Bardo’s is located in Southie’s Castle Island Brewery, and they specialize in New England South Shore-style bar pizza, which is the closest Boston has to its own style of pizza. Baked in a small pan, the cheese extends over the edge of the crust, giving each bite a satisfying crunch. It’s greasy in the best way, with a cracker-like crust, and you’ll find interesting toppings like Portuguese linguica and pickles. Ask for it extra crispy and pregame your pie with some garlic and hot honey wings.

Umberto is a counter-service slice joint on Hanover that opens exactly at 10:45am and closes when they run out, which is usually around 12:30pm. They make thick, square Sicilian pies and nail the style—the crust is surprisingly light, and the sauce settles into the airy pockets, creating that perfect blend of bready, tomato goodness with just the right amount of cheese. The slices are also all around $2, making it the cheapest option on this list.

Florina feels like a place the characters in a Beacon Hill sitcom would meet up at every week to dissect their dating lives over arancini and chicken pesto pizza. It’s a neighborhood spot, where the staff seem both in cahoots with each other, and genuinely happy to crisp up a double-wide slice in the oven for you. The fact that this place serves some of the best pizza in town isn't a secret, and it gets crowded at lunch with crews from the Statehouse.

Area Four has been at the heart of the growing food scene in Kendall Square since 2011. During the week, you’ll find scientists escaping windowless labs to take meetings over clam and oregano pizzas, but headng to Kendall Square for weekend brunch is really the move. Order the perfect breakfast pizza topped with housemade sausage and pickled peppers, and add a skillet of supreme garlic knots for the table. Wrap things up by sharing the fruit and frangipane-topped almond butter french toast.

Open since 1903, this Eastie classic may not look like much, but the pizza is near-perfect. Pull up a seat at the bar with a friend, get a pitcher of High Life, and bite into a slice that’s still scorching hot from the oven. Order the sausage that comes with a garlicky and sweet sauce, or branch out with the shrimp scampi pie. Once you crunch into that cornmeal-dusted crust with an impossibly great char, you’ll understand why we’d willingly stub our pinky toe for a single bite.

About 70% of the time when you pull up to the original Regina in the North End, there’s gonna be a line. And that’s when you’ll start to wonder if it’s worth the wait. The answer is yes. The sauce is slightly spicy and kissed with a little romano, which gives it a mighty punch even if you skip the pepperoni or sausage toppings. Don’t skip them, though: while the specialty pies are solid, Regina excels at classic toppings. This endorsement is only for the North End spot.

Mortadella Head specializes in Roman-style slices. Square, chewy, and crispy, but a little heartier than the pizza al taglio you’ll find in the Eternal City. They're also playful with the toppings, which range from classic to newfangled. If you’re craving round pizza a la New York, they nail that, too: a thin layer of fresh, tomato-forward sauce, a speckled layer of cheese, and a thin crust that holds up without being too chewy.

If you like your pies well done, head to Picco in the South End. The crust here is so charred you might think it came out of a Kingsford bag, but the end result is a really crispy end product that you’d gladly eat like a cracker. Order the eggplant, mushroom, swiss chard, and provolone pie topped with a miso gochujang aioli. This is the spot you bring your friends with kids, because both the parents and tiny humans will love the homemade ice cream and outdoor seating during the warmer months.

With a Neapolitan-style brick oven that hits 800 degrees, Quattro serves serious crowd-pleasing pizza in the North End, along with some bracing espresso martinis. The pies come out fast and hot, with a nicely balanced sauce that’s a little sweet and crust that has the perfect char. Keep your order simple with the margherita, or try the white pizza with figs and arugula (ask them to add a little prosciutto). They also have a solid wine-by-the-glass list.

Dragon Pizza has gotten some buzz lately, but all you need to know is the pizza is excellent and the vibes are great. They don’t serve booze, just New York-style pizza by the slice. The cheese and pepperoni are solid, and they also do stuff like nacho slices that NYC places wouldn’t be caught dead serving. Definitely save space for whatever homemade gelato they’re serving that day—the dark chocolate is rich in all the right ways and the Gucci vanilla delivers on the designer name.

North Shore roast beef and South Shore bar pie is about as uniquely Massachusetts as it gets, and Somerville’s Hot Box has both. Located right in Bow Market, they make thin-crust pizzas that are precisely the right size for your pizza party of one. We love the spicy pickle pizza (yes, it has hot and diced-up pickles), but if that’s too wild, there’s buffalo chicken, pepperoni, and other classics.

Brewer’s Fork in Charlestown is the best spot to enjoy beer and pizza. The pies are wood-fired and are good enough that you’ll want to eat one all by yourself in this charming little cement box of a building. The rotating draft list includes craft IPAs and lower ABV sours, plus special beer and pizza pairings throughout the year. Order the meatball pie with red sauce and mozzarella or the incredible Freebird.

Stoked isn’t flashy—it’s just really good pizza with an airy crust that’s perfectly charred. The Bianca, with bacon, peppers, garlic, ricotta, and hot honey, is the one you want, but know you can get the spicy, sweet condiment on any of the wood-fired pies. The Brookline location, with big red booths and boom box-covered walls, should be one of your go-to spots for a casual dinner in the neighborhood.

Since it’s hidden in the shadow of Tobin Bridge in Chelsea, Ciao wins the award for the best Boston pizzeria you probably haven’t heard about. If this place were in the North End, though, there would be a line of golf-shirt-wearing tourists from Ohio outside it every day at noon. The crust is chewy and soft, and it comes out of the wood-fired oven really quickly. The best option is the ‘nduja pie, with that spreadable spicy pork sausage, squash puree, shallots, gorgonzola, and mozzarella.

Posto’s sprawling space kind of feels like where the whole neighborhood comes together to stress out about whatever Boston team might be on the screen. And since there’s nothing better than eating carbs and fantasizing about what you’d do differently as head coach, Posto obliges with some really puffy, Neapolitan-style pies topped with housemade mozzarella.

Armando’s slings classic thin-crust pies in a room with orange plastic booths and a Pepsi cooler. One wall is dedicated to the Red Sox, and the other to the local Little League team they sponsor. But the pizza from this tiny slice joint is way better than the stuff at most chains you’d go to after a kid’s game. Call in your order, and bring cash for some of the best crispy, greasy, and foldable pizza you can find in Boston.

Nightshift has an interesting beer list, and it’s hands-down the best place in Boston proper to get Detroit-style pizza. They have outdoor seating most of the year, so grab a spot in the shadow of the Zakim Bridge and go to town on pies like the Figgy Piggy Pizza with fig jam, prosciutto, and big globs of burrata. It’s an added bonus that you’re within walking distance from the Garden, which makes it a great pregame spot before you watch Jayson Tatum do his best Larry Bird impression.

This unfussy Naples-style pizzeria in Newton serves up airy sourdough crust and excellent wine-by-the-glass and cocktail lists (with an interesting Negroni flight). The specialty pizzas are what you should focus on, especially the Bagna Cauda with housemade fennel sausage, escarole, and anchovies. Da LaPosta is also our ideal spot for an easy, but impressive, night out with parents or a date.