Every "best pizza in SF" list makes the same mistake: it ranks a blistered Neapolitan Margherita against a focaccia square against a foldable New York slice, as if those are the same food. They are not. So we keep three separate rankings, each scored by how positively reviewers describe the pizza itself.
Neapolitan
Il Casaro Pizzeria
Tony's Pizza Napoletana
Sforno Pizzeria Napoletana
Tony's is the institution, with over ten thousand reviews and a trophy case from world pizza championships. But Il Casaro, a few blocks away in North Beach, edges it on love score without the wait. Sforno is the sleeper: tiny review count, but 94% of its pizza conversation is positive, the highest in the category.
Detroit style
Long Bridge Pizza Company
Cellarmaker House of Pizza
Square Pie Guys
Cellarmaker pairs the crispiest cheese-edge squares in the city with its own beer, and its 91% love score is the best of the style. Worth knowing: Joyride in Yerba Buena Gardens gets plenty of mentions but only 78% love, the closest thing SF pizza has to a hype trap.
NY slice and classic
Golden Boy Pizza
Outta Sight Pizza
The Pizza Shop
Golden Boy is technically focaccia-style squares, not a New York fold, but it is the late-night slice institution of North Beach and reviewers adore it at scale. Purists chasing a true NY slice should head to Outta Sight, whose 92% love score comes almost entirely from people describing exactly that.
Open the pizza maps →Method
Ratings are Bayesian-weighted by review volume, and love scores come from sentiment analysis of the reviews that mention the pizza. Full explanation: why the most-mentioned dish is not the best.