Best Pizza in NYC

Aha! That most august of all NYC questions...the pizza debate. Weeeell, it's been pondered previously, here:

http://www.streetadvisor.com/new_york/forums/best-pizza-in-new-york

and here:

http://www.streetadvisor.com/new_york/forums/pizza

Though for my most recent pizza craving I was actually at Grimaldi's, I'm thinking I might venture to more off the beaten track places next time...

Well.. that's only a little helpful since so many people have so many different favorites! But I noticed something you had mentioned once that I tend to do as well.. if the wait is too long, I'll go somewhere else. I've lived in Jersey, so I have had good pizza, and I know how you can GENERALLY get a decent pie on almost any corner.. I don't have to go with the most popular.. I was just wondering, mostly, if there was anywhere that was exceptionally good....

In this case, because there's so much good pizza around, it's probably best to give recommendations by neighborhood.

But generally, there's also a lot of seriously bad pizza around too. You know what I mean when you see it -- with the canned mushrooms and such. Unfortunately all too prevalent, pretty much on every other corner in NYC.

Ok.. so since we plan on hitting the 'touristy' parts of Manhattan (Broadway, Rockefeller, Times Square, Greenwich Village).. where, in those areas, would you point someone to for really a really good NY pie? All of that said, though, we are going to be staying in Long Island, and taking a day 2 day trip to Atlantic City, too....

John's Pizzeria (260 West 44th Street) at Times Square is not only good, but it's in a former church. You can dine in style with stained glass to look at.

John's sounds so cool! I guess it's kinda bad but I really like when Churches become other things but retain the churchy-ness. . . . like that church that used to be a nightclub in Chelsea. Nuthin like being in a place that people used to go to repent . . . . so that you can participate in one of the deadly sins! Gluttony on 44th!

Last night I had a slice at Joe's Pizzeria, a little hole of a place on 6th Ave in the Village that seems to have been around forever. The had pictures up of Jay Leno and Leo Dicaprio with the owner, and I couldn't help too wonder that A-listers patronize this place? I mean, it looks veeeery nondescript. It's just a hole in the wall with $2.50 slices.

For some slightly more upscale pizza, Fiorello's in Lincoln Centre has some phenomenal thin-crust pizza. It's wafer thin and delicious!

Motorino has been voted best pizza in NY about a million times and they just opened a second in the East Village. Lombardi's in Little Italy is definitely worth a visit although it's not my favorite. And, Artichoke (is it 13th or 14th?) is really good too.

See.. now Joe's sounds EXACTLY like what I am likely looking for... Lombardi's might be good.. but 'Artichoke' frightens me as a name for a pizza place.. I'm expecting names that end in "ilo's", "io's" or "ella's". And yes, i am expecting them to be little tiny hole in the wall type places that most people might even pass by without much consideration...

much like mexican food in San Diego.. the bigger (and less mexican) the name, the less tasty the dishes.. the smaller, less descript, and almost most dreary, the better the food.....

@Basic, Okay, I think you might have a good point there...the pizza at Joe's is "nothin' fancy" and no frills. Just, you know, classic NY pizza.

There's this place right under the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn bridge that serves fantastic pizza. It's quite the New York experience to walk across the bridge on a nice spring day and end your trip at the pizza place. It's called Grimaladi's or something. Be prepared for a line though. Typical wait times around dinner / lunch is an hour or more. The place is cramped, but the service and food is excellent. If you're in the mood for desert afterward, there's also a great ice cream place down the block from it. It's sitting on a pier that has excellent views of the bridge and river.

I'm not a huge fan of Grimalid's. I think it's more hype at this point than anything. @Basic: Artichoke is a hole. It's literally a tiny takeout place and people sit on the sidewalks and stoops surrounding the place to eat their slice.

You've got to admit that it's quite the NY experience though? For someone just visiting, it's a worthwhile place to check out.

Does anyone else ever get sick of pizza? I think I am currently on strike. Though I still love Anna Maria's in Williamsburg, just not in the mood currently.

@BroadwayBK I get bouts. For a week at a time I'm eating pizza every day, and then it passes. Weird, hunh?

I love Anna Maria's too! Gotta say, I never get tired of pizza. I could eat it every day and never tire.

@DBlack No, that is sometimes what happens to me. But with sandwiches. But then it's understandable why you get sick of them - you are eating nothing else for a week. I don't know why I haven't been in the mood for pizza... maybe because it is everywhere? So easily obtained? I need a challenge, like getting ice cream in Greenpoint.

@JenMac I'm glad someone else is a fan... I know I've mentioned that place a lot in these forums.

Any suggestions for a place that's the perfect mix between the classic ny pizza (Grimaldis) and the napoleon swanky we only make our pizza one at a time and we only use this special cheese that has been blessed by 3 priests type of pizza? Oh and to make it even harder for you, I don't want to wait an hour for it and I don't want to pay a whole lot. Ideas?

Benthedude: Motorino. It's wood fired, it's special, it's not that expensive and if you go during the week, you'll get it pretty fast.

@JenMac: ooooo Motorino looks really good! any particular pizza you would suggest?

I love four cheese pizza - it's my favorite! I just got a whole delicious pie at a sit down pizzeria for about 3 euro in Zagreb - that said, NY pizza is the best. I tend to go to my local Famiglia's - it's greasy and awful, but somehow that is all part of its charm....

There's a place in Bushwick that has really good brick oven pizzas, though they are on the expensive side: Robertas http://www.robertaspizza.com/

Just came across the Village Voice listing for the city's best pizzerias in 2010: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2010/10/our_10_best_piz.php

The aforementioned Roberta's in Brooklyn is No. 4 on the list! It's really good stuff, you guys.

@BroadwayBK Totonnos has an outpost in my neighborhood and I just adore Patsys too. NY pizza is what I miss the most here in Asia, the first time I ordered a NY style pizza at a local chain called Fat Angelos it came out half cooked and tasteless. Utterly gross..

@uptowngirl That is the saddest story I have heard all day. My roommate and her boyfriend went to Roberta's last night and there is a gorgeous Margherita pizza calling me from the fridge...

@BroadwayBk just had a look at Roberta's menu .. seriously yummm

Best part of living in Chinatown? Lombardi's delivers to my front door. Hah!

@Uraniumfish Is their pizza really all that good? I've never actually been, but I know from my past adventures on Craig's that they are constantly hiring - the employee turnover there is huge. Maybe tourists don't tip well for pizza?

Could well be the case, NeverSleeps. All I'm saying is, I had an aching for pizza yesterday and while I might have normally not gone for anything more imaginative than Domino's, I had a flash of inspiration and thought to call Lombardi's instead. And they only deliver in lower Manhattan, so I felt pretty happy to be able to get a substantially better pizza delivered.

@Uraniumfish Lucky you but then I shouldn't complain I get Tottono's delivered to my door as well...

Well...Roberta's delivers to me. Whoo! I would totally order some now if I hadn't just inhaled some pasta followed by some Pretzel M&Ms. @uptowngirl The best thing about their menu is that it's seasonal - looks like they switched it up since last I visited at the end of September.

Roberta's is amazing! And, the place is so friggin cute too. There is no good pizza delivery in West Village. All of them are horrible and it's depressing.

@JenMac really? that's surprising considering its such a happening neighborhood food wise I mean.

@BroadwayBK Stop! youre killing me I have yet to find decent pizza here, even Posto Pubblico a restaurant founded by two New Yorkers was disappointing.

I appreciate Roberta's pizza - it's good - but why is the service so snotty there? And why are there so many snotty servers working at any given time? The place is overrun with snotty employees who are so not nice.

@NeverSleeps They are all people who'd rather be actors and frustrated they haven't had their big break yet. Unhappy people can be so exhausting.

@NeverSleeps @Uraniumfish idk, I think the Bushwick hipster crowd tends to include a varied sort of artist wannabes. Probably they are pissed about not only not being in movies, but about not being the new Picasso, not getting a novel published and not being able to pay rent with measly tips from Roberta's.

But I do hate that too-cool-for-school attitude as well. A new sushi place opened right around the corner from Roberta's on Bogart - Momo's Sushi Shack, from the Bozu people in Williamsburg - and the employees couldn't be more awesome. The entire time I was there I couldn't help wondering how Roberta's gets away with the kind of service they deliver.

Once one of the employees at Roberta's informed me that she would be cutting me in line for the bathroom after I had been waiting about 15 minutes to use it. I was so enraged. They are lucky their pizza is so good!

@BroadwayBK ouch!! that's horrible

What is idk?

@BroadwayBK Yeah, sigh, I guess one can put up with a lot far the sake of great pizza...

@Everybody: I can't eat pizza these days, but if I could, I would go for either cheese or sausage. They are my favorites.

@Uraniumfish idk= i don't know just guessing here

@Uraniumfish: IDK is an acronym for "I don't know."

My favorite pizza in NYC was once Splendida's, an excellent Carnegie Hill eatery that has since closed down. Today, I'd head to Fiorello's near Lincoln Center or Trattoria dell'Arte in midtown (57th and 7th) for some seriously good pizza.

@Uraniumfish Yeah, idk ---> I don't know. Sorry for the shorthand; one of the blogs I write for has a lot of 13-year-old readers. Forgot who I was talking to for a second there.

@everyone I had a really good pie in Park Slope the other day at Bencotto on Carroll Street and 3rd Ave. Got it with vodka sauce - it was soooo delish, nothing really beats vodka sauce on a pizza.

@BroadwayBK you're killing me here in Pizza wasteland

Yeah, I'm ancient.

@Ajadedidealist: I remember Trattoria. In fact, I believe they also have a place downtown as well.

Has anyone ever been to the legendary Di Fara in Midwood?

@NeverSleeps Not yet but Adam Platt of the New Yorker named it the best pizza in NYC last year.

@NeverSleeps; Nope. But when I get healthy enough to go out, I may just stop by and check out Di Fara.

@NeverSleeps No... I am up for a good slice of pizza, but I would really have to be in the mood for perfection to go all the way out there for pizza.