New York City Officially Has The Best Pizza In The World

New Yorkers always love to brag that they have the best pizza in the country. It's the best pizza in the world, once they really start working up that New York City pride — better than any Chicago deep-dish style pie or wimpy flatbread pizza from a wannabe Italian restaurant. New Yorkers don't need to flaunt 2-3 inches of sauce or low-calorie pies to be happy with their slices. As long as it's got the right amount of flop, a well-baked pizza crust, and the correct ratio of grease to cheese, they're proud to call it "the best." And these days, they have good reason.

For the third year in a row, the judges at Italy-based 50 Top Pizza announced in mid-September that Una Pizza Napoletana, located in the Lower East Side of New York City, officially has the best pizza in the world. While two restaurants in Italy stole second and third place, it's this Orchard Street, New York-style pizzeria that takes the cake (really, the whole pie) for the greatest pizza in any country.

50 Top Pizza conducts its yearly pizza search by traveling to restaurants across the globe. From Japan to England, New Zealand to Spain, these pizza hunters make their rounds to try a pie from a multitude of pizzerias. The publication ranks its selections in a comprehensive list of 100 of the best pizza options in the world, of which the United States stole 15 spots. Although a Chicago pizzeria came in at No. 50, and two Miami-based pizzerias claimed spots 45 and 55, six of those top 100 pizzerias are located in New York alone. It's starting to sound like those New Yorkers know what they're talking about when claiming the best pizza in the nation. According to 50 Top Pizza, Una Pizza Napoletana secured that winning spot by presenting a pie that demonstrates "the purest tradition in toppings, with extraordinary quality ingredients."

An award-winning pie is no surprise to owner and pizza pioneer Anthony Mangieri. He opened the first iteration of Una Pizza Napoletana in New Jersey in 1996 but relocated in 2004 to Manhattan's East Village. In 2022, he re-opened the restaurant in Manhattan's historic Lower East Side, where the restaurant has accumulated fans ever since. The restaurant's website explains that Mangieri's pizza fixation stems from growing up in a "close-knit Italian-American family." Decades later, Mangieri's dedication to that pizza fixation allowed him to make every New Yorker's dream come true by producing the best pizza in the entire world right there in his Lower East Side kitchen. As New York icon Frank Sinatra famously sang about the big city, "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere."