The Method Behind the Rankings
The Slice Index
The Slice Index is an archive of my pizza reviews. It is not a crowdsourced average, an algorithm, or a popularity contest. It’s one person eating these slices and trying to be objective. It is a critic’s ledger of pizzas ranked by whether they taste good to me, with the greatest weight given to crust, bake, balance, and overall craftsmanship.
Two Ways to Appreciate Pizza
There are many ways to appreciate pizza.
One is to seek out the places everyone is talking about — the newest openings, the longest lines, the pizzas that dominate social media. There is nothing wrong with that. Some of the world’s best pizzas are also its most celebrated.
Another way asks different, quieter questions: Is the dough well made? Does the bake suit the style? Is the pizza balanced? Does it respect the tradition it belongs to — or improve upon it? Is there craftsmanship here that rewards a careful observer?
The Slice Index is built around that second approach.
It is not an algorithm, a popularity contest, or a list of the internet’s favorite pizzerias. It is an attempt to notice the things that often receive less attention: the oven, the fermentation, the undercarriage, the restraint, the history, and the countless small decisions that separate good pizza from great pizza. In short, the craft.
The audience for that way of looking at pizza will probably always be smaller. That’s okay. I’m not trying to tell you where everyone else is eating. I’m trying to help you — and myself — notice what makes a pizza exceptional.
Editorial Independence
- No paid rankings.
- No sponsored reviews.
- No compensation for favorable coverage.
If a pizza was provided free of charge, it is disclosed in the review.
What the Score Means
The color bands remain intentionally simple.
- 9.0 and above — Top Tier: Destination-level pizza or a pie that defines its style.
- 8.0–8.9 — Great: Strongly recommended, with real craft or distinct local value.
- 6.5–7.9 — Worth the Calories: Pizza I’d gladly eat again.
- Below that — All Pizza’s Good, Right? I mean, I’m still happy to have some chain delivery…with extra dipping sauce.
What Matters Most
What matters is whether it actually tastes good.
There are a million ways to make great pizza. The things I tend to look for include crust quality, fermentation, bake, structure, sauce balance, cheese behavior, topping thoughtfulness, and whether the pizza remains compelling after the first bite. The toppings, the cheese, and the sauce should all taste good on their own—and even better together. But great pizza is more complex than a simple spreadsheet result.
Also, the biggest part of a pizza is its crust. If the crust doesn’t taste good on its own — as bread — it places a ceiling on how great the pizza can be. This is why bakeries often make excellent pizza.
Repeatability
One spectacular bite isn’t enough. The best pizzas are the ones I want to keep eating.
Repeatability matters. Some pizzas impress immediately but become heavy, unbalanced, or monotonous. Others become more enjoyable with every slice. I generally favor the latter.
My Favorite Style of Pizza
Any style of pizza done well can be top tier. The best pizza is made by people who clearly care about doing good work, where every aspect feels deliberate.
My least favorite style is careless pizza: bland dough, an indifferent bake, and shortcuts disguised with extra cheese. But I’m not going to be too judgmental here: if you cover up a flawed pizza with three times as much cheese, it can still be enjoyable (especially with extra dipping sauce and a second side of garlic knots). It just rarely makes for a memorable pizza experience.
Closed Pizzerias
Closed pizzerias remain in the archive to preserve our collective pizza history. They are always shown below open pizzerias in rankings and excluded from the map.
Limits
I once took my children to the beach to watch me command the waves to stop.
They, of course, did not.
Thus teaching an important lesson about the limits of my powers.
Limits are real.
Pizza varies day to day, even at excellent pizzerias. Dough fermentation, oven temperature, staffing, timing, travel, and what happened in the oven that minute all matter. I have had pizzas that I thought were just okay, then returned later and found them to be great. Even fifteen minutes in a pizza box can make a noticeable difference.
I have not tried every pizza (for example, my Best Pizza in Italy list is still incomplete), and pizzerias change over time as recipes, cooks, locations, and ownership evolve.
A truly scientific ranking would require eating every pizzeria in the world on the same day, under the same conditions, in the same order, at comparable freshness, and at the same level of hunger (“Hunger is the best sauce”).
That is impossible.
The Slice Index is therefore my best effort to evaluate every pizza in a disciplined, consistent, and transparent way.
Data Gaps
Sometimes I have only provided a rating or a photo. This is more common in reviews from before 2020.