We’ve eaten a concerning number of slices and pies to bring you our guide to the very best pizza Miami has to offer. And there is a lot to offer, despite what the annoying New Yorker or Chicagoan in your life has to say about us and our pizza. This guide includes neighborhood favorites, excellent slices in the back of a bar, and some flavor combinations you’ll only find in Miami.
THE SPOTS
We have never had a more perfect slice of pizza than the ones served at Miami Slice, a counter-seating spot on the northern edge of Downtown. And this is probably why there's often an hours-long wait to eat at the tiny little slice shop. The five or six New York-style slices you’ll find here have a crust that’s crispy edge-to-edge, yet still warm and fluffy when you bite into it. The toppings—like candied cherry tomatoes, garlic confit cream, and pesto swirls—are dispersed with the restraint of a famous Danish architect. And the highlight of the menu, a pepperoni slice with red sauce, hot honey, and an optional (but non-negotiable) glob of additional stracciatella, made us briefly lose consciousness.
Eleventh Street Pizza is a great New York-style pizza spot in Downtown. The pizzas are foldable yet firm, and made with sourdough crust. Our favorite is the pepperoni and hot honey pizza, which comes topped with Calabrian chili paste, caramelized onions, and little pepperoni cups. The nerano (roasted zucchini, garlic, pistachio, and stracciatella) is also wonderful, and so is the Sicilian square slice, which is actually more like four slices worth of pizza. The pizzas feed two to three people, especially if you add on a side like meatballs or caesar salad. It’s mostly a to-go operation, but they sometimes have tables set up outside so you can eat there.
Next Door is a wine bar run by (and right next door to) Key Biscayne’s Flour & Weirdoughs. And it’s a perfect option for all occasions that call for a chill night out with a bottle of wine and excellent dishes involving bread—like sourdough pizzas. Options rotate, but you can usually find a version with pesto, burrata, and folded sheets of mortadella. These aren’t thin-crust pies. The pizza is fluffy and the sourdough crust is as tasty as you’d expect from one of Miami’s best bakeries. It’s also the perfect size to split with a date, which is good because Next Door is also an ideal date night spot.
West Kendall is known for the Kendall Ice Arena, excellent Latin American food, and now (thanks to Vice City) some of the county’s best pizza. During peak hours, there’s usually a line out the door because these Detroit-style pies are magnificent. All of Vice City's pizzas have salty cheese that coats the crust and bubbles over, creating a little lip around the square pies that holds a variety of creative toppings. Our only complaint is that the toppings are cut into big pieces, so that means you might get one topping per slice on certain pies. But it’s a misdemeanor we forgive thanks to a crust that tastes like a delicious memory foam pillow—light, thick, buttery, and springy.
Speaking of outstanding pizza you can only get once a week: Sur. On Fridays, the casual Argentinian lunch spot in Little Haiti has a counter full of thick, square slices with crispy crust and delicious Argentinian-style toppings (there’s usually a vegan slice as well). We have loved every pizza we’ve eaten, which range from ones topped with hard-boiled eggs and olives to their version of a fugazzetta, which is covered in onions and mozzarella. This is a Friday lunch break that’ll give you the motivation to make it through the week, and their slightly hidden backyard patio is a great call if the weather’s nice.
Despite its wood fired oven and two rotating pizza options, Walrus Rodeo is not a pizzeria (it actually says so on their website, business cards, and matchbooks). But that doesn't change the fact that the pizzas made at this wonderfully weird Buena Vista restaurant are delicious. The rodeo za is usually on the menu and you should absolutely order it. The white pickled anchovies on top are more vinegary than salty. They’re interspersed between sweet shallots and hidden under a generous flurry of breadcrumbs. The pizza is sliced into six pieces and brushed with maple butter. The resulting bites pop with spicy tomatoes and ends with a slightly sweet crust.
If you are a bit tired of fussy pizzas that cost almost $50 per pie, take a trip to Miami's Best. This Coral Gables staple makes what we call Ninja Turtle pizza—the kind where the cheese never disconnects from the slice and dangles from your teeth. This is one of the cheesiest pies in Miami, hands down. They’ve also been around “since 1970”—in fact, that’s their free WiFi password. They have an aquarium-sized window where you can watch cooks spin dough, pull hot pies from the deck oven, and bring them straight to your table. This shop makes every pizza to order, so the move here is to call it in and eat it there.
Lucali is a place with a very big reputation thanks to its original location in Brooklyn, where people spend an entire day waiting for a table. The wait for the South Beach location is considerably less miserable (it could be as low as 15 minutes on a slow weekday), but the pizza is still incredible. They serve only one size pie here—which should be plenty for two—and it tastes like a thin-crust pizza and a classic New York slice had a baby, and then that baby got its master’s degree in tasting good. If you just hate waiting any amount of time for your pizza, you can usually walk right in at 1pm on Friday when they open for lunch.
A bottle of wine and a pizza from Stanzione is like winning $100 on a scratch-off or finding out the kid who used to bully you in high school got attacked by a swarm of bees—it will always make our day better, no matter how bad it’s been. This is mostly because the simple Italian restaurant in Brickell serves a selection of red and white pizza with perfectly blistered crust and soft dough that never gets soggy. If you want something a little heavy, try the carbonara pizza with cream, mozzarella, crispy pancetta, and egg yolk. If you’re on a date and need something lighter, the lemon and burrata pizza goes great with a bottle of rosé. But no matter what you get, you’ll walk out of here feeling 300 percent better.
This Allapattah pizza spot serves Miami's best Roman-style pizza. It’s a very small place that’s easy to miss while driving by. There are just a handful of pizzas to choose from. You can't go wrong with anything on the counter, but we really like the amatriciana and the funghetto. The ingredients are top quality—real pancetta, buttery olive oil, imported Italian tomatoes, and super creamy mozzarella. The dough is light and fluffy, yet still crisp. You won’t need to mess with these nearly perfect slices with shakers of garlic powder, parm, or chili flakes. This is a great takeout option, but there are a couple of tables and a counter to sit at inside.
Speaking of Roman pizza, Blozzom is another great option to add to your mental pizza map. This casual North Beach spot has a selection of square pizzas they cut with scissors to create slices as big or as small as you'd like. The dough is thin but airy—and the toppings are outstanding. Slices are topped with perfect portions of mortadella, capocollo, smoked salmon, and a spicy diavola. It works great as a takeout spot (the pizzas reheat wonderfully) but there's also indoor and outdoor seating that works for a post-beach meal.
Inside an office building just off Lincoln Road is Mister 01, a tiny spot serving pizzas that sound (and sometimes look) a bit strange. The crust is thin—but not too thin. But it’s the odd yet delicious toppings that make us love Mister 01 so much. The coffee paolo has mozzarella, gorgonzola, honey, coffee, and spicy salami—and it sent us into a temporary state of confusion before winning us over. The rest of the pizzas under the “extraordinary pizza” chunk of the menu are what you should stick to, even if they sound a little out there. We still like the South Beach location best, but you can now find Mister 01s in Brickell, Wynwood, Coconut Grove, and more are spreading throughout South Florida.
And because there's room for two Detroit-style pizzas in town, meet Square Pie City. In a casual dining room across from the Design District, Square Pie is serving fluffy square slices with really good toppings and edges that have a satisfying crunch. Our favorite pie here is the veg supreme with chopped broccoli rabe, mushrooms, and baby roasted peppers. But we’ve really liked everything—the smoked wings too—that we’ve tried. This place works for takeout, but if you dine-in you can take advantage of the wine list, and rotating specials like thin-crust pies.
’O Munaciello is a restaurant with a massive pizza angel hanging in the dining room, a fairly large diorama of an Italian village in the corner, and a domed ceiling that makes you feel like you’re in some sort of place of worship. But they also serve one of Miami’s absolute best Neapolitan pizzas (their other location is in Florence), and you will indeed be worshipping the cornicione di ricotta when you discover its crust is stuffed with ricotta. This is a fork-and-knife pizza—a true Neapolitan pie—so check this place out next time you're craving one.
This little pizza stand in the backyard of Gramps in Wynwood makes the best New York-style pizza you can find in Miami. Sure, we always seem to crave it after four Moscow Mules, but this is a pizza you can easily enjoy even if you didn’t just do tequila shots. They have five varieties ranging from classic pepperoni to La Hawaiian with pepperoni and caramelized pineapple. You can order them by the slice or as a pie if you’ve got three friends who are also under the influence of Gramps’ excellent Moscow Mules.
Collins Pizza is a simple slice shop in North Beach that makes the closest thing to a classic New York slice in...maybe the whole city? They use a slowly fermented dough (72 hours, in case you were curious), which gives the crust a great flavor. We really enjoyed both the pepperoni and vodka pie. Both were foldable and delicious, with perfect ratios of sauce to cheese, but the vodka is one we’ll absolutely be ordering again. This is a great weeknight pizza takeout choice, and a good beach picnic option since it’s only a block away from the beach.
La Leggenda is in a part of South Beach where your food options are severely limited, but this place is not like the touristy spots you’ll find across the street on Española Way. It’s actually good—especially their Neapolitan pizzas. They don’t overcomplicate things here: the dough is tender, the cheese-to-sauce ratio is on point, and we never expected to have such a pleasant meal so close to Ocean Drive.
Ben’s is a takeout pizza counter that makes a really solid New York-style slice. It’s greasy (in a good way), has a crisp crust, and they keep it simple with the toppings. It is, unfortunately, located deep within the bowels of Bayside Marketplace, and has some outdoor waterfront tables you can eat at. They claim their slices are big, but in reality they just serve you two slices and call it one slice, which is why a “slice” will cost you around $8. It’s slightly confusing, but if you’re wandering around Downtown, perhaps after a few drinks, it probably won’t bother you that much—especially since the pizza itself is very good.
