London’s best restaurants for pizza

Yard Sale pizzas are served fresh from the oven here in Clapton 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 branches spread far and wide across London – the latest is set for Tottenham – so you’re never far from one of their sublime pies. 

Down in the basement of The Hoxton hotel you'll find La Cave natural wine bar, which is now the permanent home of Four Corners. These Detroit-style pizza pushers serves up some of the hunkiest slices in the city – big, chunky squares with crispy corners, chewy cheese and sensationally sloppy toppings. Guest chefs, such as Abby Lee from Peckham's perfect Malaysian eatery, will often pop-up with guest pies. We are obsessed. 

Bright blue colours set the tone in this Stokey pizzeria where the pizzas are gigantic and properly luscious. Vicoli di Napoli means ‘alleys of Naples’, which is where some say pizza was born – and the sisters who run this spot are doing a sterling job of keeping it alive and kicking. Mariana and margheritas are the house specials, but veer into the calzone and prosciutto e funghi section of the menu and you won’t be mad about it. Wash it down with some aperitivo. There’s even a Nutella pizza for pud – but we recommend the tasty tiramisu. 

If you're looking for deep dish in Soho, you've come to the right place. Japes does Chicago-style pizza – and these big sloppy beasts have come to steal your heart. They laugh in the face of a thin, crispy sourdough crust, and instead serve up seriously juicy pies with the most sensational cheese pull in town. 

Santa Maria has nailed the trifecta of peerless pizza: fresh ingredients, traditional methods, spectacular sourdough. The margherita at this Fitzrovia branch of the revered restaurant was practically perfect. Finding nowhere in London to match the pizza of their upbringing, Angelo Ambrosio and Pasquale Chionchio first set about recreating a slice of Naples in Ealing. There are also branches in Fulham and Islington as well as this Fitzrovia joint.

Sodo may look a little rough around the edges, but it’s really all about the pizza at this cheery branch of the mini-chain. Margheritas never have a lot to hide behind and our version was superb: the Neapolitan-style sourdough base (so-do, geddit?) was thin, crisp, delicious and impressively topped. Look out for ‘The Wicker Man’ (with ’nduja, mascarpone and pepperoni) and the ‘Jon Bon Chovy’, with tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and capers. Gluten-free options come on a base fashioned from butterbeans. There are branches in Hoxton, Bethnal Green, Deptford and Walthamstow. 

Four Hundred Rabbits in Nunhead is a restaurant that serves pizza and craft beer. So far, so Nunhead. The former is made with organic sourdough (thus chewy rather than brittle), while toppings are equal parts familiar and inventive – think chipotle-rolled goat’s cheese, rhubarb and piquillo peppers, or courgette with feta and pine-nut pesto. Also, snap up the banging specials, like the lamb mince, roasted cauliflower florets and pistachio dukkah. There are branches across south-east London, including West Norwood and Crystal Palace, too.

Find the delish Dough Hands in residence at Exhale Brewing's own Three Colts Tavern in Bethnal Green. The New York style pies are cooked up by Hannah Drye and come dripping in left-of-centre toppings, including 'nduja, gorgonzola, hot honey, egg yolk, pancetta, whipped ricotta, mortadella, pickles and mustard. 

Opened by Highbury locals Claudio Vescovo and Gianluca d’Angelo, Zia Lucia serves up an old-fashioned Italian family feast in a contemporary setting. Various 48-hour fermented doughs give the menu its USP: there’s a deliciously nutty wholemeal option, an impressive-looking vegetable charcoal one and even a gluten-free crust. Toppings are new classics (’nduja, aubergine, broccoli etc) and there’s also a vegan version involving butternut-squash cream. There are further branches across the capital, including Boxpark Wembley, Hammersmith, Stoke Newington and Balham. 

Wood-fired sourdough pizzas with serious artisan credentials guarantee queues at Franco Manca – no wonder this cult-status chain has spread across London like a drizzle of chilli oil on your plate. Prices are rock bottom, the pizzas are served up super-quickly, and kids can watch the pizzaiolo doing ‘messy play’ in the open kitchen. The original Brixton branch seems less pioneering these days, but the bustling Brixton Village market setting and the Neapolitan-style pizzas still do it for our money. 

The London outpost of the UK’s first vegan pizzeria (its other base is in Brighton, of course), Purezza offers a range of plant-based toppings – from smoked tofu to beetroot carpaccio – on a Neapolitan-style sourdough base. Try the Parmigiana Party, topped with rich aubergine pieces and lightly smoked ‘mozzarella’, made from fermented brown rice milk. 

A trendy street-food stall gone permanent, this cool pizza joint comes with a moody lick of paint and a stylish marble bar – although it’s all about the blistered Neapolitan-style specialities that are pulled out of the oven. Our top pick from a range of inventive toppings is the version strewn with merguez sausage (from Flock & Herd across the road), red onion, shredded cavolo nero and fior di latte – a Peckham classic in the making. 

Detroit-style pizza in innovative flavours, including a decent vegan spread. Try a Bombay Bad Boy, with curried aubergine, vegan mozzarella, green chilli, pickled red onion, raita, coriander and bombay mix, or a Queen Vegeta, with vegan mozzarella, roast onion, tenderstem broccoli, courgette ribbons and garlic oil.

Crusts are traditionally the unloved stepchildren of the pizza world, fated to be abandoned, chewed with a grimace, or pimped into oblivion via some sort of crassly vulgar stuffing. It’s very bold of Waterloo-based Crust Bros to bill theirs as the active USP of their customisable pizzas, but they really are very nice, a great tangy chewy border that’s quite different from the almost paper-thin base. You would obviously be off your rocker to see them as the actual best bit of the pizza, but it would be equally eccentric to leave them uneaten at the end of your impressively hearty meal.

The first north London branch of this popular Italian chain, which was voted the fourth best artisan pizza in the world, Berberè can now be found in Kentish Town as well as in Clapham Common. Expect all the usual sourdough tricks as well as some more innnovative offerings. The orange crush is a totally vegan – and totally delicious – combo of creamed butternut squash, leeks, black olives, fresh chilli and peanut butter, while the speck and zola pizza, features globs of gorgonzola, honey and walnuts. Don't forget to load up on crust dippers; spicy 'nduja and honey, aioli and garlic butter as well as basil and walnut pesto.

As an all-round restaurant specialising in southern Italian food, Mimmo La Bufala has a bias towards mozzarella (of course) and fish. The long list of 13" pizzas includes all the classics as well as seasonal variations such as tomato-free ‘bianche’. Mimmo’s signature version (named after the ebullient proprietor) is made in true southern Italian style, its thin base topped with juicy tomatoes, smoky provolone and melt-in-your-mouth buffalo mozzarella before being baked in a wood-fired oven.

A stripped-back ‘pizza bar’ version of swanky Cecconi’s in Mayfair, this Soho spot feels shabby-chic rather than top-end elegant, but its pizzette and more sizeable wood-fired pizzas are decent contenders in a crowded marketplace. Try the spicy salami pizza, or a quattro stagioni with ham, mushrooms, artichockes, olives, all washed down with a Negroni Sbagliato or Aperol Spritz, which are dispensed from taps at the bar. 

Having built a loyal following with its three-wheeler food van, Pizza Pilgrims opened its first bricks-and-mortar site on this busy Soho corner back in 2013. You can see the kitchen and pizza oven through the ground-floor windows as the cooks wheel out soft, chewy offerings in the Neapolitan style, with thick bases and generous on-trend toppings – ’nduja, salsiccia, friarielli and the like. Check out the Nutella ‘pizza ring’ for dessert.

This small chain’s original restaurant in Neal’s Yard dishes out pizzas fresh from a wood-fired oven – and boy, are they big ’uns. Thankfully, most of these thin-crusted beauties are available by the slice – although you can order a whole 20-incher, enough to feed you and two of your pals. They’ll even let you have more than one choice from the topping selections if you ask nicely. Homeslice has other branches in Marylebone and the City, too.

The name translates as ‘brothers of Vesuvius’ – a reference to the fact that this Summerstown pizza joint was set up by some enterprising Neapolitan lads who wanted to recreate a slice of their home city in SW17. Sit by the oven, admire the craft of the pizzaiolo as he spins the dough and watch as the traditional Italian toppings are assembled to order – perhaps friarelli (‘turnip top’ winter greens), juicy sausage or tender artichoke hearts. 

An artisan fast-food joint in a bar stools-only space that happens to be a former public loo, Joe Public serves its pizza US-style as a 20" pie (ie bigger than a grown-up’s arm) – so order by the slice. Two or three is plenty. Toppings have a Stateside vibe: chilli-flecked slivers of pepperoni or chicken and chorizo with halloumi and oregano. Prices are low, so this is not only a satisfying pit stop, but an absolute steal.

An impeccably hip drop-in selling seriously delicious pizzas by the slice up to 22" New York-style whoppers. The hours are long, portions are gigantic and the menu is downright wacky. Try a ‘Giorgio Moroder’ or a ‘Hot Mix 5’, while for the veggies there's a ‘Vegan Queen’, with artichoke hearts, green olives, red onion, sun-blush tomatoes and green sauce. The OG branch is over in Dalston. 

Theo’s is similar to indie artisan setups such as Franco Manca, dishing up Neapolitan-style sourdough pizzas and very little else. But this joint has made itself the crown pie-prince of Camberwell, with crusts that are soft and chewy on top and crisp underneath. Additions include datterini tomatoes, chestnut mushrooms, anchovies and pork in various guises – and they come piled high. There is also a branch in Elephant & Castle. 

Billing itself as a ‘superveloce’ (superfast) Italian, this industrial-looking canteen in Spitalfields really does serve its pizzas pronto – a flashing buzzer summoned us to the counter to collect ours less than five minutes after ordering. The menu lists all the classics alongside a couple of more recent immigrants, such as a tomato-free ‘bianca’ with great rosemary and garlic pungency. Baked in a large, igloo-like oven, the pizza bases are uniformly thin and light with a crisp crust. There are more joints in Aldgate, King’s Cross, Dalston and Holborn.