Best Italian Food
Seattle's New World of Pizza
The city's newest pies draw inspiration from Italy and beyond. Far beyond.
Chicago Style
Windy City Pie
It’s the halo of crispy burnt cheese that makes this pizza worth the advance online order (no longer necessary at the new Interbay quarters, but still highly advisable). Deep dish is often a gut bomb, but owner Dave Lichterman layers flavors with thought—a lighter, brioche-like crust, just enough cheese to mean business, a surface of tangy tomato sauce.

Windy City Pie's Meatza with pickled veggies.
Neapolitan Style
Bruciato
Hitchcock’s weekly pizza popup has morphed into its own restaurant on Bainbridge’s Winslow Way. Flour, cheese, tomatoes, and technique hew to Naples tradition, but toppings take some cues from Hitchcock Deli’s hearty sandwiches—bursting with whatever’s in season, and often finished with paper-thin ribbons of cured, fatty flesh of owner Brendan McGill’s own Mangalitsa hogs.

Bone marrow and watermelon radishes from Bruciato.
East Coast Style
Italian Family Pizza
The titular family originally hails from Philly and recently moved its downtown pizza parlor to the corner of Madison and Boren. The three-pie menu awaits your custom toppings. Each one is thin and crisp, slices begging for you to fold them in half. The small size is perfectly civilized; the large is 23 inches in diameter, a massive pizza-gorging experience big enough to feed you, a few friends, and an actual Italian family.

A slice of Italian Family Pizza's (large) white pie.
Jersey Style
Dino’s Tomato Pie
At his new “pizza tavern” on Capitol Hill, Delancey’s Brandon Pettit embraces the pies of his New Jersey youth, though technically the signature pie here is Sicilian style—square in shape, dough fermented to encourage a sweet-tasting char. The sauce is identical to Delancey’s, except Pettit swaps fresh garlic with powdered for that authentic Jersey flavor profile. Another authentically Jersey touch: late-night garlic knots.

Dino's pepperoni with fresh basil.
Northwest Style
Southpaw
Lark’s old home now offers a very John Sundstrom type of pizza: chewy, wood-fired crusts and seasonal toppings that could double as art—chickpea pesto with feta and a sprinkle of za’atar or wild mushrooms with roasted garlic, arugula, and shavings of lardo. Most of the 15-inch pies are strictly veggie…until you consult the list of add-on toppings, which includes everything from crispy chicken skins to braised oxtail.

Title Fight pizza.
Semi-Asian Style
Chinapie
This may be the only pizza place in town that offers metal chopsticks alongside forks: The starter menu is full of dumplings, but most of what emerges from the ultralegit Valoriani pizza oven is reasonably familiar—then there’s the Uncle Sau, that replaces sausage or pepperoni with pork darkly caramelized in fish sauce, the usual peppers with bright jalapeño.

The Uncle Sau with pork and jalapeño.