The Best Pizza in the United States

Anna's Vesuviano is a small, casual Neapolitan pizza joint on Doyle Ave where the crusts come out light and airy with leopard-spotted undersides. The mosaic tables are too small for the number of pies you'll inevitably order, which everyone treats as charm. Punk plays over the wine, and the wood-fired oven doesn't fully beat the chill, so bring a sweater in winter. Takeout is popular, but the bar seats fill up fast.

Black-and-white tile, Argentinian mementos on the walls, and a menu short enough to fit on a napkin: Boludo is a pizza and empanada shop that takes its cues from Buenos Aires. The chef trained in his grandmother's kitchen there before landing in Minneapolis, and the compact menu shows that restraint. The pizza crust has a faint sweetness that plays against the tangy tomato sauce, and the empanadas are dense and crispy-edged. Several locations around the Twin Cities, all doing takeout and delivery.

The wine list here gets talked about almost as much as the pizza, which is saying something given how good the Neapolitan pies are. This Brentwood pizzeria and wine bar keeps things simple: blistered crusts, quality toppings, and an affordable bottle selection that skews interesting rather than obvious. Rotating specials lean seasonal, and the appetizers hold their own. Casual enough for a weeknight, fun enough that you stay for another glass.

The tangerine walls and shelves stocked with tinned fish, art mags, and turntables tell you this isn't your average pizza shop before you've even ordered. The owner came up through visual merchandising and a stint at Roberta's, and it shows. Wood-fired Neapolitan-ish pies come with combinations that take a beat to process, in a good way. Ohio City's more design-conscious crowd has figured this out, naturally.

The pistachio-green wood-fired oven is the first thing you see, which tells you exactly where the evening is going. Dolomiti is a pizzeria and wine bar that anchors Millwork Commons, a warehouse district that recently decided it wanted nice things. Sourdough-crust pies come out blistered and a little smoky, and the mortadella panino, made from the same dough folded around house-made ricotta and pesto, keeps showing up in people's orders a second time.

The wood-burning oven was built in Naples by Stefano Ferrara and runs close to 1,000 degrees, which explains the blistered, char-edged crusts that come out of this Neapolitan pizzeria in downtown Fullerton. The mozzarella bar stocks cheese imported weekly from Caserta, so the margherita is taken rather seriously here. The dining room fills fast with locals who have clearly done this before, so plan accordingly.

The charred pizzas come from family roots: the team behind Gather 22 also runs Byrne's Grilled Pizza, and you can taste the lineage. This all-day neighborhood cafe and bar in Fall Creek does coffee and breakfast in the mornings, then pivots to lunch and dinner with a menu that ranges from those blistered pies to a vegan Philly made with house seitan. A lounge overlooks a pet-friendly patio, and the cocktail list leans playful.

The wooden door on King Street opens into a narrow, warm room that's been packed most nights for as long as anyone can remember. Indaco is a wood-fired pizza and pasta spot where the wine list leans affordable Italian and people tend to order a second bottle before they've finished the first. The leopard-spotted crust on the nduja pizza is the obvious draw, but the seasonal pasta earns its place on the table too.

Skate-punk graphics on the walls, pinball and Skee-Ball in the back, and a Neapolitan pizza menu with a rotating cast of weekly specials: this is the kind of pizza pub that spawned a small neighborhood empire and still feels like the original reason the other places exist. Vegan options run deep, the drink list stays local, and the room lands somewhere between dive bar and pizza parlor, which is exactly what Upper Fells Point asked for.

A 20-barrel brewhouse visible right behind the bar sets the tone at this brewery and casual restaurant in a handsome old warehouse near downtown. The house beers run from approachable lagers to a double IPA with a name that suggests it means business, and a wood-burning oven turns out Neapolitan-style pizzas alongside pretzels big enough to share whether you planned to or not.

Detroit-style pan pizza in a small fast-casual shop on Edwards, where the menu started life on Instagram during the pandemic and somehow held together well enough to become a brick-and-mortar. You can grab a hot slice in house or take a par-baked pie home to finish yourself, which is either charming or suspicious depending on your mood. Toppings lean creative, hot honey buffalo chicken nuggets and fried Brussels sprouts, but the plain pepperoni holds its own too.

This is a brewery taproom on Mayport Road with a wood-fire oven bolted onto the side of it, so the beer comes first and the pizza arrives like a very good rumor. The stouts run dessert-sweet, the slushies rotate, and the menu is short enough to read before your pint warms up. Expect a margherita with a pun for a name, a fig and hot honey pie, and a crowd of beachy locals who came for one beer and stayed for the rosemary parm bread.

Naturally fermented dough and house-made pasta are the baseline here, not the selling point, which tells you something about a neighborhood pizza and pasta joint on Larchmere. The chef built a loyal following at a food hall before opening this permanent spot, and the menu stays focused: orecchiette, mortadella pizza, chicken parm, braised short ribs with polenta. Casual enough for a weeknight, careful enough that you notice the difference.

Patrons congregate at the pick-up window before they've even made it through the door, which tells you most of what you need to know. Tutti is a neighborhood pizza shop with a 30-seat room of butcher block, steel ovens, and dough being stretched in plain sight, all of it smelling powerfully of garlic. The menu splits into square pies, round pies, and desserts, and the wine program leans on the bar next door.

The leopard-spotted crust on a wood-fired Neapolitan pie is the whole point here, and Vero has been packing Cedar Road over it for years. The space expanded not long ago, adding a bar and twice the seating, though waits still stack up on busy nights. Classic toppings, careful technique, and a room that finally has enough room in it.

The slice window in the alley is how most people find Redeemer, though there's also a small dining room inside if you want to sit down with a 16-inch pie. The style lands somewhere between New York and sourdough, with a tang that makes the crust worth eating on its own. Toppings range from classic to surprisingly fussy, and the to-go window sells beer and wine alongside the slices.

The hand-built Neapolitan wood-fired oven is the centerpiece, and the pizzas coming out of it show why. Falora is a candlelit neighborhood pizza spot where the menu leans vegetable-forward, with toppings like butternut squash purée, roasted cauliflower, and white truffle oil over feta. House-made pasta and big salads round things out. The room is cozy in the way that actually means cozy, communal tables and all, and it draws a crowd that's clearly been here before.

The long-fermented dough is the tell at this casual pizzeria: the crust has enough flavor that people actually finish it. Deck-oven pies share the menu with Italian-American standards like arancini, and the room draws the kind of crowd that orders feta ranch with chili oil on the side without needing to be told it exists. Two locations in Navy Yard and Shaw, with a counter-service slice shop in Bethesda if you're heading that direction.

A sliver of a room on Mt. Pleasant Street where the bar fills up fast and wood-oven pizzas share the menu with Greek-leaning small plates. The team came up through Tail Up Goat, and the cooking has that same instinct for herbs, brightness, and a little crunch. Pizzas run from a classic red-sauce cheese to halloumi-and-squash combinations that have no business being as compelling as they are. Bring an appetite for the whole menu.

This Edgewater pizza shop does deep-dish on a sourdough crust that borrows from a Greek bread called lagana, then turns around and makes cracker-thin tavern pies from the same dough. There's barely any seating and the oven is small, so most people order online and take it home, where an uncut pizza stays crunchy. Eater has put it on its lists for deep-dish, thin-crust, and best pizza overall.

Frank's is a downtown slice shop near Market Square Park, built for the hours when everything else has closed and your judgment has too. The slices are New York-style and wide enough to require a fold, with dough and sauce made fresh each day. The specialty pies lean Texan, like boudin and bacon or a fajita-and-jalapeño number, though plain cheese and pepperoni still do most of the work. Order at the counter, eat standing.

This Pilsen pizza-and-coffee spot wears its owners' Filipino and Mexican roots on the crust, most memorably with longganisa and giardiniera together on a tavern-style pie. The menu includes pan pies and slices, plus coffee drinks from the people behind Side Practice, so you can have breakfast and dinner in one visit. It tends to sell out, which is the polite way of saying go early and bring a plan B.

Uncle Jerry's is a casual deep-dish pizzeria in Cary, tucked inside a butcher shop, so the sausage on your pie was probably made a few feet away and the steak case sits right there as a quiet reminder of your priorities. The crust runs neither thick nor thin, the sauce leans a little sweet, and the pepperoni comes cupped. The beer list is solid, and the drive from Chicago is about an hour.

Flo & Santos is a South Loop pub that can't pick a lane, so it picked three: tavern-style thin-crust pizza, Polish comfort food, and a beer garden with daily specials. Order the pie with kielbasa and sauerkraut and a pierogi sampler on the side, and your cardiologist will lose track of the subplots. Casual, reasonably priced, and equally happy to see you in a work shirt or a ballgame jersey.

Montesacro is a casual Roman pizzeria that bakes its pies in ovals, which is less a gimmick than a reminder that circles are not the only legal shape. The crust runs crisp, bubbly, and light, and the menu is long enough that nobody at the table gets stuck with a compromise. Service moves fast and the room swallows groups easily, which suits the pre-show crowd heading to the Orpheum.

Square Pie Guys is a casual Detroit-style pizzeria in SoMa where the pies come rectangular, with a crust that's thick but somehow light and a cheddar edge baked to a crunch. The pepperoni curls into little cups, and the hot honey gets placed with the care of someone hanging a museum show. It's counter-service, with wings, beer, and canned cocktails, and the takeout side runs like a pit crew.

Zarella is a River North tavern-style pizzeria run by the Boka group, which means the thin, cornmeal-dusted pies come with a cocktail menu and a downstairs speakeasy lounge. Two well-known Chicago chefs developed the crusts, and the toppings include mortadella and all-beef pepperoni, so expect River North prices for what is, technically, bar pizza. Eater has named it among the city's best tavern-style pizza spots.

Amore is a casual neighborhood pizzeria that brings Chicago to the desert, which is a long way to carry an opinion about crust. The tavern-style pies come out thin and cut in squares, and the deep-dish is there for the purists. Start with fried pickles or garlic bread, finish with mini cannoli, and eat the whole thing in a room that asks nothing of your wardrobe. Eater listed it among the best pizza in Las Vegas.

Antonio's is an old-school Italian pizzeria on Hillcroft where the name is a promise: dough gets tossed overhead, and the staff has clearly done it more than a few times. The pies run up to 16 inches, and if you can't decide on toppings, the folks behind the counter will decide for you, which feels like the right amount of authority. Calamari and pasta share the menu, so nobody at the table gets stuck with just bread.

It's a cocktail bar and pizzeria on Montrose with a cosmic theme and a name you're meant to say out loud as "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," a joke that never fully leaves the room. The pizzas come out of cast-iron pans with crisp, cheesy edges, and the Space Balls are fried dough that sits somewhere between garlic bread and a beignet. Expect drinks, slices of a very good time, and a dress code of whatever you walked in wearing.

Burt's Place is a deep-dish pizzeria in Morton Grove, and the pie is the whole personality. It comes in a pan with a crust caramelized dark around the edges, the style the late Burt Katz also handed down to Pequod's. Anthony Bourdain once pointed a camera at it and got very reverent. The advice is to order ahead, since a pizza this committed to being slow doesn't care about your schedule.

Coastline is a First Ward pizza bar named for the saucy edge where cheese meets crust, which tells you the team has thought about this more than you have. It turns out wood-fired Neapolitan pies alongside thin, grilled Texas-style ones, and the bartenders are the sort who remember your order by the second visit. It's casual and cozy, with cocktails that take the evening seriously. Eater's list of Houston's best pizza restaurants includes it.

The sweet tomato sauce at this old-school Kew Gardens slice shop hints that yes, tomatoes are technically a fruit, and somehow that's not a problem. Locals have been devoted to it long enough to request it on the pesto pizza too, which is already doing fine on its own. The counter seats maybe four people, and the pizza arrives from the oven directly to your hands. The New York Times put it on their short list of the city's best.

Ducky's is a casual Montrose pizza-and-tavern hybrid, built around New York-style pies, dart boards, and enough TVs that nobody has to ask what the score is. The menu goes from plain pepperoni to an al pastor pie with pineapple and salsa verde ranch, plus wings and sandwiches for the undecided. The kitchen stays open until midnight, later on weekends, and the happy hour is easy on the wallet.

A one-person takeout operation in Berkeley where the pre-orders open at 9 a.m. sharp and are often gone before the place does. The pies are 18-inch, NY-style, with charred and pillowy crusts, and you have to plan around them rather than the other way around. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best Berkeley restaurants, which feels about right for something this inconvenient to obtain.

Parked near a gas station in North Loop, Feral is a food truck doing two distinct styles of pizza: thin, crispy sourdough rounds and pan pies with the sauce on top, both finished with garlic oil. The pan pizza is the more interesting argument. Order ahead if you're impatient, because the devoted regulars who've adopted this place keep the line moving at its own pace.

Gold Tooth Tony's is a casual pizza joint built around Detroit-style pies, with a thick, focaccia-meets-sourdough crust that makes a good case for carbs as a personality. There's a Houston-style pie too, a New York and Detroit hybrid, plus pizza tots and fish and chips for anyone who came for the not-pizza. Order at the counter, wear whatever, and stay out of the arugula-pesto debate. It's on Eater's best pizza list.

Guerrilla Pizza Company is a casual Detroit-style pizza counter in the Soho Lofts space on the Strip's southern edge, where the pies come in small rectangles with caramelized, crispy edges. One of them is topped like a cheeseburger, pickles and burger sauce included, which tells you how seriously everyone is taking themselves. Order the garlic tots, wear whatever you flew in wearing, and Eater has called it the best pizza in town.

Happy Camper is a covered patio pizza spot at the Fashion Show Mall, which is a sentence nobody would have predicted about a mall. There are disco balls, lawn games, and fire pits, plus both cracker-thin tavern pies and chewier classic ones. The morning shift runs on bottomless mimosas and a bacon, cheddar, and egg breakfast pizza, a very Vegas answer to the question of what to do about last night. Casual, shorts-friendly, and priced like pizza.

Hearthstone Kitchen and Cellar is a casual, wood-fired-pizza-and-wings restaurant at Red Rock Resort that closed and then reopened in the exact same space, which is either bold or just good real estate. It's built for easy weekends in Summerlin, with chicken lollipop wings, $1 oyster Wednesdays, and a brunch where $25 bottomless mimosas and bloody marys keep the tab honest. Eater lists it among its best Las Vegas brunches.

Heavenly Pies is a pizzeria out in the Southern Highlands suburbs, run by a chef who spent years in a Venetian fine-dining kitchen and now makes pies with brie, speck, and black truffle tomato. There's also a green one loaded with asparagus and rapini, for people who want their vegetables and a crust in one motion. Eater has put it on a list of the city's top pizza, and you can order ahead on the website.

Home Slice is a casual Austin pizzeria where the pies come the size of a hubcap and the debates run to which Mario Kart character you'd room with. Order it by the slice if you're solo, or split an Italian sub, wings, and a Greek salad that somehow feels like a plot twist. It's counter-service beer-and-negroni territory, and shorts are the dress code.

How Ya Dough'n is a casual pizza counter on the third floor of BLVD Las Vegas, which is the sort of address that requires an escalator and a little faith. The hand-tossed sourdough pies run from classic pepperoni to a pistachio number with honey and truffle oil. Dough boys, wings, and meatballs round it out, and Eater lists it among the best pizza in Las Vegas, so the mall detour has company.

Staten Island's thin, crackery-crusted pizza has its own grammar, and this old-school pizzeria on Victory Boulevard is where that grammar was written. The vodka pie, draped in a creamy tomato sauce, is the one people make the trek for, though the cheese and pepperoni hold their own just fine. Calamari and clams show up as toppings, which is either ambitious or correct depending on how Staten Island you are.

A Lower East Side slice shop open until 3:30 a.m. on weekends, Jonny's turns out thin, bubble-blistered pies that hold up at any hour, which is not something you can say about most places keeping those hours. The chef taught himself the craft through obsessive pizza eating and some deep Reddit rabbit holes, and the fermented dough shows it. The New York Times named it one of the city's 22 best pizza spots.