The best pizza in Miami, a definitive guide

With two locations now, the original north of downtown and an outpost in Dadeland, Eleventh Street Pizza serves up two kinds of pies that both are stellar representations of their pizza genres. While a monster slice of NYC-style pep does a great job soaking up late-night drinking, the finest things here are thick Sicilian slices, big towers of dough covered with cupped pepperoni, wild maitake mushrooms with caramelized onions and a Provencal number with roasted red onions, confit garlic and pepperoncini. 

Time Out tip: The Japanese milk bread garlic rolls are both sweet and savory, so much so that you’ll probably want a second order for dessert.

We've had to begrudgingly accept that Stanzione 87 closed. Luckily, its fluffy-crusted, Neapolitan-style pies can still be found at its sister restaurant located inside The Citadel food hall in Little River. Here, the toppings are far less traditional, like the everything-on-it Deluxe and a sacrilege-to-some Hawaiian. It’s not the original Stanzione 87, but it’s still an excellent Neapolitan.

The downtown aperitivo bar ViceVersa is like an all-star team of Miami industry pros, a collab between Jaguar Sun's Will Thompson and Carey Hynes and bartender Valentino Longo. In the kitchen, Hynes teams up with Justin Flit, the mastermind behind the dearly departed Proof, in putting out seven pizzas that would blow the apron off your average pizzaiolo, including a near-perfect margarita and a ricotta and pistachio number with curled-up piles of fresh-sliced mortadella. 398 NE 5th St

Hold up a glorious slice from this spot on the edge of downtown and marvel at its construction: so crispy it’ll stay flat even when loaded with ingredients, leopard-spotted underneath, a crust that’s well charred and crisp. The toppings here shine, especially when upgraded with the hot honey and oozy stracciatella. It just might be the best pizza in Miami if this were only about the slice. But it’s regularly an hour wait for a pizza ordered in advance, or even longer for a slice ordered at the tiny space inside. It’s a frustrating pandemic-era system that still shouldn’t stop you from trying one of the finest slices in town.

The Miami outpost of this Florence pizzeria serves up authentic Neapolitan pies, which are made fresh to order and baked crispy in the open kitchen’s large brick oven. This place will do you in with its extensive list of toppings, including the deliciously spicy ’nduja sausage and fresh mozzarella—neither of which the restaurant skimps on. Make your pie truly remarkable (and slightly healthier) by ordering it with carbon style, made with a charcoal-infused dough that aids in digestion. A variety of pastas and Italian desserts are also on the menu, but these will only get in the way of eating more pizza.

The Sunset Harbour outpost of Lucali, the famed Brooklyn-based pizza shop and wine bar, is perpetually slammed. So the owners opened a sister restaurant in Brickell called DC PIE CO., serving nearly identical thin-crust, New York pies. To understand why this pizza is so beloved, simply dig into a slice of the traditional pizza, with its flavorful cooked-first sauce and a rich sprinkling of parmesan coming together, both tangy and sweet. The Lucali/DC pie is also rolled right to the edges with a wine bottle, leaving a good inch-wide section of crust as flat and crisp as a cracker, a literal dividing line at which you’ll either disavow or pine for this pie for the rest of your days.

James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Schwartz slings pizza from Harry's locations in Coconut Grove and South Beach. A wood-burning oven puts out thin-crust pizzas using fresh dough and wheat flour (though a gluten-free option is also available). Go to town on the rock shrimp pizza with grilled lemon, buttery Manchego, scallions and ribbons of cilantro or a totally unique creation of roasted eggplant and harissa with a ribbon of sesame seeds along the crust.

Time Out tip: The meatballs are a must-order side, along with the polenta fries with spicy ketchup.

This tiny pizza window at Gramps makes one of the best New York-style pizzas in Miami. The best decision you’ll make after too many of Gramps’ famous Moscow Mules is a slice from Pizza Tropical. The second? Ordering it topped with sliced mushrooms (they don’t do the canned kind) and fresh basil. Pizza Tropical is only available for takeout, but that shouldn’t keep you from taking a fresh-baked slice home.

Four decades after Rosa Donna Rummo opened Pummarola pizzeria in Naples, her grandkids have recreated a replica of the pizzas their nonna would make in the old country in three locations in Miami-Dade. As pizza must be in Naples, these are fluffy-edged, thin-crust pizzas that are generally light on the toppings but not skimpy on staying true to an authentic Neapolitan pie. The vibe here is a family-friendly neighborhood cafe, the kind of place you might go weekly if it’s near you, especially considering the frugality of it all: a quite good 10-inch Margherita rings in at $9.50.

Unlike the rest of New York in Miami at any given time, this Sunset Harbour outpost of the famed Brooklyn-based pizza shop is not a snowbird. Find it in Miami year-round. Where most places nearby sell only slices, Lucali is one of the few restaurants to sell NY-style pizza as a big, cheesy pie. Go with friends and order a plain cheese to share. The thin-crust pizza doesn’t need much else, save for extra fresh basil, which you can ask for free of charge.

After getting its start in the back of a cocktail bar, Vice City now has its own spot in an unassuming West Kendall strip mall, where it cranks out Detroit-style pies wearing a crown where cheese and crust have formed crispy towers. While the toppings are a bit too sparse, the crust is a marvel of foamy and pillowy, thick and buttery, and downright springy.

The spacious 300-seat restaurant is a food hall spinoff of the Miami Beach fine-dining favorite Casa Tua that’s attached to the Brickell City Centre’s Saks Fifth Avenue store. Make your way to the northeast corner of the Cucina to find the pizza counter, a row of chairs facing the team that seems constantly at work kneading and throwing dough and then sliding pies into the wood-burning oven. 

Time Out tip: The $16 Margherita is a study in good ingredients: fluffy dough, a simple fresh tomato sauce and a rich fior di latte mozzarella.

Since opening in Wynwood, this pizza joint has spread to locations around Miami and as far-flung as Texas, which is both to its benefit and detriment. Issues with consistency can mean Mister 01 is, as the name promises, extraordinary one day, and just ordinary the next. But when it’s on, Mister 01 is some of the best pizza, well, anywhere. And based on half of the experiences we’ve had, it might have topped the list. The pies, like the popular Star Luca—a star-shaped pizza with folded points that are filled with San Marzano sauce, ricotta, Calabrese salami and fresh basil—are the reason people will line up still at the original, hoping that it’ll be the same as they remember.

South Florida native and food truck veteran chef Jeremiah Bullfrog slings square Detroit-style pies from a new pop-up at FREEHOLD Studios Wynwood (Wed–Sun noon–10pm). The ingredients here are well thought out, like the scratch-made sauce and a double fermented dough made, flour sourced from Italy and a porcini powder sprinkled over the mushroom pie. 2219 NW 2nd Ave

This Italian pizzeria in Coconut Grove pays tribute to owner Maurizio Farinelli’s grandmother and her eponymous pizzeria in Bologna. Like most popular restaurants in the neighborhood, Farinelli offers the opportunity to dine outdoors. Take a seat in the shady courtyard and cue up the prosecco, fresh-baked focaccia and any of Farinelli’s signature pizzas—which are cooked in a copper-coated, wood-burning oven that heats up to a fiery 800°F.

Tucked away in Miami’s historic Upper Eastside neighborhood, Ironside Pizza whips up traditional Neapolitan pies and a variety of other classic Italian dishes. Cooked in a wood-fired oven, pizza at Ironside is doused in San Marzano tomato sauce, drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and garnished with Italian staples such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, basil and black olives. There are gluten-free and vegan varieties too, as well as pasta, calzones and salads.

It’s technically possible to hit Joe’s stone-cold sober, but we’ve never heard anyone try it. Mostly, this much-loved expat from New York City is visited largely by the late-night Wynwood crowd, looking to grab a slice while waiting for that why-won’t-it-show Uber. As our colleagues at Time Out New York once wrote, at Joe’s, “The crust is just stretchy-chewy enough for folding, and the slightly sweet sauce is overlaid with a perfect web of drippy cheese.” Yes, you will burn your mouth, but you’ll be glad you did. 234 NW 25th St

This O.G. of Miami’s brick-oven pizza game is housed in a historical, MiMo-era building designed by celebrated modernist architect Robert Law Weed. Andiamo is one of Miami’s most unique pizza restaurants thanks to a mostly outdoor dining area that features picnic tables and projection screens, where flicks and sports games are regularly shown.

No Miami pizza roundup would be complete without a nod to Cuban pizza. Tío Colo’s isn’t the original purveyor but this Hialeah restaurant has perfected the formula—doughy with crispy edges and oozing with mozzarella and Gouda. Cuban pizza resembles Detroit-style deep dish, made with a dense dough that’s left out to rise and plump longer. The thick crust is the perfect vehicle for picadillo, sweet plantains and other Latin toppings you’d only find on a pie conceived in Havana.