As local appetite and talent surged for the globally loved dish over the last decade, it’s now possible to find nearly every regional American variation of pizza in our city: the wide, pliant triangles that define the New York slice; individualist takes on the Neapolitan archetypes; Chicago deep dish; the Detroit-style medium-thick pan pizzas laced with edges of caramelized cheese; crackery bar or tavern pies that show up across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic; and even the recent appearance, at Ozzy’s in Glendale, of a New Haven tomato pie.

If in one sense we’re a clearinghouse of styles, L.A. is also the perfect place for chefs to approach pizza as both personal narrative and personal expression. No brittle rules obstruct creativity. Tradition, innovation and nostalgia bake together into beautifully mottled canvases.

New, compelling pizza restaurants open with amazing frequency these days. For this guide to 21 favorites I’ve included a couple of places that launched early in 2023 and quickly established their baseline excellence. Most have been around for at least a few years, including several darlings of the scene that began as pandemic-era startups and found lasting audiences. Collectively, the range of delicious possibilities gleaned from the template of crust, sauce and cheese is astounding.