What makes a great pizza place? Across North Central Phoenix, the Biltmore and Arcadia, the answer depends on what kind of night you’re looking for.
Some of the best pizza comes from nationally recognized chefs and wood-fired ovens. Some comes from neighborhood strip malls, served on a paper plate by a place that’s been making essentially the same pizza for decades.
Within The Upper Middle, you can eat pizza from one of the most celebrated pizzaiolos in America, settle into a stylish pizzeria for date night or walk into the pizza equivalent of a great dive bar: nothing fancy, plenty of regulars and exactly the kind of pizza you were hoping to find.
That’s what makes the pizza scene in North Central Phoenix, Biltmore and Arcadia so good.
Here are 12 of our favorites.
Pizzeria Bianco: The One That Put Phoenix Pizza on the Map
4743 N. 20th St., Phoenix, AZ 85016
Any conversation about the best pizza in Phoenix has to start with Pizzeria Bianco.
Chris Bianco opened his original pizzeria in Phoenix in 1988 and eventually helped turn the city into an unlikely national pizza destination. His influence on American pizza is difficult to overstate, and his accolades include James Beard Awards for Best Chef: Southwest and Outstanding Restaurateur.
Fortunately for the Upper Middle, you don’t have to go downtown for the experience.
The Town & Country location sits at 20th Street and Camelback Road and serves Bianco’s famous wood-fired pizzas, including the Margherita, Rosa, Sonny Boy, Biancoverde and Wiseguy.
The pizza is deceptively simple. Great dough, great ingredients and a wood-fired oven do most of the work.
The vibe: Phoenix culinary institution.
What to try: The Wiseguy or Rosa.
Pat’s Pizza Plus: The Dive Bar of Pizza Places
1145 E. Glendale Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85020
If Pizzeria Bianco is the restaurant you take an out-of-town foodie to, Pat’s Pizza Plus is the place you almost don’t want to tell them about.
And that’s exactly why it belongs on this list.
Pat’s has been family owned and operated since 1997. There are no celebrity-chef pretensions here. This is an old-school neighborhood pizza joint serving hand-tossed pizzas, Sicilian-style pies, wings, calzones, strombolis and sandwiches.
If pizza restaurants were bars, Pat’s would be the dive bar.
We mean that as a compliment.
It’s casual, a little worn-in and refreshingly uninterested in becoming the next hot Phoenix restaurant. You come here because you want a big New York-style pizza, wings and maybe a cold drink, not because someone redesigned the dining room for Instagram.
More importantly, people in this part of Phoenix have been coming back for years.
The vibe: Your neighborhood pizza joint before neighborhood pizza joints became cool.
What to try: A classic pepperoni or Pat’s Deluxe.
Stumpy’s Pizza & Subs: Nothing Fancy, Just Really Good Pizza
1331 E. Northern Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85020
A few blocks from Pat’s is another neighborhood institution that deserves more attention.
Stumpy’s Pizza & Subs describes itself as an old-school mom-and-pop pizza shop, which is pretty much perfect.
Owners Chase and Debi Herrick bought Stumpy’s in 2001 after years working in the restaurant business. The result is the kind of small neighborhood place that develops a fiercely loyal following without needing much hype.
The pizzas are hearty and loaded with toppings, but don’t overlook the subs. Stumpy’s has built almost as much of a following for its sandwiches as its pizza.
This isn’t destination dining in the traditional sense. It’s something arguably better: the place around the corner that you hope never changes.
The vibe: Mom-and-pop Phoenix.
What to try: The Butcher or a sausage and mushroom pizza.
The Parlor Pizzeria: Pizza Night, Grown Up
1916 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ 85016
The Parlor occupies a different spot on the pizza spectrum.
The restaurant was created inside a former midcentury beauty salon on Camelback Road, and it remains one of the better-looking neighborhood restaurants in Phoenix.
But the pizza backs it up.
The Parlor specializes in wood-fired pizzas with a crust that’s light enough to let the toppings shine. The menu changes with the seasons, and the restaurant combines pizza with handmade pasta, cocktails and a genuinely good wine list.
It’s the pizza place you choose when you want pizza but also want an actual night out.
The vibe: Date-night pizza.
What to try: The Funghi or one of the seasonal pizzas.
POMO Pizzeria: Italian Pizza at the Biltmore
2502 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ 85016
The Biltmore deserves a spot on the list, and POMO brings a decidedly Italian approach to the neighborhood’s pizza scene.
Located at Biltmore Fashion Park, POMO specializes in Neapolitan-style pizza with the blistered, airy crust and simple toppings that define the style.
It’s a very different experience from grabbing a pepperoni pie at Pat’s or Stumpy’s, and that’s exactly why it fits this list.
This is pizza after shopping at the Biltmore, meeting friends for drinks or when you want dinner to feel a little more polished than the neighborhood takeout spot.
In other words, we’ve gone from the pizza equivalent of a dive bar to the pizza equivalent of ordering a cocktail at the Biltmore.
The vibe: Biltmore pizza with an Italian accent.
What to try: Keep it classic with a Margherita or go with one of the house specialty pizzas.
La Grande Orange Pizzeria: The Arcadia Classic
4410 N. 40th St., Phoenix, AZ 85018
Few restaurants feel more unmistakably Arcadia than La Grande Orange.
LGO has been part grocery, part coffee shop, part neighborhood gathering place and part pizzeria for years. Somehow it all works.
The pizzas lean creative without getting ridiculous. The avocado pizza has become a signature, combining avocado, tomatoes, basil, lemon zest and prosciutto.
Grab a pizza, wander through the grocery side and you’ll inevitably run into someone you know.
That’s basically the Arcadia experience.
The vibe: Arcadia in restaurant form.
What to try: The avocado pizza.
Spinato’s Pizzeria: A Phoenix Family Tradition
5509 N. 7th St., Phoenix, AZ 85014
Spinato’s has been serving Arizona since the 1970s, and its Phoenix restaurant feels like the kind of place that can accommodate just about any pizza occasion.
Its thin-crust pizza has a distinctly Chicago influence, with a slightly sweet sauce that has become something of a Spinato’s trademark.
For plenty of Phoenix families, this isn’t a trendy pizza recommendation. It’s simply where they’ve always gone for pizza.
That longevity matters.
The vibe: Family pizza night.
What to try: A classic sausage or pepperoni thin crust.
Federal Pizza: The Uptown Favorite
5210 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85012
Federal Pizza represents the newer generation of restaurants that helped make Uptown feel like Uptown.
Located in a restored midcentury building along Central Avenue, Federal combines wood-fired pizza with a strong beer, wine and cocktail program. The patio is usually buzzing when the weather cooperates.
It’s polished without being particularly formal, which makes it equally useful for a family dinner, casual date or meeting friends for pizza and drinks.
The vibe: Uptown pizza and drinks.
What to try: Bring a few people and order several pizzas for the table.
Pizza Heaven Bistro: The Longtime 7th Street Sleeper
5150 N. 7th St., Phoenix, AZ 85014
Pizza Heaven Bistro has been around since 1982, which alone earns it some credibility in a city where restaurants seem to appear and disappear overnight.
It’s another one of those places that doesn’t need to be new.
The restaurant offers hand-tossed, thin and thick crust pizzas along with a broad Italian menu. It has also developed a following for its vegan offerings and gluten-free options.
For longtime Phoenix residents, Pizza Heaven is less about discovering somewhere new and more about remembering somewhere that’s been here all along.
The vibe: Old-school 7th Street neighborhood restaurant.
What to try: Pizza Bianca or a straightforward build-your-own.
Base Pizzeria: Pizza With a Piestewa Peak View
3115 E. Lincoln Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85016
Base Pizzeria might have one of the best settings of any pizza restaurant on this list.
Tucked near 32nd Street and Lincoln Drive at the base of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, Base pairs wood-fired pizza with a patio near Piestewa Peak.
The menu gets more adventurous than the neighborhood joints on this list, with pizzas featuring ingredients such as truffle oil, prosciutto, dates, gorgonzola, soppressata and burrata.
This is where you go when pizza night calls for a bottle of wine and a sunset.
The vibe: Pizza with a view.
What to try: White Truffle or The Smelly Date.
Streets of New York: The Reliable Old Standby
214 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ 85012
Sometimes you don’t need pizza to reinvent anything.
You just want a big New York-style slice.
Streets of New York has been serving Arizona since 1976, and the Camelback location remains an easy option for pizza by the slice, wings, subs and traditional Italian-American comfort food.
There are more fashionable restaurants on this list. That’s not really the point.
Streets of New York is the place you remember when it’s lunchtime and you suddenly realize that a giant pepperoni slice sounds perfect.
The vibe: Dependable neighborhood standby.
What to try: Keep it simple. Pepperoni slice.
Oregano’s: An Arizona Original That Still Counts
1008 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ 85014
Oregano’s has grown well beyond its original Phoenix footprint, but it still deserves a spot in a conversation about local pizza.
The Arizona-born restaurant built its reputation around big portions, Chicago-inspired pizza and an atmosphere that never takes itself particularly seriously.
You can go thin crust or commit to the stuffed pizza, but either way this is comfort-food pizza rather than culinary minimalism.
And yes, you’re probably ordering a Pizza Cookie afterward.
The vibe: Big, loud, nostalgic Arizona pizza.
What to try: A Chicago-style stuffed pizza.
The Best Pizza Doesn’t Have to Mean the Same Thing
The best thing about pizza in North Central Phoenix, the Biltmore and Arcadia may be that there’s no single definition of what “best” means.
Pizzeria Bianco can be nationally important and Pat’s Pizza Plus can be a neighborhood treasure at the same time.
The Parlor and POMO make sense when pizza night is also date night. Stumpy’s makes sense when you’re picking up dinner on the way home. La Grande Orange is quintessential Arcadia, while Spinato’s feels like the pizza place your family has been visiting forever.
That’s the point.
Great neighborhoods need both the restaurants that win awards and the places that would never think to enter the contest.
From North Central Phoenix to the Biltmore and Arcadia, The Upper Middle has plenty of both.
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