Philadelphia is a cheesesteak town that quietly makes better pizza.
Nobody flies here for it, which is exactly why it stayed interesting. While New York was defending a single orthodoxy and Chicago was defending a different one, Philadelphia spent forty years doing whatever it wanted — sauce on top, dough proofed for four days, Detroit pans in a converted rowhome, a bakery in South Philly selling rectangles out of a case since 1953.
These are the 15 best pizza places in Philadelphia, with addresses, styles and what to order.
The Philadelphia Pizza Styles You Need to Know
Four things get called pizza here and they are not the same food.
The tomato pie. Sauce on top, cheese underneath or barely present, served at room temperature, sold by the rectangle out of a bakery case. This is the oldest and most Philadelphia thing on the list. If you have only had it hot, you have not had it.
The square. Thick, focaccia-adjacent, crisp on the bottom from the oiled pan. Overlaps with Detroit style but predates the label here by decades.
The Neapolitan. Wood-fired, charred, wet in the middle, eaten with a knife and fork by people who will defend that choice.
The slice. Wide, foldable, greasy, purchased after midnight. It is not trying to be good in the way the others are and judging it on their terms misses the point entirely.
A serious answer to "what is the best pizza in Philadelphia" has to name one from each. Anyone who gives you a single restaurant is telling you about themselves.
The Best Pizza in Philadelphia
Pizzeria Beddia — 1313 N. Lee Street, Fishtown
Joe Beddia ran a two-pies-a-day operation with a cult following before opening a full restaurant, and the pizza survived the scaling, which almost never happens. Thin, deeply charred, restrained with toppings. A Michelin Bib Gourmand as of the guide's 2025 arrival in Philadelphia.
There is also a private hoagie room, and there is house-made soft serve, and both of those facts are true at the same time.
Angelo's Pizzeria — 736 S. 9th Street, Bella Vista
Order the Upside Down Jawn — a Sicilian with the sauce on top of the cheese, which is the tomato-pie logic applied to a thick pan pie. Angelo's is better known for its cheesesteak, and it is on the short list for both, which is an absurd thing for one small cash-only shop to pull off.
Cash only, takeout only, and the line is real. It is also a Bib Gourmand. See our Philadelphia cheesesteak rankings for the other half of the menu.
Down North Pizza — 2804 W. Lehigh Avenue, Strawberry Mansion
Detroit-style, thick, crisp-edged, genuinely excellent. Down North employs exclusively formerly incarcerated staff, which has earned it national coverage, and the pizza has held up to every bit of attention it got.
Go for the pizza. The rest is a reason to feel good about the trip up Lehigh.
Tacconelli's Pizza — 2604 E. Somerset Street, Port Richmond
The one with the ritual: you call ahead to reserve dough. Not a table — dough. They make a fixed number of crusts each day and when they are gone the night is over.
Cash only, BYOB, limited toppings, no ceremony beyond the phone call. Thin, blistered, cooked in a coal-era oven. It has been in the same family for a century and the reservation system is not a bit.
Santucci's Original Square Pizza — 901 S. 10th Street, Italian Market
Sauce on top of the cheese, square, family recipe, running since 1959. This is the most direct expression of the Philadelphia tomato-pie instinct that you can get hot and in a box.
It sits at the edge of the Italian Market, which makes it easy to fold into a bigger day.
Cacia's Bakery — 1526 W. Ritner Street, South Philadelphia
A seventy-year bakery selling sheet-pan pizza out of a case, including the pizzaz pie. Room temperature, by the rectangle, wrapped in paper.
This is the version older South Philadelphians mean when they say pizza, and it is the single item on this list most likely to reorganize your understanding of the category.
La Rosa Pizza — 2106 S. Broad Street, South Philadelphia
Thick square pies with a bottom crust that snaps. Get the potato pizza. It sounds like a stunt and it is instead the best thing they make.
Pizzeria Vetri — 1939 Callowhill Street, Art Museum area
Four-day-rise Neapolitan dough from the Vetri kitchen, and the rotolo — rolled dough with mortadella and pistachio pesto, cut into spirals — which is not pizza and is the correct order anyway.
The most technically precise pie in the city. If you want to understand what the four-day rise is actually for, this is where.
Circles + Squares — 2513 Tulip Street, Olde Richmond
Both formats, both good, which is rarer than it sounds — most shops are secretly better at one. Thin-crust rounds and Detroit-textured squares from the same oven.
Pizzata Pizzeria — 240 S. 22nd Street, Rittenhouse
Naturally leavened 16-inch New York-style pies in Center City, where the pizza is otherwise mostly a convenience purchase. Foldable, structurally sound, made by people paying attention.
Worth knowing if you are eating around Rittenhouse Square and want something that is not a $34 entrée.
Pizzeria Stella — 420 S. 2nd Street, Headhouse Square
Stephen Starr's wood-fired room. The Pistachio pie and the San Daniele are the two people come back for. Reliable, handsome, easy to get a table at on a weeknight.
Paulie Gee's Soul City — 412 S. 13th Street, Center City
The Philadelphia outpost of the Brooklyn shop, doing retro-styled squares and rounds with combinations that should not work and do.
Pizza Brain — 2313 Frankford Avenue, Fishtown
Brick-oven pizza attached to a pizza memorabilia museum, with a real vegan menu. The museum sounds like the whole idea until you eat there. It is on the walk if you are working through Fishtown.
Rione — 100.5 S. 21st Street, Rittenhouse
Roman pizza al taglio — scratch dough, cut into squares, sold by weight and eaten standing up. The best lunch on this list and the cheapest good meal in Rittenhouse.
Lorenzo and Sons Pizza — 305 South Street, South Street
Enormous, greasy, foldable cheese slices sold to bar crowds for more than forty-five years. One slice is a meal and two is a decision you make at 1am and stand behind.
This is not competing with Beddia. It is a completely different food that happens to share a name, and Philadelphia is better for having both.
Where to Get Detroit-Style and Square Pizza in Philadelphia
The square is having a national moment and Philadelphia has been doing it the whole time. If that is what you are after, the short list is Down North for Detroit proper, Circles + Squares for the version with a thin-crust alternative on the same menu, Santucci's for sauce-on-top, La Rosa for the potato pie, and Cacia's for the room-temperature bakery rectangle that started all of it.
Do those five in one week and you will have a strongly held opinion, which is the local requirement.
Eating Philadelphia Pizza Without a Plan Going Wrong
Call ahead at Tacconelli's. Reserve the dough. Turning up without it means turning around.
Bring cash. Angelo's and Tacconelli's are cash only, and several others prefer it.
Go early to the bakeries. Cacia's is a bakery operation, not a dinner one. The good stuff moves in the morning.
Do not do more than three in a day. You can. You should not. The tomato pies keep well cold, so buy the fourth and eat it tomorrow.
Settle It on PlateWalk
Pizza is the argument Philadelphia has when it gets tired of arguing about cheesesteaks, and the arguments in PlateWalk work on one rule: only verified visits count. You check in at a place to get a say about it. No voting on a pizzeria you read about.
PlateWalk maps Philadelphia's food trails as GPS-guided routes — check in at each stop as you go, and completing a trail earns +50 PlatePoints, redeemable for rewards at partner restaurants.
Free on iOS and Android.
Find a Philadelphia food trail →
For more of the city, see our guides to the Italian Market and Philadelphia's best cheesesteaks. Visit Philadelphia keeps a broader pizza roundup with additional shops by neighborhood.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best pizza in Philadelphia?
Pizzeria Beddia in Fishtown is the most commonly cited answer and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Angelo's Pizzeria, Down North Pizza and Tacconelli's are the other names that come up most often, though each is doing a different style — there is no single winner across categories.
What is Philadelphia-style pizza?
The most distinctly local format is the tomato pie: a thick rectangular crust with sauce on top, little or no cheese, sold by the slice at room temperature from bakeries. Cacia's Bakery and Santucci's are the best-known examples.
Where is the best Detroit-style pizza in Philadelphia?
Down North Pizza at 2804 W. Lehigh Avenue in Strawberry Mansion is the standard answer. Circles + Squares in Olde Richmond does a Detroit-textured square alongside thin-crust rounds.
Do you need a reservation at Tacconelli's?
You reserve dough, not a table. Call ahead — they make a set number of crusts each day and stop when they run out.
Which Philadelphia pizzerias are cash only?
Angelo's Pizzeria and Tacconelli's are both cash only. Several smaller shops prefer cash even where cards are accepted, so carry some.
Where do you get pizza late at night in Philadelphia?
Lorenzo and Sons at 305 South Street is the classic late-night slice, serving oversized cheese slices to the South Street bar crowd.
Is Philadelphia a good pizza city?
Yes, and it is underrated because it is known for cheesesteaks. The city supports Neapolitan, Detroit-style, Roman al taglio, New York slices and its own tomato pie tradition, with two pizzerias carrying Michelin Bib Gourmands.
