The 6 Best Pizza Shops in Budapest

Pizzica is a small pizza shop in Budapest specializing in pizza al taglio — the Roman rectangular-shaped slices that are cut with a scissor and usually taken to-go. The de Bartolomeo brothers, natives from Southern Italy, run this tiny takeout joint in District 6; on most days you'll find them sliding cast-iron pans in and out of an electric oven.

Pizzica uses a moist, high-gluten dough, which, after a long fermentation, rises into a chewy, focaccia-like texture interspersed with air pockets and boasting a crispy crust and a charred underbelly. The ever-changing toppings might include tomato sauce, mortadella, arugula, sausage, mushrooms, and truffles. They go for about €2 apiece, and two or three slices are perfectly enough. There’s a wooden bench outside and a few tables upstairs where Hungarian artworks adorn the walls, but most people usually just take their pizzas to go in Roman fashion.

Step into Little Italy and an oversized image of Naples and the Mount Vesuvius face you from the opposite wall. Around it hang blue-and-white soccer scarves emblazoned with “solo Napoli” slogans and nearly all servers are Italian natives. But instead of being on the Tyrrhenian coast, this pizzeria hides in a Budapest neighborhood a bit outside the city center.

Little Italy isn’t the type of place that draws a trendy crowd, but it is the type of a place that gets mobbed by people who come for delicious and affordable pizzas made with lightning speed by the Hungarian owner-chef, who spent years working in Naples. I've yet to try most of the 42 types, but I can vouch for the Casagrande (prosciutto, Italian salami, bacon, chili), the simple and flavorful bufala, and the namesake Little Italy (mozzarella, Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes). The pies fall somewhere between the Naples and the Roman styles. On weekends, Italian soccer plays on the TV calcio fans tend to appear. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays!