The top pizza places in Los Angeles, according to us.
LessPhoenix’s most famous pizzeria has finally landed in LA and it’s doing what it has always done best—make the thinnest crust imaginable without compromising any of that great bready chew we crave. Located inside ROW DTLA, pies here come out crispy from the oven with a sturdy bottom to prevent unwanted sauce-induced sogginess, but soft enough to fold your slice without it snapping like a wafer.
Just thick enough and speckled with browned, bubbling cheese, the pizzas at this Indian sports bar in Silver Lake look like something you’d find at a Chuck E. Cheese dining hall, but with a Desi twist. When they hit the table your nose gets whacked with fragrance: tandoori-roasted onions, spicy green chili chutney, and a curry-based tomato sauce they need to jar and start selling ASAP. Pizzas come in 12- and 16-inch tins and are divided between build-your-own and specialty options.
Quarter Sheets is doing Detroit-style pizza right. The former pandemic pop-up now resides in a small space in Echo Park with a rabid follower-base that sells out the pizza daily. The focaccia-like crust is thick and crispy with inch-high edges that crackle and snap under each bite. The interior, on the other hand, is soft, pillowy, and soaks up the sweet red sauce that’s striped across the top. Be sure to get whatever the housemade dessert is that day, too.
At this point, riffing on New York-style pie is about as common as exhaling carbon dioxide. But Secret Pizza is the only LA spot on par with East Coast slice joints. This pick-up-only operation in Montecito Heights—run by a New Jersey transplant—makes us want to call Infatuation NYC to brag. Each slice folds with a distinct crunch. Soft, springy edges won’t cut the roof of your mouth. The pies at this one-man show have nothing to hide.
The Westside is pretty underrepresented in the LA Pizza Olympics, but that doesn’t really matter, because Santa Monica has Milo & Olive. This sourdough pizzeria works equally well for weeknight dinners with friends or a date, but we'd be lying if we didn't tell you it's a go-to Westside takeout crutch. Go for the mushroom pie, which comes sprinkled with lemon zest and parmesan, and the pork sausage pizza hits the spot if you're looking for a tomato base.
Located in that busy intersection of Sunset Blvd., between the 76 station and Mohawk Bend, Cosa Buona is a casual, neighborhood hangout where the food never misses a beat, provided you don't mind honking horns and cars making illegal left turns outside. The puffy crust on the pizza, designed by the chef who also runs Silver Lake star Alimento, is properly blistered and chewy. Topping combinations aren’t here to do anything crazy but are nevertheless excellent.
The crust on Ronan’s Neapolitan pizza is perfectly-charred and slightly chewy, with pops of flavorful ingredients that are ideally ratioed across every slice. Start with the margherita for a showcase of Ronan’s expertise at its simplest, then move on to much wilder, ingenious creations like the Philippe's-inspired French dip calzone, stuffed with rare roast beef and hot mustard. The guanciale and ricotta-topped Sweet Cheeks is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy.
Opened by the co-owner of Hatchet Hall and the former executive chef at L&E Oyster, Little Coyote in Long Beach feels like a true throwback, the kind of casual pizza place that suburban kids begged their moms to stop at after picking up a video from Blockbuster. The pizza itself comes closest to New York-style, with massive slices, crispy thin crust that’s been buttered within an inch of its life, and classic toppings that range from pepperoni to sausage and mushrooms.
Sometimes we want chewy, nicely charred Neapolitan pizza and we want it fast. This is what Pizzeria Sei does best. The bare-bones Pico-Robertson restaurant has a small menu of seven slightly puffy, crimped-edge pies, including a briny but not-too-salty Neapolitana with capers and anchovies, and the Bismark, which balances prosciutto, egg, and fior di latte but is never too decadent. Grabbing a seat here usually means sitting at the bar around the dome-shaped oven.
At Thai Curry Pizza in Long Beach, you'll encounter pies that sound wrong in theory, but taste extremely right in practice. Alongside takeout staples like papaya salad and pad see ew, this strip mall gem offers mashups that layer Southeast Asian flavors onto crispy leopard-spotted crusts. The tom yum pizza in particular is a masterpiece, topped with gooey mozzarella, mushrooms, tomatoes, cilantro, and just enough tom yum paste to create an explosion of spicy-sour flavors.
This small Argentinian market in Glendale really has it all—wine, pastries, empanadas, and a butcher—but while doing some light grocery shopping, make sure you prioritize the fugazzeta. It’s essentially the Argentina equivalent of a stuffed-crust pizza, with generous amounts of ham, cheese, and cooked onions spread on top, plus more ham and molten cheese tucked inside. They offer a cook-at-home version, but if you want it piping hot for takeout, call ahead.
The Valley is filled with old school pizzerias with loyal followings and fans who bicker over which is best. Our allegiance is to Dino’s. With over 38 specialty pizzas, the menu at this Burbank classic can feel a bit chaotic, so we’ll narrow it down: get the lasagna pizza, topped with Italian sausage, meatballs, and whipped ricotta. It’s a pizza that could easily be messy, but the expert placement of toppings and a crispy, medium-thick crust keeps it all in harmony.
For years, Apollonia’s was one of our Mid-Wilshire pizza go-to’s, thanks to their crispy thin crust and fresh toppings. But it wasn’t until they quietly added an off-menu square pie in 2019 that things were really taken to a whole new different level (many accolades and well-deserved attention followed). With crunchy, inch-thick crust and a spongy, light interior, this is pizza you drive across town to try.
If you’ve ever wondered what might happen if someone combined a grandma-style rectangular pie and Sicilian-style thick crust, first off, let’s be friends. Second, De La Nonna in the Arts District is doing just that. The focaccia-like pies here have a hefty crust that's golden-crisp on the bottom, but still puffy and soft under layers of sauce and cheese. Purist options like a margherita with fresh mozzarella are done justice, but they also nail busier topping combos that rotate seasonally.
We first became obsessed with LaSorted’s brick-oven pizza in 2020, during their limited run as a pop-up. These days, you’ll find them at a takeout window in Silver Lake, a space they share with one of our favorite bakeries, Gemini Bakeshop. Maybe it’s the new brick-and-mortar digs, or the power that comes with being so close to Dodger Stadium, but the latest iteration of LaSorted's (like Lasorda, get it?) has earned a place in the LA pizza pantheon as well as our stomachs.
Prime Pizza offers pizza by-the-slice if you go to the original tiny shop on Fairfax or their new locations in Little Tokyo, Burbank and the Westside, but it can honestly be hit or miss. So use Prime for what it does best: delivery. And if you live near one of those areas listed above, there probably isn’t a better option when it comes to unfussy, high-quality pizza brought to your door. At around $28 for a large pie, these babies are massive (and delicious) and could easily feed 3-4 people.
There’s a reason this Italian restaurant in Hollywood has been cooking pizza since the 19th century (the original is located in Naples, Italy): their chewy, bubbly-crusted Neapolitan-style pies are spot-on delicious. If it’s your first visit, go for the margherita (skip the extra cheese, it throws the whole thing off) because it’s the basis for all other pizzas at L’Antica. That said, our favorite is the Bianca—no sauce, double mozzarella, pecorino, and basil.
The artist formerly known as Bootleg Pizza has a new name and a new location in Culver City, but the pies at Little Dynamite’s order-at-counter shop are every bit as decadent as when we first tried them. You could argue about whether these hefty squares are Sicilian, Detroit, or traditional pan-style pizza, but we’d say they’re a mix of all three: heavy on the tomato sauce, paved with a thick layer of gooey mozzarella, and sporting a crispy, inch-thick crust and soft interior.
Side Pie started out as a pandemic-born pop-up operating out of a literal backyard in Altadena. These days, it’s moved down the street to a local restaurant space, which means it’s even easier to get ahold of their excellent product. Unlike similar wood-fired shops around town, Side Pie’s pizzas are massive with big, greasy pieces that you can fold in half and eat while sitting on the curb pretending it’s 3am in lower Manhattan.