These are the 8 best Detroit-style pizzas in the city, according to our restaurant critic

This article was produced by Bon Appétit magazine. The original story was published on bonappetit.com and will run in the August issue, on newsstands Aug. 1. Photography by Bon Appétit Staff Photographer, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.

Who serves the best pizza in Detroit? The top burrito in San Francisco? Welcome to Taste of the Town, where Bon Appétit calls on a local expert to share the best versions of one of their city’s most iconic foods. Here, Lyndsay C. Green, dining and restaurant critic at the Detroit Free Press, shares her picks for the city's best pizza.

Detroit-style pizza writes its own rules. It’s not about how high the dough is tossed or how thin it can stretch. Instead, the beauty of this pizza rests in its adaptability and history. Here, a rectangular deep-dish pie layers cheese, toppings, then sauce—in that order—leaving ingredients like thinly sliced pepperoni to curl around the edges in the oven. No topping is off-limits. Saucy barbecue chicken, ham, and, yes, pineapple, are all acceptable. The only nonnegotiable is a side of ranch dressing to dip or drizzle.

The story of Detroit-style pizza stretches back to the city’s automotive roots. In the 1940s a pizzaiolo at Buddy’s Rendezvous Pizzeria on the east side is said to have tested the original recipe using steel pans designed to hold small car parts from an auto manufacturing plant to bake the first known Detroit-style pie. As the city that gave the world Motown and the Model T, Detroit has always been an exporter of culture. Its culinary impact is just as notable: The metro Detroit region is the birthplace of multinational chains, such as Domino’s, Little Caesars, and Jet’s Pizza, which have brought Detroit into the global pizza lexicon. Since then, pies paying homage to our crisped corners and inspired toppings have cropped up as far afield as Berlin and Japan.

This success has paved the way for a new generation of independent pizza shops. They honor the dish’s origins and add their own flair with unexpected toppings that range from fresh seafood and house-made sausage to ripe fruit and seasonal produce.

From classics to innovators, these are the standouts.

The Anatomy of a Detroit-Style Pizza

If it doesn’t meet these criteria, it’s not the real deal

• Four corners: Detroit-style pizza is defined by its square or rectangular shape. When cut into four, everyone gets a corner slice.
• Deep-dish: At roughly two inches thick, true to the depth of many forged steel automotive pans, this pizza runs deep.
• Cheese first: Mild-flavored white Wisconsin brick cheese is chopped or shredded and spread across bare dough, creating a gooey crust.
• Saucy stripes: Tomato sauce is ladled on top of cheese and toppings in neat vertical racing stripes. (A great white pie is the rare exception to this rule.)
• Crisp edges: A charred lace of crisp caramelized cheese surrounds the rim of a Detroit-style pie. This salty goodness is a must.

A guest dining alongside a painting of Gus Guerra, the founder of Cloverleaf Pizza.

Cloverleaf Bar & Restaurant

The pizzaiolo who repurposed steel pans and established the Detroit-style pizza nearly 80 years ago at Buddy’s? That was Gus Guerra. Guerra sold the restaurant along with his sought-after recipe in 1953. He later went on to open Cloverleaf Bar & Restaurant, where he continued crafting the same square-pan pies he’d become known for. Though the city has changed, his recipe for cheesy squares with crispy edges and a tangy smattering of tomato sauce remains. Today Cloverleaf is a beloved local chain with locations in various suburban towns that ring the city.

The lobster roll-inspired pie at Grandma Bob’s.

Grandma Bob’s

Despite its name, there’s nothing old-school about Grandma Bob’s. The restaurant is a stone’s throw from the newly restored Michigan Central, the former train station that once shuttled thousands of travelers to and from Detroit during its golden years. The bar and restaurant ushers classic Detroit-style pizza into a new age with creative flavor combinations. A summertime favorite brings together the best ingredients of a lobster roll. Cheese is melted onto six ounces of plump lobster meat, then the pie is drizzled with herbaceous crème fraîche and topped with crushed kettle-cooked chips. The dine-in-only creation is served with a ramekin of clarified butter for your dipping and drizzling pleasure.

A classic cheese pie at Loui's Pizza.

Loui’s Pizza

Loui’s Pizza has been slinging classic pies for more than 50 years. Nykolas Sulkiwskyj, grandson of the restaurant’s founder, has preserved a true Midwestern mom-and-pop shop. There’s charm to the Hazel Park operation, where the cheese is gooey and the sauce is slightly sweet and sporadically deployed. Empty bottles of Chianti signed by decades of imbibers are strung throughout the casual dining room with delicate fairy lights, and news clippings of reviews and accolades from another time hang with pride at the entrance. Football players stop in to fuel up after a game night; grandparents linger over lunch; toddlers are messied with greasy fingers and red sauce mustaches. And everyone’s equally enthralled by the cheese pulls on slices of simple, reliably delightful pies.

The Greek pie at Niki's Pizza.

Niki’s Pizza

Detroit’s storied Greektown neighborhood was once a cultural center for Greek immigrants like Nikoletta Kefallinos, Dennis Kefallinos’s late mother and the force who inspired his pizzeria. Though the neighborhood has shed much of its identity as a hub of Greek culture and evolved into the city’s liveliest nightlife center, a number of food businesses continue to honor its roots. At Niki’s, Detroit-style pizza meets Mediterranean flavors. Salty, rich feta delivers a beautiful char on the Famous Feta, and tender slivers of lamb on the Greek are so thin they resemble anchovies. The restaurant is frequented by a young late-night crowd that eats under rattan pendant lights.

The facade of Pie Sci.

Pie Sci

Jeremy Damaske brought his fun-loving approach to pizza in 2010 when he opened Pie Sci as a pop-up that traveled metro Detroit. The concept: Treat pies like science projects, creating combinations with unique toppings and playful names. Since then, Damaske has put down roots, opening his Woodbridge brick-and-mortar in 2016 and, last year, a take-out-only spot in Oak Park, Michigan. The Motown Philly, a Detroit-style take on the Philly cheesesteak, features hunks of shredded beef, peppers, onions and mushrooms; and the Pear Necessities consists of a sweet-savory medley of juicy pears, spinach leaves, smoky bacon, and feta, topped off with a scribble of honey.

A guest enjoying a slice of Michigan & Trumbull's "Bagley Chorizo" pie.

Michigan & Trumbull Pizza

Of all the pizza joints in our city, Michigan & Trumbull is perhaps the most guided by Detroit’s seasons. Locally sourced ingredients inform monthly specials that benefit local charities. It’s also one of few shops that offers a menu of white pizzas (the classic Detroit-style pizza is known for its racing stripes of red sauce), most of which are named after Detroit thoroughfares. The cheekily coined Cadieux e Pepe, a nod to Detroit’s Cadieux Road, reimagines cacio e pepe in pizza form—chewy dough crowned with sharp Parmesan, pungent fresh garlic, and cracked black pepper. The Woodward White comes dressed in dollops of rich ricotta freckled with red pepper flakes and lemon zest, while the Bagley Chorizo elevates ranch dressing, a Midwest staple, by infusing it with cilantro. Even the staunchest traditionalists can find a pie to please.

Sicily’s Pizzeria & Subs

Nearly a decade ago Ali Beydoun tweaked the dough recipe at his restaurant, risking tradition to push his pizza in a new direction. The dough made with commercial yeast, a process the shop had followed since it opened in 1989, was swapped for a new sourdough base. This fluffy, bubbly, tangy crust might not be strictly traditional, but it became an immediate favorite among locals. Sicily’s is also a go-to destination for metro Detroit’s Muslim population and those who choose to abstain from pork. A Muslim Lebanon native, Beydoun has created an entirely halal menu that includes the popular Meat Lovers pie. Loaded with beef pepperoni, veal sausage, turkey bacon, and turkey ham, it’s a decadent delight.

The No Swine Hawaiian at Village Pizza.

Village Pizza

Brittany March, founder of the plant-forward catering company ItsFoodDetroit, is one of the few Black pizza makers in Detroit. Every Sunday since 2021 she has popped up inside Alkebu-Lan Village, a wellness center on the city’s east side, where she serves vegan pies. Each is dressed with fresh produce and herbs—from local gardens whenever possible. Her Gratiot Pesto is bright and aromatic, trading Parmesan for heftier portions of garlic and herbs, and a No Swine Hawaiian replaces ham with sweet seitan bacon. Thanks to high demand, March has expanded the pop-up to also serve pizza on the first Saturday of each month.

This story was updated to add a video.  

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: These are the 8 best Detroit-style pizzas in the city, according to our restaurant critic