The Best Places in the United States

The wood-fired brick oven is the whole point, and the name does not let you forget it. This is a Neapolitan pizza spot in Palm Coast carrying AVPN certification, which means the dough, the technique, and the imported ingredients answer to Naples, not to local convention. The room is casual and cozy, the kind of place that pulls you in even if you only meant to stop for a slice. Red and white pies, no pretension, and an aroma that does most of the selling.

A pizzeria in Acireale near Piazza Duomo where the dough itself is the argument: there's the classic Neapolitan, and then a Sicilian version made with ancient organic grains they've named after the place. Fried starters, including an arancino made with local cavolo trunzu, ease you in before the pizzas arrive loaded with carefully sourced ingredients. The wine list runs deeper than you'd expect, and the menu shifts with the seasons.

The wood-fired oven here was built by the founder himself, which tells you something about the level of commitment before you've even ordered. This Los Alamos flatbread spot runs on organic flour, slow fermentation, and ingredients pulled from nearby farms and ranches, all landing as thin, crispy, characterful pies. The contemporary farmhouse room is family-friendly and unhurried, and the wine list leans hard into small Central Coast producers.

A pizza spot in two stacks: a casual counter downstairs and an adults-only dining room up top, both turning out wildly creative pies built on heirloom Red Russian wheat milled by nearby sixth-generation farmers. The meat pizza somehow reads as a vegetable dish, with kale, squash, and Moroccan-spiced toum doing the heavy lifting and bacon playing backup. Upstairs pastas are quietly serious. The soundtrack on any given night might go from '90s hip-hop to something resembling the Inspector Gadget theme.

Detroit-style pizza done with a designer's eye: the room was put together by serious industry names, and the color palette announces that before you've ordered. This is a pizza shop with round pies, pan pies, and slices piled high with the kind of stretchy, abundant cheese that makes a mess of your shirt. The menu runs to salads and cocktails and ice cream too, and the whole mood lands somewhere between a proper night out and a very good Tuesday.

A Neapolitan-style pizza spot on Pacific Coast Highway where the door is literally open to the ocean breeze and the dough ferments long enough to earn it. The crust comes out thin and charred in the right spots, topped with classics or more creative combinations, and the Italian-flour base sits light enough that you won't regret the second slice. Italian wines and local craft beers round things out. Very Laguna Beach: chic but sandy.

The ceramic-topped tables inside this South Beach pizzeria signal that someone cares about the small touches. The Neapolitan pies come out with a high, airy crust built on a long-fermented dough, and the San Marzano tomatoes and fiordilatte are the real kind. Fresh pasta and homemade desserts round out the menu, and the Italian wine list does solid work during happy hour. A pleasant outdoor terrace handles the warm nights.

A New York-style slice shop in Metairie where the crust comes out thin and crackling the way it's supposed to. The room is small and colorful, more take-out counter than sit-down spot, and the vibe is easygoing and no-fuss. Fresh pasta shows up alongside the pizza, which keeps things interesting. If you're planning ahead, call a day in advance or you'll be waiting, and the waiting is not the fun part.

A firepit on the patio and shared tables set the tone at this lively Asian street-food spot in Tacoma, where the menu pulls from Thai curries to Korean kimchi barbecue without planting a flag in any single tradition. The crispy rice salad with sausage has a following. Cocktails get serious attention, which separates it from the quieter sit-down sibling it spun off from. New owners took over in 2025, and the regulars, having briefly panicked, have since relaxed.

A Neapolitan pizza spot on the edge of Trento, accessible by bus and with actual parking, which already puts it ahead of most. Korallo runs two dough options, a classic and a semi-wholemeal, and the menu stretches from straightforward traditional pies to more inventive stuffed versions, all leaning on local and DOP ingredients. The staff are the kind who actually help you decide. Casual, unpretentious, and listed among 50 Top Pizza Italy's Excellent Pizzerias.

A pizzeria in Catania where the chef has spent years obsessing over dough, and the menu reflects exactly that kind of monomania. The crust runs thin and crispy in the Sicilian tradition, though a tasting menu lets you move through different styles, including a more contemporary version. Appetizers, a deep Margherita section, vegan options, and a solid wine and beer list fill out a room that takes pizza more seriously than most occasions require.

A pizzeria in a small town outside Modena where the menu lists four distinct doughs, crispy, high-hydration, fried, and pan, and the staff politely declines modifications on certain pies to protect the tradition behind them. A tasting menu called "Leavened and Doughs" runs six courses for anyone who wants to commit fully. The wine, beer, and spirits list runs deep. Named among Italy's excellent pizzerias by 50 Top Pizza.

A sign on the door reads "We don't serve chips," which tells you plenty about La Tarasca before you sit down. This family-run Mexican restaurant in Centralia draws its recipes from Michoacán, where the signature move is carnitas, and the mole runs peppery and peanut-forward rather than Oaxacan-sweet. Every tortilla is made from scratch, and the extended family behind the counter treats the room with the kind of warmth that keeps regulars quiet about the place.

A mountain goat head surveys the dining room while the pasta arrives in portions that raise genuine logistical questions about the drive home. Larch is a casual pasta restaurant in the middle of Leavenworth's Bavarian tourist corridor, pointedly ignoring every bratwurst around it. The chef built his reputation selling mushroom ravioli at farmers markets, and it's still on the menu because apparently nobody will let him take it off.

The choriqueso at this counter-service taqueria in Vancouver, WA has a way of making the rest of the menu feel like a warmup act. Corn tortillas and griddled tortas get filled with battered fish, lengua, and chicken tinga, and the mezcal cocktails are sharper than you'd expect from a taco counter. The ordering process is its own small adventure, but the crowd figures it out eventually, and so will you.

Cash only, no reservations, and a line down Henry Street most nights: Lucali has been a Carroll Gardens institution long enough that the wait has become part of the lore. It's a small, candle-lit pizza shop serving large pies and calzones, nothing more. The dough is soft and thin in the New York tradition, and the room is the kind of quietly charming that makes two hours feel reasonable.

The gelato case near the door makes the priorities clear before you've even found a table. Mercurio's is a Neapolitan-style pizza and gelato spot in Shadyside, where long-fermented dough gets a soft, blistered crust and the toppings run from a straightforward Margherita to speck with gorgonzola. The room is casual and easy, the kind of place that fills up with neighbors who aren't trying to make an occasion of it.

The wood-fired oven is the first thing you see when you walk into this Astoria pizzeria, and the pies that come out of it lean modern and loose rather than strictly Neapolitan. The dough is light, the toppings are chosen with care, and the beer list keeps pace with the casual, come-as-you-are room. Milkflower has its own creative logic and doesn't apologize for it, which is half the reason the neighborhood keeps showing up.

New Haven-style pizza has its own rules: thin, coal-fired, slightly charred, and not quite like anything you'd get elsewhere. Modern Apizza has been holding down State Street forever, turning out red and white pies with a crust that blisters and snaps. The Italian Bomb, loaded with cold cuts and vegetables, is the order regulars argue about. A casual, loud, no-fuss pizzeria where the line out front is a feature, not a bug.

The name nods to mother yeast, which tells you where the priorities lie. This Newport pizzeria runs two tracks: sit-down Neapolitan rounds with a proper table and a drink, or Roman-style slices by the slice for a quick waterfront lunch. The dough gets a long ferment either way, and the toppings lean classic Italian, cold cuts and cheese mostly, with occasional Mediterranean detours. Appetizers, salads, and cooked dishes round out the room-service side.

Assyrian food is one of the rarer cuisines you'll encounter in the country, and this downtown Olympia restaurant may be among a handful of places serving it anywhere. The siblings behind it dug into their ancestral table, where Persian, Iraqi, and Israeli flavors converge in the same bowl. The brick-and-mortar space runs bright blue and gold, hung with family photos. A food truck handles takeout nearby.

Tieton is the kind of blink-and-miss-it apple-country town that rewards the detour, and Nomad is its unlikely anchor, a full-service restaurant with a chef's counter and bar that started as an outdoor gear shop and kept going. The menu roams, pairing larb and bulgogi alongside boeuf bourguignon that reportedly sells out on weekend nights. Named among Washington's best by Seattle Met.

Individually baked focaccia arrives so soft you'll eat more than you mean to, which is a problem when the handmade gnocchi is waiting. This Italian taverna in Walla Walla wine country leans hard into housemade pasta and local farm ingredients, with a short menu of starters, pizza, and steaks rounding things out. The chef grew up here, came back, and made the place her own, and the cooking tastes like it.