Current Events > What's the best pizza you've ever eaten?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tried to cover all my bases here on where you can get pizza. Please lmk if there are any other options I missed.

For me, the best pizza I've ever had is a local chain - Spinato's Pizzeria in AZ. It's become very popular here in the Valley. It's unlike any other pizza I've had and it's amazing.

My brother-in-law made us a delicious homemade pizza once, which is probably the second-best I've had.

Third would be from a popular place I had when visiting NY. It's a tiny, little shop that's apparently had a ton of foot traffic from major celebrities. Can't remember the name of it tho.

As for large chains, I'm a big fan of Costco's. You get pretty big slices and it's cheap. Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Domino's are also decent. Peter Piper Pizza is surprisingly good. Can't stand Little Caesar's.

Mom and pop shop. Owner is from Italy.

I'm a huge fucking pizza snob because I've lived most of my life in NJ. Unless you're out in the sticks or the particularly poor urban areas, you're never far from at least 3 privately-owned pizzerias with legacies as long as your family tree.

There's a local pizza spot in San Jose's Japan Town called J Town Pizza that's pretty high up there for best pizza spot I've ever been to. I try to eat there whenever I'm in the area.

I voted major chain, but then I remembered smoking a Digiorno supreme with added fresh spicy chilis. We also added more cuts of special cheese and smoked it using mesquite wood.

So store bought?

Local place. I live in the Midwest US. Just 1 guy that owned a small shop and has poured everything into in the last few decades. His brother also owns a place in a different town and both are extremely popular. The guy has top level ingredients, makes his own sauce, is super nice, generous, and just makes the best pizza.

Also I have to say I'm very much accustomed to American style pizza because when I was in the Navy and in Italy I tried pizza in both Rome and Naples at multiple places and I did like it, but it wasn't some life altering experience or anything. A nice margherita is fine but again, wasn't like "OMG this blows away everything I have known about pizza"

And I don't care if other people talk shit about it I LOVE a good taco pizza, smothered in sour cream and taco sauce to boot. Taco pizza is so damn good.

Off the top of my head it was a place called 4 to 4. It was close to my fraternity house in college. It was open from 4pm to 4am. I remember walking there pretty intoxicated one night with one or two of my brothers. We wanted pizza and it was close and open. It was also dead of winter and like 25 degrees out. Inside it was just a counter with seats, so we had to huddle in and wait for for order.

The pizza from this place was so greasy it would make parchment paper transparent. We order some meat pizza with huge sliced sausage chunks and pepperoni. At least half had bannana peppers on it. We didn't leave to eat it. Just popped it open there and then. We wanted hot za and respite fron the cold.

Mayb it was the cheap natty or rolling, the company, the setting -- or the totality of circumstances -- but it was the best pizza I ever had.

Homemade

Bowtie Pizza in Calgary, AB

i usually just get Dominoes or FreshSlice

i don't live in Calgary anymore (thank fuck, i got out of Alberta entirely) but i will miss Bowtie Pizza

Godfather's Pizza before they disappeared.

homemade. i used to make homemade pizza all time with dough that was made using herb and garlic infused olive oil, as well as the herbs and garlic itself. and my great grandmother's recipe for marinara sauce.

don't really do it very much anymore because it is very taxing on my chronic lower back pain.

pfh1001 posted...

Godfather's Pizza before they disappeared.

Easily the best large chain pizza I have ever eaten. Whenever a poll comes up about chains it is never listed and I always mention how much better it is than your typical Pizza Hut, Domino's Papa John's, Little Caesars places.

The full on places, not those mini express places.

I'm sure it's something in NYC or NJ but idk the names of the pizza restaurants I've been to in NYC. There's a local pizza place close to where I lived and worked in Jersey and it was so good. Had pizza once a week before work. Never got tired of it.

Now that I moved to Florida, all the pizza shops here are godawful. The pizza down here is like too cakey. It's so bad down here that even frozen Digiorno's is better than the local non-chain pizza shops.

Cheeseburger pizza from Papa John's when they first dropped it. Everything about it was perfect, with the sauce being a 13 out of 10 in quality. Not sure what that store did, but it made me so freaking happy.

And that was the only time it ever tasted that good. Following attempts at trying it over the years, even the following week, didn't taste the same. Taco pizza from Vito's when I was living in Ohio would be a distant second, followed by the loaded totzza from Topper's here in Wisconsin.

Evening_Dragon posted...

I'm a huge fucking pizza snob because I've lived most of my life in NJ. Unless you're out in the sticks or the particularly poor urban areas, you're never far from at least 3 privately-owned pizzerias with legacies as long as your family tree.

Grew up on Long Island. Moving to SoCal has been awful for pizza. I've found a few places that get really close to the quality of pizza and Italian food I could get in NY, can't find anyone who makes good Garlic Knots though. I am thoroughly convinced that the places out here don't know that garlic is an actual ingredient not just some random name. Most put little to no garlic on the things to the point that you can't even taste it.

Costco pizza is......not good. But like you said it's cheap. Big slice and a soda for $3, I've certainly paid more for worse.

For me it's Shakey's Pizza Parlor. Not sure if they count as a major chain though, since 48 of their 51 locations are in California

Pizza hut pan pizza when I was a kid. Of course it tastes nasty now though but that childhood magic goes hard

NoxObscuras posted...

For me it's Shakey's Pizza Parlor. Not sure if they count as a major chain though, since 48 of their 51 locations are in California

We had one where I'm at in the Midwest when I was a kid. My dad would take me there like once a month. They had a great buffet and I liked watching them make pizzas through the viewing window. I liked the pizza but I honestly was more interested in the fried chicken and then eating a cinnamon roll at the end.

rosati's

archizzy posted...

And I don't care if other people talk shit about it I LOVE a good taco pizza, smothered in sour cream and taco sauce to boot. Taco pizza is so damn good.

I've never had taco pizza but I'd definitely try it (sans sour cream, though).

Squall28 posted...

Pizza hut pan pizza when I was a kid. Of course it tastes nasty now though but that childhood magic goes hard

Bro I used to love Pizza Hut's pan pizza! I haven't had it in years but I remember it being so fucking good at the time. The crust was magnificent.

chris1001_the_sequel posted...

Costco pizza is......not good. But like you said it's cheap. Big slice and a soda for $3, I've certainly paid more for worse.

To each their own. I think their pizza is really good, lol. But I might argue their hotdogs are even better.

It was this slice of pepperoni pizza from a food stand at the local agricultural fair that comes around every october years ago when I was like 16 in 1999/around that time.

Real giant slice. Crisp and tasty pepperonis. The cheese pull was insane, but at the same time it was real easy to chew.

Like this pizza was absolutely god-like, and I remember me, my childhood best friend and two of our other friends actually buying two more slices after we ate that first one.

I have never eaten a pizza as good as that random fair food stand pizza again, lol.

Yep, Palermo's on 63rd, a spot by my parents' house is so fucking good. Buuuut they put grape jelly in the sauce, so it's not for everyone

Due's in the city.

Unironically, this (this picture is on their website). It looks questionable, but it is amazing. I haven't been there in years, though, so I'm not sure if it's the same as it used to be.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b400bcd2.jpg

chris1001_the_sequel posted...

Grew up on Long Island. Moving to SoCal has been awful for pizza. I've found a few places that get really close to the quality of pizza and Italian food I could get in NY, can't find anyone who makes good Garlic Knots though. I am thoroughly convinced that the places out here don't know that garlic is an actual ingredient not just some random name. Most put little to no garlic on the things to the point that you can't even taste it.

Garlic knots are the single easiest thing to make and I have no idea how they could get it wrong, outside of being too cheap to put enough Garlic. Just fucking mash that shit in, yonder dirty cali hippies.

massachusetts bar pizza is the best pizza

DoesntMatter posted...

homemade. i used to make homemade pizza all time with dough that was made using herb and garlic infused olive oil, as well as the herbs and garlic itself. and my great grandmother's recipe for marinara sauce.

don't really do it very much anymore because it is very taxing on my chronic lower back pain.

Sorry about your back; I have the exact same issue.

Mad-Dogg posted...

It was this slice of pepperoni pizza from a food stand at the local agricultural fair that comes around every october years ago when I was like 16 in 1999/around that time.

Real giant slice. Crisp and tasty pepperonis. The cheese pull was insane, but at the same time it was real easy to chew.

Like this pizza was absolutely god-like, and I remember me, my childhood best friend and two of our other friends actually buying two more slices after we ate that first one.

I have never eaten a pizza as good as that random fair food stand pizza again, lol.

Damn I forgot to add food stands / trucks / carts to the options list. I'm not sure if I've ever partaken myself; I usually go for the nachos or fry bread when I go to fairs, lol.

Bruni's Pizza in Hammonton, NJ. My favorite pizza of all time was a place called Joe's Pizza. The owner was to pizza what the Soup Nazi was to soup, but for some reason he was always nice to my mom. He unfortunately got sick and closed the shop years ago and has since passed away but Bruni's is the closest I've had to his (I think he may have worked there before opening his own shop).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/04db096e.jpg

What a food critic would say was the best pizza Ive had or what I actually enjoyed?

Paesano's in Glasgow.

Bougie local place called Oak & Rye, but from a chain, it's the local Round Table Pizza. Not any other Round Table, which have usually been mediocre. This one in particular absolutely LOADS the pizza with toppings and always tastes fresh. They're in a place with lots of local joints and stepped up their game to compete, I think.

Pizza Club's Sweet corn pesto pizza

It's a pretty interesting local chain. They also do Indian curry flavoured pizza

The margherita bufala and the crimini at Pizza Brutta in Madison, WI.

Zaucers in Redmond.
Very cool b-movie/pop sci-fi atmosphere.
Pizza is very unique, my favorite being Ming the Merciless - a pizza loaded with jalapenos and sausage. It's a lot better than it sounds and I could never recreate it.

Best pizza places I've been to were all in the Orlando/Tampa/Sarasota area in Florida. There's a lot of people from NY and NJ who moved there and set up really good pizza places. SE Florida has a lot of these transplants too but the pizza there is nowhere as good.

chris1001_the_sequel posted...

Moving to SoCal has been awful for pizza.

Yeah Socal is rough for food in general if you are used to east coast stuff. There's a TON of independent pizza places in San Francisco but very few of them come close to a basic mom n' pop place from the east coast.

IME the best pizzas are from pizzerias with like 2-5 locations total.

Awakened_Link posted...

Damn I forgot to add food stands / trucks / carts to the options list. I'm not sure if I've ever partaken myself; I usually go for the nachos or fry bread when I go to fairs, lol.

I'm usually hitting up the elephant ears, cotton candy, chili dogs and whatever random bacon-related concoctions crazy south carolina peeps is coming up with at the fair grounds.

This topic in general has me reminiscing about all the times I went with family and friends back then. I might consider going this year mainly to see if I can find that type of pizza I ate years ago again. *and maybe hit up the gravitron if that ride is still a thing nowadays.*

Evening_Dragon posted...

Garlic knots are the single easiest thing to make and I have no idea how they could get it wrong, outside of being too cheap to put enough Garlic. Just fucking mash that shit in, yonder dirty cali hippies.

Exactly. I don't know how you fuck it up as badly as they almost universally do around here. Like, If I'm not tasting garlic for 10+ minutes after eating I don't consider it a good Knot, let alone not even tasting it while I'm eating the fucking thing.

i went to some place in NYC called Grimaldi's my sister swore was the best pizza in the world.

she hyped it up and I ate it and was like it's alright. if anyone asks, that's the best pizza i've had. idk.

Ledo Pizza, far and away.

I'm weird, so for me its either a garlic sauce pizza with double mozz and jalapenos, or a spicy sicilian. Though my typical go to is a meat pizza, extra salami, jalapeno and feta cheese.

Frank Pepes

Probably someplace in New York

Sir Pizza

Its context. Was just Doninoes but was an order after spending all day at Cedar Point. It is in no way the best quality Ive had but was the most satisfying and hasnt been topped. Same way the best burger Ive had was at a bar after the Chicago Marathon.

A pizza place in Rome is without a doubt the best Ive ever had, but I cant remember what its called. It was right next to where we were staying and I ended up in there so many times.

There was a local pizza joint that used to make this $40 seafood pizza that had the entire ocean on it. I never had anything like it again. Too bad they closed down after covid hit.

Why the fuck is frozen even an option?

There was this little hole-in-the-wall place two blocks from where I lived in my last two years of university. It was owned and operated by this Japanese family - the family patriarch was the chef and you could actually watch him make the pizzas in the back since the place was tiny. I would occasionally stick around and watch because it was like seeing a master craftsman at work. This guy made the absolute greatest fucking pizza you've ever tasted in your life.

And it was really reasonably priced, too! Even on a student budget, I had 1-2 pizzas pretty much every week from that place. I miss it dearly...