The best pizza restaurants in New York City

Where Chinatown meets the Lower East Side, Scarr’s Pizza occupies a retro-inflected space that has become a downtown institution. Owner Scarr Pimentel — who trained at some of New York’s most storied counters before opening in 2016 — couldn’t find flour that met his standards, so he started milling his own stone-ground organic blend in the restaurant’s basement. The result is a crust that’s light, tangy, and structurally sound, built for pies like the hotboi (beef pepperoni, jalapeño, hot honey) and the DJ Clark Kent (chicken sausage, fresh garlic). Sicilian squares, a vegan Caesar with cashew dressing, and natural wines round out the menu. Pimentel’s 2024 James Beard Award nomination brought national recognition to a spot the neighborhood had already claimed as its own — one that also happens to have a full bar and video-game consoles to keep things lively.

Detroit-style pizza found its way to New England through Emmy Squared, the Brooklyn-born concept co-founded by Emily Hyland and chef Matt Hyland. The signature frico crust — aged cheese caramelized directly against the pan’s edges — surrounds a fluffy, focaccia-like dough with a crispy undercarriage built for bold topping combinations. The founders pie stacks red sauce, house-pickled jalapeños, Ezzo pepperoni, and Mike’s Hot Honey; the angel goes the other direction with ricotta, truffle cream, mushrooms, and parsley pesto. The le Big Matt burger — a double-stack of grass-fed beef on a pretzel bun — has developed a following that rivals the pizza itself. A full bar, Happy Hour on weekdays, and a lively casual dining room round out a concept that started in Williamsburg and has since spread far beyond Brooklyn.

Two friends stranded on a boat in the Hamptons made a pact to open a restaurant together — a premise that yielded one of New York’s most enduring Italian restaurant groups. Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato launched Serafina in 1995 on the Upper East Side, and their Midtown West location, steps from Broadway’s theater district, draws neighborhood regulars and post-show crowds with equal ease. The pizza is thin-crust and Neapolitan-influenced, built with premium imported ingredients including buffalo mozzarella and fior di latte. The tartufo nero pizza — a white pie topped with a secret blend of Italian cheeses and black truffle — stands out, as does the V.I.P. margherita, a clean and precise take on the classic. For anyone staying past the pizza course, the tagliolini al tartufo nero with Parmigiano Reggiano and butter makes a strong case for doing so.

Few restaurants in New York have shaped a neighborhood the way Roberta’s has. Since 2008, this Bushwick institution — built inside a repurposed cinder-block garage on a once-industrial block — has expanded into a sprawling compound with a wood-fired kitchen, outdoor garden, rooftop farm, and a radio station housed in a shipping container. Co-founders Chris Parachini, Brandon Hoy, and chef Carlo Mirarchi built the concept on wood-fired Neapolitan-inspired pizzas and seasonally driven cooking that rotates with market availability. The bee sting pizza — honey, prosciutto, and chili on a margherita base — has become a signature worth seeking out alongside creative seasonal pies and house-cured meats. The outdoor garden fills fast on warm evenings, and the atmosphere is loose, lively, and decidedly Brooklyn. Roberta’s frozen pies are now sold nationwide; the original stays the standard.

Wind-powered and gas-free, The Marshal in Hell’s Kitchen runs on a singular conviction: that wood-fired cooking and hyperlocal sourcing can share the same kitchen without compromise. Chef-owner Charlie Marshall grew up working in his family’s restaurant on the San Juan Islands in Washington State, where ingredients came from surrounding farms and water — a philosophy he transplanted to the city. The menu rotates seasonally around New York State producers, with pizzas like the preserved fig, pancetta, and blue cheese among recurring highlights, alongside the truffle and porcini pie that makes good use of the wood-burning oven at the room’s center. The bar pours exclusively New York State wine, beer, and spirits. For a farm-to-table pizza spot steps from Times Square, it manages to feel entirely removed from the neighborhood around it.

The name means “smoke” in Italian, and the wood-fired brick oven at Fumo Harlem earns every bit of it. Situated in Hamilton Heights steps from City College, this modern Italian restaurant was founded by Italian-born and Italian-American partners committed to fresh, scratch-made cooking under the motto “eat real food.” The space is bright and well-designed — chic without trying too hard — and the thin-crust pizzas reflect the same balance. The Roni layers pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and cherry peppers; the Parma brings prosciutto, arugula, fontina, and truffle oil into range. House-made pasta and baked clams fill the menu around the pies. The MICHELIN Guide has taken note, describing the kitchen as executing Italian cooking “with a deft hand and solid ingredients.” The Harlem original remains the heart of a group that has since expanded across Manhattan.

The covered patio at Olio e Più — framed by greenery, overlooking Jefferson Market Library at the corner of Christopher Street — is among the finest outdoor dining perches in Greenwich Village. Italian-born Executive Chef Danilo Galati, who previously helmed a MICHELIN-starred restaurant in Munich, leads a kitchen rooted in Southern Italian tradition: hand-stretched Neapolitan pizza from a wood-fired oven, house-made pasta, and seasonally driven antipasti. Caprese salad, fritto misto, and spaghetti alla carbonara made with Italian guanciale anchor the menu alongside the pies. Inside, antique chandeliers, lime-washed walls, and vintage Italian art create a room built for long dinners that refuse to end on schedule. The spirit of the place — warm, convivial, unhurried — is the point as much as the food.

Inside the former Blue Ribbon Bakery space in the West Village sits one of the city’s more unusual kitchen features: a century-old wood-burning oven measuring 18 feet deep. Chef Matt Hyland has made it the canvas for two distinct pizza styles — round pies in the New York–New Haven tradition and Detroit-style pan squares with a signature frico crust. The madre (chorizo, mozzarella, tomatillo sauce) and the pig freaker (queso miso, bacon, kimchi, sesame) show the range of what the kitchen is willing to try. The Emmy burger — LaFrieda dry-aged beef, caramelized onions, and Korean chili sauce on a Tom Cat pretzel bun — has earned a devoted following that rivals the pizza. The warm dining room fills quickly on weekend evenings, making a reservation the move.

Neapolitan pizza demands discipline, and at Song E Napule on the Upper West Side, chef-owner Ciro Iovine — who has been making pizza since age 13 in Naples — brings it every service. The dough is made fresh daily, with San Marzano DOP tomatoes and fior di latte di Agerola mozzarella sourced directly from Italy, and every pie goes into a wood-fired brick oven. The diavola — spicy Neapolitan salame, basil, and extra virgin olive oil — is a case study in restraint doing the heavy lifting. Beyond pizza, the kitchen produces homemade gnocchi, eggplant parmigiana, and deep-fried pizza dough balls with Nutella for dessert. Iovine’s wife and co-owner Austria Maldonado runs the front of house, giving the restaurant the warmth of a family operation — which, in every sense that matters, is precisely what it is.