# The 17 Best American Cities for Pizza

> Some of these towns invented a style and some just got very good at somebody else's. The map is messier than the rivalry.

*By YPB Team · Published September 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-17-best-american-cities-for-pizza*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **New York City** — score 1000/1000
   The slice capital, where a folded wedge is street food and every block argues about its corner shop.
2. **New Haven** — score 882/1000
   Connecticut city where Frank Pepe opened on Wooster Street in 1925 and coal-fired apizza became a local dialect.
3. **Seattle** — score 741/1000
   Pacific Northwest city where wood-fired and Detroit-style shops arrived late and grew fast.
4. **Los Angeles** — score 661/1000
   Where California-style was invented and where the newest wave of American pizzerias keeps landing.
5. **Providence** — score 600/1000
   Rhode Island's capital, where party pizza strips arrive at room temperature and without cheese.
6. **Kansas City** — score 529/1000
   Midwestern cracker-crust country, where thin square-cut pizza sits on the menu next to the barbecue.
7. **Chicago** — score 529/1000
   Home of deep-dish and, less famously, the cracker-thin tavern squares locals order far more often.
8. **Trenton** — score 529/1000
   New Jersey capital whose tomato pies put the sauce on last and predate most American pizza fashions.
9. **Portland** — score 529/1000
   Oregon city that turned sourdough starters and local produce into a serious modern pizza scene.
10. **Boston** — score 448/1000
   Greek-American pan pizza in the suburbs, bar pies in the North End, and a fierce local roast-beef rivalry.
11. **Buffalo** — score 353/1000
   Cup-and-char pepperoni, thick chewy crust, and pizza almost always ordered alongside wings.
12. **Detroit** — score 353/1000
   Where a bar on Six Mile baked pizza in auto-plant steel pans and gave the square slice its crisp cheese edge.
13. **Philadelphia** — score 241/1000
   Tomato pie sold cold from bakery trays, plus one of the country's densest old-school pizzeria networks.
14. **Phoenix** — score 241/1000
   Desert city that produced Pizzeria Bianco and forced the rest of the country to take Western pizza seriously.
15. **San Francisco** — score 241/1000
   Sourdough-leaning crusts and a Neapolitan revival led by multiple world-champion pizzaioli.
16. **St. Louis** — score 241/1000
   Cracker-crust squares under Provel, a cheese blend that exists mostly to be argued about.
17. **Miami** — score 241/1000
   Where Italian-American slices meet Latin American bakeries and late-night ordering never really stops.

Tags: pizza, food, usa, cities