The world's most celebrated pizza styles and legendary pizzerias — from Neapolitan originals to New York slices.
The New York slice — a wide, thin, crispy-bottomed, foldable cheese pizza sold by the slice from open cases in pizzerias throughout the five boroughs — is America's most iconic and democratic food. Its coal-oven or deck-oven baking, high-gluten flour crust, and particular local water chemistry produce a result that New Yorkers swear cannot be replicated outside the city.
Pizza bianca — replacing tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and cheese — is Rome's other great pizza contribution: a crispy, fragrant flatbread that serves as both snack and sandwich vehicle throughout the day. Di Fara in Brooklyn and Totonno's represent the American interpretation of this Italian tradition.
Ciro Salvo's 50 Kalò has earned international recognition as one of the world's finest Neapolitan pizzerias, with his obsessive approach to dough hydration and fermentation producing pizzas of exceptional lightness, digestibility, and flavor. His London outpost introduced British diners to truly authentic Neapolitan pizza.
Detroit-style pizza's square pan format, corner-to-corner cheese coverage reaching the crispy, caramelized edges, and sauce applied on top of the cheese creates a pizza experience unlike any other American style. Shield's and Buddy's in Detroit are the original guardians of the style's rectangular, focaccia-esque character.
Chicago's deep dish — a buttery, cake-like crust pressed into a deep pan and filled with layers of cheese, fillings, and chunky tomato sauce on top — is a genuine culinary tradition, though Chicagoans debate whether it's truly pizza. Lou Malnati's and Giordano's represent the two dominant traditions of the style.
Rome's rectangular pizza al taglio — sold by weight from display trays in specialized bakeries — uses a longer, slower fermentation than Neapolitan pizza to develop flavor and a distinctly different crispy-bottom, open-crumb texture. Bonci in Rome popularized al taglio globally through high-quality, creative topping combinations.
Japan's adaptation of pizza produces surprisingly authentic results — Japanese pizza chains like Domino's Japan and original Japanese styles like okonomiyaki pizza combine Japanese ingredients and the cultural philosophy of creative topping combinations that push beyond Italian tradition in imaginative directions.
Sourdough-leavened pizza crusts, fermented over 24-72 hours using a maintained starter culture, develop extraordinary flavor complexity and improved digestibility compared to commercial yeast pizza. The slow fermentation breaks down phytic acid and gluten in ways that make sourdough pizza more nutritionally accessible for many people sensitive to conventional pizza.
Chris Bianco's Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona is consistently rated among America's best restaurants — not just best pizzerias — for his wood-fired pizzas using artisanal cheeses, local honey, and fennel sausage that elevated the idea of American pizza beyond Italian tradition into something genuinely creative.
Neapolitan pizza — protected by EU geographical indication as Vera Pizza Napoletana — is cooked in 60-90 seconds at 485°C in a wood-fired domed oven, producing a charred, blistered cornicione, soft center, and San Marzano tomato sauce of extraordinary purity. L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Naples is its most legendary temple.
The Margherita — tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil in the colors of the Italian flag — is the definitive pizza benchmark: when made with San Marzano DOP tomatoes, Fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella, and proper Neapolitan technique, it requires nothing else to demonstrate pizza's capacity for simple perfection.
Seattle's Bar del Corso applies Neapolitan technique to Pacific Northwest ingredients, demonstrating that exceptional pizza can be made far from Italy when the technique, sourcing, and oven are correct. Its success inspired a generation of serious American Neapolitan pizzerias outside New York.
“New York Slice (USA)”
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PizzaTop 100 pizzas ranked — Neapolitan classics, New York slices, Chicago deep dish, Detroit style, and the world's most iconic pizza joints and styles.