The Best Pizza Slices in New York City

The New York slice is the most democratic meal in the city, and also the most argued about. This list takes a side. The plain cheese slice is the test, and a shop that cannot get that right does not get credit for a clever topping. But the best counters in 2026 are doing both: nailing the fold and the char, then earning their lines with burrata, vodka sauce, hot honey and, in one Brooklyn case, slow cooked oxtail.

We picked 19 shops across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Every one is open and serving by the slice as of this fall. We left out places that only sell whole pies (Lucali, John's of Bleecker, Totonno's), which are great restaurants and a different conversation. If you are building a whole day around eating cheap, pair this with our guide to the best cheap eats in NYC.

Manhattan: downtown

Joe's Pizza

Greenwich Village · 7 Carmine St · $

This is the reference slice. Thin, wide, foldable, with a sauce that tastes like tomatoes and a cheese layer that stays put when you fold it. Joe's has opened outposts around the city and beyond, but the Carmine Street counter is the one people mean. There is nothing to decode here, which is the whole point.

Go for: a plain cheese slice, eaten standing on the sidewalk. Know before you go: the line moves faster than it looks, so do not bail.

L'Industrie Pizzeria

West Village · 104 Christopher St · $$

L'Industrie started in Williamsburg and has become the most talked about slice shop in the city, mostly on the strength of one move: a big dollop of cold burrata spooned over a hot slice. It sounds like a gimmick until you taste the dough underneath, which is thin, blistered and folds like a New York slice should. The West Village shop is tight, with a few high tops and a line that builds by evening. The company also announced a third shop on Grand Street in Little Italy for 2026, so check before you head there.

Go for: the burrata slice (about $5.75) and a pepperoni (about $5.25). Know before you go: go at lunch to skip the worst of the wait.

Prince Street Pizza

Nolita · 27 Prince St · $$

The square here is a pepperoni delivery system. Tiny cups of thick cut pepperoni crisp and curl into grease-filled bowls across a thick, oily Sicilian base, over a spicy fra diavolo sauce. It is heavy, salty and exactly what it promises to be. Lines stretch down Prince Street most nights, powered in part by tourists who saw it online, and the slice holds up to the hype better than most viral food does.

Go for: the Spicy Spring square (about $6). Know before you go: one slice is a meal, so share if you are doing a crawl.

Scarr's Pizza

Lower East Side · 35 Orchard St · $

Scarr Pimentel mills his own flour in house, which almost no slice shop in the city bothers to do, and you can taste it in a crust that is nutty and sturdy. The room is a loving throwback to the pizzerias of the 1970s, with a full bar in back. It stays open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes it the best case for ending a night on Orchard Street. Plan the rest of the evening with our Lower East Side guide.

Go for: a plain slice first, then the Hotboi. Know before you go: the bar in back means you can sit down with a drink, rare for a slice shop.

Cuts & Slices

Lower East Side · 321 E Houston St · $$

The Manhattan outpost of the Brooklyn shop that went viral for putting Caribbean oxtail on pizza. The slices are huge, rich and priced like entrees, and they are built for people who think a plain slice is a missed opportunity. See the Brooklyn entry below for the full story.

Go for: the Sweet Chili Oxtail slice. Know before you go: closed Wednesdays, open until midnight Friday and Saturday.

Manhattan: midtown and uptown

NY Pizza Suprema

Midtown · 413 8th Ave · $

Across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, in a zip code full of sad food, Suprema is a family run counter that has been doing this for almost 50 years. The crust has real crunch, the cheese is aged and salty, and there are about 20 kinds of slices in the case at any given time. It is the correct answer when you are catching a train or walking out of a Knicks game.

Go for: a plain slice, then a specialty slice from the case. Know before you go: open until midnight daily.

Upside Pizza

Midtown · 598 8th Ave · $

Upside makes a naturally leavened sourdough crust at slice shop prices, and it is one of the better reasons to walk a block off Times Square. It is a growing mini chain (there is also a shop on East 40th Street, with an Upper East Side location on Second Avenue in the works), but the quality has held.

Go for: a plain slice and a square. Know before you go: a solid pre-theater stop when you have 15 minutes and no reservation.

Mama's Too

Upper West Side · 2750 Broadway · $$

In February, Time Out named the Cacio e Pepe square at Mama's Too the best pizza in the world, and the line on Broadway has not been short since. The square is Roman in spirit, airy and crackly, and the round slices are proper New York folds. Owner Frank Tuttolomondo runs a menu where the specialty squares rotate, but the pepperoni square, with cups charred at the edges, is the one regulars defend.

Go for: the Cacio e Pepe square ($7.75), with whipped mascarpone and three cheeses, plus a pepperoni square. Know before you go: counter service only, and it is small, so expect to eat on the street.

Sal & Carmine Pizza

Upper West Side · 2671 Broadway · $

At 102nd Street since 1959, Sal & Carmine is the anti-hype pick. The slice is thin and crisp, finished with a heavy hand of grated Parmesan that makes it saltier and sharper than most. No lines around the block, no specialty menu, just a neighborhood counter that has outlasted almost everything around it.

Go for: a plain cheese slice with extra cheese from the shaker. Know before you go: pair it with a walk through Riverside Park, three blocks west.

Brooklyn: north

L'Industrie Pizzeria (the original)

Williamsburg · 254 S 2nd St · $$

The first L'Industrie opened here in 2017, and it is still a narrow little shop with the same burrata slice and the same devoted line. If you are in the neighborhood, this is the one to go to. Build the rest of the day with our Williamsburg guide.

Go for: the burrata slice, then the L'Industrie slice with prosciutto (about $7.50). Know before you go: there is almost no seating, and McCarren Park is a short walk.

Best Pizza

Williamsburg · 33 Havemeyer St · $

Frank Pinello opened Best Pizza in 2010 to bring back the neighborhood slice joint, and it still feels like one: wood fired oven, paper plates, walls covered in customer doodles. The move is the white slice, with caramelized onions and a sesame seed crust, lighter than most white pizzas and sweeter from the onions.

Go for: the white slice and a grandma square. Know before you go: open until 11pm on weekends.

Fini Pizza

Williamsburg · 305 Bedford Ave · $

Fini comes from the group behind Lilia and Misi, two of the hardest reservations in Brooklyn, and it is the easiest way to taste that kitchen for the price of a slice. The crust is thin and blistered, and the white slice is the one that people post about.

Go for: the white slice. Know before you go: gluten free slices are available, and there is Italian ice for after.

Paulie Gee's Slice Shop

Greenpoint · 110 Franklin St · $

A vintage styled, music forward slice shop with working old video game consoles and one of the best vegan pizza programs in the city. The house signature is the Hellboy, pepperoni with hot honey, which spread to half the pizzerias in America after Paulie Gee's made it famous. The Freddy Prinze, an upside-down Sicilian square with fresh mozzarella and pecorino, is the sleeper pick. See the rest of the neighborhood in our Greenpoint guide.

Go for: a Hellboy slice and a Freddy Prinze square. Know before you go: open until 1am Friday and Saturday.

Brooklyn: south and central

F&F Pizzeria

Carroll Gardens · 459 Court St · $$

The Franks behind Frankies Spuntino run this slice shop in a converted garage next door, and it shows. The dough is naturally fermented, the tomatoes are Bianco DiNapoli, and the olive oil is their own. It is a cook's slice: restrained toppings, careful bake, a lot of flavor in the crust itself. In summer the shop hosts guest pizzaiolos for its Pizza Sessions series.

Go for: a plain slice and whatever square is in the case. Know before you go: closes at 9pm most nights, 10pm on weekends.

Di Fara Pizza

Midwood · 1424 Avenue J · $$

The late Dom DeMarco made Di Fara the most famous pizzeria in Brooklyn, snipping fresh basil and grating cheese over every pie himself. His family keeps it going, with olive oil drizzled on at the end and a slice that is softer and richer than the classic street fold. It is a pilgrimage, and it still tastes like one.

Go for: a plain round slice and a square. Know before you go: it closes from about 4:30 to 6pm to prep for dinner, and closes early on Mondays.

L&B Spumoni Gardens

Gravesend · 2725 86th St · $

The Sicilian square here is built upside down, with cheese on the bottom and sweet, thick tomato sauce on top, finished with pecorino. The underside caramelizes, the middle stays soft, and the whole thing tastes nothing like any other slice in the city. It has been this way since the 1930s. Take a tray outside to the picnic tables, then get a cup of spumoni.

Go for: a square slice, then spumoni for dessert. Know before you go: summer weekends get crowded, so go on a weekday afternoon.

Cuts & Slices

Bedford-Stuyvesant · 93 Howard Ave · $$$

The original Cuts & Slices opened in 2018 and became a sensation when people started waiting hours for the oxtail slice: meat braised for eight hours in sweet chili sauce, piled onto a thick crust. There are also shrimp and lobster slices with truffle alfredo. It is not a traditional slice, and it is not trying to be. It is a Brooklyn original, and it has earned the lines.

Go for: the Sweet Chili Oxtail slice ($12.50). Know before you go: closed Wednesdays, and one slice is plenty.

Queens and the Bronx

Rizzo's Fine Pizza

Astoria · 30-13 Steinway St · $

Rizzo's has been making the same thin crust square since 1959. It is closer to a tomato pie than a typical Sicilian: a light, crackly crust with big bursts of bright sauce and a dusting of grated cheese. It eats fast and lighter than it looks, so order two.

Go for: two thin square slices. Know before you go: family owned and old-school, so do not expect a specialty menu.

Cuts & Slices

St. Albans · 205-01 Linden Blvd · $$

The Queens outpost of Cuts & Slices brings the same oxtail and seafood slices to southeast Queens, with the same hours as the Brooklyn shop.

Go for: the oxtail slice. Know before you go: closed Wednesdays.

Louie & Ernie's Pizza

Pelham Bay · 1300 Crosby Ave · $

A decades-old shop on a quiet residential block with a sausage slice that people talk about in hushed tones. The fennel sausage is homemade and chunky, laid over a thin, crisp crust. It is the kind of place that has no reason to change and does not.

Go for: a sausage slice. Know before you go: cash only, and it closes at 8pm.

Mezza Luna Pizza (formerly Full Moon)

Belmont · 600 E 187th St · $

On the corner of Arthur Avenue and 187th Street, this was Full Moon Pizza for nearly 50 years before new owners renamed it Mezza Luna, half moon, in a nod to the old sign. The slice is large and crisp, and it holds its shape under toppings. Get one on the way to the bakeries and pork stores on Arthur Avenue.

Go for: a plain cheese slice. Know before you go: many longtime regulars still call it Full Moon.

A note on Staten Island

Staten Island's pizza reputation runs through whole pies, not slices. If you make the trip, Joe & Pat's (1758 Victory Blvd, Castleton Corners) has been making ultra-thin, crackly pies since 1960. Order a pie at the table and bring friends.

How to use this list

Start with the plain slice. It tells you more about a pizzeria than any specialty topping ever will, and it is the only fair way to compare Joe's to Sal & Carmine to Rizzo's.

Group by neighborhood, not by ranking. The Williamsburg trio (L'Industrie, Best Pizza, Fini) is a single afternoon. So is Carmine Street to Prince Street to Orchard Street in Manhattan. Save the pilgrimages (Di Fara, L&B, Louie & Ernie's) for a day when the trip is the point.

Split slices when you are crawling. The Prince Street square and the Cuts & Slices oxtail are each a full meal. Bring cash for Louie & Ernie's.

And when the night runs long, Scarr's and Paulie Gee's are open late. For more after-midnight options, see our guide to late night food in NYC, and for a place to have a beer before the slice, try our best dive bars in NYC.