The best pizza in San Francisco, ranked: Neapolitan, slices, and square pies

The best pizza in San Francisco is still at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana on Washington Square, and it isn’t especially close. That’s not nostalgia talking. In 2026 the 50 Top Pizza guide ranked Tony’s #2 in the country (tied) and #5 in the world, and it’s the one place in town that can do a Neapolitan margherita, a New York pie, and a Detroit square on the same night without any of them feeling like a side project. Right behind it is a sourdough shop in the Lower Haight that didn’t exist two summers ago.

That’s the thing about SF pizza right now. It’s moving. Del Popolo closed in May. Arinell’s Valencia slice counter has been gone since 2022. A Berkeley favorite opened on Clement Street this spring, and the best new slice in the Mission comes out of the old Pi Bar space. Most of the “best pizza” lists you’ll find were written before half of that happened. This one was checked this week.

Below: how we ranked, the top 10, an honest read on North Beach, picks by neighborhood, the best slices, the square-pie tradition, and how to actually get a table.

How we ranked the best pizza in San Francisco

Every place on this list gets judged on the plainest thing it makes. A margherita, a cheese slice, a plain square. If the crust and sauce don’t hold up without toppings, a clever topping won’t save them.

Here’s what we looked at, in order:

• Crust first. Char without bitterness, a rim that tastes like bread rather than cardboard, and a bottom that holds its shape. San Francisco has a sourdough advantage, and the best shops use it.
• Sauce second. Bright, a little salty, not sweet. If you can taste sugar, it’s out.
• Consistency. A great pie on a Tuesday and a great pie on a Saturday at 7:30. Places that swing wildly drop down the list.
• The whole experience, honestly. A three-week reservation wait counts against a place. So does a line you can’t predict. A shop where you can walk up and eat well gets credit for that.

What we didn’t do: rank by Instagram, rank chains, or include anywhere we couldn’t confirm is open in October 2026. Every address below was checked this week. We don’t list hours or prices, because both change faster than we can keep up, so check before you go.

The best pizza in San Francisco: the top 10, ranked

1. Tony’s Pizza Napoletana (North Beach)

1570 Stockton St, on Washington Square. Tony Gemignani runs a room with a wall of different ovens and about a dozen regional styles, and somehow none of them is filler. 50 Top Pizza has had Tony’s in its US top three for years running: #1 in 2021, #3 in 2025, and #2 (tied with LA’s Pizzeria Sei) in 2026. Order this: the margherita, the pie that put Tony’s on the map, plus one non-Neapolitan pie for the table so you see the range. Why it beats #2: Jules makes the more exciting single pie. Tony’s makes ten styles at a level most shops can’t hit with one, and you can get in without planning a month ahead. Insider: join the waitlist online before you head over, then kill the wait in Washington Square.

2. Jules (Lower Haight)

237 Fillmore St at Haight. Max Blachman-Gentile, formerly Tartine’s culinary director, opened Jules in May 2025, and Bon Appétit called it the best new pizza in America. The dough is naturally leavened sourdough, the shape is New York, and the char leans New Haven: dark, blistered, and crackly at the rim. Order this: the Spicy Ronny (pepperoni, hot honey, Calabrian chili), or the Drunken Sailor if you like anchovies and capers. Why it’s #2 and not #1: it’s narrower than Tony’s, and it’s harder to get into. Insider: reservations open two weeks out and go fast. Walk-ins get the bar, the communal table, and the outdoor seats, so show up early and solo or as a pair.

3. Pizzetta 211 (Outer Richmond)

211 23rd Ave. Open since 1999, four tables, a sidewalk line, and thin, evenly blistered single-serving pies with toppings that follow the season. When the dough runs out, they’re done for the day. Why it’s here: nobody in the city has been this good, this quietly, for this long. Why it’s behind Jules: the pies are smaller and gentler, and some nights that’s exactly what you want. Insider: go with two or three people and split one of everything.

4. Rose Pizzeria (Inner Richmond)

1 Clement St at Arguello. Berkeley’s Rose opened its San Francisco outpost this spring in the old Village Pizzeria space. The Berkeley original made 50 Top Pizza USA’s 2025 list, and the dough here is a multi-day cold-fermented biga made with stone-ground heirloom flour. It’s tangy and thin, with a rim worth finishing. Order this: Old Faithful (fennel sausage, goat horn peppers) or the Green Deluxe (garlic confit, broccoli rabe). Why it’s not higher: it’s six months old. Ask us again next year. Insider: it’s about 15 seats inside, so book on Resy, and walk across the street to Arsicault for a croissant the next morning.

5. Golden Boy Pizza (North Beach)

542 Green St. Since 1978, Golden Boy has sold focaccia-thick squares with the toppings baked into the top, and it’s the most San Francisco slice in San Francisco. Order this: the clam and garlic. That’s not negotiable. Why it’s here: nothing else in the city tastes like it. Why it’s not higher: it’s takeout only, with nowhere to sit, and a square slab is a different sport from a round pie. Insider: eat it standing on Green St, or carry it two blocks to Washington Square. There’s also a Golden Boy on Taraval in the Sunset now, opened in late 2024.

6. Flour + Water Pizzeria (North Beach)

532 Columbus Ave, on Washington Square. The Flour + Water team brought pizza to the old Rose Pistola space in 2023. The pies are 13 inches, from a four-day dough baked lower and longer than Neapolitan, so the crust is crisp and chewy rather than soft and leopard-spotted. Order this: the cacio e pepe pizza, and the mozzarella sticks. Why it’s behind Golden Boy: it’s very good, but its neighbor across the square is doing the same job better. Insider: the to-go pizza shop is around the back on Stockton St.

7. Outta Sight Pizza (Tenderloin and Chinatown)

422 Larkin St and 643 Clay St. Two Mister Jiu’s alums run thin-crust pies and slices with toppings borrowed from Chinese-American cooking: mapo tofu, Peking duck, and whatever they’re playing with this month. The Clay St shop opened in January 2025 and does rectangular “lunch lady” slices. Why it’s here: it’s the most original pizza in the city, and it isn’t a gimmick. The base pie is solid on its own. Insider: the Chinatown shop is mostly takeout. It’s a good lunch if you’re working downtown.

8. Gialina (Glen Park)

2842 Diamond St. Sharon Ardiana opened Gialina in 2007, and it’s been the neighborhood pizzeria every other neighborhood wishes it had. Thin, wood-fired, and loose with the toppings in a good way. Order this: the amatriciana with a runny egg. Why it’s #8: it’s not trying to be the best in the city. It’s trying to be the best on Diamond St, and it is. Insider: Resy takes bookings, but the walk-in wait at peak time is real. It’s a short walk from Glen Park BART.

9. Hi Hat (Mission)

1432 Valencia St. New York-style pies the size of a bike wheel in the old Pi Bar space, plus slices. The menu is short: cheese, pepperoni, a Jersey tomato pie with smoked provolone, and a spicy vodka pie with stracciatella that people come back for. Why it’s here: it’s the best slice in the Mission right now, and it filled the hole Arinell left. Insider: slices sell out. When they do, it’s whole pies only, so go earlier than you think.

10. Arizmendi Bakery (Inner Sunset and Mission)

1331 9th Ave and 1268 Valencia St. A worker-owned bakery co-op that makes one pizza a day. It’s always vegetarian, always on a tangy sourdough crust, and you don’t get a vote. One day it’s potatoes and curry, the next it’s mushrooms and a sesame vinaigrette. Why it made the list: it’s the purest expression of the San Francisco sourdough-crust idea, and the format is the fun. Insider: it’s sold by the slice or the whole pie. Grab one on 9th Ave on your way into Golden Gate Park.

North Beach pizza: what still holds up

Is North Beach still the pizza neighborhood, or is it a tourist strip with menus on easels? Both, honestly. You can eat badly on Columbus Ave if you follow the host waving you in. But the best North Beach pizza is still among the best in the city, and almost all of it sits within a block or two of Washington Square.

The four that hold up:

• Tony’s Pizza Napoletana (1570 Stockton St). #1 above. If you’re only doing one North Beach stop, it’s this.
• Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza & Slice House (1556 Stockton St, next door). The grab-and-go sibling: New York rounds, Detroit squares, and thick Sicilian by the slice. This is how you eat Tony’s when the main room has a wait.
• Golden Boy (542 Green St). The clam and garlic square, since 1978.
• Flour + Water Pizzeria (532 Columbus Ave). The sit-down option with a wine list, right on the square.

Worth knowing: Il Casaro (348 Columbus Ave) is a small Neapolitan spot with a wood-burning oven and a mozzarella bar. Order the panuozzo, a pizza-dough sandwich, if you’ve never had one.

The North Beach move: get a square from Golden Boy, a slice from the Slice House, sit in Washington Square under the church spires, and compare. It costs less than a sit-down dinner and tells you more about San Francisco pizza than any single meal will. If you want a sit-down after, join the Tony’s waitlist before you start.

And if you’re in North Beach for the day, it’s a short walk down to Chinatown. Our ranking of the best dim sum in San Francisco starts there.

Best pizza in San Francisco by neighborhood

Most San Franciscans don’t cross town for pizza on a weeknight. Here’s the best pizza in San Francisco, sorted by where you already are.

Mission

• Hi Hat (1432 Valencia St). Slices and big New York pies. #9 above.
• Angie’s Pizza (3228 16th St). Thin, wood-fired pies, natural wine, and a ’70s-basement room. The hot honey pepperoni is the order. Reservations open 30 days out, or walk in right at opening.
• Pizzeria Delfina (3611 18th St). The Mission original from 2005 is takeout and delivery only now. If you want to sit down, the Pacific Heights location at 2406 California St has a dining room.
• Little Star (400 Valencia St). For Chicago-style deep dish. The Divisadero original closed in 2023, so Valencia is the one.

Pizza in the Mission is the rare night you don’t get a burrito. If that’s where you’re headed instead, we ranked the best burritos in the Mission, too.

Richmond and Sunset

• Pizzetta 211 (211 23rd Ave) and Rose Pizzeria (1 Clement St). #3 and #4 above. The two best reasons to go west for pizza.
• The Laundromat (3725 Balboa St). A former laundromat that does bagels in the morning and Detroit-style pies at night.
• Damnfine (3410 Judah St). Wood-fired pies a few blocks from Ocean Beach. The Hot Tony (hot honey) is the one people order. It’s the right post-beach dinner when the fog comes in.
• Arizmendi (1331 9th Ave) and Golden Boy Taraval (1447 Taraval St) for slices and squares.

Bernal Heights and Glen Park

• PizzaHacker (3299 Mission St at 29th). It started in 2009 with a pizza oven hacked out of a Weber grill. New owners took over in 2023 and rebuilt the menu around naturally leavened sourdough and mozzarella they stretch in-house. It’s in an old bank building, which is fun.
• Gialina (2842 Diamond St). #8 above.

Dogpatch and Mission Bay

• Long Bridge Pizza Co. (2347 3rd St). A sourdough hybrid that’s neither Neapolitan nor New York, named for the 1800s wooden causeway that once linked downtown to this side of the city. Good for groups and walk-ins.
• Casey’s Pizza (1170 4th St). Thin, very crispy East Coast-leaning pies. Casey’s started on Hayes Valley sidewalks in 2010, ran a truck from 2012, and opened this restaurant in 2017. It’s the move before a game or a show at the arena down the street.

Worth the bridge: Berkeley

Two of the best pizzerias in the Bay Area are in the 510, and if you live in the city, you should cross for them at least once. Cheese Board Pizza (1512 Shattuck Ave) is the worker-owned co-op that makes one vegetarian pizza a day. It’s Arizmendi’s sister, and the line on Shattuck is part of the experience. Rose Pizzeria‘s original is on University Ave. If you come home with East Bay loyalties, the In the 510 We Trust Oakland Pride T-Shirt is for you. Make a day of it with the best coffee in Oakland on the way.

The best slices in San Francisco

San Francisco isn’t a slice town the way New York is. You can’t walk three blocks in any direction and find a great one. But the good slice shops here are very good, and the list has changed a lot since the last time someone made one.

1. Hi Hat (1432 Valencia St, Mission). The best New York-style slice in the city right now. Thin, foldable, and properly salted. The spicy vodka slice is the one. Go early, because slices run out.
2. Golden Boy (542 Green St, North Beach). Not a New York slice, and not trying to be. A thick focaccia square is its own category, and it’s the best in it.
3. Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza & Slice House (1556 Stockton St, North Beach). New York, Detroit, and Sicilian by the slice, reheated in a deck oven. The way to eat Tony’s in ten minutes.
4. Outta Sight Chinatown (643 Clay St). Rectangular “lunch lady” slices with Chinatown-inspired toppings. Downtown’s best lunch slice.
5. Arizmendi (Inner Sunset and Mission). One flavor, sourdough crust, no decisions.
6. Escape From New York Pizza (1737 Haight St). The other branches closed. The Haight shop is the last one standing, and it’s still the right late-afternoon slice after a walk through Golden Gate Park.

About Arinell: the Valencia St shop closed in September 2022 after 33 years, so stop sending visitors there. The Berkeley location on Shattuck is still open.

Square pies: focaccia, Detroit, and the Sicilian slab

Square pizza in San Francisco comes in two families, and locals argue about them more than they argue about round pies.

The focaccia slab (the SF original)

This is Golden Boy’s lane, and it has been since 1978: a thick, airy, olive-oily focaccia base, toppings baked right into the top, cut into squares and handed over on wax paper. It’s closer to Ligurian bakery focaccia than to anything from New York. The clam and garlic is the standard, but the rotating toppings are worth a look. Nobody has seriously copied it, which tells you something.

Detroit-style

Detroit pizza (a rectangular pan, cheese pushed to the edges until it caramelizes into a crunchy frico wall, sauce striped on top) went from novelty to standard in SF over the last decade.

• Square Pie Guys (1077 Mission St, SoMa, and Ghirardelli Square). The city’s best Detroit pie. Each one is an 8×10, enough for one or two people, with a cheddar-crusted edge and cupped pepperoni. The Ghirardelli Square location is the rare good meal at the Fisherman’s Wharf end of town.
• The Laundromat (3725 Balboa St). The Outer Richmond’s Detroit option, in a converted laundromat.
• Tony’s Slice House (1556 Stockton St). Detroit squares by the slice, which is the cheapest way to try the style.

(Pizza Squared on Brannan St, which sold Detroit by the slice, has closed.)

Sicilian and grandma

Thinner than Detroit and crisper on the bottom, usually with sauce over the cheese. Tony’s does both a Sicilian and a grandma pie, and that’s the easiest place in town to taste them side by side.

How to skip the wait for pizza in San Francisco

The best pizza in the city comes with a line. Here’s how to beat each one.

• Tony’s: join the online waitlist before you leave the house. If the wait is brutal, eat next door at the Slice House. It’s the same family, it’s faster, and you’ll still eat well.
• Jules: reservations open two weeks ahead. Set a reminder. If you miss them, walk in close to opening as a pair or alone for the bar and the communal table.
• Pizzetta 211: no shortcut. Go early on a weeknight. When they run out of dough, it’s over.
• Rose and Angie’s: book ahead. Angie’s books 30 days out, and both rooms are small.
• Golden Boy: it’s takeout only. Call ahead, order in person, or order delivery.
• Hi Hat: the “wait” is really “slices sold out.” Go before the dinner rush.
• Takeout strategy: Neapolitan pies don’t travel. Twenty minutes in a box and the center goes soft. If you’re taking pizza home, pick a sturdier style: Golden Boy squares, a Detroit pan from Square Pie Guys, or Delfina’s Mission takeout counter.

One more tip: weeknights in fog season are the city’s best pizza nights. When the marine layer rolls in at 5 p.m., the patios empty and the waits shrink.

Best pizza in San Francisco: FAQ

What is the most famous pizza in San Francisco?

Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach, which has placed in 50 Top Pizza’s US top three for years and was ranked #5 in the world in 2026. For something only San Francisco does, it’s the clam and garlic square at Golden Boy.

Is North Beach the best neighborhood for pizza?

It has the highest concentration of great pizza (Tony’s, Golden Boy, Flour + Water Pizzeria, and the Slice House are all within a few blocks), but the Richmond is a close second with Pizzetta 211 and Rose Pizzeria.

Where is the best New York-style slice in San Francisco?

Hi Hat on Valencia St in the Mission. Tony’s Slice House in North Beach is the runner-up.

What is San Francisco-style pizza?

There’s no single official style, but two local traditions come close: the focaccia-thick squares Golden Boy has made since 1978, and the sourdough-crust pies you’ll find at Jules, Arizmendi, PizzaHacker, and Long Bridge. The city’s long sourdough history shows up in the crust.

Is there good deep dish in San Francisco?

Yes. Little Star at 400 Valencia St is the city’s deep dish standard. The original Divisadero location closed in 2023, so go to Valencia.

Which SF pizzerias closed recently?

Del Popolo on Bush St (May 2026), Pizza Squared on Brannan St, Little Star Divisadero (2023), Zero Zero in SoMa (2022), and Arinell on Valencia (2022). If an old list sends you to any of these, it’s out of date.

If you only eat one pizza in San Francisco

Go to Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, order the margherita and one pie from a style you’ve never tried, and take a walk around Washington Square after. It’s the best pizza in San Francisco, and the most complete answer to what pizza in this city can be.

If you’ve done Tony’s, the next move is Jules: book two weeks out, order the Spicy Ronny, and see where San Francisco pizza is going. And if you want the one thing nobody else does, it’s a clam and garlic square from Golden Boy, eaten standing up on Green St.

Walk it off after. Our ranking of the best hikes in the Bay Area has ten good options, several within an hour of North Beach.