Best Pizza Places in Washington DC: Where to Go for a Proper Slice
Words by
Emma Johnson
When you start asking locals about the best pizza places in Washington DC, you quickly learn that nobody agrees on a single winner. I have spent more than a summer's worth of evenings working my way through every neighborhood from Barracks Row to Columbia Heights, and what I can tell you with certainty is that this city has a pizza scene worth obsessing over. It is not New York, it is not Chicago, it is something grittier and more interesting that borrows from both without copying either. The top pizza restaurants Washington DC feeds every kind of craving, whether you want a cracker-thin jumbo slice at 2 a.m. or a delicate Neapolitan pie made in a wood-fired oven that cost more than a used car.
What follows is the Washington DC pizza guide I wish someone had handed me the first time I landed here. Every spot on this list I have eaten at personally, some of them a dozen times over, and I can tell you not just what to order but when to show up, what to avoid, and the little details that separate a regular from a tourist. Grab a napkin and get comfortable, because this city takes its pizza seriously even if it does not always take itself seriously. That is the combination that makes eating here so good.
2 Amys: The Neapolitan Standard on Macomb Street
If you want to understand why Washington DC pizza even matters as a conversation topic, you start at 2 Amys on Macomb Street NW in Cleveland Park. This place has been serving certified Neapolitan pizza since 2005, years before the wood-fired trend swept through the rest of the city. I went last Tuesday around 6 p.m. for the first time in a few months and the place was already filling up, which is a scene that plays out every single night. They hold the VPN (Verace Pizza Napoletana) certification, which means the dough, the tomatoes, the mozzarella, and even the oven are held to strict standards from an Italian governing body. That sounds snobby until you see the staff stretching dough to order and sliding pies into the 900-degree dome oven like it is a daily ritual, because it is.
The Margherita DOC is the pie to get here. It arrives soft and slightly charred at the edges with that signature leopard spotting on the cornicione, the crust puffed up like a pillow and the center so thin it almost folds on itself. They use San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte, and the basil goes on after baking so it stays green and fragrant. I sat at the bar near the oven last week and watched them turn out about thirty pies in twenty minutes during the early dinner rush. Each one looked identical, which is a kind of precision you do not expect from a neighborhood restaurant that has been around this long. They also serve a white pizza with truffle oil and fontina that locals order constantly, though they will never post about it on social media because they do not want the secret getting out.
2 Amys is where a lot of DC food critics quietly go when they want a pizza they can take seriously without the pretension of a fine dining tasting menu. The place sits on a quiet residential stretch of Macomb Street that tourists never wander into, which means the crowd is almost entirely neighborhood regulars and the occasional suburban couple who found it on a recommendation. The wine list leans Italian and reasonably priced, and they have a small selection of craft beers on draft that most people overlook. Most people do not know that the kitchen does a Saturday lunch special with a reduced slice price, though the staff will only mention it if you ask. I always arrive before 5:30 p.m. on weeknights to avoid the 45-minute wait that starts forming around 6:15.
Local Insider Tip: Sit at the open kitchen counter facing the oven and ask the pizzaiolo which pie just came out of the second rotation, not the first. The second batch always has a slightly more developed crust because the oven heat has fully saturated the stone floor after the initial dinner rush.
Jumbo Slice on Pennsylvania Avenue SE: The Late-Night Rite of Passage
No Washington DC pizza guide is complete without talking about the jumbo slice phenomenon on Pennsylvania Avenue SE in Capitol Hill, and everyone knows this. But what most visitors do not realize is that the jumbo slice culture here is a kind of living history of the city's late-night social life. Places like Pizza Mart and Jumbo Slice (the restaurant that literally named itself after the tradition) have been serving enormous, floppy, foldable slices to the post-bar crowd for decades. I went to Pizza Mart on a Saturday night around 1:30 a.m. last month, and the scene outside was exactly what you have probably seen in photos, a flood of people stumbling out of the nearby bars and standing on the sidewalk eating paper-thin pepperoni the size of a forearm.
The jumbo slice here is not gourmet. It is not supposed to be. It is a 28-inch pizza cut into five or six pieces, each one large enough to cover a dinner plate, and the cheese stretches in long strings that tangle your wrist if you are not careful. I had a pepperoni and a plain cheese side by side, standing outside because the interior is just a narrow fluorescent-lit corridor with no seating to speak of. The pepperoni had that classic greasy slight crunch on the edges, and the cheese slice had a saltiness that hits different at 1 a.m. after a few beers at the Hawk n Dove down the block. This is pizza as function, as fuel, as the thing that keeps you from waking up hungry. DC's jumbo slice culture grew out of the city's bar scene in the 1990s and early 2000s, and it has become one of the few things that connects the Hill's staffers, service workers, and tourists into a single messy, cheese-dripping community at the end of the night.
Locals will argue endlessly about which jumbo slice spot is best, but I keep coming back to Pizza Mart because the consistency is remarkable given the volume. They pump out hundreds of slices on weekend nights and they somehow still come out hot and properly melted. The outdoor queue gets uncomfortably long after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, sometimes stretching 20 minutes, and the lighting on the sidewalk is poor enough that you really should watch your step. I recommend going between 11:30 and midnight on weeknights to beat the worst of the crowd while still getting the full late-night atmosphere. Most people do not know that you can also order whole pies here for pickup during the day, and the lunch crowd on Pennsylvania Ave gets a quieter, more normal slice experience that almost nobody talks about.
Local Insider Tip: Bring cash. Several of the jumbo slice places near Eastern Market still prefer it, and the ATM on the block charges a $3 fee that will make a $4 slice feel less of a bargain.
We The Pizza on Capitol Hill: The Mainstream Favorite That Delivers
We The Pizza sits on 2nd Street NE on Capitol Hill, right near the main drag that runs past Eastern Market, and it is the kind of place that Washingtonians will recommend without hesitation because it nearly always satisfies. I have eaten here at least fifteen times across multiple seasons, and what keeps me going back is not flash or novelty but a steady reliability that this city needs. The menu stretches well beyond pizza with salads, wings, and pasta, but the pies are the reason to come. I had the "Hill Destroyer" last week, which comes loaded with meatballs, ricotta, and mozzarella on a hand-tossed crust that is thin enough to fold but sturdy enough to hold the weight. It is a heavy slice, almost too loaded, but that is kind of the point.
This place was founded by Spike Mendelsohn, the chef and restaurateur who has become one of DC's most visible food personalities through his television appearances and his restaurant empire. That celebrity connection brings in a tourist crowd, but the restaurant has earned its local following through sheer consistency and a location that is convenient to both the Eastern Market crowd and the residents of the Hill's row house neighborhoods. The dining room is bright and open with a lot of red and white decor, and the energy is more casual chain restaurant than neighborhood pizzeria, though the food quality is well above what that description implies. They do a solid Caesar salad that pairs surprisingly well with the pizza if you want to round out the meal.
I always come midweek around 1:30 p.m. for lunch when the Hill's office workers have thinned out but the kitchen is still running at full speed. The wait times during peak lunch (noon to 1 p.m.) can stretch to 30 minutes on Tuesdays through Thursdays, and the restaurant fills up with Hill staffers who have exactly one hour and nowhere else to go. On weekends, the brunch crowd arrives around 11 a.m. and the noise level climbs fast, which is something to be aware of if you want a calmer meal. One detail most visitors would not know: the outdoor patio in the back, accessible through a side door, is almost empty during early evening hours even when the main dining room is packed, and it is a much better spot to eat when the weather cooperates. The Wi-Fi signal near the back patio is also noticeably weak, which can be either a feature or a bug depending on your mood.
Local Insider Tip: If you want a more interesting pie than the standard menu, ask if they have the daily special scribbled on the whiteboard near the register. The staff will not always mention it to tables because it changes frequently, but the specials often include combinations that never made the permanent menu and they rotate out before most people even know they exist.
Comet Ping Pong in Adams Morgan: The Backroom Pizza Experience
Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Avenue NW in Adams Morgan is the kind of restaurant that feels like it exists slightly outside of time. I walked in last Thursday evening and the scene inside, ping pong tables in the back room, exposed brick, checkered floors, people drinking Belgian-style ales while a Dinosaur Jr. track played over the speakers, felt no different from what I imagine it was like in 2006 when it first opened. The pizza here is solid New York inspired thin crust with a good char on the bottom and toppings that lean into creative territory without going off the rails. I had the "Time Capsule" which comes topped with roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, mozzarella, and a drizzle of herb oil that gave it a rounded, slightly sweet flavor.
What makes Comet special in the context of Washington DC pizza is the atmosphere, which serves as a reminder that Adams Morgan has been the city's music and nightlife neighborhood for decades. The restaurant sits on a stretch of Connecticut Avenue that used to be rougher and rowdier during the neighborhood's heyday in the 1990s, and the back room where the ping pong tables live feels like a dive bar that happened to get a kitchen installed. The room fills up fast on weekends, especially when they host live music nights, and the combination of ping pong and pizza creates a social energy that most restaurants in DC cannot replicate. I have played against strangers at the back tables who turned out to be grad students from American University, off duty bartenders from the bar next door, and once a city council member whose name I recognized from the news.
The best time to go is early evening on a weeknight before 7 p.m., when you can snag a ping pong table without抢占等待太久. On weekends, the wait for a table can push past an hour after 8 p.m., and the noise level in the back room makes actual conversation nearly impossible. One thing most people do not know is that the kitchen opens at 5 p.m. daily, but the bar opens at 4 p.m., so you can get a drink and settle in before the food rush starts. The waitress-to-table ratio on weekend nights also seems to drop noticeably, and I have waited 20 minutes for a refill during the Saturday peak, which is the one consistent complaint I have about the place.
Local Insider Tip: Grab a seat on the patio along Connecticut Avenue in the early evening if the weather is decent, and you will get a better meal experience than fighting for back room space. The patio seats about 15 people and fills up slowly, plus you can watch the Adams Morgan foot traffic, which is its own form of entertainment.
Menomale on the Hill: Naples in a DC Row House
Menomale sits on Pennsylvania Avenue SE just a block or two from Eastern Market in Capitol Hill, and it is the closest thing DC has to a direct transplant from Naples. I walked in on a Wednesday evening about three weeks ago and the smell of the wood-fired oven hit me before I even cleared the front door. The restaurant occupies a narrow row house space that feels almost residential from the street, and the interior is tight, maybe 30 seats, with the blazing oven visible from every angle. The pizza chef sources ingredients with obsessive care, using Caputo flour, San Marzano DOP tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella that arrives fresh from Italy. The Diavola with spicy salami is the signature pie, and it arrived with that beautiful molten center and a crust that had more structure and chew than 2 Amys, a slightly different philosophy of Neapolitan pizza that gives it more body.
Menomale opened in 2014 and quickly earned a following among DC's Italian expats and food obsessed locals. The restaurant is named after a Neapolitan slang term, and the menu includes several dishes beyond pizza that reflect regional Italian cooking, like a fried pizza called "pizza fritta" that is one of the best things on the menu and almost nobody outside the regular crowd orders. They also produce their own limoncello in-house, which they will offer you after dinner if you linger long enough and the owner is on the floor. The owner, who I have seen working the room on multiple visits, tends to remember faces and preferences, which gives the place a warmth that bigger restaurants lack. The space is small enough that you will likely hear the conversations at the tables next to you, and on one visit I overheard a couple discussing DC zoning policy while eating margherita pizza, which is about as Washington DC as it gets.
I would recommend going on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening between 5:30 and 6 p30 p.m., when the restaurant is just getting going and you can secure a table without a wait. Friday and Saturday nights are packed with a mix of Capitol Hill couples and food tourists, and the wait can stretch to an hour or more. The overhead clearance in the front dining area is also noticeably low, so anyone over six feet tall should be prepared to duck slightly near the entrance archway. What most visitors do not know is that Menomale occasionally offers a pizza-making class on weekend mornings that you have to book weeks in advance through their website, and it includes lunch and wine, which is an experience worth planning ahead for.
Local Insider Tip: Order the pizza fritta as a starter before your main pie. It is essentially a fried pocket of pizza dough stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, and it will ruin all other fried foods for you if you are not prepared. Most first time visitors skip it entirely because it is listed under appetizers and they do not realize it is the thing regulars get every single visit.
All Purpose Pizza in Petworth: Where Pizza Meets the Dinner Party
All Purpose Pizza sits on Upshur Street NW in Petworth, a neighborhood in upper Northwest DC that has transformed over the past decade from a quiet residential area into one of the city's most interesting dining corridors. I first visited about a year ago on a friend's recommendation, and I have returned at least six times since. The pizzas here are described as New York-style, but they are thinner and more delicate than what you would find on a Manhattan street corner, with a nice crackle on the bottom and a slightly tangy housemade dough. I had the pepperoni last visit and the cup-and-char pepperoni curled into little pools of rendered fat that gave each bite a satisfying crunch and richness.
All Purpose is also notable for cannoli as good as any I have had in the city, and the dessert menu is not an afterthought the way it is at most pizza places. The restaurant occupies a long narrow space that fills up fast, and the energy leans toward neighborhood dinner party more than rowdy night out. It sits on a small commercial strip along Upshur Street that is becoming one of the most exciting food blocks in upper Northwest DC, and the crowd reflects the neighborhood's ongoing gentrification mix of young families, longtime residents, and the food adventurous types who follow Washingtonian magazine's restaurant coverage. They do natural wines by the glass, which is a trend that has spread across DC's restaurant scene in recent years, and the wine list here is short but well curated for the kind of food they serve.
The sweet spot for visiting is midweek dinner between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. On weekends, the wait starts building by 6:30 p.m. and the narrow space gets tight and loud quickly. One thing most visitors do not know is that they sell frozen versions of their pizzas at the counter for take-home, and reheating one in a home oven at 450 degrees for about eight minutes produces a result that is surprisingly close to the fresh version. The menu also rotates a seasonal pizza that changes monthly, and I have had versions that included squash blossoms in spring and freshly pulled pork in fall, so it is always worth asking what is new. The parking situation in Petworth is also rough on weekend evenings, and even the side streets around Upshur fill up fast.
Local Insider Tip: Ask for the hot honey on the side with any pepperoni or spicy pie. They keep a bottle of chili-infused honey behind the counter and will bring it out if you ask. It is not listed on the menu, but the staff knows about it and regulars use it on almost everything.
Wiseguyer in U Street: The Spiritual Home of DC Pizza Culture
There is a strong case that the best pizza places in Washington DC conversation starts with Pizzeria Paradiso, specifically the original location on P Street NW in Dupont Circle, and its newer U Street location that operates under a similar philosophy. But for my money, the U Street location on V Street NW captures the spirit of this city's wood-fired pizza movement better than anywhere else. I sat at the bar last Friday and watched them turn out Margheritas with that gorgeous leopard-spotted crust, each one slightly different because the hand shaping means no two pies are truly identical. They use a wood-fired oven that dominates the back of the restaurant and the entire kitchen opens onto the dining room, so you watch every step of the process.
Pizzeria Paradiso was founded in 1991 by Ruth Gresser, who recognized that DC's dining scene had a gap where serious pizza should be. At a time when most of the city was eating delivery chains and frozen pies, she opened a restaurant that treated Neapolitan pizza as a craft. The Dupont location set the standard, and the U Street location on V Street carries that legacy forward. The menu expanded over the years to include calzones, salads, and small plates, but the pizza remains the reason to come. I always order the Marinara, which is just dough, tomato, garlic, and oregano with no cheese, and it forces you to appreciate the quality of the base ingredients. The dough has a slight tang from the long fermentation, and the tomato sauce is bright and fresh.
The U Street location benefits from being on one of DC's most historically significant corridors. U Street was known as "Black Broadway" in the early and mid-20th century, a center of African American culture and music, and the neighborhood's identity today is a complicated mix of that heritage and the rapid development that has reshaped the street over the past two decades. Eating pizza here feels connected to that history in a small way because the restaurant draws from the same tradition of craft and community that the old jazz clubs embodied. I recommend arriving before 5:30 p.m. on any night to beat the dinner rush. The bar seats fill up first and they are the best spots in the house because you face the oven directly. On weekends, the backup starts around 6:15 p.m. and does not let up until after 9 p.m. One thing most people do not know is that the U Street location serves a dipping sauce for the crust edges that is a housemade rosemary-garlic oil, and you have to ask for it because it is not on the table as a matter of course.
Local Insider Tip: The Dupont location has a secret basement bar called the Birreria that serves the same pizzas along with an enormous beer selection in a candlelit underground space that most first time visitors never find. It is one of the best kept secrets in DC and worth the trip on its own.
Grimaldi's Pizzeria on M Street: Coal-Fired DC in the Heart of Georgetown
Grimaldi's on M Street NW in Georgetown is the place I take out of town visitors who say they miss New York pizza because I know the slice will at least nod in that direction. I went last Saturday afternoon and the M Street crowd, tourists shopping at the Nike store, Georgetown students escaping the dorms, couples walking the C and O Canal towpath, poured through the door in a steady stream. The coal-fired oven is the centerpiece of the restaurant, a massive brick structure that you can see from the street, and it produces a distinctly different flavor than the wood-fired ovens you find at the Neapolitan places. The char is more aggressive, the smoke is earthier, and the cheese gets a slightly browned quality that is deeply satisfying.
Grimaldi's is a Brooklyn original that expanded to DC, and some purists will tell you that chain expansion ruins the magic. I understand that argument, but what I have found is that the Georgetown location delivers a product that is consistent and genuinely good, even if it lacks the soul of a family owned neighborhood spot. The classic coal oven pie with fresh mozzarella and basil is the way to go here. I skipped the specialty toppings and just got a plain large, and it arrived with that characteristic coal-oven char, big leopard spots on the bottom, and a crust that was thin without being crispy. The texture is between crackery and chewy in a way that hits the sweet spot for New York-style purists. They also do a white pizza with garlic and ricota that is better than it has any right to be.
Georgetown gives this location a context that makes it more than just a pizza chain branch. The neighborhood is DC's oldest, dating back to the mid-18th century, and the commercial corridor along M Street mixes colonial-era row houses with fashion boutiques and chain stores in a way that feels simultaneously historic and commercialized. Eating Grimaldi's here is a reminder that DC is not just a government city but a real urban neighborhood with the same kinds of shopping and eating strips you would find in any American downtown. I recommend going for a late lunch around 2 p.m. after the noon rush clears out. On weekends, the restaurant is at capacity from about 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and then again from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. The Georgetown waterfront is just a short walk away and makes a good pre or post-meal stroll along the Potomac.
Local Insider Tip: Order your pie "well done" when you place the order. The coal oven cooks fast, and the default setting under-cooks the bottom crust slightly for my taste. The extra 90 seconds makes a difference, turning a good pizza into a great one, and the kitchen will not question the request.
When to Go and What to Know About Eating Pizza in Washington DC
If your goal is to eat as much good pizza in DC as possible in a short window, I would suggest building your own mini tour across two or three days. Start with a Neapolitan spot like 2 Amys or Menomale for dinner one evening, hit the jumbo slice corridor near Eastern Market late one night for the full experience, and then do a casual lunch at All Purpose or We The Pizza during the middle of the week when the crowds are at their thinnest. The top pizza restaurants Washington DC offers are spread across multiple neighborhoods, and you will get a better feel for the city itself by eating your way through them rather than picking one place and staying put.
A few practical notes worth mentioning. Where to eat pizza Washington DC depends on what kind of experience you want, so think about whether you care more about the atmosphere or the food. Busier areas like Georgetown, U Street, and the Penn Ave SE corridor are more touristy and the waits reflect that, while Petworth, Adams Morgan, and Cleveland Park give you more breathing room. Most of these places have some form of outdoor seating, but DC's humidity from June through early September makes outdoor dining genuinely uncomfortable during the middle of the day, and I would advise reserving patio seating for early morning or evening. The Metro is your best bet for getting between neighborhoods if you are not driving, and the Red Line (Dupont), Green and Yellow Lines (U Street, Petworth), Blue and Orange Lines (Eastern Market), and Foggy Bottom stop (Georgetown, with a walk or bus) will get you close to most of the spots on this list. Parking in any of these neighborhoods on a weekend evening is an exercise in frustration, and I would not recommend it.
Also keep in mind that many of the smaller independent pizzerias close one day per week, often Monday or Tuesday, so check the website before you plan a specific visit. Most places now take reservations through online systems like Resy or OpenTable, but the jumbo slice spots and smaller slice shops are strictly walk in. Prices vary widely, from $3 to $5 for a jumbo slice on Penn Ave to $16 to $22 for a whole Neapolitan pie depending on toppings. Tipping remains customary at sit-down spots, and the standard 20 percent expectation applies here just as it would at any DC restaurant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Washington DC expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.
A mid-tier daily budget for Washington, DC runs $200-$300 for one person. That includes a hotel in the $150-$220 range, two restaurant meals averaging $35-$50 each including tip, Metro fare at roughly $10, and admission costs for paid attractions. The major museums and the National Mall are free, which offsets dining and lodging costs significantly. Lunch at a casual pizza spot or sandwich shop can be done for $12-$18, helping bring the daily total down on days when you skip a sit-down dinner.
Are there any specific dress codes or cultural etiquettes to keep in mind when visiting local spots in Washington DC?
Most pizza restaurants in Washington DC are casual and have no dress code beyond basic neatness. Fine dining spots in Penn Quarter and Downtown may expect business casual after 5 p.m. The only spots that sometimes enforce a dress code are upscale hotel restaurants and a handful of private clubs in Georgetown and Dupont. Cultural etiquette to keep in mind includes tipping 18-20% at sit-down restaurants, and DC diners tend to expect prompt seating and quick bill delivery during weekday lunch hours when Hill staffers and government workers are on tight schedules.
How easy is it to find pure vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based dining options in Washington DC?
Vegetarian and vegan options are widely available across Washington DC pizza spots. Nearly every pizzeria on this list serves a Margherita or marinara pie that is naturally vegan, and several offer dedicated vegan pies with plant-based cheese. The neighborhoods with the highest concentration of plant-based options include Adams Morgan, U Street, Columbia Heights, and Shaw, where vegan-specific restaurants outnumber the national average. For strictly vegan menus, spots in these areas offer full plant-based menus beyond pizza, so finding options is not a challenge in most parts of the city.
What is the one must-try local specialty food or drink that Washington DC is famous for?
The must-try local specialty specific to Washington DC is the half-smoke, a smoked beef-and-pork sausage that is spicier and coarser than a standard hot dog, served on a soft bun with chili, onions, and mustard. Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street NW is the most iconic spot and has been serving them since 1958. The food is deeply connected to DC's African American history and the U Street corridor's cultural legacy. Among drinks, DC is increasingly known for its craft beer scene, with DC Brau (the city's first production brewery since Prohibition) and several other local breweries producing lagers and IPAs that pair naturally with pizza.
Is the tap water in Washington DC safe to drink, or should travelers strictly rely on filtered water options?
Washington DC tap water is safe to drink and is regularly tested and treated by DC Water, the local utility. The water meets or exceeds all EPA standards. Some DC residents use carbon faucet filters to reduce chlorine taste, but this is a preference not a safety requirement. The one historical exception affected homes with lead service pipes, and DC Water maintains a public database of known lead lines while offering free water testing kits. For travelers in hotels and newer buildings, the tap water is safe without any filtration.
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