Forget getting on a plane for a New York slice – all you have to do these days is head over to Shoreditch, where cult pizzeria Vincenzo’s has cemented the area’s status as a corridor built from tomatoes and cheese.
Back in 2022, Tom Vincent opened Vincenzo’s in the Hertfordshire town of Bushey. He quickly built a cult following thanks to his signature thin-crust whole pies, a hybrid of New York- and Naples-style pizza. When he opened his second site in Shoreditch late last year, with a focus on pizza by the slice, it was met with sighs of “finally” from Londoners and American expats – particularly New Yorkers.
Head to Vincenzo’s and you’re just as likely to see Vincent working up a storm in the kitchen as you are to see him chatting to customers whenever he gets a second. “I want to be out there all the time,” he says. “I want to be making the pizzas and talking to the customers – I want to be doing everything. It’s been five years since I started doing this and I can have the same conversation about pizza thousands of times but I love it.”
But Vincenzo’s isn’t the first new-gen pizzeria to open in the area. It’s fast becoming something of a “pizza mile”, joining the likes of the Bermondsey Beer Mile and the Pho Mile on Hackney’s Kingsland Road. This new pizza hotspot comprises two streets that run almost parallel to one another from Shoreditch High Street towards Bethnal Green. Here are the ones to know.
Vincenzo’s Shoreditch
Tom Vincent’s personal touches are on everything in Vincenzo’s, from his signature dough – made using flour from Pugliese producer Molino Casillo – to the original oil paintings he’s chosen for the walls. Slices start from £5 and include classics like pepperoni alongside spanakopita and vodka sauce pies, with the option to add extras like hot honey, fresh pesto and burrata.
122 Bethnal Green Road
Bad Boy Pizza Society
Founded in 2018 by uni mates Sam Clowes, Josh Oliver, Henry Hill and Charlie Reeves, who cooked up the idea on a night out at Southampton University, Bad Boy Pizza Society, has several sites around London. Its newest spot in Bethnal Green serves up 18-inch New York-style pizzas, with flavours like Fungi Town and Notorious PIG.
419 Bethnal Green Road
Paulie’s Shoreditch
Folding is essential at Paulie’s Shoreditch, which has been serving gigantic ’80s-style NYC pizza slices since June 2025. Slices and “signature squares” hover around the £5 mark and range from the classic (tomato, pepperoni) to the more inventive (cacio e pepe, burrata).
144–146 Commercial Street
Short Road Pizza
At-home pizza ovens became trendy over lockdown, but not all of them made it out of the garden. Thankfully, Ugo Galelli and Kate Prior’s oven and the pizza project it spawned in Leytonstone did. Head to Short Road Pizza for their signature Neapolitan-meets-NYC crust that has clinched national awards, including the 2025 National Pizza of the Year from Dine Out magazine.
Three Colts Tavern, 199 Cambridge Heath Road
Lauretta’s Pizzeria
If you’re still hankering for yet another bite, work up an appetite by heading northwards for a few extra minutes to Lauretta’s in Hackney. Created by the 75 Slices team, which previously held a residency at Three Colts pub on Cambridge Heath Road (now home to Short Road), Lauretta’s flung its doors open last summer, drawing crowds for its thin and chewy crusts and simple yet punchy toppings.
93 Columbia Road
