5 of My Favorite Pizza Shops in Budapest

By Tas TóbiásLast updated: Aug. 16, 2025

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In the past decade, Budapest has experienced a pizza revolution: Many dedicated pizza shops have mastered the art of pizza-making, using longer fermentations, natural leavenings, and choice ingredients from Italy. The deliciously pliant Naples-style – charred and puffy crust, moist center – is especially popular currently. Here, the best pizzerias in Budapest.

#1 Pizza Manufaktura

Pizza Manufaktura is a hip pizza shop in Budapest’s District 9 by the Great Market. The place makes no secret about its coolness: hipster Gen Z-ers scurry behind the counter while loud music blares from the speakers. Their pizzas, made with an electric oven, fall between the Roman and the Neapolitan style – the crust is soft and doughy with some air pockets and charred spots, but the texture is firm enough to hold the slice in your hand.

I usually go for the Paprika János, named after an outlandish puppet figure, layering paprika-laced crispy sausage, bacon, spicy green peppers, and onions. Another standout is Tükör, coated in a creamy poached egg atop a base of tomato sauce, prosciutto, bacon, and mozzarella. Thanks to the friendly price points, students from the nearby Corvinus University often fill the space to capacity so expect some wait at midday.

#2 Pizzica

Some places become so much part of a city’s fabric that we could hardly imagine life without them. We take for granted their excellence, consistency, and continued existence. One such quietly treasured possession of Budapest is Pizzica. Opened in 2014 by two brothers from the south-Italian city of Lecce, Paolo and Enrico de Bartolomeo, this small pizza shop is an adored address along Nagymező utca, which I rarely pass without a Pizzica stop.

The pizzas are of the Roman variety: rectangular pies cut into pieces with a scissor upon order. Chewy, crispy, soft, moist, delicious. And affordable at about €2 apiece. Toppings include pesto-infused ricotta; ham and truffles; piquant salami; and a basic white and red sauce. Despite Pizzica’s immense popularity, one of the brothers is usually seen behind the counter, sliding cast-iron baking sheets into the oversized electric ovens with flour-dusted hands. Some people take their orders to go, but many hang around the tables outside, sipping beer, socializing. Ten more years of Pizzica, please!

#3 MANU+ Pizza

MANU+ is the sister location of Pizza Manufaktura, a wildly popular pizza joint just a few blocks away. The conceit is similar: serve delicious pizza from a space that feels emphatically cool and irreverent (dialed-up music, pizzaiolos bantering). The toppings, too, might be familiar – Paprika János appears, for example, named after the quirky puppet figure – but the focus here is Naples-style pizza.

The wood-burning oven imparts an airy crust speckled with leopard spots while a few flavorful ingredients sit in the moist and thin center. The classic margherita has never disappointed, but neither has anything else. If you'd like a local angle, opt for the Paprika János mentioned above, packing paprika sausage, hot green pepper, bacon, and onions. That's right.

#4 Little Italy Pizzeria

Step into Little Italy and an oversized image of Naples and the Mount Vesuvius faces you from the opposite wall, ringed by blue-and-white soccer scarves emblazoned with “solo Napoli” and "ultra Napoli" slogans. Nearly all servers are Italian natives, but instead of the Tyrrhenian coast, this lively neighborhood pizzeria is located right here in Budapest.

Instead of the city's most fashion-forward people, Little Italy draws a mixed neighborhood crowd with an unpretentious atmosphere and solid pizzas, which are made with lightning speed by the Hungarian owner-chef who spent years working in Naples. I can vouch for the Casagrande (prosciutto, Italian salami, bacon, chili) and the namesake Little Italy (mozzarella, Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes). The pies fall between a Naples and a Roman style. On weekends, Italian soccer fans appear to watch calcio on TV. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays!

#5 Moto Pizza (Madách)

Moto is a lively pizza shop smack in the middle of Budapest’s fashionable Jewish Quarter on Madách tér (with two additional locations in the city). Order at the bar, then try to snag a table by the floor-to-ceiling windows made for people-watching the busy sidewalk. A dozen or so pizzas are available, all of them the pliant, puffy, soupy, and completely delicious Neapolitan style, prepared within minutes in a domed wood-burning pizza oven.

Let me draw your attention to the namesake “Moto,” topped with piquant sausage (kolbász), chili pepper, and red onions in addition to the tomato-basil-mozzarella base. One with a local angle and my go-to. The pizzas run €8-10, and Peroni, Fritz-kola, and Club-Mate are available for pairing. There’s a small jungle upstairs – a crowded plant shop – if you don't want to leave empty-handed.

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