San Pedro has a deeper pizza scene than you might expect. While spending time in the area, we did what we usually do when visiting a new city. We found the best pizza spots in San Pedro that people actually talk about and see how they compare.
For this list, we visited five different pizzerias around San Pedro and the immediate surrounding area. We also looked through hundreds of customer reviews to see how our experience compared with people who have been eating at these restaurants for years. The result is a mix of old school neighborhood pizza, longtime family businesses, loaded California style pies, and places locals continue returning to again and again.
Not every pizza shop is trying to accomplish the same thing, either. Some are built around classic comfort food and a neighborhood atmosphere, while others have developed pizzas that people will drive across Southern California to try.
Our list starts at number five and works its way to our favorites. Here are five pizza spots around San Pedro worth checking out.
5. Niko’s Pizzeria
Located on West 6th Street, Niko’s Pizzeria feels like the type of neighborhood restaurant that has built its following by giving locals a comfortable place to keep coming back to.
Pizza might be in the name, but Niko’s goes considerably beyond it, offering pasta, burgers, sandwiches, calzones, Italian entrées, Greek dishes, salads, and plenty of other options. That neighborhood identity also comes through in customer feedback. Repeat visits are a common theme in reviews, with customers saying they return whenever they’re in San Pedro.
Recent reviews have praised the pizza’s surprisingly light crust, while calzones, ranch, pasta, and other parts of the extensive menu also receive plenty of attention. Niko’s isn’t trying to reinvent pizza. That’s part of what works about it.
This is more of the neighborhood pizza experience: grab a pie, sit down with friends or family, watch a game, have a beer, and order enough food for the table.
Among the five places we tried, Niko’s starts our list at number five, but it also shows something that becomes obvious when looking around San Pedro. So many established neighborhood pizza spots here, and even the beginning of our ranking has a loyal local following.
4. Big Nick’s Pizza
Coming in at number four is Big Nick’s Pizza on North Gaffey Street.
Big Nick’s follows a similar neighborhood approach but moves higher on our list thanks to the pizza itself and the classic Italian American comfort food experience surrounding it.
Customer feedback regularly describes Big Nick’s as a reliable local go-to, with customizable pizzas, specialty pies, generous portions, pasta, calzones, sandwiches, salads, and plenty more filling out the menu. Reviews also frequently mention the service and family-friendly atmosphere.
One interesting recommendation that appears in customer feedback is ordering the thin crust well done for some additional crunch. Not every review agrees on the crust, with some finding it a little too floppy, but taste and portion size receive plenty of praise.
That variety makes Big Nick’s an easy place to visit with a group.
Some pizza restaurants are destinations where everyone is expected to order the pizza. Big Nick’s feels more like the kind of local Italian spot where one person can order a pie, someone else can grab pasta, and another person can get a sandwich without anyone feeling like they chose the wrong restaurant.
For us, the pizza earns Big Nick’s the number four position.
3. Buono’s Pizzeria
This is where the history behind San Pedro’s pizza scene becomes hard to ignore. Buono’s Pizzeria has roots stretching back more than 50 years.
The Buono family immigrated from Italy in 1967 and operated a deli and bakery before transforming the business into a pizzeria in 1973. The family’s bread-making background became especially important because they already understood how to work with dough, eventually helping turn the pizza business into a San Pedro institution that later expanded into Long Beach.
More than five decades later, Buono’s is still serving San Pedro.
That history would not mean much if people didn’t still enjoy eating there.
Current customer feedback frequently points toward the freshness of the dough, crust and toppings, while the restaurant maintains the old-school Italian-American approach that has helped it survive generations of changing pizza trends.
There’s something different about eating at a pizza place that has been part of its community since the 1970s.
New pizza shops can chase trends. A restaurant that has lasted more than half a century has to convince multiple generations of customers to keep walking through the door.
Buono’s has done exactly that.
For its combination of pizza, history and connection to San Pedro, Buono’s takes the number three spot on our list.
2. Stuft Pizza
Our number two spot technically takes us just outside San Pedro into neighboring Rancho Palos Verdes, but Stuft Pizza is close enough to the area that leaving it off would have felt wrong.
Stuft has been part of California’s neighborhood pizza landscape since 1976, and its Rancho Palos Verdes location serves San Pedro along with several surrounding communities. The restaurant keeps the classic pizza shop feeling alive with loaded pies, sandwiches, pasta, wings, gelato, TVs, and even arcade games.
This is another restaurant where customer loyalty immediately stands out.
Some reviewers describe eating here since childhood. Others talk about driving considerable distances to return. Recent customer feedback consistently praises the pizza itself, and reviews frequently highlight the crust and the balance between dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings.
That’s ultimately what pushed Stuft so high on our list.
A pizza can have great ingredients individually and still fail when everything comes together. Too much cheese can overpower the sauce. Too much sauce can destroy the crust. A crust can look great but lack flavor.
Stuft has developed a following around getting those pieces to work together.
The menu also gives you plenty of room to experiment. The Stuft Special combines pepperoni, sausage, tomato, mushroom, onion, and bell pepper, while other options range from BBQ chicken and four cheese to Mexican-style, Thai chicken, pastrami, and build-your-own pizzas.
It was one of our favorite stops around San Pedro, earning the number two position.
But there was still one pizza place we enjoyed more.
1. Burattino Brick Oven Pizza
Burattino Brick Oven Pizza takes our number one spot.
Technically located across the San Pedro border in Rancho Palos Verdes, Burattino actually began in San Pedro in 2016. According to the company, the original restaurant opened beside a tire shop with little foot traffic and heavy competition from an area already filled with pizza restaurants.
Instead of disappearing into the crowded pizza scene, Burattino found its identity by doing something different. Thin crust. Edge to edge toppings. Black garlic. Unusual meats. And a ridiculous amount of pepperoni.
The restaurant’s 120 Pepperoni pizza became a signature, and Burattino says videos showing off the pie’s crunch helped the restaurant build a massive social media following. Its current menu still describes the pizza as containing at least 120 slices of pepperoni. Then there’s the black garlic.
Burattino’s signature black garlic marinara adds a sweet, tangy flavor that separates the pizza even further from the traditional pies we tried elsewhere around San Pedro. The restaurant has also built pizzas around ingredients like beef pepperoni and chorizo, while the Mercedes combines three different Burattino pizzas into one pie.
Customers consistently point toward the same characteristics that make Burattino stand out.
Reviews praise the thin crispy crust, generous amount of toppings, cheese to sauce balance, and distinctive ingredient combinations. Some customers even mention driving an hour or more specifically to try the pizza. Not every experience is perfect, with occasional reviews mentioning inconsistent bakes or service, but Burattino has clearly become a destination rather than simply another neighborhood pizza shop.
That’s also why it landed at number one for us. Every restaurant on this list gave us something different, but Burattino felt the most distinct. You can find pepperoni pizza almost anywhere in America. Finding a pizza shop that can make its version immediately recognizable is much harder.
Burattino has managed to do that.
San Pedro Is Worth Exploring For Pizza
After making our way through these five spots, one thing became clear: San Pedro and the surrounding area shouldn’t be overlooked when talking about pizza in Southern California.
Niko’s and Big Nick’s represent the neighborhood pizza experience. Buono’s brings more than 50 years of local history. Stuft combines longtime California pizza tradition with a loyal following of its own.
Then Burattino takes things in a completely different direction with thin crust, black garlic, loaded pies, and pizza designed to stand out from what everyone else is making.
Our ranking finished with Niko’s Pizzeria at number five, Big Nick’s Pizza at number four, Buono’s Pizzeria at number three, Stuft Pizza at number two, and Burattino Brick Oven Pizza taking number one.
That’s our order after checking out five of the area’s pizza destinations, but San Pedro has plenty more pizza left to explore.
For now, if we’re going back for one more pie, we’re starting with Burattino.
