The Best Pizza Near The Circle, by the Record

A wood-fired oven anchors this craft brewery and Italian-American pizzeria tucked along Route 611 in the Pocono Mountains, where the logic is simple: hand-stretched pizza and house-brewed beer belong together. The room runs to natural wood and a relaxed, rustic vibe, and the menu leans into it with topped-up pies like the Molta Carne alongside gooey white options. Named among 50 Top Pizza USA's Excellent Pizzerias, so the oven is pulling its weight.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias

1. NJ.com #67 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #28 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

The square slices here come out of the pan thick, crisp-bottomed, and generously topped, which is the whole argument. This Upper West Side counter spot runs on a steady churn of regulars and walk-ins, with a few seats if you're lucky and no pretense about it either way. The cacio e pepe slice landed on Time Out's list of the best pizzas in the world, and 50 Top Pizza puts the shop at number four for slices in the country.

1. Time Out The Cacio e Pepe · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
2. 50 Top Pizza #4 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
3. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

1. Time Out The Cacio e Pepe · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
2. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

A wall of bread greets you before you see a single pizza, which tells you everything about Dan Richer's priorities. This wood-fired pizzeria in Jersey City runs on long-fermentation dough and a sourcing philosophy that treats New Jersey farms as co-authors, not suppliers. The original dining room, once a theater, still has that weathered-plaster gravitas. Ranked third in the country by 50 Top Pizza, and a James Beard nominee.

1. 50 Top Pizza #69 · 50 Top Pizza World
2. 50 Top Pizza #3 · 50 Top Pizza USA
3. 50 Top Pizza 2026 · Performance of the Year · 50 Top Pizza USA Special Awards

The Montanara Starita comes out of the kitchen lightly fried, sauced, and finished in the wood-fired oven, which is a more interesting origin story than most Midtown pizzas can claim. This Neapolitan pizza shop off Times Square is the New York branch of a Naples institution, run by a chef who grew up in the family craft. Ranked seventh on 50 Top Pizza USA, it draws a crowd that skips the tourist traps one block over and knows exactly what they came for.

1. 50 Top Pizza #29 · 50 Top Pizza World
2. 50 Top Pizza #6 · 50 Top Pizza USA
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
2. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

The booths at this coal-oven pizza parlor are so carved up with initials and signatures that the wood itself is basically a guestbook for the last several decades of Greenwich Village. Whole pies only, thin-crusted and charred just right, no slices and no exceptions. The room is loud, cheerful, and not trying to impress anyone, which is precisely why it has been full since before most of its customers were born.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias
2. Eater The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

A pizza shop inside a Times Square subway station, which sounds like a dare and turns out to be a genuinely good idea. Black-and-white checkered floors and 80s classics on the speakers give it a casual, slightly punk energy, and the thin-crust pies hold their own against the commuter chaos outside. Small plates cycle with the seasons before the pizza arrives. The Michelin Guide has taken note.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Eater The Best Restaurants Around Times Square

A few steps from Union Square, Ribalta is a Neapolitan pizza spot that takes its dough seriously, the kind of light, well-leavened crust that makes the New York slice feel like a different food entirely. The room is spacious and lively without being loud, and the menu runs well beyond pizza into appetizers and mains. It landed at number eight on 50 Top Pizza USA, which the regulars packing the tables on a Tuesday probably already knew.

1. 50 Top Pizza #19 · 50 Top Pizza World
2. 50 Top Pizza #8 · 50 Top Pizza USA

Inside Chelsea Market, Filaga runs a counter-service slice shop where the tray pizza arrives crispy, well-seasoned, and loaded with ingredients imported from Italy. The kitchen, oven, and prep are all in plain sight, and the whole setup is designed for the market's constant foot traffic rather than a leisurely lunch. Seating is shared and wherever you find a spot. It ranked eighth on the 50 Top Pizza Slice USA list, which is the kind of thing that draws a line.

1. 50 Top Pizza #8 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA

The brick oven sits in full view of the dining room, which at a Neapolitan-leaning pizza restaurant in Flatiron is either a statement or a dare. Audace is the kind of place where the dough does the talking: light, well-leavened, the sort that doesn't leave you horizontal by dessert. The room is calm and low-key, the service attentive without hovering. It landed on 50 Top Pizza USA and took their Best Cocktail List award, which is not a thing most pizza spots can say.

1. 50 Top Pizza #14 · 50 Top Pizza USA
2. 50 Top Pizza 2026 · Best Cocktail List · 50 Top Pizza USA Special Awards

A few steps from Madison Square Park, this pizza shop has made a name for itself with a well-fermented dough that stays light enough to eat without regret. The round NY-style pies lean into garlic, while the square pepperoni comes out properly leavened and crisp underneath. The XXL mozzarella stick, served with marinara, is the kind of starter that settles the question of whether to order it immediately. 50 Top Pizza USA ranked it thirteenth in the country.

1. 50 Top Pizza #13 · 50 Top Pizza USA
2. 50 Top Pizza 2026 · One to Watch · 50 Top Pizza USA Special Awards

Roberta's slice shop in the Penn District finishes each slice after the oven, adding basil, chili oil, or honey depending on what you ordered, which sounds fussy until you see how well it works. The long communal table inside spills out to Penn Plaza and connects up to a rooftop, so the format is grab-and-go but the footprint is not. The Bee Sting, with soppressata and honey, is the one regulars seem to circle back to.

1. 50 Top Pizza #15 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA

The bar room here was once a pharmacy, and the old apothecary shelves now hold bottles of wine and spirits where the remedies used to be. It's a multi-floor pizza and pasta spot in Jersey City with a rooftop that looks back at the New York skyline you just escaped. The pizzas follow Italian tradition, the spaghetti has its fans, and the music keeps the whole thing moving at a pace that feels deliberately un-Manhattan.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias

A wood-fired pizzeria on Mulberry Street where the margherita is the argument: light, airy dough with a properly blistered crust and ingredients that don't try to do too much. The room runs contemporary and lively, and on mild nights the outdoor patio makes the whole thing feel like a small favor from the city. The wine list is surprisingly deep for a pizza spot. Save room for the montebianco.

1. 50 Top Pizza #39 · 50 Top Pizza USA

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now