The Best Pizza In Seattle

When you’re looking for the best pizza within Seattle’s city limits, head to Dino’s Tomato Pie and order a Mr. Pink. This square Jersey-style pizza is topped with sweet vodka sauce, fresh mozzarella, ricotta cheese, and basil. The crust is thick and crunchy, and the whole bottom is so charred that it’s almost black in some parts, which (to be clear) is exactly how you want it. For a very happy night, add on a negroni and a fistful of garlic knots—and let it be known that the thinner, round version of the same pie also hits just right.

The pizzas at Bar Del Corso, the always-packed Beacon Hill restaurant, are so good you might think you were somehow transported to Southern Italy. The Neapolitan pizzas here are thoroughly charred with excellent toppings, our two favorites being the buffalo mozzarella margherita and their white pie with sausage and pickled goathorn peppers. There’s no need to choose between the two, though. Just order both.

This small Italian spot on Capitol Hill succeeds in all matters related to flour, but we're not here to discuss their (excellent) fresh pasta. They also serve pizzas with toppings that lay nearly twice as thick as the charred, crunchy crust. Even still, the sauce, cheese, and other odds and ends don't compromise the integrity of the bottom. Get the white pie with enough sticky fontina to cancel school if it were a layer of snow, or the "Flying Sauser" pizza involving fennel sausage, globs of ricotta (rather than mozz), and red sauce.

If someone zapped the round pizzas at Dino’s with a shrink ray, you would get the same pie from Delancey. This is the more formal spot owned by the same team, and while the menu has a lot of hits, you’re here for the sausage pie. It has a subtle note of crunched-up fennel seed that highlights the pork without overpowering it, and when the rendered fat swirls with the mozzarella, it makes us feel like what George Frideric Handel (probably) felt when he finally finished that Hallelujah thing.

Toppings are great, but it’s just as important to recognize the power of a stupendous cheese pie. That brings us to Good Shape. This formerly mobile operation is permanently stationed at Jupiter Bar in Belltown. Their small pies covered in char bubbles are both crisp and foldable at the same time—a true achievement in pizza-making. Between the simplicity of their tomato sauce, the fusing of mozzarella, pecorino, and provolone, and hints of chili flake and dried oregano shaken on top, it all works together to become the best cheese pie in Seattle.

Not only is this the best square—it's one of the best pizzas we've ever sunk our teeth into around the Seattle area. That's thanks to sauce jazzed up by both fresh and dried herbs, spiderweb-stretchy Wisconsin brick cheese, a toasted Cheez-It-like exterior, and extra smoky pepperoni topped with baked parmesan. Pair all of that good stuff with a crust that's sturdy along the bottom and springy in the middle, and you have a takeout pie that absolutely won't make it past the drive home.

This pop-up's reputation for making great Detroit-style pies holds up at its new Tangletown counter restaurant. Here, they serve the same quality rectangle pies as before with a perfectly salted crust, gooey cheese, and thick tomato sauce. Only now, you can eat that pizza right out of the oven while enjoying glasses of natural wine, cider, and beer. The menu is limited at the moment, but you can never go wrong ordering their smoky pepperoni cups as a topping.

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if sourdough pies were fired up in a Neapolitan pizza oven, first off, let’s be friends. Second, that’s exactly what Lupo in Fremont is doing. The inferno inside the dome creates those leopard spots we know and love, but with a chewier texture and tang produced by the power of fermentation. It’s easy to enjoy their margherita topped with globs of Samish Bay mozzarella, or the cacio e pepe pie with plenty of cracked black pepper and the option to add pancetta. (Please exercise this option.)

We’d gladly make the trip to Bainbridge Island to eat the burrata and speck pie at this little Italian market. The pizza has everything going for it—the dough is crispy, chewy on the ends, and cracker-like in the middle, topped with bundles of smoked prosciutto and dollops of cold burrata that melt on contact. A kick from red pepper flakes, freshness from flash-fried basil and burst cherry tomato, and a drizzle of really good olive oil brings it all together. This is the pizza worth boarding a commercial watercraft.

While this Burien restauran is casual, the pizza here is anything but. It all starts with the sourdough crust, which sharply crackles on the front end while giving way to a light and airy chew. If nothing else, make sure the Normie Macdonald hits your table. It’s the best of the bunch, topped with thinly sliced coppa, lots of hot honey, and dollops of cold burrata that rocket this already stunning slice to another level. And those who don't want to head to Burien can now find Stevie's on Beacon Hill.

Tivoli makes the best slice of pepperoni pizza in town. The crust is thin, crackly, and doesn't flail around like a car dealership’s inflatable dancer, and the tangy tomato sauce is a sweet complement to crisp-edged pepperoni cups. And the seasonal slices rock too—like a white pie with spicy 'nduja and potato hunks that manage to have the crunchy skin and buttery inside of home fries. Give it a squeeze of lemon and dunk the crust in calabrian chili crisp for best results.

Between the cracker-thin crust, sweet tomato sauce with oregano, ideal layer of bubbly cheese, and toppings like custardy ricotta dollops and charred pepperoni cups (our two favorites), the grid-cut tavern pie is the pizza to beat at this West Seattle pizzeria that specializes in Chicago-style. The deep dish is solid, too, but make no mistake—the tavern pie is the one you want.

Much like Dunkin Donuts and fracking, super thick Sicilian square pizza isn’t really a thing here—except at Slice Box. It’s a little spot in Sodo where you have to eat in a quiet, carpeted room filled with posters advertising gardening supplies. But when it comes to the pepperoni square, it’s so good we’d even eat it in a closet with the lights turned off. The crust is buttery, the cheese is stretchy, and the pepperoni edges are perfectly burnt (in a good way). They’ll even grate fresh parmesan over the top.

There’s not much to this mellow Ballard spot, other than a few taps, refrigerators where you can grab natural wine, and lest we forget the most important appliance: a pizza oven. That thing fires up glorious pies that are as plush and crackly as a dog’s favorite toy. There’s a BBQ pizza that’s toned down by bechamel and a gooey olive-oiled margherita. But the white Queen Bianca pie unironically rules all with its garlic bread vibes and ricotta rosettes. They can only bake one pizza at a time, but the beer, blasting EDM, and internalized college nostalgia should keep you occupied during the wait.

Alexandra’s Macarons is a bakery in the Central District that predictably serves French macarons. But on Thursday and Friday evenings from 4 to 8pm, their cafe space turns into a pizzeria aptly named “Pizza Queens,” and it’s the best pizza-related secret in town. Their pies have a great bouncy bread-like feel to them, the fresh mozzarella in their margherita swirls with the tomato to make a milky pink sauce, and if you’re a fan of white pizzas, they serve a delicious french onion soup-inspired option slathered in caramelized onion and breadcrumbs.

Despite the name of this slice spot, Post Alley Pizza is not located in the market—so don’t go looking for it along the wall of other people’s used gum wads. This spot works really well if you’re downtown and in need of a quick lunch slice you can trust, or you need a few reliable New York-style pies for a birthday party. Be sure to add sides of ranch and homemade calabrian chili buffalo sauce for dunking, and what’s even more exciting is that this place offers granulated garlic to shake on your slice—a necessity that we haven’t been able to find at any other pizza place in town.

This tiny house in West Seattle serves thick, rectangular Detroit-style pies made with a 100-year-old sourdough starter (her name is Betty), and topped with things like calamansi lime sauce and deconstructed clam chowder ingredients. It’s all excellent, down to every last crunch of pepperoni edge and frizzled cheese laced along the crust’s hulking walls. And while there used to be a multi-month waitlist to get a box, same-day and next-day orders are typically available—or you could check out the T-Mobile Park outpost.

Whenever we want to eat a personal pizza chased with a tallboy, The Indie always hits the spot. Their incredible pies are thin, blistery, and have flawless cheese-to-sauce ratios. It’s also important to note that they make something that very few places do in Seattle: the clam pie. Their version is salty and velvety, and comes with a lemon wedge that brightens it all up. Sure, every pizza here is wonderful, but make sure you order the clam pie. You can go ahead and cancel that New England vacation afterwards.

This pizzeria that operates out of Batch 206 Distillery in Interbay has a terrific pepperoni pie with a sweet, caramelized, almost-creamy confit garlic. You could really just harvest the cloves, snack on them, and call it a day. Incredible garlic candy aside, everything else about the New York-style pies at Dantini is great. The crust has all the sturdiness and chew of sourdough, with a crispy bottom and plenty of crackly dough bubbles, while the thin layer of tomato sauce complements toasty mounds of fresh mozzarella. The pepperoni pie the best choice, but the ricotta cream pizza with lemon and black pepper is a close second.

Ever since Bar Cotto (our original favorite place for pizza in Seattle) changed owners, we worried that we’d never eat their perfect pies again. Luckily, the same team also opened up Capitol Hill spot Rione XIII. They serve pizzas that remind us of the ones at Bar Cotto, only they’re Roman-style. When you just got dumped or need a solo-pie-and-glass-of-wine-at-the-bar night, you’ll want to come here and order the margherita.

Nobody likes waiting, especially for pizza. But at Windy City Pie, a Chicago deep dish-style spot in Phinney Ridge, the long wait is part of the deal. In exchange for some money and 40 minutes of your time, you get a thick pie with caramelized edges, flavorful red sauce, and mozzarella cheese that flows like volcanic lava. We all know that bacon is great on pizza, but the candied bacon crumbles at Windy City Pie is the kind of topping you’d want on your popcorn at the movies. Skip cake on your birthday and come here instead.

There’s no such thing as “Seattle-style” pizza, but if there were, it would be Humble Pie in the CID. That’s because the whole space is on a little gravel patch complete with an urban garden and a chicken coop, and the wood-fired pizzas all contain local or homemade ingredients—you’ll probably hear the clucking hen whose egg was cracked onto your arugula pie. Grab a patio picnic table, can of beer, order the Whole Hog (topped with pulled pork, prosciutto, and bacon), and contemplate buying a Patagonia half-zip.