Top Rated Pizza Joints in Los Angeles That Locals Swear By
Words by
Emma Johnson
Where the Real Pizza Lives in This City
I have spent the better part of a decade eating my way through every corner of this sprawling, sun baked mess of a city, and if there is one thing I keep coming back to, it is the top rated pizza joints in Los Angeles that locals swear by. Not the ones with the Instagram neon signs or the $30 margheritas with gold leaf. I mean the places where the guy behind the counter knows your order, where the crust has actual character, and where you can walk in at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday and the place is still humming. This is my personal directory, built from years of late night cravings, weekend rituals, and more than a few wrong turns down side streets that turned out to be the best detours of my life.
1. Doughbelly in Silver Lake
The Vibe? A no frills counter service spot that feels like someone's cool older brother opened a pizza place in his garage, except the garage has really good lighting and a solid beer selection.
The Bill? Slices run about $4 to $6, whole pies land between $22 and $28 depending on toppings.
The Standout? The classic cheese slice is the move. It sounds boring, but the dough has this fermented tang that tells you they are actually proofing their dough properly, and the cheese blend stretches in that perfect way where it pulls apart in long strings and then snaps.
The Catch? The space is small, maybe ten seats inside, so if you show up on a Friday night you are either taking it to go or eating on the sidewalk watching traffic crawl down Sunset.
Silver Lake has always been the neighborhood where Los Angeles reinvents itself every five years, but Doughbelly has quietly become one of the most reliable local pizza spots in Los Angeles without ever trying to be trendy. They opened during a period when the neighborhood was drowning in $14 avocado toasts, and they just made good pizza and let the neighborhood come to them. The owner told me once that they cold ferment their dough for 48 hours minimum, which is not revolutionary in New York but is still rare enough in LA to matter. If you are coming from the east side, park near the reservoir and walk over. The streets around Silver Lake Boulevard get absolutely clogged after 6 p.m., and you will save yourself twenty minutes of circling.
2. Pizzeria Mozza on Melrose
The Vibe? Nancy Silverton's flagship is the kind of place where you dress slightly nicer than you planned to and the bread basket alone justifies the trip.
The Bill? Expect $18 to $26 per pizza, with the famous Burrata pizza pushing toward the higher end. Appetizers add up fast, so a full meal for two with wine can easily hit $90 to $120.
The Standout? The Burrata and Pesto pizza. The burrata gets torn over the hot pizza so it melts into this creamy, herbed mess that you will think about at random moments for weeks afterward.
The Catch? Reservations are essentially mandatory, and even with one, you might wait twenty minutes past your booked time because the front of house runs on its own schedule.
Pizzeria Mozza sits on Melrose Avenue, right in the heart of the Fairfax District, and it changed what Los Angeles thought pizza could be when it opened back in 2006. Before Mozza, the city's pizza identity was mostly New York style slices and delivery chains. Silverton brought a wood fired, ingredient driven approach that made people pay attention. The mozzarella bar alone is worth studying. They pull fresh mozzarella in house, and watching the staff work the curd is its own form of entertainment. A detail most tourists miss: the restaurant shares a wall with the original location of Canter's Deli, which has been serving pastrami since 1931. After your meal, walk next door and grab a black and white cookie from the deli counter. It is the kind of old Los Angeles that the neighborhood was built on.
3. Prince Street Pizza in Echo Park
The Vibe? A tiny storefront that smells like pepperoni and ambition, with a line that moves faster than you expect.
The Bill? Slices are $5 to $7, whole pies run $24 to $30.
The Standout? The Spicy Spring square slice. It is a pepperoni cup slice, meaning the pepperoni curls into little cups that hold pools of rendered fat, and the crust is this thick, focaccia like square that somehow stays crisp on the bottom.
The Catch? The line can stretch out the door on weekends, and there is almost zero seating, so plan to eat standing or find a nearby stoop.
Prince Street Pizza came to Los Angeles by way of New York, and it is one of the few transplanted spots that actually earned its place among the best casual pizza Los Angeles has to offer. The Echo Park location opened when the neighborhood was in the middle of its rapid transformation from a working class Latino community into something more complicated, and the pizza shop became a weird little bridge between old and new. The owner, a former Wall Street guy who moved west, told me the pepperoni cups are the result of using a specific brand of natural casing pepperoni that crisps in a particular way in their deck ovens. Most people do not realize that the original New York location on Prince Street in Nolita is only about 400 square feet. The LA version is actually bigger, which says something about how much space this city wastes on parking lots.
4. Joe's on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice
The Vibe? A neighborhood joint that has been quietly doing its thing since the 1980s, long before Venice became the place where tech money met surf culture.
The Bill? A large cheese pizza runs about $18, and a slice is under $4, making it one of the more honest cheap pizza Los Angeles options left on the west side.
The Standout? The plain cheese slice, served on a paper plate with a shaker of oregano and red pepper flakes on the counter. It is the kind of pizza that tastes exactly like what pizza should taste like, which is harder to find than you would think.
The Catch? Cash only, and the hours are inconsistent. If they feel like closing early, they close early.
Joe's is the kind of place that would not survive in the current restaurant economy if it were not already paid off. The building is old, the menu is short, and the owner has been making the same dough recipe for decades. It sits on Lincoln Boulevard, which used to be the main commercial strip for Venice before Abbot Kinney Boulevard got all the attention. The pizza here connects to a version of Los Angeles that is disappearing, the one where a family could open a small restaurant and actually sustain it without a social media strategy. A local tip: the best time to go is mid afternoon on a weekday, around 2 or 3 p.m., when the lunch rush is gone and the dinner prep has not started. You get the freshest slices and the owner might actually talk to you.
5. Pizzeria Sei in Mid City
The Vibe? A sleek, modern space that feels like someone brought a Tokyo izakaya sensibility to a Los Angeles pizza counter.
The Bill? Pizzas range from $16 to $22, and they are on the smaller side, so budget for one per person plus a side.
The Standout? The Tokyo Margherita, which uses a slightly sweet tomato sauce and a mozzarella blend that pulls differently than what you are used to. It is subtle, but once you notice it, you cannot unnotice it.
The Catch? The space is intimate to the point of cramped, and the noise level when it is full makes conversation a shouting match.
Pizzeria Sei opened in Mid City, a neighborhood that has always been one of Los Angeles's most overlooked corridors, sitting between the flash of Hollywood and the money of Beverly Hills without getting much credit for either. The restaurant brought Neapolitan style pizza with Japanese precision to a part of town that needed exactly that kind of energy. What most people do not know is that the head chef trained in both Naples and Tokyo, and the dough recipe reflects that dual education. The fermentation process is longer than typical Neapolitan, which gives the crust a depth that stands out even in a city full of good pizza. If you are driving, park on the side streets off Pico Boulevard. The main drag gets backed up during rush hour, and the residential blocks are your best bet for a spot.
6. L & B Spumoni Gardens in North Hollywood
The Vibe? A family run institution that has been serving the San Fernando Valley since the 1970s, with checkered tablecloths and a freezer case full of spumoni that has probably been there since the Reagan administration.
The Bill? A large square pie is around $20 to $25, and slices are $3 to $5. This is cheap pizza Los Angeles style, the kind that feeds a family without breaking the bank.
The Standout? The square Sicilian slice. The crust is thick and airy, the sauce is sweet in that old school way, and the cheese goes all the way to the edge in a way that creates these caramelized corners you fight over.
The Catch? The location is in a part of North Hollywood that feels like it exists in a different decade, and the dining room has not been updated since approximately 1987. That is either a pro or a con depending on your tolerance for time capsules.
L & B Spumoni Gardens is one of those local pizza spots Los Angeles families have been going to for generations, and it connects directly to the wave of Italian American immigration that shaped the San Fernando Valley in the mid 20th century. The spumoni, the layered Italian ice cream, is what they were originally known for, and the pizza came later as the neighborhood changed. But the pizza stuck, and now it is the main event. A detail most outsiders miss: the restaurant is a short drive from the NoHo Arts District, which has become one of the more interesting theater scenes in the city. Grab a slice before a show at one of the small venues on Lankershim Boulevard, and you have yourself a very Los Angeles evening that costs under $30.
7. Apizza Beverly Hills on Beverly Drive
The Vibe? A small, focused shop that treats pizza like a craft project, with a level of attention that feels almost obsessive in the best way.
The Bill? Pizzas are $18 to $24, and they are personal sized, so order accordingly.
The Standout? The white pizza with ricotta and lemon. It sounds simple, but the balance of acid and cream is so precise that it makes you rethink what white pizza can be.
The Catch? The wait times can stretch past an hour on weekend evenings, and there is no real waiting area, so you are standing on the sidewalk hoping your phone does not die.
Apizza Beverly Hills sits on Beverly Drive, which is one of those streets in Los Angeles that feels like it belongs to a different city entirely, all manicured trees and quiet wealth. The pizza shop opened as a counter service spot with a short menu and a long line, and it has stayed that way because the quality justifies the wait. What connects this place to the broader character of Los Angeles is its stubbornness. In a neighborhood where restaurants open and close based on celebrity sightings and influencer traffic, this place just makes pizza and lets the product speak. Most tourists do not realize that the Beverly Hills side of the border with West Hollywood has a completely different energy than the Rodeo Drive tourist zone. Walk two blocks north and you are in a neighborhood where actual residents live, and Apizza is one of their regular spots.
8. Howlin' Ray's in Chinatown and Beyond
The Vibe? A Nashville hot chicken spot that also happens to serve a pepperoni pizza that has no business being as good as it is.
The Bill? The pepperoni pizza is around $18 for a personal pie, and the chicken sandwiches run $14 to $16.
The Standout? The pepperoni pizza, which uses a hot chicken inspired spice blend in the sauce and a crust that gets brushed with a chili oil that makes your lips tingle. It is not traditional, and it does not care.
The Catch? The original Chinatown location still has lines that can take over an hour, and the newer locations, while more accessible, do not always have the same energy.
Howlin' Ray's started in Chinatown, in the Far East Plaza on North Broadway, which is one of the most historically significant Asian American commercial spaces in Los Angeles. The plaza has been a hub for Chinese and Vietnamese businesses since the 1970s, and the arrival of Howlin' Ray's in that space was part of the complicated conversation about gentrification and change that Chinatown has been having for years. The pizza itself is a wildcard, a fusion experiment that works because the kitchen understands heat and flavor at a fundamental level. A local tip: the newer location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood is easier to get into and has more seating, but if you want the full experience, go to Chinatown on a weekday morning when the line is shorter and the plaza is buzzing with its regular lunch crowd.
When to Go and What to Know
Los Angeles pizza culture does not follow the same rhythms as New York or Chicago. Lunch is a strong move at most of these spots, especially the counter service places where the midday rush is lighter than dinner. Weekday evenings, Tuesday through Thursday, are your best bet for avoiding lines at the popular spots. Friday and Saturday nights are when everything backs up, and you should plan for a wait or order ahead.
Parking is the universal challenge. Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Chinatown all have limited street parking that fills up fast. The west side spots, Venice and Beverly Hills, have meters that run until 8 or 9 p.m. and tow trucks that are not shy. If you are driving, budget an extra fifteen minutes for parking, or use a rideshare and save yourself the stress.
Cash is still king at a few of the older spots. Joe's in Venice is cash only, and L & B Spumoni Gardens prefers it. Everyone else takes cards, but having a twenty in your pocket is never a bad idea in this city.
Finally, do not sleep on the neighborhoods themselves. The best pizza in Los Angeles is often a short walk from something else worth seeing, a mural, a record store, a park, a stretch of street that tells you something real about how this city actually lives. The pizza is the excuse. The neighborhood is the point.
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