Wood-fired pies in Midtown, Detroit squares in the Heights, and a deep-dish institution that has not changed much in fifty years. Ten pizzerias, argued into order.
Midtown Houston, looking south toward the Museum District. Agsftw / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The best pizza in Houston right now is at The Gypsy Poet, the wood-fired Midtown spot that won the Houston Press's Best of Houston award for pizza in 2024 and holds a 4.8 across more than 1,600 Google reviews. Where you go next depends on the pie you grew up on:
Top pick
The Gypsy Poet, Midtown. Wood-fired pies, thin, crisp and light.
Star Pizza, Upper Kirby. Golden, extra thick, and still packing the room.
Best late night
Frank's Pizza, Downtown. Slices until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Houston never agreed on a pizza style, and the city is better for it.
Within ten miles you can order a Michelin-recognized cacio e pepe pie in
Montrose, then join the 2 a.m. slice line at a downtown counter that has
outlasted every trend. The only thing missing was a ranking worth arguing
about.
So we built one. We started with 16 pizzerias, pulled ratings from
Google, Yelp, OpenTable and TripAdvisor, and read the local critics. Six
fell short or turned out to be closed for good. Ten made the list. Here
they are, in order.
At a Glance
The top of the ranking, side by side. Scroll sideways on a phone for price and rating.
The best pizza in Houston, ranked, with neighborhood, signature style, and rating out of five.
This ranking is built from the public record, weighed in this order:
1The pie. What each kitchen actually makes, the style it commits to, and what thousands of reviewers keep ordering again. A place that does one crust well beats a place that does four crusts fine.
2The record. Awards and editorial consensus, like the Houston Press's annual Best Pizza pick and Michelin's Bib Gourmand list. We also weighed who shows up on the lists that Houstonia and The Infatuation keep current.
3Consistency. Patterns in reviews, good and bad. One burnt crust is a bad night. Forty reviews praising the same pie across three years is data.
4Still open, still worth it. We confirmed every kitchen on this list was open and serving in July 2026 before it earned a spot.
No restaurant paid to be here, and none can buy a higher spot. Everything above comes from ratings, menus, hours and press coverage we checked in July 2026.
The 10 Best Pizza Places in Houston, Ranked
Every spot below was confirmed open and serving in July 2026. Ratings are snapshots from public review platforms, taken the week we published.
1
No. 1: The Gypsy Poet
Midtown★4.8(1,642 Google reviews)
A wood-fired Midtown room started by a Venezuelan couple, found by word of mouth and made the city's favorite.
Ninety seconds at 900 degrees, which is the whole trick. Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
There is no sign outside The Gypsy Poet. Vanessa Fernandez and Cesar
Izaguirre, the Venezuelan couple who opened the place in 2019, decided
word of mouth would do the work, and Houston proved them right. The
Houston Press handed it Best Pizza in its 2024 Best of Houston awards,
pointing to an “impossibly crisp, feather-light crust made from
slow-fermented dough.”
The pies run 13 inches, fired hard and fast in a wood oven, with a crust
that lands somewhere between Neapolitan and New York. Regulars order the
Pepperoni Madness, which comes with hot honey, or the Cappellone with
portobello, shallots and bacon. The patio has board games, bookshelves
and live music most nights, so a quick dinner has a way of becoming a
whole evening.
Best for:
a first date you want to look smarter than it is. The room does half
the talking.
Go on a weeknight if you can. The kitchen closes Mondays, street parking
is scarce, and the lot nearby runs about $5. There is a second location
on Studewood in the Heights if Midtown is out of your way.
Naples, Detroit and New York under one roof, from a home cook who trained as a certified pizzaiolo and built the real thing.
Bill Hutchinson wanted a brick oven for his house. He ended up training
as a certified pizzaiolo instead, opening Pizaro’s in 2011, and slowly
building a pizza operation obsessive enough to import both of its ovens
from Naples. The Houston Press made it official in November 2025, naming
Pizaro’s its Best Pizza of the year.
The pitch is simple and a little bold. One kitchen makes true
Napoletana, Detroit and New York pies, each explained on wall placards
while you wait in line. The mozzarella is made in house. Order the
Calabrese if you want the Naples experience, or the Motown if the
Detroit corner squares are calling.
Pros
Wood-fired ovens imported from Naples
Mozzarella made in house
Each style explained on the wall while you wait
Cons
Seating is basic for the price
Closed Mondays
There are two locations, the W Gray storefront near Montrose and the
original out on the Katy Freeway. Both close Mondays, and the seating is
bare-bones. Nobody seems to mind once the pie lands.
The Nancy's Hustle team's pizza and pasta room, where the char on the crust is the whole point.
The Heights, where a good share of the city’s pizza has landed. Djmaschek / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Tiny Champions comes from the team behind Nancy’s Hustle in EaDo, and
it treats pizza with the same focus. The menu stays short. A handful of
pies share the page with a few pastas, house sorbet, and a fried quail
with hot honey that reviewers keep bringing up. The Infatuation scores
it an 8.3 and calls the ricotta pizza with crispy charred kale the
reason pies disappear as fast as they land.
The crust is the argument here: thin, bubbly, and charred to the edge
of burnt, with the leopard spotting that wood-fire people chase. Texas
Monthly’s reviewer found it a shade too dark. The 1,373 Google reviewers
averaging 4.7 mostly disagree.
Book ahead:
the room is small and fills fast. Doors open at 4:45 p.m. daily, and
the happy hour runs 5 to 6 on weeknights.
Detroit-style squares from the chef who once ran Pi Pizza, walked away, and came back converted.
Anthony Calleo ran Pi Pizza before walking away in 2018, and he credits
a Via 313 pie in Austin with converting him to Detroit style. He opened
Gold Tooth Tony’s in the Heights in 2023 and committed all the way, with
square pans, brick cheese pushed to the edges, and a crust that comes
out fluffy inside and caramelized at every corner.
The menu has a sense of humor. Sebastian’s Big Idea tops a pie with
Spam, charred pineapple and togarashi. The Hunger Force carries house
meatballs and whipped herb ricotta, and there is a mac-and-cheese pie
for people who have stopped pretending. Houstonia calls it Houston’s
first real Detroit-style destination, and it has grown to three
locations, including one inside Rudyard’s in Montrose.
Heads up:
pies are personal-size at $20 and up, the shop takes cards only, and a
3% fee rides along. Reviewers say the corner pieces justify it.
A Michelin Bib Gourmand room where the wood-fired cacio e pepe pie keeps stealing the show from everything else on the menu.
Rosie Cannonball is the only spot on this list with a Michelin nod. The
Montrose room from Goodnight Hospitality holds a Bib Gourmand, and its
wood-fired pies share a menu with handmade pastas and a wine list
Houstonia calls expansive.
One pie carries the flag. The cacio e pepe layers pecorino, cream and,
as The Infatuation puts it, enough black pepper to tingle over a crisp
crust. The Infatuation, Houstonia and a steady stream of OpenTable
reviewers all land on the same order. Dinner runs Tuesday through
Sunday, and most people spend $31 to $50 a head.
Pros
Cacio e pepe pie praised by critics and diners alike
Expansive wine list
Late happy hour, 9:30 to 10:30 p.m.
Cons
Loud room, tight tables
Parking usually means valet
Dinner only, closed Mondays
Cheap trick:
the happy hour runs 9:30 to 10:30 p.m., which is the quietest way into
one of the loudest rooms in Montrose.
Deep dish from a two-story bungalow that has fed Houston since 1976 and still packs the dining room on a Tuesday.
Star Pizza opened in a two-story bungalow off Shepherd in 1976, and the
formula has barely moved. It serves Chicago-style deep dish under a
bathtub’s worth of red sauce to a dining room that still fills on
weeknights. The Infatuation scores it a 7.8 and singles out the
Starburst, a deep dish loaded with ground beef and Italian sausage.
The kitchen hedges its bets better than most institutions. There is a
New York-style menu for thin-crust loyalists, a gluten-free crust, and
the More Cowbell, a pie topped with brisket the restaurant smokes
itself. A second location sits on Harvard Street near the Heights, and
a third recently opened out in Cinco Ranch.
Know before you go:
deep dish takes time to bake and the room takes time to clear. Waits
past an hour are common at peak. Call ahead or go at lunch.
The downtown slice window that feeds office workers at noon and the Main Street crowd at 2 a.m., from dough made fresh every day.
Every good downtown needs a slice window, and Frank’s has been Houston’s
for decades. The dough and sauce are made from scratch daily, the slices
are big enough to fold, and the room at 417 Travis stays open until 3
a.m. on Friday and Saturday, which explains the line of people in
various states of celebration.
Nobody claims this is the most refined pie in the city. The Infatuation
scores it a 7.2 and calls it reliable, and that is the point. At noon it
feeds office workers in ten minutes flat. At 2 a.m. it is where Main
Street ends up.
The Austin-born Detroit pizza company that finally brought its steel pans and crisp-edged squares to the Heights.
Via 313 started as a trailer in Austin in 2011, run by two brothers from
Detroit, and grew into the chain that put Detroit-style pizza on Texas
menus. The Heights location opened in September 2024 with the full
playbook: dough cold-fermented for a day or two, baked in steel pans
modeled on auto-parts trays, brick cheese crisped against the pan walls,
sauce ladled on top after the bake.
The Detroiter and the Cadillac are the classics, and the Heights room
pours a full bar alongside. Some locals will tell you Gold Tooth Tony’s
does the style better, and this list agrees, but a four-spot gap
overstates it. Via 313 opens at 11 a.m. daily, which makes it the rare
serious pizza lunch in the neighborhood.
Also nearby:
there are locations in Memorial City, Webster and Katy if the Heights
is out of your way.
The Austin slice institution's Houston outpost, with a dog-friendly patio, a slice window, and a second location on the way.
The slice window at Home Slice moves a weekend line fast, and the
50-seat covered patio takes dogs. The brand earned its reputation on
South Congress in Austin starting in 2005, and the Midtown outpost, open
since December 2022, does everything the original does. Hand-tossed New
York pies and Sicilian squares come out whole or by the slice, and
Houstonia keeps it on its best-pizza list, pointing to the white pizza,
a garlicky blend of ricotta, mozzarella, provolone and Romano.
It also solves two problems that plague Midtown: it has its own free
parking lot, and it serves until midnight on Friday and Saturday. A
second Houston location in the Heights was announced in December 2025,
with a full bar and table service.
A rustic Italian restaurant where the wood-fired pies answer to a 3,000-square-foot vegetable garden out back.
Coltivare is a restaurant first and a pizzeria second, and it lands on
this list anyway. The Agricole Hospitality spot on White Oak, open since
January 2014, cooks from a 3,000-square-foot garden beside the dining
room, and the wood-fired pies use the same dough as the focaccia Texas
Monthly praises as crusty yet tender.
The pizza that shows what the place is about changes with the seasons.
In summer that has meant a local squash pie with basil pesto and smoked
mozzarella. Most dishes stay in the teens and twenties, and the small
room fills most nights.
Plan around it:
dinner only, closed Tuesdays, and the White Oak parking situation
rewards arriving early. Reservations now show up on Resy.
Also considered: Luna Pizzeria, Pink's Pizza, Bollo Woodfired Pizza and newcomer Talespin Pizza, all good, none quite top ten. Two former favorites, Vinny's and Cane Rosso, have closed and were cut.
Every neighborhood in this city backs a different pan. The argument is half the fun.
— Cole Rutherford, Senior Editor
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has the best pizza in Houston?
By our count, The Gypsy Poet in Midtown. Its wood-fired pies come out thin, crisp and light, and Houston Press named it the city's best pizza in 2024. Pizaro's, which took the same award in 2025, is the closest challenger.
Where can I get Detroit-style pizza in Houston?
Gold Tooth Tony's sets the local standard, with square pies at three locations in the Heights, Montrose and Bellaire. Via 313, the Austin-born chain, opened in the Heights in September 2024, and Pizaro's bakes a Detroit pie called the Motown alongside its Neapolitan and New York styles.
Does Houston have good deep dish pizza?
Yes. Chicago-style pizza in Houston mostly means Star Pizza, which has served deep dish near Upper Kirby since 1976. Most regulars order the Starburst, and there is a second location on Harvard Street in the Heights.
Where can I find New York-style pizza in Houston?
Frank's Pizza downtown hand-tosses scratch dough daily and sells by the slice, Home Slice in Midtown serves New York and Sicilian pies until midnight on weekends, and Pizaro's offers a New York menu next to its other two styles.
What pizza places are open late in Houston?
Frank's Pizza downtown serves until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, the latest hours of any spot on this list. Home Slice in Midtown runs until midnight on weekends.
Is there a Michelin-recognized pizza place in Houston?
Rosie Cannonball in Montrose holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, the guide's award for great food at a fair price. Its wood-fired cacio e pepe pizza is the dish critics and diners mention most.
Sources & Methodology
This guide is original reporting. Nothing here was pulled from a press release or a paid placement.
—Ratings and review counts are snapshots from Google, OpenTable, Yelp, TripAdvisor and Restaurantji listings, checked the week of July 21, 2026.
—Hours, addresses and menus confirmed against each restaurant's official website in July 2026.
—Houston Press, Best of Houston 2024 (Best Pizza, The Gypsy Poet) and Best of Houston 2025 (Best Pizza, Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana).
—Houstonia, "Where to Enjoy the Best Slices of Pizza in Houston," updated March 2025.
—The Infatuation, "The Best Pizza in Houston," updated November 2025, and its reviews of Tiny Champions, Star Pizza, Frank's Pizza and Rosie Cannonball.
—Texas Monthly dining entries for Tiny Champions and Coltivare.
—CultureMap Houston reporting on The Gypsy Poet, Gold Tooth Tony's, Home Slice, and the closures of Vinny's and Cane Rosso Heights.
—Community Impact reporting on Rosie Cannonball's Bib Gourmand, Via 313's Heights opening, and Home Slice's planned Heights location.
Cole edits the rankings and runs the fact-check desk. He has eaten at 1,900 of the places on this site, which he describes as both a privilege and a medical event. Before Best of Texas he covered agriculture and water policy for a Panhandle daily.
