Best Active NYC Slice Shops

Fini Pizza (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) - Fini is one of the city’s “new-classic” slice shops - places that keep the classic NY formats intact but try to perfect the execution - think @scarrspizza, @lindustriebk, @…

There’s a term “comedian’s comedian.” @manos_pizzeria is a pizzaiolo’s pizzeria - a place that impresses people who make pizza themselves (as opposed to sledgehammering watermelons &…

Cello’s Pizzeria (East Village) - This slice was pretty close to perfect. @cellosnyc produces exactly what you want from a classic NY slice shop, done with great craft and precision. The super thin leopard-spot…

Cold-fermented dough, airy inside with an extremely crisp, deeply browned bottom, and a very sauce-forward top under cupped thin pepperoni.

Pretty much the ideal New York slice, found deep in Brooklyn (Midwood). Crisp yet chewy & foldable - So good that I made it my profile pic. These pics are from my ‘pilgrimage’ back in April.

Slicehaus (West Village) – The “Haus” in this Carmine street pizzas reads Germanic and brought to mind the late Germantown Pizza Haus in stately Latonia, KY. No intended offense to German pizzioli (arguably the…

Brooklyn DOP (Park Slope, Brooklyn) - @brooklyndop delivers outstanding NY-style pizza with pronounced Neapolitan influence. I assumed it meant “Department of Pizza,” but DOP actually stands for “Denominazione…

I first reviewed Andrew Bellucci’s back in November 2024. I don’t usually re-review places this quickly, but I had some unfinished business: *the clam pie*. This Bellucci special has to be…

Roman style pizza al taglio (“pizza by the cut”) in Union Square for. Baked in a rectangular pan using a high hydration percentage (i.e. a lot of water in the dough recipe), the Roman style square slice is ligh…

This is a Canal Street outpost of a legendary pizzeria on Avenue X in Brooklyn. Lucia is a slice shop that’s fully on top of their game. We enjoyed a couple of slices on their counter last week (there is no sea…

Mama’s Too – Long an Upper West Side pilgrimage site, Sicilian slice specialists Mama’s Too now have a shop on Bleecker in the West Village. Often mispronounced “Mama Too’s,” the pizzeria is a descendent of Mam…

Andrea Kenuti previously worked at @scarrspizza and then did his graduate studies at @lindustriebk before opening his own shop last summer. That’s about as good a lineage as a New York…

Fermento (West Village) Yesterday, I found myself in Lower Manhattan for the Knicks Championship Parade (it was a lot of fun). The streets were filled with would-be Lees & Turturros from the outermost boroughs,…

Diamond Slice - “Slices are forever.” Over the past two decades, American pizza has made remarkable advances through waves of different movements: the wood-fired Neapolitan boom, the coal-fired revival, the exp…

A perfectly executed Sicilian square just north of Little Italy. This is the "Spicy Spring" featuring the good stuff - natural casing pepperoni that cups up into bowls of flavor, a tasteful amount of mozzarella, and most importantly - a deliciously crisp olive-oil-fried crust. Perhaps the best slice in New York…

Jonny’s Pizza (Lower East Side, NYC) - This LES slice shop sits on Orchard just south of Houston. Opened in 2024, it is part of the growing wave of elevated slice shops that are driving New York pizza to new he…

A crisp Sicilian slice with extra pepperoni on 39th street & 8th Avenue (convenient from the Port Authority Bus Terminal). This is one of my favorites, a truly excellent by-the-slice Sicilian.

L’Industrie Pizzeria (Little Italy) - When I first reviewed @lindustriebk original Williamsburg location in September 2021, I scored it an 8.3/10 and described it as one of New York’s best slice shops. Since then, @lindustriebk has evolved from a Brooklyn pizza nerd…

Located in the Lower East Side, this is one of my all time favorite slice joints. With decor repurposed from an old bowling alley, Scarr’s evokes a classic 1970s pizzeria. Aesthetics aside, @scarrspizza is nota…

Like most of America, I’ve been methodically working my way through the gritty @criterionchannel Abel Ferrara collection. This includes 1987’s China Girl, a recreation of Romeo and Juliet…

An excellent Sicilian square with a generous allotment of pepperoni cups. On a night when there’s tens of thousands of people in line at @psp_nyc, you can usually walk right to the counter of @nolitapizzanyc. T…

Luigi’s Pizza (South Slope, Brooklyn) - Open since 1973 and now run by Luigi’s son Gio, Luigi’s Pizza is a case study in technical excellence; serving one of the best slices in the city. While many slice shops…

Rosario’s Pizza (Astoria, Queens) – This weekend, having a car and some free time in Queens, I was able to sample a few slices from my “to try” list. Rosario DiMarco, who immigrated to America from Sicily at th…

@babylucspizza is the casual slice-shop offshoot of @lucali_bk (often called the best pizza in NYC), and while both are made with craft, the pizza here is pretty different from its famous parent. I…

Norm’s Pizza (Downtown Brooklyn) - An “Avant-Garlic” slice. After a visit to the New York Transit Museum (reasonably priced fun for the whole family! You can explore a 1905 subway car), you may find yourself in…

Located between two businesses that are also named “Frank’s” (perhaps Big Frank’s & Little Frank’s?), F&F is an outstanding Carroll Gardens pizzeria. Pictured is a slice of “The Selinunte”, a focaccia tastefull…

This is a Roman style “pizza al taglio” (pizza by the cut) style slice shop in Midtown. For the most part, Midtown can be a bit of a desert for top tier pizza. But I’m pretty much always down for Roman style pi…

Now celebrating its two year anniversary, @villagesquarepizza is a pizzeria that specializes in Sicilian slices with a perhaps exorbitant count of lightly charred - something you’ll never hear me complain about…

Union Street Pizza (Brooklyn) - This is one of those slice shops where the craft is evident the second you enter …especially when you walk past the bags of specialty flour. The dough here is a thoughtful blend:…

This Hell’s Kitchen bakery is the workshop of legendary breadsmith Jim Lahey (not to be confused with his namesake, the overindulgent trailer park supervisor in “Trailer Park Boys”). Lahey is credited with sett…

I happen to be in New York during the inaugural @newyorkcitypizzaweek, which seems like a pretty good “excuse” to add a few more pizzas to the the SliceIndex.com…

It’s here, so today we’re featuring this Soho (Spring Street) institution. The classic New York style slices here are quite good, but I’d skip past them for what they call the “Palermo slice” but I’d call Sicil…

A deeply browned, exceptionally crunchy Detroit square with charred pepperoni, caramelized cheese, and one structural flaw.

On an otherwise undistinguished Saturday, one might opt to hop on the Q Train for Midwood, Brooklyn. There, immediately off the Newkirk Plaza stop, they would be amiably greeted by the estimable @loducapizza. W…

Pretty much the ideal crisp NY slice, found in picturesque Hell’s Kitchen. This Margherita slice (note the colors of the Italian flag) pairs nicely with some ices. (From an April 2021 visit)

Like most people, I was drawn to @twobootspizza by the June 16th, 1995 NYT article “The Top Pizzas In New York: Bred and Baked By Tradition”. That article, which prominently featured the legendary Andrew Belluc…

There was an original wave of postwar New York slice shops, roughly 1945 to 1975, disproportionately run by guys named Luigi, Ray, and Antonino. These were Italian-American neighborhood…

Napoli, Palermo, New Haven, Chicago, Detroit, and even Old Forge are great places for pizza. But there can be no question that New York stands above them all as pizza’s second city (after Cincinnati). As such,…

Maybe we just hit it at exactly the right time, but the two fresh slices I had at Paul Giannone’s Greenpoint Brooklyn pizzeria were some of my all time favorites. Perfectly balanced slices with flavorful artisa…

@qualitypizzaco is a Hoboken New Jersey pizzeria with a second location in Midtown renowned for being a short walk from our Flatiron District hotel. It’s a typical slice shop, and a relative slice of quality in…

An exceptionally well named NY slice shop, Joe’s Pizza went from a West Village classic to Hollywood stardom after Peter Parker was cast as their pizza delivery man in Spider Man 2. As befits such a legendary p…

The “only slice in Little Italy” is a tasty one with a soft yet chewy & foldable crust. That crust is just crisp enough to prevent the slice from drooping down onto the table. On top of that, the pepperoni was…

This New York mini-chain is known for its eponymous “Artichoke slice”: essentially a pound of butter & heavy whipping cream on a puffy NY style crust. That slice is best left to disoriented late night revelers…

A substantial New York slice utilizing just the right amount of burrata to approximate the colors of the Italian Flag. The crisp/super thin crust could use a bit more life, but I rather enjoyed the combination…

A few weeks ago, after some heavy elbowing through a herd of blissfully uncomplicated wanderers lulling outside Madison Square Garden, we reached NY Pizza Suprema. Suprema has traditionally been my go to for a…

A greasy cheesy heavily-topped West Village slice popular with NYU students. Bleecker Street is an institution & on a late night this kinda slice can really hit the spot.

“Andiamo” Pizza (Italian for “Lets Go”) is another Midtown slice shop. We visited for dessert slices after @qualitypizzaco (which I reviewed Monday). Andiamo wasn’t on my “to try” list, but I saw they were one…

The pepperoni delivered plenty of heat, along with an absolutely enormous hit of salt. The underside was nicely browned, but the crust was quite stiff, without much of the crispness that might have justified its rigidity.

A very crisp, thin, yet heavily topped New York style slice in SOHO. Champion pizza is so-named because it’s owner Hakki Akdeniz is a world champion of pizza acrobatics (i.e. he’s world class at tossing & juggl…