The 10 Most Overrated Pizza Styles In The World & The 10 Best
Which Pizza Styles Are Worth Traveling For?
Pizza, being a simple food of essentially dough and toppings, lends itself well to creativity and endless riffs. Humans have been coming up with new styles of the dish since it was first invented in Naples; however, not all pies are created equal. While some leave you wondering what all the fuss is about, others slap every time, earning their classic status with every bite. Here are 10 of the most overrated pizza styles and 10 we will forever adore.
1. New York-Style
New York-style pizza is characterized by its large size and foldable crust, but not much else. It was developed with inexpensive one-handed eating in mind, more so than exceptional flavor.
2. Rhode Island-Style
Rhode Island-style pizza is unique for its rectangular shape and thick, focaccia-like dough and is typically served at room temperature. Sorry, Rhode Island, but this is essentially a soggy piece of bread.
3. St. Louis-Style
As much as we love thin crust, St. Louis just took it too far. This style of pizza has no yeast in the dough, yielding a crust so thin and crispy, it's like you're eating a cracker.
4. Greek Pizza
Greek pizza isn't just pizza with olives and feta cheese; it's characterized by its pan-fried crust. The idea is to yield a super crispy, caramelized crust, but it generally results in a pizza far too drenched in oil.
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5. Philadelphia Tomato Pie
Philadelphia tomato pie is definitely more like a focaccia than a pizza. It's extremely bready with a disproportionate sauce-to-base ratio. Just like in Rhode Island, this pizza is puzzlingly served at room temperature or even cold.
6. Sicilian-Style
Like the Philadelphia-style pizza, Sicilian pizza is special because of its thick, focaccia-like crust, resulting in a spongy base. The bread gets topped with cheese and then sauce on top, which is perplexing and just seems wrong.
7. Buffalo-Style
Buffalo-style pizza has a substantial, bready crust and tends to be cut into rectangular pieces. It's not foldable like NY-style pizza and isn't as thick as Sicilian-style; it's in the awkward middle ground, lacks balance and flavor, and comes overly greasy.
8. California-Style
California-style pizza isn't notable for its crust, but its toppings, which usually consist of lean protein and something green. The fact that its toppings are so healthy takes all the fun out of pizza.
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9. Dessert Pizza
We are unsure why pizza chains continue to put Nutella on pizza dough and try to pass it off as a worthy dessert. It's almost always too extra and makes for a poor pairing.
10. Miami-Style
Miami-style, also sometimes called Cuban-style pizza, is thick-crust pizza topped with a very thin layer of sauce and an extremely heavy dumping of cheese. The dough is commonly undercooked, and the cheese makes it far too greasy.
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Now that we've covered some of the most overrated pizza styles, let's talk about our most beloved ones.
1. Neapolitan
Neapolitan-style pizza is the king of all pizzas. Not only is it the OG, but it's clearly the best, with centuries of refinement under its belt. Long-fermented dough is topped with a few simple ingredients and baked in a wood-fired oven to create this perfect pie, celebrated for its freshness and simplicity.
2. Detroit-Style
Detroit-style pizza is famous for its delightfully caramelized edges achieved by baking in signature rectangular pans originally used for automotive parts. It's light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside with ingredients geniusly layered under the cheese to prevent the crust from getting soggy.
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3. Chicago Deep-Dish
Chicago deep-dish pizza is arguably the most innovative of all pizza forms. Its crust is like a pie dough that's filled with delicious tomato sauce and toppings layered in.
4. Roman-Style
Roman-style pizza is a distinct Italian-style pizza characterized by its thin crust and oblong shape. It was developed as a street food more fit for takeaway than Neapolitan pizza, which is commonly eaten with a fork and knife.
5. New Haven-Style Apizza
New Haven-style "apizza," so-called because of the way Neapolitan immigrants would pronounce "pizza," is distinct for its minimalist toppings and smoky char from the gas-fired or coal-fired ovens. We love the uniqueness and simplicity of this style of pie.
6. Calabrian-Style
Calabrian-style pizza from Calabria, southern Italy, is similar to Neapolitan, but the toppings are bolder and crazier, which we're all for. The crust is also a little thicker than Neapolitan but still light, striking a perfect balance.
7. Grandma Pie
Grandma pie is the kind of pizza you could make at home. Its crust is thin and slightly chewy, baked in a rectangular pan instead of directly on the hearth. It's unfussy, rustic, comforting, and delicious.
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8. Montreal-Style
Montreal-style pizza is characterized by its thicker crust that still manages to remain crispy, herby tomato sauce. It's topped with a creative mix of local ingredients and abundant cheese, and manages to capture the ethnic diversity of the city itself.
9. Chicago Tavern Style
Chicago knows how to do pizza; the city boasts not one but two successful styles. The tavern style has a crust that is much thinner than average, but unlike St. Louis-style dough, it still contains yeast, so it has much more flavor.
10. Argentinian Fugazzeta
Easily one of the best and most creative riffs on pizza in the world, Argentinian fugazzeta is made up of a stuffed double crust with cheese and toppings layered between. It's like if lasagna and pizza had a beautiful baby.
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