The 16 Best Pizza Places in New York

Borough: Brooklyn

Even though this is the best place to take out-of-towners, do not mistake L&B Spumoni Gardens for a tourist trap. The Gravesend pizzeria has been operating since 1939, and after one bite of their iconic Sicilian-style squares, it’s easy to see why. At L&B, they do an upside-down-style slice, where the thick pizza is topped with cheese first and then sauce before being baked off. They do circular pies, too, but it’s perfectly alright to skip over them and just order an extra square pie to go.

Borough: Manhattan

No frills necessary when the pizza is consistently great. The floors are scuffed, and there's one of those walls of cheesy signed celebrity headshots, but the pizza is always piping hot and well seasoned. John's is a legendary spot, not known for its exceptional sourcing or its long-fermented dough, but for its consistency over decades. Drinks are served by the pitcher, the restaurant only sells whole pies, and unsurprisingly, the restaurant is cash only. But when the Sasso pie arrives at the table, piping hot, simply made with melted cheese, sauce, and some black pepper for good measure, it will all make sense.

Borough: Manhattan and Staten Island

Staten Island is often an overlooked borough, but it’s home to some of New York City’s best pizzerias. Case in point? Denino’s, which opened in 1937 as a hangout for dockworkers. Today, Denino’s serves one of the best versions of the paper-thin-and-crispy tavern-style pie, best eaten by hand with a cold beer in the other hand. You cannot go to Denino’s and walk out without having ordered one of their famous clam pies, which arrives at the table rippling with a generous number of briny minced clams and a nice layer of gooey mozzarella cheese on a crisp crust. And if you can’t make it to Staten Island, you’re in luck: Denino’s expanded to the West Village in 2016, followed by two locations in New Jersey.

Borough: Brooklyn

Like all the best things, it's hard to put the pizza at Lucky Charlie into one simple box. It's not quite New York-style pizza, but it's also not quite New Haven-style. However you classify it, it's an excellent thin-crust pizza that is baked in the Bushwick restaurant's 19th-century coal oven. (The restaurant claims that it's the oldest one in operation today.) The white pie does not hold back on the cheese—there's stracciatella, pecorino sardo, parmesan, and asiago—and that's a very good thing. It's jam-packed with that pleasantly salty and umami flavor. Perhaps best of all, Lucky Charlie serves its pizzas (and its very good pastas) until 3 a.m.

Borough: Brooklyn and Manhattan

Lucia Pizza is on a bit of an expansion tear. The pizzeria, which started in Sheepshead Bay, now has shops in Soho, Gramercy, and the Upper East Side. This is good news for everyone because the pizzeria's high-quality slices have never been easier to find. The NY Plain is the platonic ideal of a plain cheese slice, but the more novel options should not be overlooked. The Spinach slice is a green-and-white-striped masterpiece inspired by the creamed spinach from the legendary steakhouse Peter Luger. And the Caramelle Piccanti—topped with hot cherry peppers, pepperoni, and Mike's Hot Honey—takes the sweet-but-salty combination to its peak.

Borough: Manhattan

Founded in 2025 by two former employees of the tweezer-precise institution Eleven Madison Park, Ceres is polished, expensive, and worth it. Its signature pizza, the Nduja (pictured above), runs almost $80 with tax and tip, and it is indeed a rich, innovative experience. The balsamic vinegar is a welcome change from the hot-honey phenomenon that’s run rampant in kitchens across the city, especially when paired with the spicy sausage. Lots of care and calibration have gone into the crispy texture, and if you feel like thanking the individuals who prepared your pie, you’ll find their names handwritten on the carryout box. That’s real attention to detail. —Ross Scarano

Borough: Manhattan

There are basically no misses on the menu at Rubirosa, the charmingly cramped Italian restaurant in Nolita. The Caesar salad is excellent, and so is the carbonara. But the real star of the menu is the paper-thin pizzas with cheese that runs right up to the edge. The vodka pie is a showstopper, especially when scattered with pepperoni, but the ultimate move is the Tie Dye pie, which is the vodka pie topped with a giant swirl of pesto. Make sure to grab a reservation; the restaurant fills up quickly and wait times can be challenging.

Borough: Manhattan

A newcomer to cheese and dough in NYC is an import from Japan. Pizza Studio Tamaki in Tokyo is on basically every single best-pizza-in-the-world list for its Tokyo-style Neapolitan pies with lots of chew and an exceptionally bubbly crust. The East Village location, which opened earlier this year, is already a tough reservation, but it's worth it for their exceptional pizzas made with a proprietary blend of flour that is milled in Japan for the restaurant. Be sure to wear a pair of stretchy pants because you'll want to order more than one pie for yourself, especially when you find yourself deciding between the namesake Tamaki pie, made with smoked mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, and the Arrabiata, which features ‘nduja and a generous amount of garlic.

Borough: Manhattan

There have been several iterations of Una Pizza Napoletana since 1996, and its current version, located on the Lower East Side, is its best yet. The restaurant is only open three days a week, but it's worth stalking the website for a reservation to get your hands on one of chef Anthony Mangieri's wildly photogenic Neapolitan pies with extra puffy and gently charred crust. The Margherita pie, dropped on the table straight from the oven with steam still wafting off the cheese, might just be a perfect pizza. Just try to go in a group if you want to try more than one pizza—the restaurant limits diners to just one pizza per person.

Borough: Brooklyn

Chrissy's, which now has a brick-and-mortar location in Greenpoint, started off as a wildly popular pop-up during the pandemic. While the plain pies are solid, this is the pizza place for those who love to flavormaxx and seek out novelty. The pizzeria is constantly dropping specials on its Instagram page with genuinely fun topping combinations like fig jam, ricotta, and spicy soppressata; or mortadella with pickled long hots and a thick swirl of housemade pesto; or a French onion pie that feels like what the soup has always aspired to be. Chrissy's does not do slices, though, so be prepared to house a whole pie (which, honestly, is not that difficult of a task).

Borough: Brooklyn

Everything about this place is a challenge. It's impossible to make a reservation, the line is always there and always long (people seriously start lining up as early as 2 p.m.), and it's cash only. But it's worth enduring all of the hassle and hitting up the ATM for Mark Iacono's iconic thin-crust New York-style pizzas. The crust is that perfect mix of crunchy yet chewy, the sauce is tangy with a hint of sweetness, and he uses a mix of fresh and imported mozzarella to round out his pies. The Carroll Gardens institution is BYOB, though, so bring some bubbles to pop for when you finally snag a seat.

Borough: Manhattan and Brooklyn

L'Industrie is what happens when your most overachieving friend decides to open a pizzeria—every single detail is thought through. It starts with the dough, which goes through a three-day cold-fermentation process that allows the crust to develop a really robust flavor and an airy and crispy texture. Owner Massimo Laveglia and his team then meticulously source many of their ingredients from the best producers in Italy and thoughtfully top each pie. The pepperoni slice features crispy-on-the-edge pepperoni that feels both sweet and salty and, surprisingly, torn pieces of fresh basil that really elevate the pizza, and the New Yorker is made with salty crumbled sausage and perfect, tiny dollops of ricotta. There is always a line at both the original Williamsburg location and the newer West Village location because the entire city has figured out that L'Industrie is where you can find the quintessential slice.

Borough: Manhattan and Brooklyn

In a city teeming with incredible pizza options, what separates Ops from the rest is its naturally leavened (aka sourdough) crust. The fermentation process results in a crust that is tender with good chew and the perfect vehicle for the restaurant's clever topping combinations. Be sure to order the Cicero, which is made with "many onions," sharp provolone, and preserved tomatoes, and the Juno, which will make you wonder why broccoli rabe isn't a more common pizza topping. Ops is also known for its affordable natural-wines-by-the-glass list, which is available at both its original Bushwick location and its newer spot in the East Village.

Borough: Manhattan

Scarr's is perpetually busy, whether it's people lining up for a quick dinner slice or at midnight looking for something to soak up their Friday night decisions. And it's for good reason—owner Scarr Pimentel mills all of his own flour in-house at the Dimes Square institution, resulting in one of the best and most flavorful crusts in the city. The extra effort will cost you—a plain slice will set you back $5, and anything fancier will cost you at least $7—but the pizza is worth every penny.

Borough: Brooklyn

The pedigree of this Carroll Gardens pizza shop is enough to make it worth a visit. The owners are the team behind legendary spot Frankies 457 Spuntino and Frank's Wine Bar, so it's no surprise that the pizza at F&F is thoughtful and spectacular. The move is to grab a slice of hot sausage with brown butter sage—a remix of the best pasta dishes at Frankies 457 Spuntino—and a slice of the clam, which is extra garlicky and topped with breadcrumbs and fresh lemon. The truly generous move is to order whole pies of each and take them to share with friends.

Borough: Manhattan

There is no wrong move at Mama’s Too, where the counter is filled with a selection of heavy hitter slices, both classic and square. Their gas oven churns out a truly excellent cacio e pepe Sicilian-style square that is made with not one but four types of cheese and the right amount of black pepper to balance out the richness. The square pepperoni, which is generously dotted with crispy-edged pepperoni cups, is one of the best versions in the city, and keep an eye out for creative specials like an elote slice, which is piled high with corn, cotija cheese, crema, and Tajín. And thankfully, there’s two locations—a tiny one on the Upper West Side and a larger location in the West Village—to grab your fix.