born in backstreet Hammersmith pub, The Chancellors. Thin, stiff and perfectly rendered New York-style slices are cooked up by Carl McCluskey, and are now in residence at this grand, revamped boozer on the corner of North Audley Street and North Row. Keep your eyes open too, for the occasional collab with the likes of pasta supremos Padella. 

What should I order? The tie-dye pie, with spicy tequila sauce and a pesto swirl.

What kind of pizza is it? Neapolitan, natually.

So, the head chef at Napoli on the Road got voted the literal best chef in the world. No, really. The world! And hey, the pizza really is very good, all light and fluffy crusts and fresh AF tomato sauce and delicious dollops of fior di latte, with some really out-there flavour combos too. The fritti are a must-order: get the frittatina (literally deep-fried cheesy bucatini) and the very good supplì. Add an aperol spritz, or one of the delicious wines on offer that the staff team hand-picked in Napoli. The best pizza in London? Probably not. But a serious contender? Certainly.

What should I order? Simplicity works with pizzas this good; go for the classic margherita. 

What kind of pizza is it? Slow-fermented biga dough pizzas with epic crusts and dramatic toppings (aka lots of burrata).

After a run of NYC-style sliceries opening in the capital, it’s almost refreshing to see the return of the chunky, doughy pizza. Battersea’s Breadstall – who launched their buzzing Soho flagship on Berwick Street at the start of 2025 – have nailed the old school Neapolitan slice, but given it a fabulously cripsy bottom and floppy, almost naan-like crust. Their whopping 20 inch pies come thickly topped with modern takes on trad options; rocket, burrata and pesto for the veggies, and spicy pepperoni with candied jalapenos, hot honey and yet more burrata for the meat-eaters. Eat-in, or pick up a massive quarter slice from their street-facing collection window. 

What should I order? If you’re hardcore, then go for the off-menu Clanger - a whole pizza, half of it covered in your choice of savory topping, and the rest folded into a sweet Nutella calzone. 

What kind of pizza is it? New York-style, but related to one of London’s top pizza spots.

Philosophy, political theory, London pizza – every big thinker has a school of thought. Among London’s many creeds of ’za, Hot Saint takes after Dough Hands, another TO fave, with former DH chef Tom Budakan now helming his own kitchen at the Old Queens Head on the Angel end of Essex Road. As with Dough Hands, it’s New York style and in a very nice, trendy pub – but with added dough science. High-protein Canadian flour and a dash of rye make Hot Saint’s pies taut but not remotely chewy. The cheese makes itself known with a nostril-filling punch you rarely get from NYC-style, but toppings are wisely balanced and high-quality: wafts of meaty Portobello mushroom, cool and tickling cashew pesto, lashings of parmesan so generous that they’re blowing around the table. And it’s all served with the resplendent cocktail selection of this Paul Mescal-approved boozer – what’s not to like?

What should I order? The vodka pesto pizza’s plops of stracciatella, drool of cashew pesto and silky vodka sauce are a marvel of teamwork: none individually mind-blow, but together they make one of this city’s great pies. Oh, and Hot Saint only does one dessert but it’s unmissable: banana miso ice cream with glossy soft-serve and caramelised banana chips.

What kind of pizza is it? Deep pan mini pies. A true original in the game we call pizza.

After a stint serving up pies at a brandy distillery in Walthamstow, Little Earthquakes is now in residence in Dalston at the ever-reliable Railway Tavern on St Jude Street. The latest project from chef Neil Rankin, these super cheesy and deliriously delicious deep pan pizza pies are 6 inches wide and come over like a sexy mega-crumpet. They’re topped and filled with seriously hearty stuff; mortadella, punchy jalapeno pesto, salami ragu, taleggio and honey. There’s even a vegan option with roasted aubergine. Catch them from 6-9pm every Tuesday to Friday and 3-9pm on Saturdays.

What should I order? The carbonara-style Taleggio and Guanciale.