Harry Cheadle covers Seattle and Portland for Eater. A Seattle native, he’s been a journalist for 15 years.

Dinner every weeknight except for Tuesday, lunch and dinner on weekends.

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In 2020, this welcoming Sunset Hill pizzeria started making its indelible mark on the scene, focused on both Detroit-style square and 12-inch round pies served from a Wood Stone hearth oven. The menu rotates seasonally, but recent hits include the Arcade 28, made with pepperoni and pickled serrano peppers, and the Triple Lindy, with potatoes, prosciutto, and smoked scarmorza.

Laid-back, unpretentious neighborhood spot.

Dinner every night except Monday.

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This Ballard neighborhood stalwart has been holding it down with long-fermented dough and a wood-fired oven for 14 years and is still incredibly reliable. You can order take-out (though not online), but you really want to dine in here. That way, not only do you get the pies fresh out of the oven, but you can have a cocktail and order a Jersey salad — whatever is in the “Italian” dressing, we’d take a bath in it if we could.

A date night.

Dinner every weeknight except Monday, lunch and dinner on the weekends

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There’s this group that goes around naming the top 50 pizzerias in the United States, and Spark in Redmond has made the list three years running. That explains why there’s a line on weekends here full of devoted regulars plus newbies wondering what the fuss is about. Spark does Detroit-style pies during the week and New York-esque joints on Sundays, but the classic Neapolitan pies are what got it on that list. The crust is light, airy, and chewy, a great vehicle for the wide range of topping options they have here.

Outdoor dining during warmer months, thanks to the large patio.

Dinner nightly

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This Fremont restaurant stands out for its sourdough pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven covered in red tile behind the service counter. The menu offers classic pizzas, including marinara, pepperoni, and Margherita, as well as a cacio e pepe pie and a burrata soppressata pizza with hot honey and Calabrian chili pepper.

Don’t expect to find parking right outside, spots in this stretch of Fremont are scarce.

: Lunch and dinner on weekdays, dinner on weekends

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When the owners of Post Alley Pizza and Saint Bread teamed up to launch this Fremont pizzeria, it was obviously going to be great, and it is. The crust has a delightful not-quite-sourdough-y tang; the toppings rotate seasonally, and there’s this nicely spicy “hoagie jazz” sauce you need to try and a wine bar in the back — do you live here now?

A lot of pizzerias on this list have a Caesar salad, but the one at Tivoli stands out for its inclusion of radicchio, lending a nice bitter crunch amid all the usual salty-umami flavors.

Dinner Thursday through Sunday

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This Madison Park favorite is known for its flaky, crispy, thin-crust pizzas. Each dish is a thoughtful concoction of balanced ingredients, like the Norwalk, which consists of sliced prosciutto, dollops of melted mozzarella, grana cheese, and a heap of fresh arugula greens. It’s not easy to score a pie here — it’s only open from 3:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and occasionally sells out. Get here early.

This pizzeria only does to-go orders; sometimes the online ordering system is down but you can always trying calling in.

Dinner, Thursday through Sunday.

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This naturally leavened dough specialist on Capitol Hill sometimes draws lines on Summit Avenue, and it deserves them. What takes things up a notch here is not just the dough but the artful toppings — delightfully crispy pepperoni cups, honey-roasted pineapple on the Hornet Honeypie, and garlic confit sauce on the vegan mushroom pie. Cornelly has small plates and pasta and limited dine-in seating. A new location is expected to open in Queen Anne in late spring 2025.

At this point hot honey and pepperoni seems like a boring order, but the addition of roasted pineapple on the Hornet Honeypie takes the sweetness up a notch and makes the combo seem fresh once more.

Lunches on weekdays

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Tucked away in the ground floor of a massive South Lake Union buildings — which, fun fact, houses the Tommy Bahama corporate HQ — is one of Seattle’s most innovative pizzerias. Pizza by Ruffin serves Roman-style rectangular pizza cut with scissors, and “showcasing the diversity of the black diaspora through our food,” per its website. That comes through in specials like the doro wat (East African chicken stew) slice, which is creamy and aromatic with a strong cumin-y finish. Other strong slices here have included one that swaps tomato sauce for sweet pepper jam, which pairs nicely with funky goat cheese crumbles.

The menu here changes frequently, so don’t expect the same slice selection every time.

Dinner, Thursday through Sunday.

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This Italian restaurant from Renee Erickson inside the Amazon Spheres isn’t exactly a pizzeria, but the pizza is the best thing on the menu (next to the tiramisu). The pies are thick, almost foccaccia-style, and come with a pair of scissors you use to cut them up. It’s maybe messier than you want to get if you’re an Amazonia on a lunch break, but ideal for those of us who like our pizza to be on the bread-y side.

It’s inside the Spheres; you don’t need a badge but the entry is tucked away behind some plants.

Lunch or early dinner seven days a week (it closes at 6 p.m.).

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A few years back this Pike Place Market–adjacent hole-in-the-wall was a footnote on the pizza scene. Under new ownership, it focused on local, high-quality ingredients and really dialed in the dough recipe. The result is a triumph of details: a charred, tangy crust, a richly savory sauce, and seasonal toppings ranging from cherry tomatoes to broccoli rabe.

A quick slice during a market visit.

Lunch and dinner daily

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Mioposto has been carrying the banner for wood-fired pizza since 2006, expanding to West Seattle, Ravenna, and Mercer Island along the way. It’s easy to be an evangelist for these pies, which are slightly charred but still soft and topped with exceptional seasonal ingredients. Oh, and they also do a breakfast pizza here?! Note: The Ravenna location is temporarily closed after a car crashed into it.

Unless you are a group of six or more, Mioposto doesn’t take reservations.

Lunch and dinner daily

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What was once a pandemic-born business launched in a West Seattle house has become a rapidly expanding chain, with four locations and counting, plus an outpost in T-Mobile Park. What has made Moto a hit is its sourdough Detroit-style crust and its wild toppings. If you’re the kind of person who whinges about pineapple on pizza, how do you feel about beef adobo and kimchi, or crab, or clam chowder? The answer should be, “Those sound awesome!”

The sweet-savory combo of pork belly and calamansi lime sauce on the Mr. Pig is not to be missed.

Dinner on weekdays, lunch and dinner on weekends

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This Italian restaurant on Rainier Avenue, across the street from the shore of Lake Washington, is known for its dedication to the Neapolitan style; the dough is made with soft wheat from Italy, and the pies are cooked for less than 90 seconds in a scorching hot Italian wood-fired oven. You can’t go wrong with the Margherita, but there are more elaborate options, like the Giovanni, made with roasted pepper and pesto sauce, sausage, onions, and tomatoes.

: A family dinner out.

Dinner every night but Monday

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Dino’s is sort of a bar (it’s 21-plus) and definitely the kind of place you go after or before you go to another bar. But it’s better than any other soak-up-the-booze slice spot on Capitol Hill, particularly if you go with the square pies. These are shallower than Detroit-style pizzas, but crispy and Malliardized and chewy. With crust this good, the toppings don’t need to be complicated, and apart from the occasional special, they aren’t.

A late-night slice — Dino’s is open until 2 a.m.

Dinner Tuesday to Friday.

What began as a pandemic lockdown–era hobby project has turned into a small pizzeria so hot it has made the “New York” Times best restaurants in Seattle list. Derek’s keeps it simple, with a menu of only a few pies (including rotating specials) and a single salad, a heavy-on-the-anchovy kale Caesar. But who cares about sides when the basics are so good? The crispy, crackly, Detroit-style crust is an ideal vehicle for the rich, slightly spicy sauce, and we’d eat it even sans toppings.

Expect to wait for walk-in orders and for their to be a rush pretty much all the time.