A quest for the best

With hundreds of pizza restaurants, Austin has a lot of pizza options to offer, but only one restaurant can claim to have the best margherita pizza in town. Two years ago, I decided it was my civic duty to determine what restaurant serves the best margherita pizza, and I have been eating pizza all over town ever since. It’s a tough job of course, but someone had to do it.

Before I share my list of the top 18 margherita pizzas in Austin, however, let me share my ranking criteria. When I rated restaurants’ margherita pizzas, I considered taste obviously but also a few other important  guidelines. First, the pie had to be a traditional neapolitan pizza with a soft, moist crust and a lighter sauce with mozzarella cheese placed in clusters throughout the pizza. Since many people think of margherita pizzas as the more New York-style pizza—primarily just cheese and pieces of tomatoes spread around the pizza—I also stuck to that definition. I also wanted to find a pizza that was worth the price. Many pizzas these days are incredibly overpriced and end up not being worth it since they are not a good size, or don’t live up to flavor expectations.

The third-place winner in my ranking was a restaurant called The Backspace, which scored a 8.8/10. The Backspace has two locations in Austin, one on West Anderson Lane and the other on San Jacinto Boulevard. The pizza was $16 dollars and worth every penny since it’s a 12-inch pizza and pretty filling. The cheese, sauce, basil and dough also worked really well together.

The second-place winner was a pizza that was the best in terms of price. The margherita pizza from Bufalina is $15, but during happy hour from 4 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., all pizzas are half price. The pizza isn’t just affordable; it’s also delicious. The cheese-to-sauce ratio is perfect and enough to be filling and tasty. It was definitely traditional and is all-together a solid margherita pizza. I would definitely recommend Bufalina if you’re looking for a reliable and delicious margherita that costs less than $10 if you time it right. It’s one of the best pizza deals in town, a fact tham made my appreciate its superior taste even more. a

For the last couple of years I’ve stumbled across some of the best margherita pizzas in town and ones that didn’t quite hit the mark. One restaurant, though, goes above and beyond, perfecting their recipe and sticking to a strict traditional approach to pizza. DeSanos Pizzeria Napoletana, which has two locations in Austin, took first place on my list. Their pizza ranges from $16 to $27 depending on the size. One of the main reason I love their pizza is that they create authentic nepoletana pizzas. According to their website they follow “strict guidelines of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, preserving the centuries old craft of making authentic neapolitan pizza.” This delectable dedication to authenticity is apparent as soon as you bite into the pizza. The light and fresh taste is a step up from all of the other pizzas on the list. It has a unique airiness to it and an irresistibly delicious crust.  I thought the sauce-and-cheese ratio was also well done. On many pizzas the sauce was too overpowering for my palate and detracted from the overall taste of the pizza. It felt like you were eating sauce and bread. Overall, however, the ingredients on their pizzas work really well together, perhaps because they are all imported straight from Italy. Simply put DeSanos has by far the best margherita pizza in Austin. It’s worth a stop to get a taste of Italy or two or three or eight.

The lower-ranked pizzas landed further down the list for a variety of reasons. Many were not traditional neoplotana or they just didn’t taste as good. The higher-priced pizzas often did not meet the expectations created by their higher cost. It’s not that they were bad pizzas, but they just didn’t compare to the highest-ranked pizzas.