Best Pizza in Minneapolis

Andrea Pizza
Best Slices
Andrea Pizza is a family-owned enterprise that operates several skyway kiosks, but the one on 2nd Avenue is our favorite, serving the best “by the slice” cheese pizza in town. Andrea’s pies are razor-thin, hand-tossed, deck-oven–baked flying saucers of perfection. The toppings may be scant for some, but we like the balance and acidity in the sauce  and the careful restraint in applying the fresh cheese. Try the white pizza; it’s very good as well. Andrea cuts its eighteen-inch pizzas into big fat triangles, making this place an oasis for expat New Yorkers looking for a slice most akin to what they ate back home. Andrea delivers within a good-sized radius of downtown. Towle Building, 330 2nd Ave. S., 612-332-6457

Fat Lorenzo’s
Best Deep Dish
Fat Lorenzo’s pies, as the name implies, are very, very large. (As are its signature monster cookies and ice creams.) Fat’s pies all come platformed on a yeasty, springy dough that is a delightful change of pace from the sheeted commercial dough most pizzerias use. The ’za here is substantial, loaded with gobs of the richest, thickest sauce we came across, and Fat’s hand-crumbled sausage is of very high quality and bursting with spicy herbs. Slices are available at all times, there are parbaked pies as well, and the Fat Man delivers. 5600 Cedar Ave., 612-822-2040

Galactic Pizza                        
Best Delivery Service
Costumed superheroes scurrying around town delivering Galactic pies in alt-golf carts aside, the real reason to eat at Galactic is that the pizza is so good. The hand-tossed, perfectly crusty pies are made from top-quality sustainably sourced ingredients whenever possible. The big deck oven churns out pizzas topped with sauces as diverse as classic tomato, bianca (garlic and olive oil), barbecue, hemp pesto (made with fresh organic basil), sun-dried-tomato pesto, alfredo, creamy tomato-vodka, ranch, Salsa Lisa cream, and Thai peanut. From there, add one of half a dozen cheeses and as many of the ingredients from the kitchen-sink menu as you can dream up. The bison sausage on tomato-vodka sauce is about as good as pizza gets in this town. 2917 Lyndale Ave. S., 612-824-9100

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.  2626 Hennepin Ave., 612-374-2131

Jakeeno’s Pizza And Pasta
Jakeeno’s has been making pizzas, by hand, in Powderhorn, for thirty-one years, and knows its business. Perhaps the town’s most underrated pie, the pizza has a crust we can eat all day: crunchy, elastic, doughy—and sweet in all the right places. The sauce is sweet and rich, not our fave style, but nonetheless superb. Italian sausage and pepperoni pies are not indigestion-inducing—which. based on this year’s tastings, is quite a compliment. The spinach-ricotta pie is the best on the specialty list, and there’s sauerkraut on hand for those craving spoiled cabbage Red’s Savoy–style on their pie. Look for Jakeeno’s new counter at Midtown Global Market. 3555 Chicago Ave., 612-825-6827

Mill City Pizza Company
Mill City is a skyway outlet open only Monday through Friday until 5:30 p.m., with a loyal and vocal fan base that lines up at lunchtime for hefty slices and perfectly crusty pies. The sauce is well balanced, with a nice herbal kick, and the sausage is high quality. Every element of the pie is made from scratch. (BTW, the bacon-double-cheeseburger pizza is sinfully good.) Slices are always available, including specialty pies offered each day (Wednesday is bacon-double-cheeseburger day). MC delivers to most of downtown. US Bank Plaza, 200 S. 6th St., 612-332-0344

Papa’s Pizza and Pasta
Looking for a neighborhood pizza place with friendly table service, a nice wine selection, and a kids’ menu offering $3 bowls of spaghetti? Papa’s is your kind of place. The pies are hand-tossed and very tasty in the traditional Minnesota sense. The real treat is the kitchen’s olive oil–kissed, easy-on-the-cheese East Coast tomato offering (“the taste of Trenton”), sauced with crushed tomatoes. It’s superb, and the sausage version was as good as the cheese-only pie we scarfed down in all of four minutes. 4159 Thomas Ave. N., 612-521-7272

Pizza Biga
Wood-fired pies, artisanal ingredients, no lines, open for lunch . . . a pizza dream come true. Housed in one of the cities’ preeminent bakeries and run by the same folks who created both Turtle Bread Company and Restaurant Levain, Pizza Biga is one of the best pizza joints in town. The choices are narrow here—one size and only twelve offerings—but the hand-tossed pizza Margherita with fresh mozzarella or the same pie topped with fresh fennel sausage are exemplars in their category. Now, if we could just get them to deliver. 4762 Chicago Ave., 612-823-7333

Pizza Lucé
Pizza Lucé’s is our favorite traditional pie in town. The company has grown from a humble Warehouse District start in 1993 to an award-winning gourmet pizza mini-chain renowned for speedy delivery, a hip late-night scene, and passionate customer loyalty. The signature baked-potato pie is the stuff of legend, and the Lucé pizza with onions and sausage is one of the best in town. Lucé does a handmade, crusty platform for its scratch sauce, which is a little on the sweet and herbal side, but we can’t argue with success. All ingredients are of high quality, the list of build-your-own toppings is deep (smoked gouda and roasted eggplant is a fave combo), slices are always available, and Lucé delivers late into the evening. 119 N. 4th St., 612-333-7359; 3200 Lyndale Ave. S., 612-827-5978; 2200 Franklin Ave. E., 612-332-2535 (also Selby Ave. come November) 

Pizza Nea
Pizza Nea has become a Twin Cities favorite over the last few years, with a strong following of devoted enthusiasts. Its VPN pizza (see page 92) has a crisp crust with a breadier quality, and Nea takes the cake when it comes to topping restraint. That said, its pizzas are superbly crafted, but typically in need of salt. 306 Hennepin Ave. E.; 1221 W. Lake St., 612-331-9298

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. 3226 W. Lake St., 612-929-0006

Psycho Suzi’s
Best Experience
An old A&W drive-in has been rehabbed into the best Tiki lounge in town, which also serves great pizza—what a world! Sit down in the lounge or outside in the torch-lit Polynesian garden and grab a planter’s punch to go with your ’za. The pies come in two styles, standard and deep dish, with your choice of a sparkly red tomato sauce or a chunky version studded with marinated tomatoes—the latter ideally suited to deep dish pies. Try the white wine–olive oil or barbecue sauces as well, both are scratch blends with big flavors. The usual toppings are available, but the Italian sausage–and–rum-soaked-raisin combo we created one day was to die for. If making up your mind is tricky—and it might be after a few mai tais—order a Barris pizza made with caramelized onions, fresh oregano, goat cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes. Superb. 2519 NE Marshall St., 612-788-9069

Snap! Pizza
Best Ingredient Options
From Clark Knutson, the man behind POP! Restaurant, comes Snap! It serves pies made with hand-stretched dough, a choice of tomato, Parmesan-cream, or pesto sauces, and dozens of fresh, often artisanal ingredients. Try the roasted-pepper white pizza with manchego cheese and spinach, and you’ll be hooked. The conventional cheese and sausage pies rate high with those who have more traditional tastes, but our fave was Gil’s BBQ pie loaded with chicken and cilantro. Hoagies and salads are much better here than at other shops offering supermarket quality fare: Go for the Pinballs meatball hero or the Dy-no-mite reuben-style hoagie. 2851 NE Johnson St., 612-788-9800