Welcome to The MoCoShow’s Best Pizza in MoCo list!
We made the decision to go with two different lists this year, giving the the brick oven/woodfired/Neapolitan style pizzas their own category in a Top 5 list. Almost every other type of pizza is included in the Classic Style Top 20 List.
Please read a few of the rules we used at the end of this article to avoid any confusion.
Here we go!
Brick Oven/Woodfired/Neapolitan
Top 5
“There is nothing better than fine Italian Pizza with good company.” – Spiro Gioldasis, Owner of Pacci’s.
I had the margherita and I really liked it. I’m a fan of the dough and the pizza was my favorite thing on their menu.
“Pizza CS was born between two friends, Ankur and Jon, who share a love for pizza and the warmth and culture of small, traditional Pizzerias.” I know a lot of people swear by Pizza CS and it received a #1 vote from our panel as well. I’m confident you will find something you really like out of their choices of pizza.
I really like that you can get a woodfired, brick oven pizza, but also have the option to load it up with cheese and still enjoy a greasy mess…if that’s what you want. This place is good, I think you’d enjoy!
The Washington Post recently named Inferno’s margherita the best margherita pizza in the entire D.C. area and it’s hard to argue that! I went in early 2016 and then again just about a month ago and I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around. Inferno was just a shade out of first place!
I’m not a brick oven/woodfired pizza type of guy, but when I went to Frankly Pizza for the first time this summer I fell in love! I enjoyed everything both of the pizzas that I tried (the hot mess and cheese are pictured below).
Classic Style Top 20
20. Broadway Pizza (Potomac)
19. CSNY Pizza (Rockville)
18. Maggi’s (Damascus)
17. M&N’s Pizza (Bethesda)
16. Manhattan Pizza (Gaithersburg)
15. Pizza Stop (Silver Spring)
14. Corner Slice (Bethesda)
13. Potomac Pizza (Rockville, Potomac, Chevy Chase)
12. Cugini’s (Poolesville)
11. The 4 Corners Pub (Silver Spring)
10. Slice of Rockville (Rockville)
The Slice of Rockville/Carmen’s combo is tough to beat, but this is just about pizza. I can say I have gone out of my way to grab a pizza from Slice of Rockville on multiple occasions. Great pizza!
9. Milano’s (Rockville/Germantown)
This is legit delivery pizza. I can’t imagine anyone ordering from Milano’s and not being satisfied with their pizza. I really liked it.
8. Mamma Lucia’s (Bethesda, Olney, Rockville, Silver Spring)
Whether you pick it up by the slice or grab an entire pie, Mamma’s pizza is going to hit the spot. One panelist had them as high as #2!
7. Vace (Bethesda)
Vace has been there forever for a reason. They can customize their pizzas by the half, so I went with a white pizza with onions on one side and a cheese pizza on the other. Put them together and eat them as a sandwich if you want to get a little wild! Both sides were awesome.
6. Armand’s (Rockville, Silver Spring)
Once a powerful local chain, Armand’s is down to 2 total locations (both in MoCo). Some folks only need one slice from Armand’s to fill them up, but I love going with the All You Can Eat buffet in Rockville and eating until I’m ready to burst. I’m a huge fan!
5. Gentleman Jim’s (Gaithersburg)
Gentleman Jim’s is the only establishment on this list to use Swiss cheese on their pizzas. It didn’t work for one of our panelists, but the rest of us loved it. It’s the first of three square pizzas to make the top 5.
Continental earned the same amount of first place votes as our winner, but a few lower ratings dropped them down a bit. I can tell you that I have never heard of anyone disliking their pizza, and it’s hard to not stop in when you’re in the area. Don’t forget to bring cash!
This gas station pizza place is amazing. It’s the perfect slice of greasy, cheesy, amazingness! A few people shy away from it because of the whole gas station thing, but don’t let that hold you back. Give it a try!
2. Giuseppi’s (Rockville, Gaithersburg)
I first discovered Giuseppi’s when I was taking a summer class at MC Rockville. Later in life I moved a quarter mile away from the Kentlands location and couldn’t stop eating their pizza. Giuseppi’s was the only pizza in every panelists too 10!
1. Stained Glass Pub (Silver Spring)
The best pizza in MoCo! I eat slices of pizza from the pub the way most people eat potato chips 😳. I can be full and still eat 2 or 6 more slices. Tied for the most 1st place votes, but earning the highest average ranking, Stained Glass Pub takes home 1st place (the manager can be seen accepting the award below).
A panel of 6 people contributed to this list. The panel includes the executive chef and co-founder of Cava, “Chef D” Dimitri Moshovitis (this explains the absence of Sugo from our list). Also contributing is the director of operations for a very successful restaurant group, myself, and three other people whose taste in pizza I trust and respect.
Over the course of the last two years, I have eaten pizza at just about every place in Montgomery County that features it. For most places, I asked the establishment what their most popular pie is and went with that as my order. The rankings are based solely on the taste of the pizza.
I didn’t include any chains that have 10 or more locations because I want this list to be about pizza you get primarily in MoCo (I also did not include smaller chains that have most of their locations outside of MoCo). This does not mean that some chains do not have great pizza. Exclusion from this list for any reason does not mean that an establishment does not have great pizza.
The list is based on the taste of the pizza alone.
Please remember, this is the official MoCoShow list…there’s a good chance it will be different than yours.
'
