The 50 Best Pizza Places in New Jersey

New Jersey argues about pizza the way other states argue about politics — and it has the bench to back it up: Trenton tomato pies, cracker-thin bar pies, coal-fired Neapolitan, Roman squares, and boardwalk slices, all inside one state line. We scored the candidates on the critic canon (40%) — NJ Monthly, NJ.com's pizza rankings, the 50 Top Pizza guide, and Barstool's One Bite scores — Google ratings weighted by review volume (35%), and heritage and geographic spread (25%), then ranked the composite.

Then we verified all 50, one by one — and the gate did real damage to some famous names. Santillo's of Elizabeth, maybe the most storied oven in the state, has not reopened since its fire (the family's rebuild is still unfinished), so it is not on this list. Neither is Pizza Crime of Haddonfield — NJ.com's former No. 1 pizza in New Jersey — which closed in 2024, nor Sciortino's of Perth Amboy, De Lorenzo's Pizza of Hamilton, or Medusa of Asbury Park, all permanently closed despite still appearing on best-of lists around the internet. Two taverns had their towns corrected, one legend was renamed, and every entry below was confirmed open, in the town listed, and genuinely a pizza place. If it's listed, it exists.