Best Pizza in the Western Suburbs

Bella Cucina
Oddly enough, at Bella Cucina the cheese pizza one day came in triangles and the sausage in little squares. Perhaps only possible when you make a handmade, hand-tossed dough that bakes up beautifully, providing the perfect foundation. Bella judiciously and sparingly applies the sauce. The gourmet pies with hand-stretched crusts and a three-cheese blend are the best of the bunch here. Bella also makes a sheeted thin-crust pie, served with your choice of five sauces (Espresso barbecue?) and offers toppings as esoterically diverse as shiitake mushrooms and pancetta. Pastas and sandwiches are also available at this delightful little find. 9332 Ensign Ave. S., Bloomington, 952-941-3614

Frankie’s Pizza
In a small strip mall storefront next to the requisite tanning salon, Frankie’s boasts no tables, a few stools, and that’s about it. Frankie’s is not about frills, bells, or whistles, but they make a great stone-baked pizza here. The sausage is mild, the sauce deep and sweet, with lots of contrasting acidity—nice. Frankie’s blends cheese and herbs into its “classic” crust, but thin and Chicago–style butter crusts are available as well. The spinach-mushroom specialty pie is a vegetarian’s dream come true. Parbaked pizzas are available to go, and Frankie’s delivers from both locations. 8114 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, 952-938-9171; 1310 Wayzata Blvd. E., Wayzata, 952-404-2235

Green Mill
Green Mill makes a pretty good pizza. The crust is chewy and dense, with nice crispness throughout; the mozzarella is a step above standard commercial product; the sauce is superb if you love rich, thick, and zesty with a sweet finish. Pies are seasoned with dried oregano—a nice touch—and the sausage is some of the best in town, with great fennel flavor. Slices are always available, and three crust formats—hand-tossed, thin, and deep dish—are offered. Calzones and stuffed pizzas are quite good, and the list of toppings is voluminous. Blaine, Bloomington, Coon Rapids, Eden Prairie, Plymouth, and Maple Grove

Italian Pie Shoppe & Winery
One of the best pizzerias in the west ’burbs is the New Hope outpost of Italian Pie Shoppe. What makes it so is the formidable and legendary thin-crust white pizza. Slathered in garlic, herbs, and mozzarella, it has the best flavor balance of any white pie we tasted in the metro. The crust needs work, but otherwise this one is an oasis in the desert. 7107 42nd Ave. N., New Hope, 763-531-2692

Joey Nova’s
Great pizzas come spilling out of Joey Nova’s deck ovens like clowns out of a minicar at the circus. This months-old eatery is hopping. It’s owned and operated by Scott Foster (the Redstone food guru) and Pat Woodring (ex-Davanni’s guy), who also run Hazellewood Grille Tap Room next door. Joey’s uses fresh cake yeast for its faultless scratch dough, tops it with a fresh, bright tomato sauce, and then adds every topping you can think of. The sausage pies are very good. Table service is available, and Joey’s does a huge delivery business. 5655 Manitou Rd., Tonka Bay, 952-405-2700

Mama Donato’s
The locals are enthusiastic fans of this little strip mall pizzeria that has some of the best crust in the Cities—a thick, chewy, and sturdy platform for its universally salty and garlicky pizzas. We are not so sure about the “straight from Calabria” braggadocio, but cheese lovers will love this pie, which comes loaded with a decent mozzarella. Try the Margherita white pizza. For the curious, there is a Lebanese pizza with egg, parsley, and a seven-spice blend that is one of the better signature pies we tried. 4705 36th Ave. N., Crystal, 763-521-1113

Ole Piper Inn 
The Ole Piper is a Lakeville bar, almost forty years old, with a gritty clientele. Head on in, grab a table, a pitcher of MGD, plug a roll of quarters into Big Buck Hunter, and by the time the forest floor is cleared of those pesky twenty-four-point stags, your pizza will be ready. It comes cut into a thousand little squares for sharing, which is suitable only in a bar as far as we are concerned. The sauce is pretty decent, the dough a sheeted product, but the sheer tonnage of good quality sausage on this pie won us over right away. 16604 Cedar Ave., Lakeville, 952-432-7111

Punch Neapolitan Pizza
Punch’s John Soranno and his business partner, John Puckett, are obsessed with quality and authenticity, and their “verace pizza Napoletana” is perfection itself. Crisp-chewy, the result of a flawlessly hand-tossed dough created with a perfect protein ratio in the flour, this is a wetter pie and is best eaten unsliced with fork and knife. The toppings are of the highest quality and the vibe (and menu) has been co-opted by the other VPN restaurants in town. Eden Prairie, 952-943-9557