Brooklyn vs Manhattan pizza

Which borough has the best pizza in NYC?

Brooklyn, for coal-oven pies and the widest spread of styles; Manhattan, for the reference slice and the top-ranked Neapolitan pizzeria in the country. Serious pizza fans eat in both.

Neither borough has a monopoly on any style. What differs is which landmarks survived where. Here is the short version, with one or two names per style that most New Yorkers would accept:

What is the difference between Brooklyn and Manhattan pizza?

There is no separate Brooklyn style. Both boroughs bake New York-style pizza; Brooklyn simply kept more of the old coal ovens and neighborhood squares, Manhattan more of the walk-up slice counters.

New York-style pizza is a large, hand-tossed, thin pie, typically 18 to 24 inches across and cut into eight slices. The crust is crisp at the edge and soft enough underneath to fold, and the high-gluten bread flour gives it its chew (Wikipedia's entry on the style). You get that pizza in every borough.

The coal ovens are the real dividing line. New coal ovens do not meet the city's current environmental rules, so only the old, grandfathered ones still burn. Brooklyn has three famous ones in daily or weekly use: Totonno's in Coney Island, and Juliana's and Grimaldi's in DUMBO. Manhattan's best known are at John's of Bleecker St, whose coal-fired brick oven runs at about 850°F and which sells whole pies and calzones only, and at Patsy's in East Harlem, where Patsy Grimaldi learned the trade.

Why is Brooklyn famous for pizza?

Because its family pizzerias outlasted their founders: Totonno's since 1924, L&B since 1939, Di Fara since 1965, and the Grimaldi coal ovens under the Brooklyn Bridge since 1990.

• Totonno's, 1524 Neptune Ave, Coney Island. Opened in 1924 by Antonio "Totonno" Pero, a Lombardi's alumnus. Right now it sells takeout and delivery on weekends only, so check before you ride out.
• L&B Spumoni Gardens, 86th Street. Started by Ludovico Barbati in 1939 with spumoni and ices; the Sicilian square came later and made it famous. A second branch opened at 46 Old Fulton St in DUMBO in December 2024.
• Di Fara, Avenue J at East 15th St, Midwood. Dom DeMarco's corner shop from 1965; the family runs it since his death in 2022, with slices, squares and whole pies.
• Grimaldi's and Juliana's, DUMBO. Patsy Grimaldi opened at 19 Old Fulton St in 1990, sold the brand in 1998, and came back in 2012 with Juliana's in the same spot. Both sell whole pies only in Brooklyn.
• The new wave. Roberta's opened in a Bushwick warehouse in 2008, and its R Slice is No. 15 in the 2026 slice ranking. Ops in Bushwick is No. 21 among pizzerias. L'Industrie, which began in Williamsburg, is the No. 1 slice in the country.

The full story of the old guard is in the oldest pizzerias guide.

Where is the best slice in Manhattan?

Joe's Pizza at 7 Carmine Street is the benchmark, the slice other shops copy. A plain slice cost $4 there in Gothamist's December 2025 survey.

Joe Pozzuoli, who came from Naples, opened Joe's in 1975 at the corner of Bleecker and Carmine and later moved three doors down. Pete Wells of The New York Times wrote in 2018 that Joe's is one of the places other slice shops emulate, and Wikipedia lists Manhattan branches on East 14th Street, Broadway and Fulton Street. Brooklyn gets one too, at 216 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

For a guided version, the West Village pizza walk meets at John's of Bleecker St and follows pizza from coal oven to slice shop; guest reviews also name L'Industrie among the stops (stops can change). The 7-tasting tour covers the same streets with four slices and three other bites.

Three West Village pizzerias, from the coal oven at John's of Bleecker St to the slice counter, with a licensed guide. The best-reviewed pizza walk on this site.

★ 4.9 · 2.5 hours · from $65

Explore the West Village pizza walk → Tour details

Which NYC pizzerias are in the 50 Top Pizza USA 2026 list?

Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side is No. 1 for the fifth year running, and ten more New York names made the top 50. L'Industrie tops the separate slice ranking.

The 50 Top Pizza guide published its 2026 US lists in late May, and Time Out New York counted the city's entries. The ranking gives the city, not the borough, so the table adds a neighborhood only where one is confirmed. More on the list in our 2026 rankings post.

Is Lombardi's really the first pizzeria in America?

It holds the 1905 licence and the title by tradition, but the claim is disputed. Papa's Tomato Pies in Trenton, New Jersey, open since 1912, holds the record for longest continually operating pizzeria.

Lombardi's sits at 32 Spring Street, on the corner of Mott Street in Nolita. The classic story says Gennaro Lombardi ran a grocery on Spring Street from 1897 and got a licence to sell pizza in 1905. Research published in 2019 found that he first arrived in America in November 1904, aged 17, listed as a laborer, and suggests that Filippo Milone opened the pizzeria (Wikipedia's Lombardi's entry). The original closed in 1984 and reopened ten years later a block away, and that gap is why the Trenton shop now holds the continuous record.

Brooklyn has its own stake in the tale. Antonio "Totonno" Pero made pizza at Lombardi's before he opened Totonno's in Coney Island in 1924. The borough's oldest pizzeria is, in a sense, a Lombardi's spin-off.

Should you do a pizza tour in Brooklyn or Manhattan?

Brooklyn if you want the borough's pizzerias in a small group; Manhattan if you want the most-reviewed walk and the coal-oven-to-slice history. Walks in both boroughs start at $65.

• Cobble Hill, Brooklyn: the Brooklyn pizza walk, 3 pizzerias and 3 styles, 2.5 hours, from $65. Cheese pizzas only, which suits vegetarians.
• Williamsburg, Brooklyn: the Williamsburg pizza crawl, 4 slices in 4 styles, from $79, with an optional two-beer add-on.
• West Village, Manhattan: the West Village pizza walk, 3 pizzerias, rated 4.9 from 18 reviews, from $65.
• Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO: the food tour includes one full Grimaldi's slice among five tastings, from $129.

Every option is compared stop by stop in the best pizza tour guide.

How do you eat Brooklyn and Manhattan pizza in one day?

Start with a slice at Joe's on Carmine Street, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, and share a coal-oven pie in DUMBO before 3:15 p.m. or after 5 p.m.

1. Late morning, Manhattan. A plain slice at Joe's, 7 Carmine St. Fold it and eat it on the sidewalk.
2. Midday, the bridge. Walk from City Hall over the Brooklyn Bridge into DUMBO, on your own or with the guided bridge walk, which ends at Time Out Market.
3. Lunch, DUMBO. One whole pie at Juliana's (19 Old Fulton St, from 11:30 a.m.) or Grimaldi's (1 Front St, from 11 a.m.). Juliana's stops for oven stoking from 3:15 to 4 p.m., Grimaldi's pauses pizza from 4 to 5 p.m.
4. A square for dessert. L&B's DUMBO branch is at 46 Old Fulton St, a few doors up.

The ordering words and the shakers are in how to eat pizza in New York.

Cross the Brooklyn Bridge with a guide, then Jane's Carousel and the Manhattan Bridge photo spot. No food on this one: it ends a few minutes from the DUMBO pizzerias.

★ 4.8 · 2 hours · from $32

Explore the Brooklyn Bridge walk → Tour details

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