Dallas is not a pizza city the way New Haven or New York is a pizza city, but it has become something more interesting: a city where nearly every serious style of the form is being made at a high level, by kitchens that mean it. Neapolitan, New Haven, New York, Roman, Detroit, Neo-Neapolitan — they’re all here, they’re all good, and the range is wide enough that the argument about which is best usually comes down to which style you were raised on.
What follows is our working list of the pizzerias worth knowing, organized by style and neighborhood. No Cane Rosso. No chains. Just pizza.
NEAPOLITAN AND NEO-NEAPOLITAN
Partenope Ristorante
110 S. Greenville Avenue, Richardson — (214) 604-4857
Named for the ancient Greek settlement that became Naples — the city that invented pizza in its modern form and still considers the subject a matter of civic identity. The pizza here is Neapolitan: wood-fired, thin in the center, properly charred at the rim, made with imported Italian ingredients and the restraint that Neapolitan certification requires. The Napoli Centrale with mozzarella, ricotta, sausage, Bolognese, and Prosciutto di Parma is the house signature. The Margherita Verace TSG carries the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed designation — San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala DOP, specific dough, specific oven temperature. If that kind of specificity matters to you, this is where to go. Open daily 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Olivella’s Pizza & Wine
Multiple locations including 2816 Elm Street, Deep Ellum
Charlie Green opened Olivella’s in partnership with Salvatore Olivella — great-grandson of the founder of Trianon in Naples, one of the oldest pizza families in the city. The result is a kitchen with century-old recipes producing both Neapolitan and Roman-style pies alongside a wine list that takes the pairing seriously. The Black Truffle and the Margherita are the touchstones. The wine program — with 50 global selections, discounted by up to 30 percent for carryout — is the reason to stay at a table rather than calling it in. We’ve been covering Olivella’s since the beginning. One of the most consistently praised pizzerias in the city. Multiple DFW locations.
Pizzana
3219 Knox Street, Suite 150 — (214) 440-4400
Master pizzaiolo Daniele Uditi earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand at Pizzana’s Los Angeles debut and brought his Neo-Neapolitan approach to Knox Street in 2022. The category name is useful: this is pizza rooted in Neapolitan tradition but not bound by its certification rules, which gives Uditi room to develop his own ingredient combinations without sacrificing the essential character of the form. The Cacio e Pepe pizza — cracked black pepper, pecorino romano, fior di latte — is the one that surprises people who didn’t know pizza could do that. The Neo Margherita is the one that earns repeat visits. Happy hour Monday through Friday 3 to 6 p.m. with 50% off beer and wine by the glass. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
NEW HAVEN STYLE
Fortunate Son
500 Main Street, Suite 100, Garland
New Haven-style pizza — known in Connecticut as “apizza” — is what happens when Italian-American pizza culture develops in isolation for a century without being influenced by New York or Chicago. The crust is thin and oval, baked at very high temperature until the edges char and the bottom crisps, with a chew and an acidity in the dough that sets it apart from every other American style. Matt Tobin and Josh Yingling — who also run Goodfriend Beer Garden in Casa Linda — brought this to downtown Garland’s historic square and built the most distinctive pizza program in the eastern Metroplex around it. The white clam pie — littleneck clams, white sauce, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, lemon, pecorino — is the introduction. The potato and pancetta pizza with fontina, thin-sliced russet, Italian bacon, and scallions is the dish Texas Monthly praised without qualification. The wine list was curated by Master Sommelier James Tidwell. On the square in downtown Garland — worth making the drive.
NEW YORK STYLE
Serious Pizza
2807 Elm Street, Deep Ellum — (469) 949-9234
The premise at Serious Pizza is not subtle: 30-inch New York-style pies — a pizza so large it barely fits in most cars — sold by the whole pie or by the Huge Slice, in a Deep Ellum room with a floating DJ booth and dough throwers working in full view. The pizza itself is properly made: good crust, real ingredients, the correct chew for the style. But Serious is also one of the most reliable late-night operations in Dallas, which is relevant when you’re deciding where to go after 11 p.m. on a Saturday. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to midnight. Phone: (469) 949-9234.
THIN CRUST / AMERICAN STYLE
Greenville Avenue Pizza Company
1923 Greenville Avenue — (214) 826-5404
1145 Peavy Road — (214) 324-2726
Sammy Mandell opened GAPCo on Greenville in 2007 and the restaurant survived a major neighborhood construction project and a recession to become one of the most reliable pizza institutions in the city. Thin crust, scratch-made daily, simple and direct — the kind of pizza that Dallas has eaten for decades and that these two locations have elevated rather than standardized. The Mes-Kin and the late-night wing situation are the secondary reasons regulars show up. The primary reason is that the pizza is consistently good and the Greenville location stays open until 3 a.m. on weekends, which solves a specific and recurring Dallas problem. Greenville: Mon–Wed 11am–1am, Thu–Sat 11am–3am, Sun 11am–1am. Peavy: Mon–Thu 11am–11pm, Fri 11am–midnight, Sat–Sun 11am–midnight.
WOOD-FIRED / UPSCALE
Nonna
4115 Lomo Alto Drive — (214) 521-1800
Nonna has been the neighborhood Italian restaurant for the Highland Park corridor for long enough that its regulars don’t talk about it — they simply appear on Friday nights. The weekly-changing menu runs Italian regional cooking with a Texas accent and a wood-burning oven at the center of the kitchen. The pizzas are not the only reason to go, which is part of what makes them interesting — they share the menu with house-cured salumi, fresh pasta made daily, and a room full of people who have been eating here long enough to know exactly what they want. The White Pizza of Little Neck Clams is the signature that gets mentioned first, always. The Spicy Sausage with caramelized onion, arugula, and pecorino is the one to order second. The adjacent Tabu lounge serves the full Nonna menu with live jazz Thursday through Saturday. Open Monday through Thursday 5:30 to 11 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., Saturday 5:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., closed Sunday.
Urban Crust
1006 E. 15th Street, Downtown Plano — (972) 509-1400
Wood-fired pizza on the historic downtown Plano square with a rooftop patio that is one of the better outdoor dining situations in the northern Metroplex. The Urban Amore and the wood-fired mushroom pizza are the standards alongside fresh pasta and a full bar. The rooftop on a summer evening is the real argument. Open Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight.
DETROIT STYLE AND CASUAL
Doughbird
5560 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 260, Inwood Village — (945) 229-2500
Sam Fox’s Fox Restaurant Concepts — the group behind The Henry, North Italia, and Flower Child — opened Doughbird at Inwood Village in 2024, and the concept is straightforward: Detroit-style and hand-tossed pizza alongside rotisserie chicken and tenders, in a warm room at Inwood Village that fits comfortably into the neighborhood. The Detroit-style pepperoni with its crispy-edged rectangle and cupped grease pools is the draw. The Truffle Cheese Bread is the table appetizer that disappears first. Happy hour Monday through Friday 3 to 6 p.m. with everything under $10. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
THE DALLAS ORIGINAL
Zalat Pizza
30+ locations across Dallas-Fort Worth — flagship: 2519 N. Fitzhugh Avenue — (214) 370-9786
Khanh Nguyenowns Zalat and is a Dallas story worth telling properly. He was running a pho and late-night Vietnamese spot on Fitzhugh when he put up a pizza sign next door with “Open til 4am” on it. CraveDFW was there for that. We told him the 4am sign was a bold move for a permanent street fixture. He said he didn’t want to give himself the option not to follow through. That was the beginning of what became 30-plus locations across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin — a lean, delivery-first operation inspired by tech companies rather than restaurant industry convention, with employee stock options for cooks and cashiers, full benefits across the board, and a pizza quality standard that has held across every location. The concept is “luxury pizzas for the masses”: all-beef pepperoni, custom dough, house-made sauces, and a menu of signature pies that includes the Pho Shizzle with hoisin, sriracha, chicken, and fresh cilantro — Khanh’s Vietnamese-American identity baked directly into a pizza — alongside the Pineapple Express, Sweet Revenge, Elote, and the Reaper Roulette Challenge, where one unmarked slice is nuclear spicy. Open late, open often, all over the city. We’ve been covering Zalat since the beginning. We’re still covering it. Fitzhugh flagship: Mon–Sun 11am–2/4am.
