Tokyo has as many world-class pizzerias as Rome and Naples

26 comments

1. Source: [https://www.chefspencil.com/philly-the-worlds-most-pizza-obsessed-city-while-new-york-serves-the-best/](https://www.chefspencil.com/philly-the-worlds-most-pizza-obsessed-city-while-new-york-serves-the-best/)

2. I’ve never been disappointed with a pizza here, even at the average level (except Mama pasta where I have to cut it myself)

3. You need to look at the average though

4. But sometimes i crave those cheesy NY pizza. I only know one place that serves it and its not cheap 😩🍕

5. Buenos Aires not being there makes me seriously doubt this ranking.

6. I can’t think of many other cities that can recreate so many countries’ signature dishes as Tokyo. I’m not super well travelled, but of the places I’ve been, sure you can get a good local meal, but hard to get for example, good french food in spain or german food in italy.
   I think in general, the high-ish prices than can be commanded, and the JPN ethic of not compromising on ingredients are the push that local chefs decide to congregate to Tokyo.

   It’s been over a decade(and pre-pandemic), but I was surprised at the level of cuisine in the hotel restaurants on the strip in Las Vegas. Don’t remember the name, but they had some really good french.

   I’ve never been to Dubai(the closest I got was a layover at the airport), but I assume places that can draw in foreign talent with money can do this.

7. [deleted]

8. I know Verace Pizza Napoletana certification, for example, but what is a “world class pizzeria”? What does that mean?

9. Probably more, I doubt whoever is behind this ranking association visited each of the thousands (tens of thousands?) of pizzerias in greater Tokyo.

   If you’re interested in Neapolitan style pizza, the Neapolitan Pizza Association lists all their approved places (note, just because a pizzeria isn’t in the list doesn’t make it bad)
   https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/

10. no Buenos Aires on the list? yeah ok

11. Hell yeah!

12. New Haven belongs on this list

13. I live in Tokyo and appreciate the food culture here. I think it was around 2017 when about 120 Michelin stars were awarded to Tokyo restaurants, which was more than Paris. 

    There are terrific restaurants here and some of those very elite ones can actually be quite accessible and affordable. However, to put things into context, the population of the Tokyo greater metropolitan area is swelling to almost 40 000 000 people, that’s over triple (almost quadruple) the metro area of Paris and two thirds the population of Italy.

    The Tokyo economy has a gross product of about $2 trillion per year, putting it just behind New York.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo#:~:text=Including%20the%20Greater%20Tokyo%20Area,estimated%20at%20US%242.08%20trillion.

    In terms of GDP, it was only just behind the entirety of Spain about 10 years ago, and with the several Kanto prefectures makes for about the eighth largest economy in the world, California being the seventh.

    https://resources.realestate.co.jp/living/if-tokyo-were-a-country-comparing-the-gdp-of-japans-47-prefectures-to-international-gdps/#:~:text=If%20the%20city%20of%20Tokyo,the%20Netherlands%20(%24914%20billion).

    So, I love Tokyo, the scale of it is one of the reasons why, and the food, but comparing it to another city such as the size of Naples, or for that matter, Rome is quite *fair*.

14. It’s not just pizza. I recently had the best frozen yogurt of my life here in Tokyo. Also the best tiramisu. I had an Indian professor in uni who said the best Indian food he’s had is also from Tokyo.

    It’s hard to find a bad meal here

15. Love Seirinkan 🙂

16. I agree this is trash.

    New York is known for pizza by the slice.

    Having some high end restaurants, or Michelin/bib spots that do pizza shouldn’t count.

    What are they saying is “world class”?

17. This misses the point of pizza. Pizza is supposed to be simple, with the focus on high quality ingredients. That’s what you get in Naples, a few basic pizza types with really great ingredients for a good price.

18. Saizeriya😤

19. I’ve had incredible pizza here. But also some dreadful stuff. I find that Neopolitan-style pizza is done quite well here, but New York style is hit-and-miss.

20. Went to one of these last week and can attest the pizza was top notch

21. Do they also use the shitty cheese?

22. *laughs in italian*

23. This international list is a good place to start but Japan’s Napoli-style thin crust pizza is now a big trend and there’s a lot of excellent places beyond the ones in this list.

    For instance, I went to [Pizzeria GG in Kamakura](https://g.co/kgs/ofUkRvQ) and it was excellent.

    I’m sure there’s now excellent Napoli style thin crust pizza in a lot of major Japanese cities. But finding authentic Chicago deep dish or NYC or New Haven style is much more difficult.

24. Weird. In Okinawa the pizza sucks. Every other kind of food (except Mexican) is done extremely well in Japan, but I’ve personally never had good pizza here.

25. In Tokyo you can get the best of basically any version of food if you look hard enough.

26. I really tend to despise this kind of data. What is a world class pizza? Anyway, not a stretch that Tokyo will consistently rank high, huge population of foodies in one “city”