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I love New York style pizza. To me, the best pizza is a plain cheese slice with plenty of sauce, and dripping with grease. The perfect slice will flop over when picked up unless you fold it in half first. Yummmmm.
I wrote this post last week, but by the time you read this, I’ll be in Manhattan with my extended family. I want to make sure that we try some of the best pizza around while we’re here.
Do you have a favorite pizza place in Manhattan? Below are Yelp’s top 10 in Manhattan (at the time I wrote this), followed by the top 6 near Midtown East (where we’ll be staying).
Yelp’s Top 10 in Manhattan
The following list is sorted by highest Yelp ratings and excludes places that aren’t really pizza places.
Stanton Pizza
127 Stanton St (between Norfolk St & Essex St)
Neighborhood: Lower East SideVia Tribunali
122 Ludlow St (between Rivington St & Delancey St)
Neighborhood: Lower East SidePrince Street Pizza
27 Prince St (between Mott St & Elizabeth St)
Neighborhood: NolitaIl Fornaio Pizzeria
1505 Lexington Ave (between 98th St & 97th St)
Neighborhood: East HarlemLa Margarita
151 Ludlow St (between Stanton St & Rivington St)
Neighborhood: Lower East SideMerilu Pizza Al Metro
791 9th Ave (between 53rd St & 52nd St)
Neighborhoods: Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown West, Theater DistrictPrimo Pizza 84
57 W 84th St (between W Central Park & Columbus Ave)
Neighborhood: Upper West SideLuzzo’s
211 1st Ave (between 12th St & 13th St)
Neighborhood: East VillageNumero 28
660 Amsterdam Ave (between 93rd St & 92nd St)
Neighborhood: Upper West SideSaluggi’s
325 Church St (between Canal St & Lispenard St)
Neighborhood: TriBeCa
Yelp’s top rated pizza near Midtown East
We’ll be staying in the midtown east area and we’re considering ordering several for delivery so that we can taste test them side by side. Since I’m not sure that the best places listed above will deliver to our area, I ran another search based on places near Midtown East. Below, I listed those that offer delivery (according to Yelp) and have 4 stars or more:
Merilu Pizza Al Metro
791 9th Ave (between 53rd St & 52nd St)
Neighborhoods: Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown West, Theater DistrictCapizzi
547 9th Ave (at 40th St)
Neighborhoods: Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown West, Theater DistrictPosto Pizza
310 2nd Ave (between 18th St & 19th St)
Neighborhood: GramercyNew York Pizza Suprema
413 8th Ave (between 30th St & 31st St)
Neighborhoods: Chelsea, Midtown WestGotham Pizza
1443 York Ave
Neighborhoods: Yorkville, Upper East SidePizza by Cer Te
132 E 56th St (between Park Ave & Lexington Ave)
Neighborhood: Midtown East
Reader recommendations
What do you think? Do the lists above really show the best pizza places? Do you have a favorite that we absolutely have to try? Comment below!
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Another vote for Lombardi’s.
Well, I’m back from NYC. Thank you for all of the great recommendations! I only had a chance to try two place: John’s of Bleecker and Bleecker Street Pizza. Both were terrific. I actually had a very slight preference for Bleecker Street, but my son slightly preferred John’s. I can’t wait to go back and try more places.
forget pizza, go get some RAMEN at Ippudo!!
@Pizza Man
Most people in the NY Metro area don’t know a thing about Neopolitan pizza either, unless you count New Haven as the NY Metro area.
@ Ilovepizza
BTW, I’m not a fan of John’s Pizzeria. I know I’m in the minority. The crust is not as good as other places. It’s a bit dry.
@Ilovepizza
It’s because the people who rated those places have never tried real pizza.
@ARG
Thx for the shoutout. Most people outside of the NYC Metro Area don’t know a thing about neopolitan pizza, much less a coal-fired brick oven. (Just because a steel oven is brick-faced, it doesnt mean it actually is a brick oven. Don’t be fooled.)
DiFara, Lombardis, Grimaldis, Patsy’s, John of Bleecker St., Artichoke. That’s the royalty as far as I’m concerned. They’re the best. Incidentally, 2 Bro’s ($1/slice) is better than most pizza because, due the high turnover stemming from the price, it is never reheated.
Absolutely puzzled by the lists in the OP. in 7 years in NYC I’ve never heard of any of these to be good, and I’ve lived near some of them.
I agree with pizza man. True NY pizza is not a crappy slice from Ray’s or any of the others — it comes from a 800 degree coal oven. Try Totonno’s, Lombardi’s, Di Fara. My preference for atmosphere and great pizza in Manhattan is Arturo’s at 106 West Houston at Thompson. It’s old school — booths, walls covered with pictures, and occasionally live music. P.S. the best I’ve ever had is Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, CT.
and FWIW, there is far better pizza to be had 2 hrs up the Metro North in New Haven, CT than any where in the New York City area…
I find sorting yelp reviews by “highest rated” often yields misleading results (which you can sometimes see visually with 3-start places ranked above 4-stars). “Best match” or even “most reviewed” (followed by scrolling through to find the 4-star+ places) is usually a better bet.
This is evident in you list- missing pretty much all the top pizza places in Manhattan, best of which is probably John’s on Bleecker.
For those mentioning Grimaldi’s, note that the better bet is actually Juliana’s next door. Grimaldi himself actually retired several years ago. When the lease his old restaurant held wasn’t renewed last year, forcing it to move next door, Grimaldi came out of retirement to open Juliana’s in the space once occupied by his original restaurant (with the original oven, importantly). Ironically “Grimaldi’s” has now nothing to do with anyone named Grimaldi- that is all happening at Juliana’s where the original Grimaldi’s was. When you go you will probably see a longggg line of tourists waiting for the restaurant called Grimaldi’s, and likely just a few locals waiting for Juliana’s, as word is not quite out yet. Check the pictures on yelp if you don’t believe me- nearly all of them are taken of what is now Juliana’s, since the change happened just last year.
Our favorite is still Di Fara in Brooklyn.
http://www.difara.com/
to each his or her own… I dont like greesy pizza.
.
try Stowe, VT:
.
Matterhorn
Pie in the Sky
PiCasso
and a bunch of others in and around town.
With them you can also have some of the best craft beers in the world only avail in the area!
Midtown East – Angelo’s on e 52nd st is amazing. Johns Pizza downtown is awesome. Plus u can never go wrong with Grimaldis in Brooklyn. Many people swear its the best ever.