The best pizza to eat in Philly right now

Philadelphia may not have its own distinct style of pizza, and that’s OK. In our city, you can find tasty versions of Detroit-style in South Philly, Brooklyn-style in many neighborhoods, Neapolitan pizza in Fitler Square, and more.

In other words, it’s not hard to find good pizza in Philadelphia, whether you’re craving a thin-crust slice or a thick, doughy pizza that could serve as lunch and dinner.

Here’s our guide to the best pizza in Philadelphia.

Not to be confused with South Philadelphia’s Angelo’s Pizzeria, Angelo Pizza is the name of this Old City pizzeria’s owner. He’s the son and grandson of Baltimore pizzeria owners, and opened his own shop in Old City in November 2020. Pizza began baking pizzas for friends out of his Manayunk apartment, using the recipes he learned from his dad, Angelo, and grandfather, Paulie Manna. The shop makes big-flavored, crispy-crusted 12-inch rounds, which are topped to the edges, plus one vegan pie.

📍229 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106, 🌐 theangelopizza.com, 📷 @theangelopizza

Everything at Angelo’s Pizzeria is good. Its cheesesteaks, hoagies, and, of course, its namesake (pizza). The pies here are saucy, cheesy, and made on a crispy yet fluffy dough and come in square and circle options. There’s also a beloved “upside-down” pizza with cheese on the bottom and sauce on the top — it’s as delicious (and heavy) as it sounds.

📍736 S. Ninth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19147, 🌐 angelospizzeriasouthphiladelphia.com

Two rising Philadelphia pizza trends: potato as a topping, and pies with an Indian flair. The samosa pizza at Carbon Copy Brewery, a bright successor to West Philly’s branch of Dock Street, checks both boxes. Chef Bill Braun, a Tired Hands alum (along with brewery partners Kyle Wolak and Brendon Boudwin), makes a roasted Madras curry oil to give a golden glow to the mashed potatoes layered atop a white pie ribboned with garlic cream. House-pickled cherry tomato chutney brings a tangy pop along with fragrant picked herbs. Add extra spice with the house chili crisp, then wash it all down with one of this brewery’s excellent beers and house-made wines.

📍701 S. 50th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19143,🌐 carboncopyphilly.com, 📷@carboncopyphilly

Triangle slices are so last year now that the charm of 16-square-grid “party cut” tavern pies is gaining favor. These cracker-thin bar pies — more light appetizer than filling meal — are popular in the Midwest and play a starring role at new Darling Jack’s Tavern in Midtown Village, whose Wisconsin-born chef-owner Marcie Turney grew up eating them. The key is dough that’s thin and crisp but not dry, with small-chopped toppings on every square. Look for seasonal variations on the white pies — shaved zucchini or minced potato and corn in summer; squashes and gorgonzola for the fall chill. The red pie tanged with provolone and cheddar in the cheese mix is a year-round hit, especially with sausage and pickled long hots.

📍104 S. 13th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107, 🌐 darlingjacks.com, 📷@darlingjackstavern

This spot in North Philly offers more than good pizza. The shop was created to provide career opportunities and fair wages for formerly incarcerated people. Check out the Detroit-style pies named in honor of Philly rappers like the nod-to-Meek-Mill Uptown Vibes (kale, mushrooms, red peppers) and the Tuff Crew-inspired My Part of Town (a cheesesteak pizza). The shop also offers a few vegan pies, as well as wings, fries, and milkshakes.

📍 2804 W Lehigh Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19132, 🌐 downnorthpizza.com, 📷 @downnorth_pizza

OK, so, this spot officially started in New York, but it opened a location in Queen Village just before the start of the pandemic where you can feast on Detroit-style pizzas in red sauce varieties (including pepperoni with jalapeños, and honey; margherita, and sausage, peppers, and onions) and white sauce pies (like ricotta and mushrooms, and a Nashville hot chicken pie), in addition to some topped with a creamy vodka sauce. There also is a delivery location based in the city’s Mantua section to serve North and West Philadelphia.

📍632 S. Fifth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19147,🌐 emmysquaredpizza.com, 📷 @emmysquaredpizza

John Bisceglie has tapped a nerve on the Main Line with his hole-in-the-wall shop on busy Lancaster Avenue. Even with a deck oven without a reliable thermostat, he turns out stellar thin rounds and slightly thicker squares topped with bright, chunky sauce. Order earlier in the day or face the probability that he will be sold out.

📍1025 W, Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010,🌐 johnnyspizzabrynmawr.com, 📷 @johnnyspizzabrynmawr

Can frozen pizza’s bad rap be redeemed? This collaboration between chef Brad Daniels of Ambler’s Tresini, kitchen gear entrepreneur Matt McKenney, and Florida chef Brad Kilgore is about to change minds. What began as a pandemic experiment with the latest kitchen tech in Drexel University’s Food Lab has evolved into one of the best frozen pies I’ve eaten. Made from high-quality ingredients and built on a well-fermented Roman-style cushion of dough, it finishes with a Detroit-style frico of tangy cheese around the edges. One key: a unique cardboard baking pan with windows cut out — the “Freak Frame” — that allows the bottom to crisp. Currently available at Tresini and several local retailers and by mail-order east of the Mississippi.

📍504 N. Bethlehem Pike, Ambler, Pa. 19002,🌐 pizzafreakco.com, 📷 @pizzafreakco

In September 2020, Craig LaBan declared Manayunk’s Pizza Jawn “Philly’s best new pizzeria.” You have to order ahead of time to get a pie slot, but it’s worth it. As LaBan writes: “Lee is one of the few pizzaiolos who specializes in more than one style, crafting outstanding renditions of three very different kinds of pizza: a char-spotted round of a crispy Neo/NYC thin-crust round pie (get the minimalist Margherita); a hefty Detroit pizza whose tall, pan-roasted sides crackle with an edge of caramelized cheese (load it up!); and a chewy, rustic Grandma square distinguished by the fistfuls of sesame that speckle its edges and bottom crust.”

📍4330 Main St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19127,🌐 pizzajawn.com, 📷 @pizza_jawn

What started as Pizza Gutt, a modest bar concession at the former W/N W/N from Daniel Gutter, has spread to spots in Kensington, West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, and Northern Liberties. Gutter has gained a lot of love for both his round pies and Detroit-style pizzas with their crispy, fried-cheese edges.

Kensington: Circles + Squares, 📍2513 Tulip St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19125, 🌐 pizzawhat.com, 📷 @circlesandsquaresandcatanddogs

South Philly: Pizza Plus,📍1846 S. 12th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19148, 🌐 pizzaplusphilly.com, 📷 @pizzaplusplusplus

Northern Liberties: Bourbon & Branch, 📍 705 N. Second St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19123, 🌐 bourbonandbranchphilly.com, 📷 @bourbonandbranch

West Philly: Pizza Plus, 📍4814 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19139, 🌐 pizzaplusphilly.com, 📷 @pizzaplusplusplus

Vinny Gallagher and Davide Lubrano make naturally leavened pies, somewhere between New York and Neapolitan-style pizzas, out of this shop in Fitler Square, with a newer offshoot with a bar in South Philadelphia. As Lubrano says: “We want it to be a neighborhood pizzeria, because pizza is for everybody.” As LaBan declared in November 2020: “Gallagher’s dough forms a crust that crackles with a flavorful chew and roasty tang that reverbs after a slice is gone.”

📍240 S. 22nd St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103, 🌐 pizzatapizzeria.com, 📷 @pizzata_pizzeria

📍1700 E. Passyunk Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19148,🌐 pizzatabirreria.com, 📷 @pizzata_birreria

What started as a small, no-phone operation is now an always-bustling restaurant in Fishtown where heat-blistered wheels of pizza arrive to tables along with a long list of natural wines and local beer. Pizzas come spanned with your choice of toppings, but ordering one of the pizzeria’s staple pies is a good idea. In particular, the “angry” red arrabbiata pie is so amped with layers of lip-stinging spice — Thai chilies steeped into the sauce; pickled serranos scattered like green poker chips across every inch, their spiraling heat rising on the herbal lift of basil — that it sets a new threshold on the pleasure-pain continuum.

📍1313 N. Lee St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19125,🌐 pizzeriabeddia.com, 📷 @pizzeriabeddiaphilly

Philly’s Dean of Pizzaioli wrote the book on pizza, but has since reinvented his pizza game again. Marc Vetri’s new creations at Salvy are different from the Neapolitan pies made famous at the Pizzeria Vetri chain he sold to Urban Outfitters. Their micro-thin bottoms are baked to a crispy snap, the outer edges chewy with the well-developed savor of fresh-milled local flour. But who will journey to the Comcast Technology Center’s basement to eat it — other than people who work in the building? Craig suggests you do. There are delightful tributes to some signature Vetri flavors, like the truffled onion Parmesan fonduta from Vetri Cucina and Fiorella’s sausage-pepper ragù. But it’s the seasonal pies he craves : an emerald green round covered with finely shaved zucchini, mint and milky puddles of stracciatella in summer, and cold-weather inspiration of maitake mushrooms streaked with scallion oil.

📍1800 Arch St., concourse level, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103,🌐pizzeriasalvy.com, 📷 @pizzeriasalvy

Named after co-owner Cary Borish’s grandmother, Sally offers Neapolitan-style pizzas, from creamy stracciatella made from Lancaster’s Maplehofe dairy, to the fermented pepper jelly that sparks soppressata, and the Chester County funk of Birchrun Hills Farm’s Fat Cat Cheese. The spot, just north of Fitler Square, also makes an upscale version of the South Philly pizzazz pie as well as offering a selection of natural wines.

📍2229 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103,🌐 sallyphl.com, 📷 @sally_philadelphia

Don’t let the small-looking pizza boxes fool you. The self-described “Brooklyn-style” pizzas at Square Pie are dense — landing somewhere between a Sicilian- and Detroit-style pizza. Available in classics like cheese and pepperoni, the pizzas also come topped with cured pork belly and rosemary potatoes, eggplant and olives, and a porchetta pie with roast pork.

📍 801 E. Passyunk Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19147,🌐 squarepiephilly.com, 📷 @squarepiephilly

The Mexican-themed pizza wave has surged organically over the years in South Philly’s ever-growing Puebladelphia, where places like Rosario’s, San Lucas, Chiquita’s, and El Mezcal Cantina have given ye olde pizza pie some fresh gusto with toppings like al pastor, mole, and birria. The latest player, Tonalli, has created yet another object of Mexican pizza desire, a cheese pie topped with tender shreds of braised lamb en adobo with salsa verde and nopales. Use the little on-the-side cup of soulfully rich lamb consommé to drizzle on. That’s the taste of barbacoa pizza paradise.

📍100 Morris St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19148, 🌐 tonallimenu.com, 📷 @tonalliphilly

» READ MORE: More Philly tips: Read our most useful stories