13 of the Priciest Pizzas in the U.S.

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Nobody is ever displeased if you invite them over for a large, cheesy pizza. The shareable meal is an easy no-brainer for Friday night takeout plans. What’s more, it’s insanely frugal: Dining solo, delivery pizza reheats well with the right tricks up your sleeve, giving you abundant leftovers to last days. But some places are charging well above the going rate for puffy, brick-oven bliss, and we felt that demanded a thorough investigation. 

Being spooked at the idea of dropping a lot of money on pizza is an understandable reaction. How pricey can dough smothered in a bit of tomato sauce and toppings truly be? Yet just as America’s citizenry remains a melting pot of culinary ingenuity, so too are the yeast-laden conveniences that are a phone call away. Modern restaurants have made grand strides elevating the delivery go-to into gastronomical innovations that are impressive, and as a result, they demand a higher price than what we’re used to spending. Whether it’s gourmet tie-ins or unwieldy, jaw-unhinging proportions, there’s a reason you need to cough up the dough for 13 of the most expensive pizzas in the U.S.

Let’s get the swankiest choice out of the way first so we can move on to the “affordable” pies after. Industry Kitchen in New York City is notorious for tricking out a pizza so bewilderingly extravagant, it copped a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. It’s dubbed the 24K pizza and it is aspirational eating at its finest, requiring a full 48 hours notice to order it yourself — and more importantly, $2,000.

Its upscale trimmings throttle your bank account, though a month of rent, or a year’s worth of little treats, could subsidize the cost. The glitzy showstopper drips in 24-karat gold leaf and is buttressed with a range of culinary riches that are, for most foodies, out of grasp: Foie gras, caviar, and black truffle are all on a bed of pungent Stilton cheese and a squid ink crust. Industry Kitchen procures these illustrious toppings from the source, receiving shipments flown in from Ecuador, Italy, and other locales. The pleasure of sampling would, quite plainly, be a privilege. 

It’s saying something that spotting famous faces strolling through Los Angeles is less miraculous than encountering a $100 pizza. Yet go to West Hollywood and this is the amount diners shell out, at least for one particular pie. Dtown Pizzeria stands out for making some of the best Detroit-style pizza, boasting craftsmanship that claimed the restaurant top honors in a Las Vegas pizza-making showdown. The winner in question is The Resolution, and it is a downright gourmet addition.

Anyone familiar with the Motor City signature knows the usual adornments of tiny curled pepperoni cups and ripples of red sauce painting the surface. The indulgent deep dish, carved into four squares, embraces a sophistication that’s almost out of character for the humble pan pizza. Bubbly Wisconsin cheese is blanketed in tender strips of A5 Wagyu beef, followed by pickled red onions, minced scallions, and the exquisite addition of black truffle oil. Less Little Caesar’s and more James Beard, sourcing excellent ingredients to put it all together leads to a top-dollar sum besting most pizza shops in the country. If disposable income allows, take it as reason to splurge.

Pin-Up Pizza isn’t your ordinary delivery venture. Part of its appeal is slinging hefty slices off the Vegas Strip, with full bragging rights to the largest pieces on sale in the city. But the moon-sized pies here truly hit your eye and your wallet. If you’re in the market for a saucy, standard-issue crust after hitting the casinos, be warned that you’re expected to pay up: For example, a no-frills pepperoni rakes in $85 before tax.

In any pizza display, pepperoni is bound to be one of the cheaper options, whether in slice form or the whole pie. Pin-Up’s, to our eyes, appears to be the exception. Las Vegas being touristy makes the staggering fee less shocking, though in all fairness, the generous portion justifies the price point. Plus, blowing your slot machine earnings on high-carb goodness feels like the sort of Sin City experience we all ought to live out; with garlic knots and Modelo to wash it down, of course.

Roseland Apizza (pronounced “abeetz”) delivers a sensational diamond of a pie in Derby, Connecticut. Locals who regularly order the lobster, shrimp, and scallop Ponsinella reportedly spend anywhere from $70 to $100 for the coastal creation, but as rave reviews suggest, it’s too mouthwatering to pass up. It’s definitely higher-end because of the seafood, and the menu doesn’t list a specific cost since shellfish doesn’t stick to a stagnant price. 

The restaurant, a fixture dating back to the Great Depression, is best known for twirling a riff on the wood-fired Neapolitan pizza known as the New Haven thin crust. What distinguishes this regional strain of pizza from other thin crusts lies in key techniques: These wood-fired pies are toasted under a bed of coals to imbue the crust with a heavier char and a crispier crust. The dough also rises for a longer period compared to other pizza doughs, which crisps up to a crusty, rustic foundation. It’s a little much to swing for a regular takeout habit, no doubt about it. For this reason, patrons can enjoy it as a one-off foray into decadence.

Less costly than the other gourmet pies scattered across the United States, this mushroom truffle pizza hails from a buzzy pizzeria in Miami that set down shop in 2019. You wouldn’t know it from the name, but Miami Slice doles out crispy, NYC-style pies with a flair for simple, albeit intriguing, combinations. The restaurant is never not busy, as seen by the two lines snaking down the block for dine-in and takeout. With reservations off the table, diners have to brave a lot of foot traffic to snag a slice.

A single slice of this mushroom truffle pizza is $10, so quite high on the scale of pizza slice prices. But buying an entire pizza to share with the family is where things really get steep: The 20-inch pie, featuring a variety of mushrooms and a truffle cream infusion on a mozzarella base, goes for $62. It doesn’t factor in add-ons you can tack on for an extra charge (a drizzle of hot honey is quite spendy at $5). A traditional Margherita, for reference, is $36, putting the funky flavor in the splurge category.

Another expensive pizza to scarf vicariously is this beaut from Big Lou’s Pizza. Patrons can split a 42-Inch pie at the Texas chain, spending up to $108 on the Veggie or Super Topping, the costliest combinations. Suffice it to say, the plentiful portions line up with the receipt. The San Antonio spot requires about two hours to put the magnificent meal together, which seems like a reasonable wait considering how the restaurant invested in top-of-the-line equipment that aligns with the outright humungous dimensions. However, Big Lou’s crowning achievement is a 62-Inch pizza — though you need to give the store a ring to find out the financial damage.

One other thing to mention? Big Lou’s doesn’t ride off sheer quantity. Taking pains to make the pizzas fresh has been the goal of proprietor Brian Lujan since opening the pizza parlor 25 years ago. The sauce, among the most integral of pie-slinging ingredients, is a recipe the eatery developed on its own; as good as Rao’s Homemade pizza sauce is for the jarred stuff, it doesn’t outshine homemade.  What would be pie-in-the-sky notions for most chains are enacted by this local pizzeria routinely.

Brooklyn-style pizza is just as irresistible as any other style from the five boroughs, but we wager none of the corner haunts break the bank like Cuts & Slices. The hip operation’s been chugging along since 2018, doling out pizzas in Bed-Stuy that tout a Caribbean air. Slow-simmered oxtail remains the innovative, eye-catching favorite. Because the kitchen cycles through highly specialized ingredients, every offering under the hood is going to instigate sticker shock, including one pizza that tested our round-up’s budgetary limits. 

With a little skimming, we found the highest tag of the bunch belongs to one of the establishment’s tantalizing seafood pies. Bursting with giant lumps of shellfish and a funky, truffle-inflected cheese sauce, the fried shrimp and lobster black truffle Alfredo rings up to $120. The restaurant doesn’t skimp on the pungent mushroom, either: Thinly-grated pieces are tucked between the morsels of fish, imparting a little potency to seal in the overload of savory flavor. One slice would be a more manageable entryway that wouldn’t max out your wallet, but at almost $19, even that could rival a large pizza for four from your average chain.

Some pies are pricey due to artisanal toppings or a hard-to-find import. Others demand a hefty fee as a result of their exorbitant mass. Enter the Giant Sicilian for the latter, a downright saucy spectacle to strain your wallet. For the all-too-modest sum of $399.99, Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria assembles the humungous crowd-pleaser — a feat of labor requiring about 20 pounds of dough, 5 pounds of cheese, and 3 pounds of pepperoni — and sends it to any office, birthday party, or celebratory junction in the San Fernando Valley.

Naturally, the size is a surefire excuse to charge a lot of money — it is, in fact, the biggest on our list — but other factors such as scratch-cooking the sauce and the sprawling oven setup in the back make the case for the $400 fee. Transporting the pizza contains its own back-breaking procedures, too; likely another reason for the L.A. chain’s price tag. The proportions, spanning 54 inches on each side, means the pie has its own special delivery vehicle. An employee from the restaurant slices the pizza, always 200 squares even, upon arrival at the destination.

Another monstrously-sized pizza to match the sky-high sum. In Louisville, Kentucky, pizza lovers can venture to DiOrio’s Pizza & Pub for one of the most expensive — and largest — whole pies charging through the nation. The Massive Gibbon is like a super-sized meat lovers’ fantasy; costing $168, it measures 30 inches across, weighs a hefty 15 pounds, and boasts eight different meat toppings, including spicy sausage, chicken, and salami.

In normal circumstances, a single one of these pizzas is supposed to feed up to 15 mouths. When divided down the middle, the cost breaks down to about $11 per person. Not a shabby amount for takeout fare. You could also decide to take on the Massive Gibbon Challenge: Per the rules of the contest, a team of four can try to polish one off in 40 minutes in exchange for eternal glory (and a $100 gift card to the pizzeria). Many folks have traveled to the Bluegrass State to give the contest a whirl, but so far only one local group has devoured the entire thing with any success.

Madison Avenue offers Manhattanites some truly unbelievable culinary luxuries. Where dollar slices are on every street corner, five-star hotel The Mark holds the keys to the potato rösti crust caviar pizza, a big-ticket option courtesy of Caviar Kaspia, a fine dining powerhouse from France. 

This elegant little pie doesn’t look like the regular cheese-and-sauce delights we’re used to. The base is potato rösti, a pancake-esque Swiss staple made out of potatoes that have been shredded and fried. To finish off the pizza, the crust is garnished with fluffy dollops of crème fraîche, a sprinkling of green chives for freshness, and, of course, caviar. The dainty roe pods are easily the culprit driving up the price point. Clientele who order the pizza can spend $95 for 30 grams of the garnish or, for really living lavishly, 50 grams for a cool $155. Unsurprisingly, booking a table in order to savor one for yourself is an absolute necessity.

Regional cuisine that embraces garden-fresh ingredients stands out over processed fare any day of the week. Without a doubt, it’s one of the reasons why the pizza tastes so good in Italy. L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is renowned globally for its Neapolitan pizzas perfected to a science. Those who crave a wood-fired luxury ought to try its truffle pizza at least once. It’s the most expensive pizza on the pizzeria’s lineup and can be found at three of the four American locations: Two in California (Hollywood and Long Beach) as well as the artsy Greenwich Village in New York City.

Creamy, moist fior di latte (mozzarella made from cow milk) is mixed with sharp pecorino cheese to form the puffed crust, and you get black truffles finely minced into medallions for maximum impact on top. At $65, it’s more than triple the marinara pizza, the least expensive on the menu. But think about it: How much would a flight to Naples, where the restaurant’s flagship has endured for a century, cost you? For an unparalleled charred crust, the price is, if anything, reasonable… dare we say a steal? 

Michael Hauke created this ingenious pizza when stoners entering his slice joint demanded tacos. Nowadays, it’s what Tony Boloney’s is famous for. The New Jersey pizzeria is a gold mine of wild inventions, and retailing at $100 gives the Taco Taco Taco pizza a one-up over the lion’s share of pizzerias. It’s a meal-within-a-meal daring foodies gleefully shell out for. 

It starts with a cheese pizza doused in mole and Oaxaca cheese. Here’s where the price skyrockets: Multiple kinds of street taco meats, such as chicken, steak, and brisket, are put in scratch-made tortillas around the edge, and guacamole, sour cream, and cilantro get dumped on top. Hoisting one slice is a weighty effort alone, but as a pie that’s 18 inches in diameter, foodies are looking to tackle a 30-pound beast of a feast. Gastronomic novelties are prone to hype, and while restaurants capitalize off well-deserved buzz, this viral pizza isn’t pricey just for the sake of it — it evens out when you consider each pie packs three tacos on a single slice for 24 tacos total. 

Madison Avenue Pizza might hail from Tampa Bay, but the cuisine under its roof is straight out of the Big Apple. The restaurant carries every East Coast delicacy, from Buffalo wings to meatball subs. But, as the name indicates, the primary focus is the pizza. Off the menu’s “Signature Pizza Creations” exists quite a few choices in a 32-inch model (the largest size on sale) if you’re feeling like a big spender. 

For a lofty fee of $140, there are 10 especially delicious combinations to choose from. The Angry Margherita sings a spicy tune, topped with Calabrian chili oil, peppers, and hot honey for a sought-after sweet addition. Or, roll the dice with “The Pizza Guys Pick Your Pizza” to try a custom concoction. You also can’t go wrong with the garlicky dream that is Chicken Florentine or a classic Meat Lovers to perk the tastebuds. One more notable entry is the That’s What She Said pizza, unveiled in 2021. Like other pies on our list, it enjoys a competitive chow-down challenge and spans the same dimensions, featuring one garnish of your choosing. It’s bonkers sizing that blows up your budget, but you won’t go hungry.