Ask anyone who grew up here: New Jersey is a serious pizza state, and I mean nationally, not "good for the suburbs." We have our own regional styles, decades-old family shops, and a bar-pie tradition you won't find done this well anywhere else.
I work with buyers and sellers across twelve NJ counties, and they ask me all the time what a neighborhood is really like. Pizza is a surprisingly honest answer. So here's my guide to New Jersey pizza: the three styles first, then the spots worth the drive, organized by the regions I know best. Each place links to its map so you can check hours and get directions.
A note: This isn't a definitive ranking. It's one REALTOR®'s opinionated love letter to NJ pizza. Everyone here has a spot they'll defend to the death, and you're welcome to defend yours. Hours and ownership change, so confirm before you drive.
Know the three styles
- Bar pie (tavern style) is a small, thin, crispy pie with the cheese pushed all the way to the edge and no crust border, cut into squares or wedges. It was born in North Jersey taverns, and it's crackly, greasy in the best way, and hard to stop eating.
- Trenton tomato pie is a Mercer County institution that flips the order of assembly: cheese first, crushed tomatoes on top. You get a brighter, more tomato-forward pie, made the same way here for over a century.
- Wood-fired (Neapolitan) pizza is the modern wave, with a blistered, charred crust, San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. Jersey City and the shore do it exceptionally well.
Once you can taste the difference, you'll start picking your pizza by mood as well as by what's closest.
Hudson County: the modern wave
In Hudson County, meaning Jersey City and Hoboken, the pizza to seek out is the modern wood-fired style.
- Razza (Jersey City) is the headliner. Chef Dan Richer's wood-fired, naturally leavened pies earned a rare three-star review from The New York Times and a "best in North America" nod from 50 Top Pizza. People take the PATH out of Manhattan to eat here. Expect a wait; it's worth it.
North Jersey: bar-pie country
If bar pie has a homeland, it's the taverns of Bergen, Essex, Union, and Morris counties.
- Star Tavern (Orange, Essex) makes thin, crispy bar pies with the cheese caramelized right to the lacy, salty edge. This is the pie North Jersey argues about most.
- Kinchley's Tavern (Ramsey, Bergen) is a decades-old tavern near the New York border, known for its thin-crust bar pies and a line out the door on Friday nights.
- Reservoir Tavern (Boonton, Morris) is a long-running, old-school destination, the kind of place people drive three towns over for.
- Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza (Elizabeth, Union) bakes in coal and brick ovens, and you can order pies made in the style of different decades.
Go in hungry, order more than you think you need (bar pies are small), and don't ask for a fork.
Central Jersey: Trenton tomato pie
Yes, Central Jersey exists, and it gave us the Trenton tomato pie.
Mercer County, in and around Trenton and Robbinsville, is the home of this cheese-first, tomatoes-on-top style, and two family names define it:
- DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies (Robbinsville) makes the Trenton tomato pie in its best-known form, from a family that has been making tomato pies in Trenton since 1936.
- Papa's Tomato Pies (Robbinsville) is one of the oldest continuously family-run pizzerias in the country, serving since the early 1900s.
A proper tomato pie is a piece of American food history, and it's worth the drive down Route 130 if you've never had one. Middlesex and Somerset counties round out the region with solid neighborhood shops in every style.
The Jersey Shore: boardwalk and beyond
Down the shore in Monmouth and Ocean counties, pizza splits into two happy camps: the foldable boardwalk slice, and destination spots worth planning around.
- Pete & Elda's / Carmen's (Neptune City, Monmouth) is a shore classic, with paper-thin, ultra-crispy bar pies that regulars will tell you are the best thin crust anywhere. Bring an appetite, because the pies are enormous.
- Porta (Asbury Park, Monmouth) brings modern wood-fired Neapolitan pizza to the shore in a big, lively space.
A shore town's pizza tells you a lot about it. The year-round spots that survive the off-season are almost always the good ones.
South Jersey
Burlington County and the rest of South Jersey lean toward Philadelphia, and the pizza shifts with it, from tomato pies to classic corner-shop slices.
- Tacconelli's Pizzeria (Maple Shade, Burlington) is the New Jersey outpost of a Philadelphia family pizzeria that dates to 1946. The Maple Shade location opened in 2003, and the draw is the same thin, crispy pie.
- Milanese Pizza (Riverton, Burlington) is a Broad Street neighborhood shop. Beyond the plain cheese pie, it makes a pan-baked square boardwalk pizza, a little of the shore in a river town.
If you're house-hunting in the southern part of the state, eat your way through a few towns and taste the difference.
Why a REALTOR® is telling you about pizza
Where you live shapes your everyday life more than the square footage does. The corner pizzeria, the tavern with the bar pie, the tomato-pie place your neighbors swear by: those are what make a house feel like your town.
When I work with buyers, we talk about commute and schools and price, of course. We also talk about what makes a neighborhood feel like home, and in New Jersey that conversation almost always includes pizza. Explore the market by county to see what a neighborhood is like, pizza and all.
Related reading
- The Best Summer Spots in New Jersey: where to spend the season
- Best NJ Towns for an NYC Commute
- Types of Homes in New Jersey
