Pizza Bracket

Pomo Pizzeria

Pizzeria Bianco

Fired Pie

Pomo Pizzeria

Boka Pizza

Federal Pizza

Forno 301

Pizza People Pub

La Piazza PHX

Pizza Studio

Focoso Pizza

Cibo

Grand Avenue
Pizza Co.

The Fired Pie chain operates as a sit-down fast-food restaurant, where you either order from a small menu or create your own pizza Chipotle-style before receiving your pies in a timely manner. Fired Pie’s pizzas are thin crust, but they lack any crunch or flakiness usually brought by thin crusts. Fired Pie’s sauce and cheese were disappointingly lacking in any strong flavors. The margherita pizza we tried didn’t stand out for these reasons, and the standard assortment of vegetables on the veggie pizza didn’t serve to add much flavor or texture to the meal. While Fired Pie’s $7 per pizza price and speedy service make it a good location for a relatively yummy and quick lunch break, it’s hardly a pizza destination.

Location: 201 E. Washington St. #111

I’d be lying if I said we didn’t look at one of downtown’s pizza rookies with a more judgemental eye. In a pizza abundant sector like ours, we want to make sure each one has at least something unique to offer. But once inside Pomo, you feel you’ve been transported into a different city, if not country. Each pizza is authentic to its Southern Italian area of origin. The Quattro Stagioni pizza, with its bounty of Italian sausage, olives and mushrooms, really felt like a proper meal, something one doesn’t say often about a pizza. My usual worry is that sausage is too rich and dense on pizza -- this was definitely not the case. The MVP honors, however, go to that crust, which had the smoky flavor and round crisp that can only come from a hand-built oven like theirs.

Location: 705 N. First St. #120

At first glance, Boka Pizza seems like just your average pizza joint with its comfortable décor and casual atmosphere. From its menu, we ordered the BBQ (Barbecue) Chicken pizza ($7.99 for a 10” pie).

About as thick as the average flatbread, the crust scores a bit higher on the scale with its firm and chewy texture, with its rosemary and basil seasoning. The cheese was somewhat oily but complemented the other flavors of the pizza well, and the barbecue sauce was salty and sweet. With decent prices for a pie that fills you up, Boka Pizza is the place for anyone who wants to try a new, local place and is near the Arizona Center, especially if you barbecue and chicken and do not mind waiting a bit for your food.

Location: 455 N. Third St. Suite 1030

At first glance, Boka Pizza seems like just your average pizza joint with its comfortable décor and casual atmosphere. From its menu, we ordered the BBQ (Barbecue) Chicken pizza ($7.99 for a 10” pie).

About as thick as the average flatbread, the crust scores a bit higher on the scale with its firm and chewy texture, with its rosemary and basil seasoning. The cheese was somewhat oily but complemented the other flavors of the pizza well, and the barbecue sauce was salty and sweet. With decent prices for a pie that fills you up, Boka Pizza is the place for anyone who wants to try a new, local place and is near the Arizona Center, especially if you barbecue and chicken and do not mind waiting a bit for your food.

Location: 5210 N. Central Ave.

At first glance, Boka Pizza seems like just your average pizza joint with its comfortable décor and casual atmosphere. From its menu, we ordered the BBQ (Barbecue) Chicken pizza ($7.99 for a 10” pie).

About as thick as the average flatbread, the crust scores a bit higher on the scale with its firm and chewy texture, with its rosemary and basil seasoning. The cheese was somewhat oily but complemented the other flavors of the pizza well, and the barbecue sauce was salty and sweet. With decent prices for a pie that fills you up, Boka Pizza is the place for anyone who wants to try a new, local place and is near the Arizona Center, especially if you barbecue and chicken and do not mind waiting a bit for your food.

Location: 301 W. Roosevelt St.

Cibo, known as one of the prime date spots in downtown Phoenix, has just about everything you need for a romantic night: lovely outdoor seating, prime lighting and the setting of a quaint home-turned-restaurant. But we’re here to judge pizza. And in this case, the pizza is a pleasant combination of just the right amount of flavorful ingredients. The margherita pizza, which we topped with some ricotta cheese (as an extra) and along with a glass of the house red wine, felt both light and rich. We’re unsure how much we would’ve liked the pizza without the ricotta add-on, considering that it provided some of the best flavor atop the basil leaves. If you hadn’t known about it, you might’ve felt like the pizza was missing something. But that’s a small concern for a place gently challenging Phoenix’s pizza expectations.

Location: 603 N. 5th Ave.

Despite being confined to food truck dimensions, the Focoso Pizza food truck creates an impressive sense of place. Most of the space inside the truck is taken up by “Big Blue,” Focoso’s custom-made wood fire oven. We tried a classic margherita pizza and the truck’s current special, which combined several kinds of spicy peppers and ricotta cheese. Focoso’s crust was the star of the show: the ideal blend of crunchy and doughy, toasted perfectly by the wood fire oven. The truck’s locally-sourced sauce and cheese also had great flavors. The margherita pizza had great flavor, but could have used more basil. The peppers-ricotta special had an interesting balance of heat, but could have had more flavor. Overall, Focoso delivers delicious pizzas in a unique environment for about $10 a pie.

Location: Food Truck Fridays at Phoenix Public Market

The pizza joint has different specials each day, and pepperoni and cheese are also always options. The special ($4), soon appropriately dubbed "Haleakala," was a beautiful palette of pineapple, mushroom, bacon, caramelized onions, mozzarella and hot cherry peppers, all on top of a homemade barbeque sauce. The mixture of ingredients were oddly deliciously complimentary of each other, but the homemade barbecue sauce was really the key aspect that made this pizza so amazing.

While the special of the night took home the ultimate awesome prize, it shouldn’t undermine the good ol’ cheese slice ($3), which was pleasantly surprising -- not too plain, not too done up; a perfect amount of spice.

Location: 1301 Grand Ave.

Located at CityScape on Central Avenue and Washington Street, Pizza Studio champions the freedom of customers to make their own dishes. The Margherita is one of Pizza Studio’s three “Starving Artist Originals” along with Pepperoni and Buffalo Chicken. While the crust is tad lackluster -- dare I say lack-crust-er -- this dish shines in its liberal use of mozzarella, roma tomatoes and fresh basil. Overall, this 11” pizza is enjoyable, especially given its pricing at $6.

Location: 11 W. Washington St.

While it is pricier than Pizza Studio, the Margherita Pizza at La Piazza Phoenix is well worth the price. The tomatoes and basil are noticeably fresh, and balance deliciously with the generous amounts of fresh mozzarella.The service is friendly, the setting is intimate, and the flavor is plentiful at this First Street pizzeria.

Location: 1 N. First St.

Location: 623 E. Adams St.

Although it started as the popular food truck, the restaurant now hosts a brick-and-mortar restaurant called Pizza People Pub located on Central Avenue just south of Willetta Street. I’ve heard mumblings that the physical location pales in comparison to the food truck. Those fools clearly do not have taste buds. We ate the sweet and savory Date Me, a pizza with mozzarella, goat cheese, minced prosciutto, chopped arizona dates (represent AZ), fresh arugula and a unique agave vinaigrette drizzle. The crust had the perfect amount of doughy-ness, at least in my opinion, which means it was doughy. The dates and vinaigrette created a deliciously sweet taste. Although I asked for extra goat cheese, I wondered if they thought I said arugula instead. Regardless, the pizza was delicious.

Location: 1326 N. Central Ave.

Pizzeria Bianco