The Best Pizza in Manchester

Swan Street has emerged as one of central Manchester’s hotspots when it comes to hospitality and nightlife. A breakwater between the Northern Quarter and Ancoats, head here after dark and you’ll have abundant options for cocktails, casual dining, live music, DJ nights and just about anything else you might want to keep yourself busy with. Ciaooo has quietly become a cornerstone of this thriving neighbourhood, going up against an increasingly busy city centre pizza scene and coming out as one of the most unique-yet-authentic.

Situated in the heart of Levenshulme, a South Manchester suburb now overflowing with great options for food and drink, the fact Cibus has grown into such a firm favourite among locals tells you everything there is know about what they’re doing right. It’s not just pizza, there’s brilliant regional pasta dishes, cicchetti small plates and fabulous desserts. But the pizza is blazingly good.

Pizzas with hotdogs. Fried chicken and waffles. Salt & Pepper chicken and chips. Hamburgers. Pulled pork. Crazy Pedros push the limits of what should and what perhaps should not go on a pizza. There are more standard toppings, sure, but when in Rome, eh?

Chorlton’s Double Zero has a fanatical following. Perennial favourites from its huge oven include La Grande Rossa (a Roman style pizza with Fior di Latte, tomato, chorizo, ‘nduja, pepper, salami and finocchiona), Friarielli (Scamorza, Italian wild broccoli, sausage), Partenopea (Burrata, tomato, heirloom tomatoes, parma ham and Parmesan shavings), and the iconic Mezzaluna — a delicious hybrid of half calzone, half pizza, with Fior di Latte, tomato, porchetta, mushroom and Italian cooked ham.

If you’ve still not been to the original Ciaooo location over on Swan Street, we implore you to make amends and try the exceptional ‘classiche’ and ‘con burrata’ pizzas being served. Not least the regularly changing specials, which are some of Manchester’s most inventive culinary creations. Just around the corner, though, the team have another incredible offering to the hungry people of our shared hometown. Opening its doors on the hustle and bustle of Shudehill for the first time in 2023, Ciaooo Loaded Garlic Bread does exactly what it says on the tin.

Honest Crust’s independent operation is all about pizza as it should be. And by that, they mean 48 hour fermented dough, and only the best ingredients imported direct from small-scale producers. For example, the tomatoes and olive oil at the root of many menu items. This guarantees the best flavours, and helps reduce environmental impact. So that means everything you eat contributes to a fair, positive food ecosystem, which is always a good thing.

Taking inspiration from both Naples and New York City, bases and toppings here are among the most unique in town, and given the fierce competition that’s saying something!

At Lucky Mama’s find an excellent range of Roman and Veneto-style squared pizzas with classic toppings like simple margarita, alongside more elaborate combinations such as Mama’s Favourite — with tuna, prawns and garlic.

Located at an old MOT garage just off once-almost-forgotten Swan Street, Ramona is far more than just Manchester’s leading destination for Detroit style cheese and tomato pies. Known for their unique square shape — apparently the result of Michigan pizzerias using oil pans — diners will find a little taste of Motor City here in the centre of town.

With dough fermented for a minimum of 24 hours before being cooked at 500C in a wood burning oven, the speciality pizzas are definitely a highlight, and feature big hitters like Marinara, Margherita, and Diavola, alongside less common toppings. The sud, for example, comes with burrata, spicy calabrian sausage, and San Marzano tomato sauce. While the maiori boasts Amalfi tuna, capers, red onion and fior di latte cheese.

At Dokes Pizzeria, the menu says it all. The Beowulf, for example, combines pepperoni and nduja with Welsh Wagyu beef meatballs. Oki Dokes, meanwhile, mix prosciutto coppa, mushrooms, capers, burrata and rocket for an incredible flavour combination. Ananas comprises prosciutto cotta, caramelised apple, and spicy confit. And vegetarian option Mistero Buffo goes for roasted squash, goat’s curd, caramelised red onion and chilli. Children’s menus are available, and lunch and supper clubs are also on the cards at Dokes Pizzeria, so check their Instagram for updates.

Valentina and Marco are proper Italian. Not just a bit Italian. Fully, hugely, properly Italian. Walk into their shop Ceresis in Sale Moor, and you’re greeted like long-lost family, and fed in much the same way. The pizza they sell is also properly Italian, which of course sounds like an obvious statement, but as the likes of Rudy’s, Nell’s and Ramona show, you don’t have to be Italian to make pizza. Where Ceresis sits above the crowd is the pedigree that comes with it. Valentina was trained in the pizza-ly arts by perhaps the most preeminent pizzaiolo in all of Italy – Gabriele Bonci, who Vogue magazine once called ‘the Michelangelo of Pizza’, thanks to his services to ‘pizza al taglio’.

Freight Island’s very own pizzeria, Voodoo Rays have an impressive range of New York style pies with some great toppings. There’s the Porky’s which comes topped with Cumberland sausage, stilton and red onion, or the fiery Hot Mix 5 with pepperoni, jalapeno and red peppers. Enjoy alongside a selection of mac & cheese sides, beers and cocktails.