Best pizzas of New York City

I’m throwing out this bold statement: New York had the best pizza in the world.

By the time I left New York, all my clothes were feeling much much tighter. Poor Ray and Carmela, they felt the weight gain too, and it’s probably mostly because of me. All I wanted to eat was pizza.

Pizza is one of my biggest guilty pleasures. I love a good pie. But I’m super picky about it, so it’s hard for me to find a pizza that fits my tastes. But oh man, New York pizza did not disappoint. I can honestly say that the pizza I had in NY was the best I’ve ever had my entire life (including that brief 3 days I visited Italy).

Over 3 weeks, we ate at 11 different pizzerias, equaling around 20 slices of pizza eaten. I’m honestly shocked I didn’t have a heart attack.

Which were my favorite places? Here are the stand outs!

Don’t have time to read this now? Or want to save these places? Download this article on GPSMyCity here. You’ll get GPS guided offline map with all the pizza joints I visited! 

Best classic NY slice: Joe’s Pizza

The Spiderman pizzeria! Joe’s is an institution in NYC. It serves up perfect classic New York slices. My favorite style of pizza is thin with crispy crust, and Joe’s does the job perfectly. The crust is just the right amount of crispy and it has the perfect ratio of crust to sauce to cheese. Joe’s is just good…. period. 

Runner up: Suprema

I thought Suprema was practically just as good as Joe’s. It’s the same classic NY style with thin crispy crust. I think Suprema may have more types of pies though. Ray especially loves their white pie with mushroom, ricotta, and honey.

Best unexpected pizza: Two Boots

My friends think it’s funny that I liked Too Boots so much because they said it’s not actually one of the famous joints. It’s just a chain. But it has some really unique pizza flavors. I loved their Bayou Beast – topped with Cajun spices, andouille sausage, spicy prawns, and crayfish. So good! The crust is also thin and super crispy, just how I like it. They also coat the bottom with cornmeal, which adds a nice extra touch.

Best Sicilian square: Prince Street Pizza

On the other side of the crust spectrum is the thick chewy Sicilian style pizza. It’s just as iconic as NY’s thin crust. I’m usually not a fan of thick crust, but if I were gonna try it, I may as well get the best.

Prince Street Pizza is super popular, as evidenced by the photo wall of celebrities who came to eat here. I got their signature pie, the Spicy Spring – made with spicy tomato sauce, mozzarella, and a mountain of thick pepperoni slices, perfectly baked so that they curl up at the edges. I like that the crust was nicely crisped at the edges and bottom.

This is a very substantial slice. I didn’t finish it there, but it was just as good (if not better) the next day.

Best Neapolitan pie: Razza

Razza has been touted by NY Times as “the best pizza in New York, but in New Jersey” (totally paraphrased here). And yes, it’s actually in Jersey City. Razza serves up Neapolitan pies, which is characterized by a more bread-like crust with puffed edges.

Razza is especially known for its perfect doughy crust – very thin, crispy at the bottom, and chewy at the same time. The toppings are top-notch too. Everything is made with the best, freshest seasonal ingredients from local New Jersey farms. It has a menu of very creative toppings. For example, we all really liked the one with brussel sprouts, anchovy reduction, and lemon. Sounds so weird, but it’s absolutely delicious.

Must try novelty pizza: Artichoke Basille

This is a newer joint with less than 10 years history, but it’s already a huge name. It has made artichoke pizza a big thing in New York. The crowd outside this pizza joint gets insane. And almost everyone is here for the ginormous artichoke slice. It’s a slice so big that it needs 2 paper plates and weighs about 2 pounds.

It’s basically bread topped with the creamiest, cheesiest spinach artichoke dip you can imagine. But I think for me, this is too creamy. Their normal pies looked really good though. I would definitely try one of those next time.

Best neighborhood pie: Table 87

This place isn’t one of the famous pizzerias, but it was Ray and Carmela’s favorite local joint when they lived in Brooklyn (Gowanus). So of course they had to revisit it.  What makes this place special is their unlimited sides of roasted garlic and spicy red pepper – two of my favorite things! I believe that they make everything better.

Even without the garlic and pepper, their huge 20″ margherita pie was delicious and hits all the marks of a perfect NY pie. With the condiments, it became amazing. This is just a really good little neighborhood pizza parlor that deserves mentioning. The cozy little rustic interior was super cute too.

Best overall pizza: Di Fara

Di Fara is famous for a reason. The same old guy has been making all the pies himself since 1965. He really takes his time to make each pie. So expect to wait for quite a while, but it’s sooo worth it. He uses a delicious 3-cheese combo of fresh mozzarella, gran padano, and grated parmesan. I base how good a pizzeria is on how good its plain slice is. And at Di Fara, even just the regular pizza (with fresh cut basil and olive oil drizzle) is heavenly.

I already waxed poetic about it in this post, so pop over to check it out along with my other 4 favorite NYC foods.

Other places I didn’t get to try but wanted to:

Eating pizza in NYC is a never-ending job. There’s just so many places to try. There were others on our list that we didn’t get to (probably a good thing or a heart attack may be a real possibility). If we had more eating power or more time, I would have liked to try:

Lombardi’s – oldest pizzeria in America
Patsy’s – been there since 1933; classic NY slices
Juliana’s – the owner of the original Grimaldi’s fame
Pauli Gee’s – unique Neapolitan pies

Have you tried any of these on this list? Do you have a favorite NYC pizzeria that I must try if I ever make it back there?

If you found this article useful and want to visit the same places I did, you can download this on GPSMyCity here. You’ll get a GPS-guided map of these locations that you can use offline! This means you can spend less time looking for directions and more time exploring!