Cyril has been on a pizza craze lately – a quest, perhaps, to find some of the best pizzas around.  In our recent travels we’ve gotten to try some good pizzas in Illinois, Milwaukee and Buffalo, but we’ve also focused on some good pies right in our own backyard.  So today we want to show you what we’ve found to be excellent pizza right here in Manhattan, and we’ll feature everything we tried at a variety of places.  Most of these pizzas are vegetarian, but there are some images of meat here, so be warned.

We’ll start at the bottom of Manhattan:  almost near the tip of the island is Kesté, which serves up Neapolitan pizzas.  Each pie is on the small side, so you can order several and get yourself a sampling of what they have on offer.  We got one from the pizza rosse (red pizza) menu:  this simple marinara, topped with tomato sauce, basil, oregano and garlic.

Then one of their special Montanara pizzas, with tomato sauce and pieces of buffalo mozzarella on top of a lightly fried piece of dough.

And Cyril also had one pie from their pizze bianche (white pizza) menu – this prosciutto and arugula, which also has mozzarella and grana padano cheese on it.

If you head a little bit north to Nolita, you’ll find Rubirosa, which is so popular that it’s almost always packed (so you have to plan ahead if you want to go there).  They serve a lot of different Italian-American dishes, but their pizzas are especially popular, and in particular their tie dye pie.  It features a combination of vodka and tomato sauces, topped with mozzarella, then finished with a swirl of pesto – so of course we had to try that.

Now if you swing over to Alphabet City you’ll find Gruppo, which is best known for their thin crust pizzas.  We were told that the Shroomtown pizza was particularly good, so that’s what we got.  It’s made with three different types of mushrooms plus truffle oil, all piled on top of marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.

And in the West Village you can find Brunetti, which also serves up Neapolitan-style pizzas.  Here’s the margherita piu, with tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella …

… and the meatball pizza, featuring sliced meatballs, tomato sauce, and mozzarella, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese.

Next, if you venture up to East Harlem you can find Patsy’s, which has been around since 1933 and is considered to be one of New York City’s original pizzerias.  Patsy’s doesn’t have different types of pizza on their menu – instead, it’s just their original coal oven pizza, with cheese and tomato sauce, and then you can add on other toppings.  We went with fresh basil and roasted peppers.

And finally, we did tell a little lie:  not every one of these pizzerias is in Manhattan.  We also want to include Louie and Ernie’s, in the Pelham Bay neighborhood of the Bronx.  It’s a bit of a hike to get there, but it was a fun trip to visit this very unassuming storefront that’s been serving up pizza for 75 years.  We decided on an eggplant pie there, with chopped garlic also added on.

We enjoyed going all around Manhattan (and the Bronx) in search of these pizzas.  It was a great variety – we got some classic New York pies, some Neopolitan pizzas, and some inventive new styles.  We hope to get out to Brooklyn and Queens to try some other well-rated pizzas, and we’ll update you on what we find!