Last updated January 2026
Across London over the previous decade, there was a tendency for the authenticity obsessed, produce-pedants of the Big Smoke to look down their 00 flour-tipped noses at the ‘New York’ style pizza.
Sure, we were content with a 330ml IPA, some deep Derrick May cuts, and a sturdy slice of the good stuff once the clock passed midnight and standards slipped. But if superlatives were getting dished out towards pizzas in London, it was usually in a Neopolitan direction. Whether that was aimed at Pellone, Salvo, Chionchio or Condurro largely depended on which pizzeria was closest, but the praise followed a similar script – of San Marzano tomatoes, 58-65% hydration, and 13.8 inches.
Fortunately, London’s pizza scene feels like it’s loosened up in recent years. The pie purists have begun experimenting and have found that, sometimes, in a city this big, there’s room for a more diverse set of marriages between dough, tomato and cheese.
Though our two favourite neo-Neapolitan and New York by-the-slice joints have now sadly closed, (RIP ASAP Pizza and Paradise Slice), there’s still plenty of joy to be found in London’s crisper, thinner based brethren.
With that in mind, today we’re exploring London’s best New York style pizzas, pie-by-pie and slice-by-slice.
*Yes, we realise some of the below aren’t strictly New York pizzas, and may even bring a touch of the ol’ New Haven across the dough, but these guys are closer to the New York style than the Neapolitan, the two key totems of the genre. And stop trying to make ‘London pizza’ happen guys! It ain’t a thing.*
Alley Cats Pizza, Various Locations
Ideal for a taste of London’s most hype new New York pizza…
If you’re on the hunt for a slice of New York in London, look no further than Alley Cats Pizza. This bustling mini-chain opened its first location in Marylebone in 2023 and has since become one of the city’s go-to spots for authentic New York-style pizza. Alley Cats now has four locations across West London: the original Marylebone outpost, a second on Chelsea’s King’s Road, a third on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill, and a brand new site on Portobello Road opening in February 2026 featuring a downstairs slice hatch and hidden rooftop terrace.
The mastermind behind the 14 inches here is Francesco Macri, a Sicilian-born pizza specialist whose impressive resume includes stints at Pizza Pilgrims and Santa Maria. At Alley Cats Pizza, you’ll find a menu that boasts plenty of west-leaning pizzas, including the signature vodka pizza, a creamy concoction of buffalo mozzarella and tomato sauce enriched with vodka, inspired by the iconic pasta dish penne alla vodka.
With design details like wipe-clean gingham tablecloths and church-pew style seating, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into a classic New York pizzeria here. The open kitchen extends into the bar area, allowing diners to witness the magic of pizza-making firsthand. And while traditional New York pizzerias might serve their pizzas by the slice, Alley Cats opts for a whole-pie approach, with prices ranging from £17 to £21. This one, then, is for sharing.
And this fairly recently in; Alley Cats have now opened a second branch on Chelsea’s King’s Road. Perhaps it might be a little easier to actually snag a table now!
Address: 22 Paddington St, London W1U 5QY
Address: 342 King’s Rd, London SW3 5UR
Address: 84 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5RT
Instagram: @alleycatspizzalondon
Website: alleycatspizza.co.uk
Spring Street Pizza, Borough
Ideal for Michelin-honed 18 inchers…
When a former Michelin-starred chef decides to sling New York-style pizza from a Southwark railway arch, London pays attention. Tom Kemble (ex-Bonhams and The Pass) opened Spring Street in April 2025 after his lockdown pizza project became an all-consuming obsession, and now he’s serving 18-inch monsters that you can buy by-the-slice like a true East Coaster.
The 72-hour fermented dough using an Italian biga method (the dough is pre-fermented for a good 18 hours before a longer ferment in the fridge for a couple of days) sounds like a lot, but it delivers a base with fantastic structural integrity – crispy underneath yet still foldable enough to do that whole one-handed-fold-while-walking thing.
Pizzas are all served as full sharers, but you can go for a half-and-half option toppings wise, which is a nice touch. True to form, we’re particularly enamoured with the New Yorker, which takes the now totally ubiquitous hot honey and pepperoni combo up several notches with soothing fior di latte, jalapeños and drifts of good quality pecorino. Sure, it’s £34, but the quality of the ingredients and size of the damn thing make it acceptable value.
Tucked into Arch 32 next to Omeara bar, it’s five minutes from both London Bridge and Borough stations, with outdoor seating where you can demolish pizza while trains rumble overhead every few minutes, safe in the knowledge that the structural integrity of these pies won’t be disturbed by your rattling table. They’ve even got gildas to start and Estate Dairy soft serve with olive oil drizzle for afters, again setting out their stall as a pizzeria that takes their ingredients very seriously.
Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 10pm.
Address: Arch 32, Southwark Quarter, Southwark St, London SE1 1TE
Instagram: @springstpizza
Website: springstpizza.com
Dough Hands, Hackney & Nunhead
Ideal for a fleeting flavour of New York pizza perfection…
Even more evanescent than a canotto crust pre-exhale, the team at Dough Hands have made a big name for themselves in the London pizza game with periodic pop-ups across the city in recent years, including an inaugural spot at Brixton Market in the pre-COVID blessed times.
Dough Hands has now settled in for a (hopefully) long term residency at the Spurstowe Arms in Hackney. We couldn’t be more excited to be trying chef Hannah Drye’s signature ‘Jode’ again, a spicy little number with nduja, hot honey and buffalo mozzarella. Open 7 beautiful days a week, it’s walk-in only.
Dough Hands also run a second permanent kitchen, this time south of the river in The Old Nun’s Head in Nunhead. The Spurstowe outpost is now billed as ‘East’, Nunhead as ‘South’. Makes sense.
Address: 68 Greenwood Rd, London E8 1AB
Address: 15 Nunhead Grn, London SE15 3QQ
Instagram: @doughhandspizza
All Kaps Pizza, Hackney
Ideal for affordable, delicious slices of the good stuff…
Another pizza operation with claims at the crown of best NY-style pizza in London, All Kaps Pizza has been through a few iterations over the years – pop-ups, hiatuses, a spell doing preorder-only whole pies from a secret location. But the good news is they’re back slinging slices at Papo’s Bagels’ new home on Amhurst Road, just two minutes from Hackney Downs station.
Available by the slice or as a whole 16 inch take home pizza, All Kaps is an inclusive, democratic affair. Though the Pepp Pie – a rich red sauce, mozzarella, provolone, and properly spicy pepperoni – is a crowd pleaser and surely the best seller (it’s often sold out come late afternoon), we’re even more enamoured with the garlic cream-based slices. A recent green sauce and shiso topped affair was a real ripper. Sundays, 5-8pm.
Address: Papo’s Bagels, Amhurst Rd, London E8 2AJ
Instagram: @1900allkaps
Vincenzo’s, Bushey & Shoreditch
Ideal for a spicy, satiating slice where Harrow meets Hertfordshire…
Bang on the border with the London borough of Harrow, Vincenzo’s in Bushey, Hertfordshire, does such a good pizza that we’re stretching the very limits of what the “best New York style pizza in London” can be.
Available in 12 inch and 18 inch pies, to eat in or to take out (that is the question), the base here is thin and with just the right level of resilience, the crust gently puffed yet pliable.
We’re here, time and time again, for Vincenzo’s Raging Hog (sounds like a fucking weird innuendo), which is a carefully-composed, assertive though not aggressive balancing act of aged mozzarella, tomato sauce, and heat brought by pepperoni, hot and sweet roquito peppers and chilli honey. It’s that sweetness from the bee piss that tempers the more fiery notes here. Fresh basil, sniped and scattered, rounds it all off. Magic.
And now you no longer need to leave the capital to get your Vincenzo’s fix. Tom Vincent has opened a slice shop on Bethnal Green Road in Shoreditch, bringing his celebrated pies to East London. Unlike Bushey’s whole-pie focus, the Shoreditch outpost cuts slices from 20-inch pies starting at £5, available from 5pm until late. The Victorian shopfront opens onto a characterful interior channelling New York slice bars with an East London edge.
Address: 42 High St, Bushey WD23 3HL
Address: 122 Bethnal Grn Rd, London E2 6DG
Website: vincenzospizzas.com
Instagram: @original_vincenzos_pizza
Crisp Pizza, Mayfair
Ideal for trying London’s hottest pizza, New Yorker, Neapolitan or otherwise…
Quite possibly London’s hottest pizza (not temperature wise – that would be Fatisa in Wood Green, of course) right now, the queues outside tell a story. A story of Londoners keen to delve deeper than the Neapolitan culinary diktat, of discerning diners seeking a slice that won’t fold so dramatically that their starched white shirts get splattered in marinara sauce.
Enter the prosaically, aptly named Crisp Pizza, a pub-based operation that has been dubbed London’s best pizza by just about everyone from GQ to the Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa.
Boasting a base that simply won’t budge under the weight of its admirably restrained toppings, a good covering of Roni Cup pepperoni and wefts of grated parmesan are all you need to let you know you’re eating a New York adjacent pie. That, and the gravity-defying nature of the slice. Oh, and the literal name of the place – these are certainly crispy boys, and damn delicious, too.
It all began in 2021 when Carl McCluskey took over his nan’s pub, The Chancellors, in Hammersmith and started turning out thin, crispy pies from its tiny kitchen. The rest, as they say, is pizza history: Barstool Pizza’s Dave Portnoy made the pilgrimage, Saturday nights saw 300 pizzas leave the pass, and the virality just grew and grew. And grew. The W6 postcode became a destination in its own right.
Now, McCluskey has relocated to rather grander surroundings in Mayfair, reopening The Marlborough on North Audley Street in November 2025 with heavyweight backing from The Devonshire’s Charlie Carroll, Ashley Palmer-Watts and Oisín Rogers. National reviews have landed thick and fast since opening, and the influencer queue down this stretch of W1 suggests the hype has followed him from Hammersmith.
The setup splits across two floors: upstairs functions as a traditional boozer with standing room and exceptional Guinness pours (courtesy of The Devonshire’s famed installation), while downstairs houses a speakeasy-style 52-cover dining room plus terrace. Expect the same menu that won over west London – the Crisp W6 pie, the fiery nduja, the Vecna with its hot honey drizzle – just with a fancier postcode attached.
Website: crispmayfair.com/the-marlborough
Address: 24 North Audley St, London W1K 6WD
Instagram: @crisppizzaw6
Gracey’s Pizza at Arcade Battersea & Arcade Tottenham Court Road
Gracey’s Pizza, the St Albans institution founded by Grace and James Newman, has finally put down permanent roots in the capital with not one but two locations inside Arcade Food Hall.
What started as a December 2024 pop-up at Arcade Battersea proved so popular that Gracey’s never left, eventually cementing their Battersea residency before opening a 40-cover restaurant at Arcade Tottenham Court Road in November 2025. Both sites serve the signatures that earned Gracey’s a spot in The Times’ UK Top 50 Pizzas – the Plain Tom, Smokey Ron, and Sweet Vera – alongside newer additions like the White Mushroom Pie with roasted portobellos and caramelised onions, and the Grandma Square Slice, a crisp-edged nod to Brooklyn’s iconic pan pizza.
This is the culmination of years of graft that began during the COVID years – 12 months of slinging pizzas outdoors in sideways rain and arctic temperatures from a mobile setup, before establishing their acclaimed bricks-and-mortar base in Chiswell Green. The team’s dedication to perfecting their East Coast-inspired style, informed by trips to New York and New Haven plus collaboration with like-minded pizza makers across the UK and US, has clearly paid off.
At Arcade Battersea, you’ll find some of Gracey’s signature offerings including the Plain Tom and Smokey Ron, alongside the Sweet Vera – an exclusive collaboration special topped with house sausage, sweet Italian peppers, and shallots that’s only available at this location. The New Haven influences shine through in their approach to crust and char, while the New York DNA is evident in the structural integrity and generous proportions.
What makes this particularly exciting is that it marks Gracey’s first return to London’s Zone 1 in years, bringing their much-lauded pizza expertise to one of the city’s buzziest food destinations. The fact that the original pop-up proved so popular it’s been extended into 2026 speaks volumes about the quality on offer.
Pair your pizza with selections from the Arcade bar – beers, wines, and cocktails all complement these East Coast-inspired beauties perfectly.
Address: 1st Floor, 330, Battersea Power Station, Circus Rd S, Nine Elms, SW11 8DD
Address: 103-105 New Oxford St, London WC1A 1DB
Website: graceyspizza.com
Instagram: @graceyspizza
Voodoo Ray’s, Dalston & Peckham
Ideal for late night slices…
Such is the scarcity of London’s New York-style scene that Dalston’s Voodoo Ray’s feels like a proper veteran of the landscape. Now entering their second decade of slice slinging, the self-proclaimed OGs of NYC pizzas must be doing something right; they now have a second branch in Peckham and another in Manchester.
Here, the main draw is their obscenely sized single slices, with two the equivalent of a whole 11 inch pizza. Though they do sell whole 22 inch pies for taking away and sharing, you’ll more likely find us leant against a weeping wall in the corridor-like space of the Dalston branch in the early hours (open ‘till 2am on the weekends, these guys), clutching a slice of their gorgeous Queen Vegan – no fake cheese here, just heaps of vegetables – and pontificating about life’s larger questions. Like, ‘’shall we order another slice?’’.
Address: 95 Kingsland High St, London E8 2PB
Instagram: @voodoorays
Website: voodoorays.com
Yard Sale Pizza, Various Locations
Ideal for award-winning, enormous pies…
A synthesis style of New York and ‘London’ Neapolitan pizzas, Yard Sale is one of the city’s most ubiquitous pizza brands. But their omnipresence hasn’t dampened the quality of their pizzas, with the restaurant group winning a slew of awards recently, including being voted Best Value Eats in the Observer Food Monthly awards in 2022 and London’s favourite pizza in Time Out’s inaugural Clash of the Slices in 2022.
Whilst not perhaps quite as thin and flexible as you came seeking in this article, and cooked in a brick static oven rather than a deck, the by-the-slice nature of Yard Sale definitely renders them worthy of a mention. That, and they’re damn delicious.
Address: Various. Find your nearest branch here
Website: yardsalepizza.com
Instagram:@yardsalepizza
Bad Boys Pizza Society at Seven Dials Market, Covent Garden & Bethnal Green
Ideal for carefully composed, beautifully balanced pizzas…
Though you’ll find the good guys from Bad Boys Pizza Society at London Bridge’s Vinegar Yard, as well as in Tulse Hill, it’s at Covent Garden’s Seven Dials Market that the pizza group has turned their attention to New York style slices.
It’s a tight menu of just four pies here, the generosity reserved instead for the 22 inch pies, which boast a raft of finely balanced toppings. Ours is the rather unappealing sounding Crusty Old Goat, a goat’s cheese and caramelised onion number that’s brought to life with a sticky balsamic glaze and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. Yours for £5.50, or grab three slices for £13.
For those living south of the river, these boys have recently popped up at The Railway in Tulse Hill, and will be slinging for the foreseeable. Rejoice!
And the biggest news for Bad Boy devotees: the team has finally opened a permanent flagship pizzeria on Bethnal Green Road. After two National Pizza of the Year wins (2022 and 2024), Bad Boy Pizzeria launched in August 2025 as a slice shop by day and casual sit-down restaurant by night. Expect the same 22-inch New York-style pies that built their reputation, alongside Italian-American additions like Chicken Vodka Parms and deep-fried Carbonara Suppli.
Address: Seven Dials Market, 35 Earlham St, London WC2H 9LD
Address: 419 Bethnal Grn Rd, London E2 0AN
Instagram:@badboypizzasoc
Website: badboypizzasoc.com
Read: The best restaurants in London’s West End
World Famous Gordos at Netil Market, Hackney
Ideal for superb slices centred around nostalgia…
In the corner of Netil Market, there’s a little black shed with a big sign that reads ‘PIZZA BY THE SLICE’. All caps, because that hatch is home to World Famous Gordos, and this casual grab-and-go spot lives for the slice.
From Tuesdays to Sundays, Gordos are slinging single slices of real poise and precision, with a few inventive twists on traditional toppings keeping things interesting. The pepperoni slice is exactly the kind of no-fuss, smoky carbohydrate that’ll keep you vertical after dragging yourself around Broadway Market for several hours – little pepperoni cups and scamorza cheese delivering a smoky one-two punch.
We’re also partial to whatever the weekly special collaboration happens to be; a recent buffalo chicken and mozzarella number, with both buffalo and blue cheese sauce spaffed across its surface, was ace. Even better on the same visit, a tribute to Coney Island hot dog culture saw a slice of the standard mozzarella and fior di latte base given lift off with chopped hot dogs, chilli beef, chopped raw white onions and a zigzag of mustard.
Sure, there’s a lot of ‘spesh’ and ‘boi’ in the Insta vernacular, and Eating with Tod might praise these pies for being ‘dirty’, but they’re genuinely gold-standard in their delivery, with the more experimental, nostalgic American toppings a welcome change from a pie culture that’s become homogenised and samey surprisingly fast in the city.
Address: Unit C, 13, 23 Westgate St, London E8 3RL
Instagram: @worldfamousgordos
Website: worldfamousgordos.com
