Top Rated Pizza Joints in Ghent That Locals Swear By
Words by
Nathalie Dubois
Where to Find the Top Rated Pizza Joints in Ghent
I have lived in Ghent for over a decade, and if there is one thing I have learned, it is that this city takes its pizza seriously. Not the tourist-trap, wood-fired-with-arugula kind of serious, but the kind of serious where your neighbor will argue with you for twenty minutes about which place on a side street in Sint-Amandsberg has the best dough. The top rated pizza joints in Ghent are not always the ones with the longest lines or the flashiest Instagram pages. They are the places where the owner knows your name by your second visit, where the crust has a specific snap that you start craving on a random Tuesday afternoon, and where the prices will not make you wince when you order a second round. Ghent is a university city, which means the pizza scene has to cater to students eating on a budget just as much as to couples on a Friday night date. That tension keeps everyone honest. The local pizza spots Ghent residents return to again and again are scattered across neighborhoods, from the medieval core to the quieter residential pockets, and each one carries a small piece of the city's character in its walls, its menu, and its regulars.
1. Buitenpoort on Sint-Baafsplein
You will find Buitenpoort just steps from the famous Castle of the Gravensteen, which sounds like it should be a tourist trap, but it is anything but. This place has been serving some of the best casual pizza Ghent has to offer for years, and the locals who work in the nearby offices fill the place every weekday lunch. The dough here is made fresh daily, with a fermentation process that gives it a tangy depth you can actually taste beneath the toppings. I always order the Diavola, which comes with a spicy salami that has real heat, not the mild pepperoni most places try to pass off as spicy. The mozzarella is proper fior di latte, pulled apart by hand before it goes into the oven.
What to Order: The Diavola pizza, and ask for a drizzle of their house chili oil on top. It changes the entire experience.
Best Time: Weekday lunch between 12:00 and 12:30, before the office crowd descends. After 12:45, you are looking at a twenty-minute wait for a table.
The Vibe: Warm, slightly chaotic, with exposed brick and a wood-burning oven you can watch from the bar. The only real complaint I have is that the tables are close together, so do not expect a private conversation. The couple next to you will hear every word.
Local Tip: If you sit at the bar, the staff will sometimes slide you a small taste of whatever new dough or sauce they are experimenting with. This is not advertised, but it happens regularly if you are friendly and ask questions about the menu.
What Tourists Miss: Buitenpoort sources its flour from a mill in East Flanders, and the owner will tell you about it at length if you show even a flicker of interest. This connection to regional agriculture is something Ghent prides itself on as a Fair Trade city, and it runs deeper than most visitors realize.
2. Gustaaf Van der Brugghenstraat and the Pizza Window Culture
There is a small cluster of takeaway pizza windows in the streets around Gustaaf Van der Brugghenstraat in the Rabot neighborhood that most guidebooks completely ignore. This is one of the oldest working-class districts in Ghent, and the pizza windows here serve a community that has lived through decades of change. The Rabot was historically one of the poorer quarters, and even now it has a grittier, more authentic energy than the polished center. The pizza windows here are the definition of cheap pizza Ghent students rely on, with slices going for as little as two to three euros.
What to See: Walk the full length of Gustaaf Van der Brugghenstraat and check each window. The quality varies, but the one on the corner near the small park consistently has the best margherita slice in the area.
Best Time: Late evening, after 9:00 PM, when the windows are at their busiest and the slices come out of the oven at a faster pace, meaning you get them at peak freshness.
The Vibe: No-frills, standing-on-the-sidewalk, folding-your-slice-in-half kind of experience. This is not a sit-down situation. You eat, you walk, you enjoy the neighborhood.
Local Tip: The Rabot neighborhood has undergone significant gentrification in recent years, and some of the older residents have mixed feelings about it. Be respectful, support the long-standing businesses, and do not treat the area like a photo opportunity. The people here have been making this neighborhood home long before it became trendy.
What Tourists Miss: The Rabot is home to one of Ghent's oldest water towers, which you can see from several points along the street. It is a reminder that this neighborhood was once on the literal outskirts of the city, and the pizza windows are part of its ongoing story of reinvention.
3. Pizzeria L'Olivo on Sint-Niklaasstraat
Sint-Niklaasstraat is one of those streets in Ghent that feels like it belongs to a smaller town. It is in the Sint-Amandsberg area, just east of the center, and it has a neighborhood feel that the tourist core completely lacks. Pizzeria L'Olivo sits here quietly, run by an Italian family that has been in Ghent for over twenty years. The menu is short, which is always a good sign. They do not try to be everything to everyone. The pizzas come out of a traditional oven with a char on the crust that tells you the temperature is exactly right. I have been coming here since I first moved to Ghent, and the quality has never dropped.
What to Order: The Quattro Formaggi, which uses gorgonzola, fontina, parmesan, and mozzarella. The balance is perfect, and the gorgonzola does not overpower the other cheeses the way it does at so many other places.
Best Time: Early evening, around 6:00 PM on a weeknight. The restaurant is small, maybe eight tables, and it fills up fast after 7:00 PM on weekends.
The Vibe: Family-run in the truest sense. The owner's mother sometimes works the front of house, and the kitchen is visible from most tables. It feels like eating in someone's home, which is the highest compliment I can give a restaurant.
One Honest Complaint: The wine list is limited and not particularly inspired. If you care about pairing your pizza with a good glass of wine, bring your own. They do not charge a corkage fee, which is remarkably generous.
Local Tip: Sint-Amandsberg is connected to central Ghent by tram line 1, which runs frequently and is free on certain city promotion days. Check the De Lijn app before you go, because catching the tram back after dinner is far easier than walking the full distance, especially in winter when it gets dark by 4:30 PM.
What Tourists Miss: The Italian community in Ghent has a long history, dating back to the post-war labor migration of the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the city's most beloved pizzerias, including L'Olivo, are run by second-generation Italian-Belgian families. This is not just a pizza story, it is an immigration story, and it is woven into the fabric of neighborhoods like Sint-Amandsberg.
4. De Superette on Kortrijksesteenweg
Kortrijksesteenweg is one of the longest and most diverse streets in Ghent, stretching from the center all the way toward the motorway. De Superette sits along this artery, and it is not a traditional pizzeria. It is a bakery-pizzeria hybrid that has become one of the most talked-about local pizza spots Ghent has produced in recent years. The sourdough base here is the star, fermented for over forty-eight hours, and it gives the pizza a complexity that you simply cannot achieve with a standard dough. The toppings change seasonally, which means the menu is never the same two visits in a row. I have had a pizza here with roasted pumpkin and sage that I still think about months later.
What to Order: Whatever the seasonal special is. Trust the kitchen. If it is winter, expect root vegetables and rich cheeses. In summer, you might get fresh tomatoes and basil that taste like they were picked that morning.
Best Time: Saturday lunch, when the full menu is available and the bakery side of the operation is also firing. Grab a sourdough loaf to take home while you are at it.
The Vibe: Bright, modern, with a lot of natural light and communal seating. It attracts a mix of young professionals, families, and the occasional food blogger. The energy is upbeat but not loud.
One Honest Complaint: The communal tables mean you are often sitting next to strangers, and during peak hours the noise level can make conversation difficult. If you want intimacy, this is not the right choice.
Local Tip: Kortrijksesteenweg is sometimes called the "shopping street of Ghent," and for good reason. Before or after your pizza, walk a few hundred meters in either direction and you will find independent boutiques, vintage shops, and some of the best bakeries in the city. It is an entire afternoon's worth of exploration.
What Tourists Miss: De Superette is part of a broader movement in Ghent toward sustainable, locally sourced food. The restaurant is a member of the city's food council initiatives, and their sourdough starter has been maintained for years using flour from regional grain producers. This is pizza with a philosophy behind it, and it connects to Ghent's reputation as one of Europe's leading vegetarian and sustainable food cities.
5. Pizza Hut on Veldstraat (Yes, Really, But Hear Me Out on the Local Alternative)
I need to be honest with you. Veldstraat is Ghent's main shopping street, and yes, there is a Pizza Hut here. No, I am not recommending it. But I am recommending what you should do instead, which is walk two minutes off Veldstraat into the side streets and find the independent pizzerias that the chain has never managed to push out. Veldstraat itself is a study in commercial homogenization, the same brands you would find in any European city, but the streets branching off it, like Jozef Suvéestraat and the lanes around Sint-Michiels, hold the real treasures. The best casual pizza Ghent offers in this part of the city is found in these side streets, where small operators survive on reputation and word of mouth rather than advertising budgets.
What to Do: Walk Veldstraat to orient yourself, then immediately turn onto any side street and look for the small pizzerias with hand-written menus in the window. The one on Jozef Suvéestraat, just south of the main drag, has a calzone that is worth the entire trip.
Best Time: Weekday evenings, when the shopping crowds have thinned and the side-street restaurants are calmer.
The Vibe: These side-street spots tend to be small, with a handful of tables and a focus on takeaway. They are the anti-chain, and that is exactly their appeal.
Local Tip: Veldstraat is pedestrianized, which makes it easy to explore on foot, but the side streets are also bike-friendly. If you rent a city bike, you can cover a lot of ground quickly and hit three or four pizza spots in a single evening. Just be careful with the tram tracks on the main street, because catching a wheel in them is a rite of passage that nobody wants to experience.
What Tourists Miss: The area around Veldstraat was once the commercial heart of medieval Ghent, and the street pattern still reflects the old trade routes. The side streets that seem random to a visitor actually follow the boundaries of medieval guild territories. When you duck into a pizzeria on one of these lanes, you are eating in a space that has been a place of commerce for over five hundred years.
6. Pizzeria Primo Mondo on Gebroeders Vandeveldestraat
Gebroeders Vandeveldestraat is in the Muide neighborhood, which is one of the most underrated areas in Ghent for food. The street itself is quiet and residential, and Pizzera Primo Mondo sits here like a neighborhood secret. The owner is Neapolitan, and he is particular about his ingredients in a way that borders on obsessive. The San Marzano tomatoes are imported directly from Italy, the mozzarella di bufala arrives twice a week, and the basil is grown in pots outside the front door. This is not cheap pizza Ghent students typically seek out, but the prices are still fair for what you get, and the quality is in a different league from most of the competition.
What to Order: The Margherita DOC, which follows the strict Neapolitan guidelines. The crust puffs up in the oven with those characteristic leopard spots, and the center is soft and slightly wet in the way a true Neapolitan pizza should be.
Best Time: Dinner on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when the restaurant is quiet enough that the owner might come out and talk to you about the dough. On weekends, he is too busy to chat.
The Vibe: Intimate and serious. There are maybe ten tables, the lighting is low, and the music is Italian jazz at a volume that allows conversation. This is a place for people who care about pizza as a craft.
One Honest Complaint: The wait times can be long, even on weeknights, because every pizza is made to order and the oven has limited capacity. If you are starving when you arrive, you will suffer.
Local Tip: The Muide neighborhood is close to the old port area, and it has a fascinating industrial history. Before you head to dinner, take a walk along the nearby canals and look at the old warehouse buildings, many of which have been converted into apartments and creative studios. This is Ghent's quieter, more reflective side, and it is worth seeing beyond just the food.
What Tourists Miss: Ghent's port area was once one of the most important commercial hubs in medieval Europe, and the Muide neighborhood grew up around the workers who kept it running. The fact that a Neapolitan pizzeria now thrives here is a small echo of the city's long history as a place where cultures and trades intersect.
7. The Friday Night Pizza Tradition at Patershol
Patershol is the medieval neighborhood behind the Gravensteen, with cobblestone streets and buildings that date back to the Middle Ages. It is beautiful, it is touristy, and it is also where a surprising number of locals go for Friday night pizza. The neighborhood has a cluster of small restaurants and pizzerias that cater to both visitors and residents, and on Friday evenings the streets fill with people walking from bar to bar, stopping for a slice or a full pizza along the way. The energy here on a Friday is unlike anything else in Ghent, and it is one of the best local pizza spots Ghent has for combining food with atmosphere.
What to Do: Start at the top of Patershol, near the Kraanlei, and work your way down toward the Graslei. Stop at whichever pizzeria has a free table and a menu that appeals to you. The quality across the neighborhood is generally high, and the competition keeps everyone on their toes.
Best Time: Friday evening, starting around 7:00 PM. The neighborhood comes alive after dark, with the medieval buildings lit up and the canals reflecting the lights.
The Vibe: Festive, crowded, and a little bit magical. The medieval setting makes even a simple pizza feel like an event. You are eating in streets that have been walked for seven hundred years.
One Honest Complaint: The cobblestones are beautiful but brutal on your feet if you are wearing anything other than flat, sturdy shoes. I have seen more than one person hobbling out of Patershol in heels, and it is not a pretty sight.
Local Tip: Patershol was historically the neighborhood of the tanners and leather workers, and the narrow streets were designed that way partly to keep the sun out and keep the hides from drying too quickly. The architecture is not just pretty, it is functional, and understanding that changes how you see the neighborhood entirely.
What Tourists Miss: Many of the buildings in Patershol were nearly demolished in the early twentieth century before a preservation movement saved them. The neighborhood you walk through on a Friday night pizza crawl almost did not exist, and the fact that it does is a testament to the people of Ghent who fought to keep their history standing.
8. Frituur and Pizza Combos in Sint-Pieters
Sint-Pieters is the neighborhood around Ghent's main train station, and it is not the most glamorous part of the city. But it is one of the most practical, and it is where you will find some of the best cheap pizza Ghent has to offer, often served alongside the Belgian frites that are a religion in their own right. The frituur-pizza combos here are a local institution, the kind of place where you can get a slice of pizza and a cone of frites for under seven euros. The quality is not going to win any awards, but the value is extraordinary, and the atmosphere is pure, unfiltered Ghent.
What to Order: A margherita slice and a small cone of frites with samurai sauce. This is the classic Sint-Pieters combo, and it is perfect after a long day of traveling or studying.
Best Time: Late afternoon, around 4:00 or 5:00 PM, when the after-work crowd mixes with students heading home from the nearby university campus.
The Vibe: No pretension whatsoever. You order at the counter, you eat standing up or at a plastic table, and you leave satisfied. This is fuel, not fine dining, and that is exactly the point.
One Honest Complaint: The area around the station can feel a bit rough after dark, especially on weekend nights. Stick to the well-lit main streets and you will be fine, but do not wander into the quieter side streets if you are unfamiliar with the area.
Local Tip: Sint-Pieters is home to Ghent University's main campus, and the student population gives the neighborhood a constant energy. If you are visiting during term time, the frituur-pizza spots will be packed with students, and that is actually part of the charm. You are eating where the next generation of Ghent's residents eat, and that is as local as it gets.
What Tourists Miss: The train station area was heavily damaged during both World Wars, and much of what you see today is post-war reconstruction. The frituur-pizza shops are part of the neighborhood's ongoing reinvention, and they represent a kind of everyday resilience that is easy to overlook when you are focused on the medieval center.
When to Go and What to Know
Ghent's pizza scene runs on Belgian time, which means most pizzerias open for dinner around 6:00 PM and close around 10:00 PM. Lunch service, where it exists, typically runs from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM. If you show up at 5:00 PM expecting to eat, you will be waiting outside. Cash is still king at many of the smaller local pizza spots Ghent residents frequent, so always have some euros on hand, even though card acceptance has improved significantly in recent years. Tipping is not obligatory in Belgium, service is included, but rounding up or leaving a euro or two is appreciated and common.
The best pizza in Ghent is not always in the center. Some of my favorite meals have been in neighborhoods that require a fifteen-minute tram ride or a twenty-minute walk from the Gravensteen. Ghent is a compact city, and getting to these outlying spots is easy. The tram system is reliable, the bike infrastructure is excellent, and walking is always an option if the weather cooperates, which, I will be honest, it often does not. Bring a rain jacket no matter what season you visit.
If you are here during the Ghent Festival in July, the entire city center transforms, and pizza becomes even more central to the experience. Outdoor stalls pop up, existing pizzerias extend their hours, and the streets become one long, chaotic, wonderful food scene. It is the single best time to eat pizza in Ghent, and I say that as someone who has done it dozens of times.
Finally, do not be afraid to ask locals where they eat. Ghent residents are proud of their city and happy to share recommendations. The worst that happens is you get a passionate fifteen-minute argument about dough fermentation. The best that happens is you find your new favorite place.
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