From large New York triangles to thick Sicilian squares, these are the most popular types of pizza.
Few things in life are greater than pizza. In the United States, where pizza has been embraced and innovated, the types of pizza you’ll find are as diverse as the country itself. Each region offers its own specialty pizza, with unique crusts, secret ingredients and fun toppings.
Here, we’ll get into the most popular regional pizza types you need to know about and what makes them distinct from one another. That way, you can switch things up on pizza night for weeks to come!
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New York-Style Pizza
First created by immigrants from Naples, Italy, this type of pizza features a distinctly thin, almost floppy hand-tossed crust. The oversized New York-style pizza is typically cut into large triangles and sold by the slice—and many people fold it in half before taking a bite. That’s easy to do since the classic New York-style pizza toppings are simple: marinara sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, grated Romano and maybe some fresh basil.
There are serious debates about where to get the best New York-style pizza, but popular joints include Joe’s Pizza and Ben’s Pizzeria, which are just blocks away from each other in Greenwich Village.
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Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza
On the other end of the pizza crust spectrum is Chicago deep-dish. The whole pizza is 1 to 2 inches thick, and it’s the only type of pizza you have to eat with a knife and fork.
This thick yet crisp pizza is made by hand-pressing the dough into a pan to create a tall outer crust. From there, the toppings are piled high and usually consist of lots of melty cheese, fennel sausage, and veggies like mushrooms, onions and green peppers. Because these pies take a while to cook, the sauce is typically added last to prevent the other toppings from burning.
Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s are the most popular deep-dish options in Chicago, but there are dozens of smaller-scale restaurants that serve up this hearty pizza.
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Detroit-Style Pizza
Wondering what type of pizza is squared off? Here’s your answer: Detroit-style pizza was created using metal trays, which originally held small factory parts. This rectangular pizza has a thick, chewy crust with lots of air pockets, not dissimilar to focaccia bread. And it is baked not once but twice for its most iconic feature—the crispy edges of caramelized cheese.
More so than specific toppings, Detroit pizza is known for having the sauce on top of the cheese, which is often applied in thick stripes across the pizza. The most popular topping is pepperoni, usually layered on top or between the crust and cheese.
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St. Louis-Style Pizza
St. Louis-style pizza has an unleavened, super-crispy crust and sliced (never diced) toppings. This type of pizza’s distinguishing characteristics are that the sauce is on the sweeter side and, instead of mozzarella, it features “Provel”—a blend of provolone, Swiss and white cheddar. As for other toppings, you’ll see the usual meat and vegetable choices, sliced thin to prevent the crust from getting soggy.
This type of pizza is typically served tavern-style—the round pizza is cut into squares. You can get St. Louis-style pizza from Imo’s Pizza, which has locations throughout Missouri, Kansas and Illinois. Many St. Louis pizzerias, including Imo’s, also serve toasted ravioli.
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California-Style Pizza
The chef behind California Pizza Kitchen, Ed LaDou, created a famous chewy hand-tossed crust that cooks quickly in a very hot pizza oven.
You’ll find a California-style pizza topped with all sorts of nontraditional ingredients, such as smoked salmon, Peking duck, goat cheese and arugula. Though CPK invented barbecue chicken pizza, their California Club pizza has the most quintessential toppings for this style of pizza: chicken, bacon, mayo and cheese, plus fresh avocado, lettuce and tomato.
You can make this type of pizza yourself—check out our California Pizza Kitchen copycat recipes that range from pizzas and pastas to desserts and appetizers.
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Quad Cities-Style Pizza
Hailing from a group of cities in eastern Iowa and western Illinois, Quad Cities-style pizza features malt in the crust. The secret ingredient gives this type of pizza a nutty flavor. And with chili flakes and ground cayenne in the sauce, Quad Cities pizza might have more of a kick than you’re used to.
You can get just about any topping you’d like on Quad Cities-style pizza, but purists opt for Italian sausage. Whichever toppings you get, they’re blanketed under a thick layer of cheese rather than sprinkled on top.
Another main feature of Quad Cities pizza is that it’s cut into long strips instead of wedges or squares.
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New Haven-Style Pizza
This type of pizza, known locally as “apizza,” is popular in the New Haven, Connecticut, area. With Neapolitan roots, New Haven-style pizza is known for its chewy, bumpy crust. It’s cooked in a coal-fired pizza oven, giving it a wonderful charred flavor.
Sometimes called tomato pie, New Haven pizza focuses on the crust and sauce, with just a sprinkle of grated Romano on top. Mozzarella and other melting cheeses are considered add-ons, so you can opt in or not.
New Haven is also known for its white clam pizza, which features olive oil, garlic, clams and grated Romano.
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New England Greek-Style Pizza
Originating from Greek immigrants in New England, this pizza is baked in a shallow pan so the crust comes out thick, soft and nearly fried on the edges. The pizza is also known for being greasy—it’s made with lots of olive oil, which often soaks through the bottom of the pizza box.
New England Greek-style pizza is typically topped with tomato sauce, lots of oregano, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. It can have Mediterranean ingredients such as feta, kalamata olives and artichokes, similar to our Greek pizza, but the hallmark of a New England Greek pizza is the thick, oily crust.
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Neapolitan Pizza
Neapolitan pizza hails from Naples, Italy, and has a thin, bubbly crust that is crisp in some spots and chewy in others. The pizza is cooked at extremely high temperatures for a short amount of time and serves one to two people.
The toppings highlight simple high-quality ingredients and are very traditional. Marinara pizza has tomatoes, oregano, garlic and olive oil, and Margherita adds fresh mozzarella. To have a truly authentic Neapolitan pizza, the tomatoes must be either San Marzano tomatoes or Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio.
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Roman Pizza
Roman pizza, or pizza al taglio, has a focaccia-like crust that’s baked in large pans. These pizzas are cut into squares or rectangles and sold by the slice and by weight. The toppings vary widely. You can grab a few slices for a casual, on-the-go meal.
Alternatively, sit-down restaurants in Rome will serve a round pizza that has a thin, chewy crust. It is sometimes referred to as pizza bassa, or low pizza, to distinguish it from Neapolitan pizza, or pizza alta. A classic version of this pizza is the capricciosa, which is topped with cheese, ham, tomato, mushrooms, olives and artichoke.
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Sicilian Pizza
Sicilian pizza, or Sfincione, originated in Sicily, Italy, and the crust is thick and spongelike. The pizza cooks with plenty of olive oil and often is topped with anchovies, tomatoes and a strong cheese like caciocavallo.
While you can choose in which order you place the sauce and cheese, Sicilian pizza typically layers the sauce on top of the cheese. Once it’s out of the oven, this pizza is cut into big rectangles.
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Grandma Pizza
Italian nonnas from Long Island created these reverse-style squares, with cheese on the bottom, then topped with sauce. These pizzas are typically adorned with your standard pizza toppings, but you could go all out with a “sassy grandma” loaded with fresh mozzarella, homemade vodka sauce, chicken cutlets and hot peppers.
Grandma pizza’s crust is similar to that of a Sicilian pizza but is about half the thickness. The best part is that it’s cooked on a regular sheet pan, so it’s easy for home cooks to make.
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Philadelphia Tomato Pie
Philadelphia is all about old-school tomato pies. Medium-thick square slices are slathered in a sweet tomato sauce and served sans toppings and cheese. These pizzas just get a light dusting of Parmesan or Pecorino Romano over the sauce.
To find this type of pizza, turn to the city’s famed Italian bakeries. Legends like Sarcone’s and Corropolese are among the best and use the same dough for their award-winning Philly-style tomato pies as they do for their hoagie rolls.
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Colorado-Style Pizza
Beau Jo’s owner, Chip Bair, invented this pizza at his restaurant in Idaho Springs, Colorado, in 1973. Though similar in shape and size to Chicago deep-dish, Colorado pizza is in a category all its own thanks to its whole wheat hand-rolled crust that towers over the toppings. It is also smaller (8 to 16 inches in diameter) and has a shorter cooking time than its midwestern neighbor.
The addition of honey—both in the crust and served on the side as a dipping sauce—gives Colorado slices natural sweetness. These pizzas load on the toppings, always with lots of mozzarella plus your choice of meats, veggies and sauce.
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Hawaiian Pizza
Hawaiian is the sweet-and-savory slice that people love to hate. You would think that this pineapple-topped pizza would be a Hawaiian food, but no—it’s from Canada!
Greek-born Canadian Sam Panopoulos created the Hawaiian pizza at his restaurant Satellite in Chatham, Ontario, in 1962. Panopoulos topped his crust with red sauce, cheese, salty ham and chunks of pineapple, and Hawaiian pizza was born.
Though it’s one of the most controversial types of pizza, Hawaiian pizza is incredibly easy to make at home, as long as you avoid these common homemade pizza mistakes.
