Eater put Columbus on its list of America’s great pizza cities in March 2026, and the case rested on the hometown style: thin crust, sweet sauce, provolone to the edge, cut into squares. The city also has real New York slices, wood-fired Neapolitan pies, Detroit squares and two spots doing serious deep dish.
This guide covers 26 pizzerias across every style. Prices are the ones posted on each menu at the time and will drift. National chains were left off. Columbus-born chains like Massey’s and Donatos count, and the shops that started them are the ones listed. A few of them also make heart-shaped pizzas every February.
| Pizzeria | Style | Where | Order this |
| Massey’s Pizza | Columbus-style | Whitehall | Large pepperoni |
| TAT Ristorante di Famiglia | Columbus-style | East Side | The Godfather |
| Plank’s Cafe & Pizzeria | Columbus-style | Parsons Ave. | Large one-topping |
| Tommy’s Pizza | Columbus-style | Upper Arlington | All-the-Way |
| Gatto’s Pizza | Columbus-style | Clintonville | Large pepperoni |
| Rubino’s Pizza | Columbus-style | Bexley | Large pepperoni, cash only |
| Terita’s Pizza | Columbus-style | North Linden | Terita’s Special |
| The Pizza House | Columbus-style | North Side | All The Way |
| Minelli’s Pizza | Columbus-style | West Side | Cheese, 16-inch |
| Bexley Pizza Plus | Columbus-style | Bexley | The Ultimate |
| Hounddog’s Pizza | Columbus-style | Old North | Any square-cut pie |
| JT’s Pizza & Pub | Columbus-style | Linworth | The JT’s, plus wings |
| Aracri Pizzeria | New York | Downtown | Margherita |
| East Coast Pizzeria | New York | Beechwold | 16-inch cheese |
| Borgata Pizza Cafe | New York | Worthington | 20-inch Borgata Special |
| Sexton’s Pizza | New York | Gahanna | Spicy pepperoni |
| Harvest Pizzeria | Wood-fired | Clintonville | Margherita |
| Paulie Gee’s Short North | Wood-fired | Short North | Hellboy |
| GoreMade Pizza | Wood-fired | Italian Village | Chef’s Choice |
| Natalie’s Grandview | Pizza and live music | Grandview | Margherita |
| Pizza Nerds | Detroit | Gahanna | The Mario, thick |
| Meister’s Bar | Deep dish | Fifth by Northwest | Deep dish pepperoni |
| Yellow Brick Pizza | Deep dish | Franklinton | Tristano’s stuffed pizza |
| Adriatico’s | Sicilian | Campus | The Buckeye |
| Papa Giorgio’s | Sicilian | Northwest Columbus | Sicilian pan pizza |
| Mikey’s Late Night Slice | By the slice | Short North | Plain-Ass Pepperoni |
Most of the 26 sit in or close to the city core, and the far South and West sides are thin. Here’s the list by area, each name linked to its entry below.
Columbus-style pizza starts with dough rolled thin and run over with a roller docker so it can’t bubble in the oven. It bakes on a stone deck, usually dusted with cornmeal, and comes out crisp. The sauce runs sweet. The cheese is a provolone blend that goes all the way to the edge, and the pepperoni goes with it. Then the whole thing gets cut into squares, or something close to squares.
TAT Ristorante was serving pizza as an appetizer in 1929. Two decades later Jimmy Massey and Romeo Sirij opened Romeo’s, the city’s first proper pizzeria, and Massey had baked in Chicago, where the tavern cut was catching on. That’s the family tree. Massey’s now claims 155 pepperoni slices on a large pie. Donatos, the Columbus-born chain, fits 100. Many shops buy that pepperoni from Ezzo Sausage Co., another Columbus family business, and it cups and chars in the heat. A large pie runs about $20, which is a big part of why the style has survived. Eater’s March 2026 piece made the same point.
Jimmy Massey co-founded Romeo’s, then opened Massey’s a few years later, and the Whitehall shop on East Main is the one that carries the name. The rectangles Massey saw in Chicago bars are the ones on the tray today. Eater’s count of 155 pepperoni slices per large is the number people quote, and it holds up. Massey’s has franchised out to a dozen locations across central Ohio, plus one in South Carolina, and Jimmy Massey later sold the company to Guido Casa, so it’s still a family business, just a different family. Whitehall is the original.
Where: 4464 E. Main St., Whitehall
Order: a large pepperoni, no substitutions
The Corrova family has run TAT since 1929, and the restaurant claims the first pizza served in Columbus. The name stands for Transcontinental Air Transport, the coast-to-coast air and rail route that started in 1928 and came through Port Columbus. The pizza is a thin, square-cut pie in the old style, and The Godfather stacks pepperoni, mushroom, sausage, onion, green pepper, hot pepper and black olive on it. It’s closed Monday and Tuesday, and on weekends it doesn’t open until 3 p.m.
Where: 1210 S. James Rd., Columbus
Order: The Godfather
Plank’s has been on Parsons Avenue since 1939, which makes it the oldest pizzeria on this list by a decade. It’s a tavern first, with a breakfast menu and 14 TVs. A large cheese or one-topping pie is $18. The crust is thin and the sauce leans sweet.
Where: 743 Parsons Ave., Columbus
Order: a large one-topping and a beer
Tommy’s opened in 1952 and describes its own crust as flaking like a cracker, which is accurate. Every pie is cut in squares unless a customer asks otherwise. A large cheese is $17.50, and the All-the-Way pizza with pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, green pepper and onion is the house order. The campus shop on Lane Avenue closed in June 2024 after 45 years. The Upper Arlington shop farther west on Lane and the Dublin location on West Dublin-Granville Road carry on.
Where: 1350 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington (also 4279 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., Dublin)
Order: the All-the-Way
Brothers Joe and Jimmy Gatto opened the first Gatto’s on North High Street in Clintonville in 1952, using family recipes for the dough, the sauce, the meatballs and the Italian sausage. The shop now sits on Indianola Avenue. A large 15-inch cheese is $17 and toppings add $2 apiece. In August 2026 Gatto’s opened a second counter inside Hoof Hearted Brewing on East Fifth Avenue, so the pizza now comes with a hazy IPA if that’s the plan.
Where: 3420 Indianola Ave., Columbus (also 26 E. Fifth Ave., inside Hoof Hearted)
Order: a large pepperoni
Rubino’s has been a Bexley fixture since 1954 and has changed almost nothing. It’s cash only, and the drinks are water or canned soda. There’s no online ordering, so carryout means calling the shop. The pizza is a crunchy, very thin crust cut in squares, and a large cheese is $16. It’s evenings only, Wednesday through Sunday, so a Monday craving has to wait.
Where: 2643 E. Main St., Bexley
Order: a large pepperoni, and bring cash
Gus Iannarino opened Terita’s in 1959 and his son Tom runs it now with a recipe that hasn’t changed much. Pizza Connoisseurs of Columbus named it Central Ohio’s Pizza of the Year in 2018, 2019 and 2022. The sausage is made in house, and the Terita’s Special piles it on with pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers and onions. Terita’s says customers drive in from all over Ohio to pick up a pie, and it’s worth the drive.
Where: 3905 Cleveland Ave., Columbus
Order: the Terita’s Special
The Pizza House opened in 1961, and this has been its year. It won 97.1 The Fan’s Pizza Madness bracket in March, and in October the Pizza Connoisseurs of Columbus voted it Pizza Shop of the Year for the second year running. The pie is a thin Columbus-style crust with provolone, and the All The Way, which the menu calls the pizza that started it all, is pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushroom, onion and green pepper. A 14-inch large cheese is $15.50 and the 14-inch All The Way is $24.25. It opens at 3 p.m. on Sundays.
Where: 747 E. Lincoln Ave., Columbus
Order: the All The Way
Minelli’s was established in 1967 by Guy Ferrelli and Bob Minshall on the West Side. Jeff Ferrelli inherited the shop his dad opened, and his twin daughters joined the business after graduating from Ohio State. The pizza is a thin Columbus-style pie, and the 16-inch cheese is the benchmark. Saturday hours start at 4 p.m., unlike the rest of the week.
Where: 1189 Wilson Rd., Columbus
Order: a 16-inch cheese, then add pepperoni next time
A few doors down Main Street from Rubino’s, Bexley Pizza Plus has been serving Bexley since 1980. The crust is rolled to a medium thickness, crunchy on the bottom and soft in the middle. Co-owner Brad Rocco took first place for Best Traditional Pizza at the 2014 International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas with the Ultimate, a pepperoni and mushroom pie with mini pepperoni on top. That pizza is still on the menu.
Where: 2651 E. Main St., Bexley
Order: the Ultimate
Hounddog’s won the r/Columbus pizza showdown in 2022 with over 62% of the final-round vote against Adriatico’s. The name has nothing to do with Elvis. It came from the owner’s basset hound. The pies are big, the crust has a garlic-butter option, and carryout runs until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, which is most of the reason it wins polls. It took Best Traditional Pizza in (614) Magazine’s 2026 reader poll too.
Where: 2657 N. High St., Columbus
Order: a large square-cut pepperoni
Joe Hartnett started making pizza in the kitchen of the old Linworth Bier Stube in 2007, put the JT’s name on it in 2011 and bought the bar in 2015. The pie is Columbus-style, cracker thin and cut into squares, and the wings come traditional or boneless with more than a dozen sauces. It’s also the spot on this list for watching a game. The Grandview Heights shop that opened in late 2024 has TVs along most of its walls. A third shop opened in Jerome Village, in Plain City, in January 2026.
Where: 2390 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., Columbus (also 845 Goodale Blvd., Grandview Heights, and 12066 Sycamore Trace, Plain City)
Order: the JT’s, and wings in Greg’s Sauce
The foldable slice has its own following here, and the shops below are the ones that take it seriously. Columbus Navigator’s guide to New York style pizza in Columbus goes deeper on this category.
Palmo Aracri and his wife opened Cafe Napolitana downtown in 1992, then Aracri Pizzeria on Campus in 2018. The family now runs one shop on Gay Street, and the menu calls it New York style. Palmo earned the title of pizzaiolo in 1985, and the family has been perfecting these recipes in Columbus for more than 30 years. The 16-inch cheese is the base and the Margherita is the specialty pie worth the upgrade.
Where: 51 E. Gay St., Columbus
Order: the Margherita
East Coast Pizzeria opened in north Clintonville in January 2017, across from the Graceland Shopping Center, after the founder spent nine years at a New York-style shop. Pies are hand tossed and brick fired. A 16-inch cheese is $19.99. The shop is closed Monday and Tuesday, and it can close early when the dough sells out, so late-evening visits can be a gamble.
Where: 5060 N. High St., Columbus
Order: a 16-inch cheese
Borgata has served New York-style pizza and homemade pasta out of Worthington since 2010. The shop is known for giant 20-inch pies. For a table, get the XL Borgata Special. A second counter opened inside Old North Arcade on North High Street, so a slice can come with a round of pinball.
Where: 2285 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., Worthington (also 2593 N. High St., inside Old North Arcade)
Order: the 20-inch Borgata Special
In 2016 two veteran brothers, Joey and Jamey Sexton, bought a $6,000 food trailer and set out to make the crunchiest pizza in Ohio. The round pies are New York style, 16 inches and eight slices. The Motown is a deep-dish square in a 10-by-14 sheet, Detroit by another name. Gahanna is the flagship, with shops in Hilliard, Lewis Center and the Little Grand Market at Grandview Crossing. (614) Magazine readers voted it Best Gourmet Pizza in 2026. The site says it plainly: they sell out, frequently, so order early.
Where: 943 E. Johnstown Rd., Gahanna
Order: the spicy pepperoni, round
Chris Crader and Bethany Lovell opened the first Harvest on a quiet block in German Village in 2011 and built it around Ohio farms. The dough is naturally leavened and wood fired. There are five locations now, in Clintonville, Bexley, the Brewery District, Dublin and Granville, and Hilliard and New Albany are on the way. Clintonville is closed Mondays. Menus vary a little by location.
Where: 2885 N. High St., Columbus
Order: the Margherita
This is the Columbus outpost of the Brooklyn wood-fired pizzeria, and it kept the Brooklyn menu. The Hellboy, with soppressata and hot honey, is the pie that made the name. The Big Cheesy is $19. There’s also a Pepperoni Square, a cheddar-edged square with Ezzo pepperoni, listed as limited availability. Doors open mid-afternoon, so lunch isn’t an option.
Where: 1195 N. High St., Columbus
Order: the Hellboy
Nick Gore ran a wood-fired catering business out of a Subaru for about five years before GoreMade found a home in Italian Village. The pies are Neapolitan style and farm to table, and the Chef’s Choice changes with what the kitchen has. It’s closed Mondays, and Tuesday through Thursday don’t open until 4 p.m.
Where: 936 N. Fourth St., Columbus
Order: the Chef’s Choice
Natalie’s Grandview is a music hall with a kitchen, and pizza is what the kitchen does. It serves dinner only, Wednesday through Sunday, and the bar stays open later. The Margherita is the pie to judge the oven by. Check the show calendar before going, since the music room is the point.
Where: 945 King Ave., Columbus
Order: the Margherita and whatever’s on stage
Pizza Nerds is a Gahanna pickup counter with a 90s arcade theme, free games and a thick pan pie the shop describes as Detroit-style inspired. The specialty pies are named for 90s TV and video game characters. The Mario is red sauce, banana peppers, pepperoni and hot honey, and a large thick one runs $24. Thick pies come as a six-cut or a nine-cut, and there’s a thin nine-cut too. The quarter-pound stuffed cookies are another big reason people drive out.
Where: 1376 Cherry Bottom Rd., Gahanna
Order: The Mario, thick
Two entries above also do a square: the Pepperoni Square at Paulie Gee’s and the Motown at Sexton’s.
Meister’s is a stand-alone German cottage on Chambers Road in Fifth by Northwest, with pool tables, darts and $1 can nights on Thursdays. It has no website. The deep dish bakes in a pie tin and comes out with a crust thick enough to need a fork. Step Out Columbus went to Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s before deciding in 2025 that neither held a candle to it. Expect a wait; Experience Columbus puts it at 45 minutes and calls it worth it.
Where: 1168 Chambers Rd., Columbus
Order: the deep dish pepperoni, and give it time
Yellow Brick built its reputation on New York-style pies with strange combinations, and the Franklinton shop also keeps alive the Chicago-style stuffed pizza of Tristano’s, the closed Grove City pizzeria. There are two shops, in Franklinton on West Rich Street and at East Market in Olde Towne East. The Flying Pig, with pepperoni, sausage, bacon and ham, is the signature round pie for anyone skipping the deep dish.
Where: 415 W. Rich St., Columbus (also the East Market shop in Olde Towne East)
Order: the Tristano’s stuffed pizza, Franklinton only
Adriatico’s has fed Ohio State students on Neil Avenue for about 40 years, and Tasting Table calls it the unofficial pizza of The Ohio State University. The menu offers extra thin, thin or Sicilian thick crust, and the thick is the reason to come. A large Sicilian is $23. The Buckeye is an 18-by-26-inch sheet, labeled huge on the menu, and it runs $43.50 in the thick crust.
Where: 1618 Neil Ave., Columbus
Order: the Buckeye, Sicilian thick
The dough recipe at Papa Giorgio’s goes back to 1987, when Mario the Baker taught the owners’ father to make pizza. The sausage and pepperoni come from Ezzo. The Sicilian pan pizza is a 14-by-10 pan cut into eight squares with crispy cheese edges, and a 16-inch cheese is $17.49. The shop opens at 4 p.m. every day.
Where: 5216 Bethel Center Mall, Columbus
Order: the Sicilian pan pizza
Mikey’s is the original Columbus street slice, built around late nights and the bars it sits next to. The Short North shop on High Street is the one to start with, and there are counters all over the city, from South Fourth Street downtown to Pearl Street by campus, Easton and Hollywood Casino. The Plain-Ass Pepperoni is exactly that, with a sprinkle of Parmesan. The Cheese with Fresh Basil is the other classic.
Where: 1030 N. High St., Columbus
Order: a Plain-Ass Pepperoni slice
A few names that turn up in older lists are closed. The Wizard of Za in Clintonville ended its run on Jan. 20, 2025. Tommy’s campus shop at 174 W. Lane Ave. closed on June 14, 2024, though the Upper Arlington and Dublin shops are open. Catfish Biff’s on West 11th Avenue is gone as well. Pie of the Tiger, the Detroit-and-Sicilian counter inside Short North Tavern, has closed, and Sunday Gravy, which serves Roman-style pizza and Italian sandwiches, has since opened in its place. Osteria Pizzeria on Oak Street lost its roof in the Aug. 11, 2026 tornado and was closed for repairs at the time this guide was checked, so call before going. Side Piece Pies, the Austin slice shop at the Rambler complex on West Lane Avenue, has closed, and Uncle Frico’s by Sexton’s now sells slices next door to Victory Lap.
The post The Best Pizza In Columbus: 26 Pizzerias By Style appeared first on Columbus Navigator.
