SFGuide
The Best New Pizza In SF
Looking to break out of your usual pizza routine? You’re in the right place.
SF is a pizza city. We’ve got restaurants doing amazing things with sourdough crust, approximately a billion places serving Detroit-style pizza, and everything in between. And over the past year or so, it seems like there’s been an explosion of new places obsessed with dough, sauce, and cheese. So when you’re ready to practice pizza polygamy and branch out from your favorite slice spot, use this guide.
THE SPOTS
Slices at Outta Sight Pizza in the Tenderloin are so good you’ll want to order another before you’ve even taken a bite of the first. The slightly tangy crust is charred and crisp yet foldable. Get the slice "fully dressed"—which translates to drizzles of ranch, hot honey, and olive oil, plus fresh basil and grated dry jack all over—for extra creamy, salty flavor. The casual spot started out as a pop-up before landing a brick-and-mortar Fall 2022, making it one of the best things to come out of the year along with White Lotus season two.
Empire Pizza in SoMa has perfected the art of the New York-style slice. Each takes up the entire real estate of a paper plate, whether you’re going for a snappy, foldable slice or one of the big squares with golden-brown bottoms. On top of getting to eat fantastic pizza, you get to eat it in a space dedicated to the New York theme—which, though cheesy, is something we gladly embrace. It’s decked out in Brooklyn subway stop signs, photos of the NYC skyline, and framed “Knicks Win It!” newspaper headlines.
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Our love for Angie’s is threefold: the lighting is moody, there are ice cream sundaes, and of course, their wood-fired pizza will give you full body chills (the good kind). Garlic chili honey gives the pepperoni pie a sweet and spicy kick, while the pizza topped with goat cheese, dates, and bacon is mild and creamy. Come here with someone who has a pepperoni sticker on their water bottle or to flirt with a person you met on an app—the laidback energy will invite you to stay a while.
Contrary to the name, this Richmond spot isn’t actually a destination for your dirty clothes. It’s a bagel and coffee place in the morning—and a pizza place at night. These are pies you should schedule an entire night around. They’re rectangular and cheese-walled, with chunky tomato sauce and topped with things like pepperoni and broccoli rabe. Excellent pizza aside, you’ll want to kick back here all night. Records play behind the bar, natural wine is plentiful, and the walls are decorated with eclectic paintings and colorful vintage posters.
The only spot on this list to master three completely different pizzas is Pie Punks. There are snappier, thin-crust round pies, Detroit-style bricks with caramelized edges, and rectangular grandma pies with light, airy crusts. Deciding which type to go with on any given day can send you into a spiral of indecision. So just know that the pepperoni-covered grandma and the onion round—topped with globs of ricotta and garlic and onion confit—is a foolproof plan of attack.
Back to Back has “Best Pizza Date Night Spot” written all over it. It’s snug, so you can hold hands under the table or secretly play footsie. And letting your partner have the last slice of Back to Back’s wood-fired pepperoni pizzas with puffy, charred crust is the best way to show affection. This spot also has lots of natural wine and Italian small plate starters, like braised short rib and wagyu tartare.
Square Pie Guys opened a second outpost for their fantastic Detroit-style pies in Summer 2022. The shiny new location in Ghirardelli Square has the same cheese-walled bricks (and our favorite Classic 6x8 with crisp pepperoni cups and mozzarella) as the original, in addition to waterfront views and a brighter space with big windows. Which makes this place ideal for a faceplant-into-some-pizza-alone type of night and group catchups over multiple orders of wings.
