Starting in 2014, I logged every slice of pizza I ate in New York City on the Instagram account NYC Slice. The results shown below are collected from 464 slices. Over an eight-year period the average price of a plain slice increased from $2.52 to $3.00. This calculation excludes dollar slices.
The most expensive was a $6.53 pepperoni slice at Artichoke Basille’s Pizza’s Times Square location, and it was fine. I did not rate the slices to avoid controversy and bribes. The biggest thing I have noticed is the decline in the amount of sauce put on slices. I’m sure this is a cost-saving measure, but the overall quality of your average slice in the city has definitely suffered. However, in no particular order, these are some of the better slices in the city.
- Margherita Pizza, 163-04 Jamaica Avenue, $3.75 (up from $3.00 in 2014)
- Ozone Pizzeria, 9615 Liberty Avenue, $3.00
- Ciro Pizza Cafe, 862 Hugenot Avenue, $2.50
- Pizza D’Amore, 208 Beach 116th St, $2.50
- Sam’s Pizza, 232 W 231st Street, $3.00
- PG Pizza, 904 Morris Avenue, $2.75
- Joe’s Pizza, 7 Carmine St, $4.00 (up from $2.75 in 2014)
- Bleecker Street Pizza, 69 7th Avenue South, $3.64 (up from $2.75 in 2014)
- Pizza Place, 4024 White Plains Road, $3.25
- Big John’s Pizza, 219-11 Jamaica Avenue, $2.75
- Mario’s Pizzeria, 224 Dekalb Avenue, $3.00
- Sunnyside Pizza, 4001 Queens Blvd, $3.50 (up from $2.50 in 2014)
- New Park Pizza, 156-71 Cross Bay Blvd, $3.25 (up from $2.75 in 2014)
Spent on plain slices: $955.09
Spent on dollar slices: $35.09
Spent on Pepperoni slices: $202.28
Spent on other slices: $51.76
Total spent on slices: $1244.22
Selected press
- After eating nearly 500 slices, Brooklyn man says Queens has best pizza [Queens Daily Eagle]
- The Man Who Spent $1,244.22 on 464 Slices of New York Pizza Explains What He Learned [Slate]
- Mapping the Death of NYC’s Cheap Slice [Bloomberg CityLab]
- This Guy Tracked the Average Cost of an NYC Pizza Slice for 8 Years. Here's What He Found [NBC New York]
- New Yorker creates map of the 464 pizza slices he ate over 8 years in NYC (and Jersey) [amNewYork]
- What Liam Quigley learned after eating 460 slices of pizza in NYC [Epicenter NYC]
Originally published January 10th, 2023.
The data used to create the map can be viewed here.
Map created with carto.
Logo design by Anna Pelavin.