Philadelphia is a pizza town. Not only did the city popularize tomato pie, but you can always find lines down the street for the latest Neapolitan or Detroit-style that rival the Apple Store on a launch day. And yet, even though new spots seem to pop up every few months like a slate of shows on Netflix, there are still some classic pizza establishments where you can get a casual plain slice with a stream of perfect orange oil dripping off the side.
Whether you’re looking for an after-hours snack on South Street, want a quick lunch, or need a centerpiece for your game-day spread, there are plenty of places to choose from.So, we put together a list of the 15 best pizza spots in Philly to help you navigate the growing and near-endless strands of melted cheese and charred crispy edges taking over the city.
THE SPOTS
From the outside, Fishtown’s Pizzeria Beddia looks like an old garage. Inside, however, you'll find a sleek pizza spot serving crispy thin-crust pies with high ceilings, a smiling cloud lamp hanging over their u-shaped bar, and glowing blue stars (that are way better than the sticker versions from our childhood bedroom) all over the dining room walls. It’s a pizza place unlike any other, and our favorite pie, the No. 2, is unlike any other pizza on this list. It’s topped with Calabrian cream, mozzarella, and Old Gold gouda, which creates something that resembles a gooey mac and cheese on top of dough. Plus, like every pizza here, the crust is thin and the right balance of bendy and crispy.
Pizza Jawn in Manayunk isn't your typical neighborhood slice shop. First of all, it's our pick for the best pizza you can find in the city—with perfect black rings of char marks that line the crust and give the whole thing some crispy bubbles and toasty blisters. Here you can grab a round, Grandma, or Detroit-style pizza by ordering online for pickup or delivery. One bite of any slice will confirm that you'd go through an American Ninja Warrior obstacle course just to grab another one. Any way you dress your pie up (they have 38 topping options), it will be good enough to brave heavy I-76 traffic and strap a seatbelt over the box of dough and cheese like it’s the most cherished thing in your car. Including yourself.
With Beddia, Hook & Master, and Pizza Shackamaxon all within a few blocks of each other, Fishtown is stacked. Shackamaxon has a crust covered in crispy leopard-like charcoal rings that has people lining up on Girard Ave. like it's an Eagles jersey giveaway. They only have four pizzas here: plain, pepperoni, tomato, and a rotating weekly special which can include options like burrata, honey, and basil. You can’t preorder a pie, as you have to do it on the day-of and in-person. But if you want to order four or more pizzas for when you and your friends decide to watch all of the Star Wars movies from the beginning, just email them. Despite how huge these slices are, they hold their weight in toppings—meaning your pepperoni pizza won’t lose all of its perfect little grease pools as soon as you pick up a slice between lightsaber battle scenes.
If we played a word association game and someone said “Philly pizza,” Angelo’s would be one of the first places to pop in our heads. The cash-only South Philly spot has a few loaded pizzas, like their Upside Down option–a thick square pie that smothers a layer of cheese beneath tomato sauce. But the best pizza here is the simple and classic margherita. In each bite, you can taste the sweet red tomato sauce and the smooth fior di latte that’s the creamiest mozzarella we’ve ever tried.
Down North Pizza is a casual neighborhood spot in Strawberry Mansion, and it’s the first place we think of when we want a cushiony Detroit-style pizza. Even though the crust has a light and doughy bite, the crispy edges are firm enough to hold the chunks of beef sausage, pepperoni, and the many other toppings that come on their 12 specialty pizzas. One of our favorites at this takeout-only spot, which names their pizzas after Philly rappers’ songs, is the Flip Side. It sprinkles beef bacon, caramelized pineapples, and jalapeños over a layer of thick melted mozzarella cheese, making it a mouthful that’s both sweet and tangy.
The crust at Sally is made from sourdough, and it’s so delicious they could serve it on its own as a free basket of bread and we’d be happy. The Fitler Square spot usually only has around five pizzas on the menu, with at least two red and white options, but their clam and leek pie that comes with a grilled lemon is a standout. It’s like a citrusy clam chowder that’s surrounded by a crusty rim, which makes the whole thing more comforting than a fuzzy blanket on a cold day. Come here to spend your night sipping on natural wines, watching someone flip dough in the corner, and eating under a pink-bulbed chandelier. Sally even places reheating instructions on the to-go box, since they know their slices will be the first thing we think about when waking up in the morning.
Kensington's Eeva is a relaxed spot to sip on natural wine while biting into an airy and chewy crust topped with things like mushrooms, stracciatella, dill, lemon, and garlic. When you stop by for a date night or a solo meal, you can watch the fire roar in their wood-burning oven while you wait for a mozzarella, Grana, and basil or roasted fennel cream. This pie is super gooey but still has the perfect crunch. After a few bites, it just turns into a satisfyingly smooth and cheesy mousse in your mouth.
At the original Tacconelli’s in Port Richmond, it's better to reserve your dough ahead of time so they know exactly how much pizza to make for your group. If that seems ridiculous, then you’ve never had a slice of pizza here. If there’s an equation that determines the perfect ratio of cheese to sauce on a pizza, Tacconelli’s has it stashed away on a piece of paper in a vault somewhere. The crust is crispy and super thin, so you shouldn’t add more than two toppings to your pizza unless you want half of them to end up on the plate. But you really want a plain pie here anyways—each slice folds in half like it has a perforated edge right down the middle.
Part neighborhood slice shop and part bar where you can play Duck Hunt on an old tube TV, Paulie Gee’s has the classic pizza hangout down to a science. All the slices at this NYC-based spot are good, but it’s their Freddy Prinze that sets them apart from other pizza places in town. The square, upside-down Sicilian pie comes loaded with sweet tomato sauce, mozzarella, pecorino romano, and a sesame seed bottom that ensures each bite has just the right amount of char and nuttiness. Bring a group of friends to the Center City shop to shoot a round of pool, look at some vinyl records from the 1970s, and split a square pizza in the vintage orange booths.
Head to Pizzata Pizzeria in Fitler Square for a classic New York-style round pie. No matter if you go with a red or white pizza, they’ll all be sprinkled with parmesan, basil, and a smooth drizzle of olive oil. The wood-fired pies are a must-have before game night or when you forgot to grab a present for your coworker’s 10-year anniversary and know that this is an upgrade over some socks. Either way, you should go for the Calabrese pie that melts pepperoni, long hots, mounds of burrata, and hot honey. The crust has balloon-like pockets of air, but it still has a deep crunch that sounds like a mini earthquake in your mouth.
Circles + Squares started as a one-man operation in the back of a coffee shop, which made it nearly impossible to get one of their square pan pizzas. Now, it’s located in a small corner shop in Olde Richmond with a counter and a few barstools. You’re still likely to see the “out of stock” alert when trying to preorder one online, so it’s not always easy to get one of their perfect, crispy-edged, fluffy square pan pizzas. But if you can conquer the wait, the move here is to get a pie with just cheese and tomato sauce—it’s the perfect complement to the charred crusts coated in even more crispy cheese. In addition to the signature square pies, they also do thin-crust circle pizzas that are a great option on hot days when a thicker pan pizza just seems too heavy to tackle.
20th Street Pizza is the best plant-based pizza spot in the city. This casual slice shop tops their pies with ingredients like purple cauliflower, lemon zest, romesco, and thick-cut potato slices. The Rittenhouse spot mostly does takeout, and you can choose from circle or square options—like a tomato pie and grandma option that's lighter than most versions you can find in Philly. The standout here is the Haymaker, which blends vegan sausage and a garlicky and sweet tomato sauce on a bed of creamy cashew mozzarella. The crust has a satisfying crackle, and we constantly dream about adding the nutty, silky, and dairy-free cheese to anything we eat.
Kensington’s Hook & Master appreciates our need for a pizza that’s oozing with strands of ropy cheese. Here they have Chicago-style pies with a deep bed of spongy dough that can handle the sauce, along with New York-style options that have a crunchier crust and toppings like Spanish chorizo and shrimp. With about as many toppings as there are buttons in the elevator of a skyscraper, they use ingredients that you probably won't find on other pizzas on this list—like chargrilled octopus, clams, boquerones, and prawns. Try bringing some friends here on days when you want something better than a quick few slices from your neighborhood spot, or if you want to take advantage of their $5 late-night slice special.
You can get a decent slice of plain cheese pizza pretty much anywhere in Philly, but only Pizza Brain tops their pies with things like honey goat cheese, South Carolina mustard bbq sauce, and rainbow chard, and then gives them ridiculous names like Henrietta Blanch and Wendy Wedgeworth. This slice shop makes enormous thin-crust pies with bizarre combinations that somehow work well together and some classic ones—like the Buffy Ernest, that’s an oniony white pie similar to your standard buffalo chicken pizza. All we know is that this pizza makes us incredibly happy and you’ll probably only need one pie to fill you up. So you can stare at all the weird pizza paraphernalia hanging on the walls until you're full and ready to head out.
If you come to Germantown Ave.’s King of Pizza a few times, you’ll probably keep it in your rotation for a quick $3 slice. While we love some of the newer spots in the city (and on this list) that top their pizza with things like chipotle glaze or beet slaw, this spot (open since 1974) is where we go for classic plain and pepperoni with slices as big as a dinner plate. The crust is light and chewy on the ends but can crunch like a hard-shell taco when you bite into it. The slices get coated in a subtle slick of olive oil, like the layer of sunblock you put on at the beach, and the pizza here always has a sweet rim of red sauce clutching the crust.
