The absolute best pizza in Miami

Traditional Neapolitan style, the original pizza invented in Naples, has certainly had its moment in recent years, and there are a lot of places doing it well. But to be totally clear, nobody does it better than Stanzione 87. Expect fresh mozzarella on top of dough that has fermented for 72 hours and has that classic Neapolitan balance between soft doughiness and structure. Eat it with fork and knife as they do in Naples, or pick it up with your hands, American-style. Either way, you won’t be disappointed with any of the pizzas—which range from a classic Margherita to creative combinations like sliced lemons with burrata.

Miamians were collectively bummed to see the French-Persian restaurant Fooq’s die in 2021. Then owner David Fouquier pivoted, though, and turned the tiny space into the order-at-the-counter Eleventh Street Pizza. On the menu are two types of pies: New York thin crust and a thick, airy Sicilian style. While a monster slice of NYC-style pep does a great job soaking up late-night drinking, the finest thing here is those thick slices, big towers of dough covered with cupped pepperoni, wild maitake mushrooms with caramelized onions and a Provencal number with roasted red onions, confit garlic and pepperoncini. The Japanese milk bread garlic rolls are both sweet and savory, so much so you’ll probably want a second order for dessert.

The James Beard Award-winning chef behind such greats as Michael’s Genuine and Amara at Paraiso slings pizza from three locations in town: Coconut Grove, the Design District and, as of fall 2021, South Beach. A wood-burning oven puts out thin-crust pizzas using fresh dough and wheat flours (though a gluten-free option is also available). Go to town on the rock shrimp pizza with grilled lemon, buttery Manchego, scallions and ribbons of cilantro or a totally unique creation of roasted eggplant and harissa with a ribbon of sesame seeds along the crust. The meatballs are a must-order side, along with the polenta fries with spicy ketchup. Look out for daily specials listed on the chalkboard menu, featuring seasonal pies and a range of entrees.

Four decades after Rosa Donna Rummo opened Pummarola pizzeria in Naples, her grandkids have recreated a replica of the pizzas their nonna would make in the old country in three locations in Miami-Dade. As pizza must be in Naples, these are fluffy-edged, thin-crust pizzas that are generally light on the toppings but not skimpy on staying true to an authentic Neapolitan pie. The vibe here is a family-friendly neighborhood cafe, the kind of place you might go weekly if it’s near you, especially considering the frugality of it all: a quite excellent 10-inch Margherita rings in at $9.50.

The spacious 300-seat restaurant is a food hall spinoff of the Miami Beach fine-dining favorite Casa Tua that’s attached to the Brickell City Centre’s Saks Fifth Avenue store. Make your way to the northeast corner of the Cucina to find the pizza counter, a row of chairs facing the team that seems constantly at work kneading and throwing dough and then sliding pies into the wood-burning oven. The $16 Margherita is a study in good ingredients: fluffy dough, a simple fresh tomato sauce and a rich fior di latte mozzarella.

Unlike the rest of New York in Miami at any given time, this Sunset Harbour outpost of the famed Brooklyn-based pizza shop is not a snowbird. Find it in Miami year-round. Where most places sell only slices, Lucali is one of the few restaurants to sell NY-style pizza as a big, cheesy pie. Go with friends and order a plain cheese to share. The thin-crust pizza doesn’t need much else, save for extra fresh basil, which you can ask for free of charge.

The Miami outpost of this Florence pizzeria serves up authentic Neapolitan pies, which are made fresh to order and baked crispy in the open kitchen’s large brick oven. This place will do you in with its extensive list of toppings, including the deliciously spicy ’nduja sausage and fresh mozzarella—neither of which the restaurant skimps on. Make your pie truly remarkable (and slightly healthier) by ordering it with carbon style, made with a charcoal-infused dough that aids in digestion. A variety of pastas and Italian desserts are also on the menu, but these will only get in the way of eating more pizza.

This tiny pizza window in the back patio at Gramps makes one of the best New York-style pizzas in Miami. The best decision you’ll make after too many of Gramps’ famous Moscow Mules is a slice from Pizza Tropical. The second? Ordering it topped with sliced mushrooms (they don’t do the canned kind) and fresh basil. Pizza Tropical is only available for takeout right now but that shouldn’t keep you from taking a fresh-baked slice home.

We first discovered this mobile pizza pop-up outside Panther Coffee in Wynwood after a disappointing visit to a chain pizza place from Rome that had just opened around the corner. That afternoon, PizzElla had set up under the shade of a jacaranda tree and offered a respite: a Neapolitan style Margherita that hit all the notes, with a sauce of fresh tomatoes, a rich mozzarella, and a few tears of basil. Check the Instagram page for PizzElla’s location, likely at a brewery, where pies coming out of a 900-degree oven will remind you why this is, we assume, your favorite food.

Since opening in Wynwood, this pizza joint has spread to five locations, which is both to its benefit and detriment. Issues with consistency can mean Mister 01 is, as the name promises, extraordinary one day, ordinary the next. But when it’s on, Mister 01 is some of the best pizza, well, anywhere, and based on half of the experiences we’ve had here, it might have topped the list. Chef Renato Viola’s recipe calls for pies made with dough from flour his family ships directly from Italy. The pies, and Viola’s popular Star Luca—a star-shaped pizza with folded points that are filled with San Marzano sauce, ricotta, Calabrese salami and fresh basil—are the reason people will line up still at the original, hoping that it’ll be the same as they remember.

This Italian pizzeria in Coconut Grove pays tribute to owner Maurizio Farinelli’s grandmother and her eponymous pizzeria in Bologna. Like most popular restaurants in the neighborhood, Farinelli offers the opportunity to dine outdoors. Take a seat in the shady courtyard and cue up the prosecco, fresh-baked focaccia and any of Farinelli’s signature pizzas—which are cooked in a copper-coated, wood-burning oven that heats up to a fiery 800°F.

Tucked away in Miami’s historic Upper Eastside neighborhood, Ironside Pizza whips up traditional Neapolitan pies and a variety of other classic Italian dishes. Cooked in a wood-fired oven, pizza at Ironside is doused in San Marzano tomato sauce, drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and garnished with Italian staples such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, basil and black olives. There are gluten-free and vegan varieties too, as well as pasta, calzones and salads.

This chef-driven Italian spot is owned by Klime Kovaceski and his wife, Anita. It’s more than a pizza shop, where you can just as easily feast on a slice of pepperoni, tender meatball the size of your head or a heaping bowl of pasta. When you tire of wispy pies, try this one: Crust’s crust strikes the ideal balance between thin and crispy and soft and doughy. The thicker base (available as a gluten-free alternative) allows for more toppings; build your own from a list or choose a specialty pie like the BBQ chicken or meat-layered pizza.

Paradis Books & Bread is blissfully stuck in the past. From the natural wines that line its shelves and the naturally leavened sourdough it churns out daily to the books it stocks—real, tangible paperbacks!—there’s a true sense of nostalgia and reverence for the way things were. When it comes to the sourdough pizza, the cheese-less onion or the lamb and labneh pie are phenomenally delicious examples of Paradis’ rudimentary approach to letting good ingredients shine.

This O.G. of Miami’s brick-oven pizza game is housed in a historical MiMo-era building designed by celebrated modernist architect Robert Law Weed. Andiamo is one of Miami’s most unique pizza restaurants thanks to a mostly outdoor dining area that features picnic tables and projection screens, where flicks and sports games are regularly shown.

No Miami pizza roundup would be complete without a nod to Cuban pizza. Tio Colo’s isn’t the original purveyor but this Hialeah restaurant has perfected the formula—doughy with crispy edges and oozing with mozzarella and Gouda cheese. Cuban pizza resembles Detroit-style deep dish, made with a dense dough that’s left out to rise and plump longer. The thick crust is the perfect vehicle for picadillo, sweet plantains and other Latin toppings you’d only find on a pie conceived in Havana.

The Sunset Harbour outpost of Lucali, the famed Brooklyn-based pizza shop and wine bar, is perpetually slammed. So the owners opened a sister restaurant in Brickell called DC Pie Co., serving nearly identical thin-crust New York pies. To understand why Lucali is so loved, simply dig in to a slice of the traditional pizza ($24!), with its flavorful cooked-first sauce and a rich sprinkling of parmesan coming together, both tangy and sweet. Unlike nearly every pizza elsewhere on the planet, the Lucali/DC pie is rolled right to the edges with a wine bottle, leaving a good inch-wide section of crust as flat and crisp as a cracker, a literal dividing line at which you’ll either disavow or pine for this pie for the rest of your days.