After personally testing dozens of pizza restaurants, we’ve found the best pizza in Roanoke, VA for every pizza taste. Whether you love New York style pizza or you can’t get enough wood-fired slices, you’re sure to find your new favorite pizza place on this list.
I may not be an expert on fine dining, but I know my pizza. I’ve always loved pizza and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a pizza place within an hour of Roanoke we haven’t tried. If there’s anyone qualified to judge the best pizza places in Roanoke, I feel pretty confident it’s me.
Luckily, Roanoke has a ton of pizza restaurants and many of them offer a great slice. Of course, they can’t all be amazing; there are plenty of mediocre pizza places here just like anywhere else.
To save you from suffering needlessly through disappointing pizza, I’m sharing the seven best pizza restaurants in Roanoke no matter what your pizza preference.
Of course there are more than seven good pizza places in the Roanoke Valley, but if I’m promising the best, I want to only share the very best. So I’ve whittled my list of good pizza places down to this list of the best of the best can’t-miss pizza spots.
Bobby’s Hot and Cheesy – Best all around pizza experience
If I absolutely had to choose one favorite pizza place in Roanoke, it would have to be Bobby’s Hot and Cheesy.
Bobby’s serves delicious pizzas in a welcoming, vibrant little restaurant. The dining room is casual enough to be welcoming for families while also feeling cozy enough for a date.
They have small personal size pizzas as well as large pizzas that are perfect for sharing. They also offer pizza flights where you can sample three mini pizzas for only $15. Talk about a brilliant idea! It’s the perfect solution if you aren’t sure which pizza to get and also makes a great appetizer for sharing.
You’ll also find a rotating menu of other delicious sides including salads, wings, calzones, and most recently charcuterie. All of it is delicious.
Bobby’s doesn’t have a huge menu; instead they have a finely crafted selection of specialty pizzas, though you are also welcome to design your own. Our current favorites are Meataly and Homeslice.
Eating at Bobby’s also comes with a big side benefit. Connected to Bobby’s and run by the same owners is Bubblecake, an amazing cupcake bakery that also carries cookies, specialty candies, and a few other fresh baked treats.
If you like sweets, you have to try Bubblecake. Just like Bobby’s, everything is delicious and choosing which of the fun cupcake flavors to try is half the fun.
The combination of pizza and cupcakes makes this a particularly great spot for any kind of quick celebration.
Bobbys and Bubblecake do have one funny quirk that can be both good and bad. They love to change things up; the menu, decor, and layout frequently change. It’s great that things are constantly being updated and there are often new things to try. But it can also be frustrating when some of your old favorites are no longer on the menu. But no matter what changes they make, they always have plenty of delicious pizzas.
Benny Marconi’s – Best pizza by the slice
If you’re looking to grab a quick slice of pizza, Benny Marconi’s is the place for you. Benny’s sells giant slices of pizza that are hot and delicious and ready in minutes.
Benny’s is located in the heart of downtown Roanoke on Campbell Ave, tucked away in a sliver of a historic building. Whether you’re dining in or picking up pizza to go, you’ll order at the counter and then they call your name when your pizza is ready.
To keep things speedy, they have a limited selection of pizza toppings available each day. They always have cheese and pepperoni slices and typically have 2-4 other specials as well including combos like garlic mushroom, siracha sausage, and macaroni and cheese.
There’s also a pretty impressive drinks cooler with pretty much any soda you can imagine as well as juices, Gatorade, and a few beer options.
The New York style slices are surprisingly good considering how cheap and fast it is. A single slice is plenty for most people and if you do opt to order a whole pizza to go, be prepared for the pizza box to be too big to fit through your door!
The restaurant has a very laidback, casual atmosphere and we love to bring our kids here. Just be aware there is very limited seating in the dining area and it does fill up occasionally during busy times.
Benny’s also has several other locations nearby including Benny Marzano’s in Blacksburg (the original location), Benny Adelina’s at Smith Mountain Lake, and the newly opened Benny Soldato’s in Bedford,
New York Pizza – Best New York style pizza
I mean, the name says it all really. If you love a classic New York slice, New York Pizza in Vinton has it. Offering dine in, carryout, and delivery, New York Pizza is a no-frills pizza restaurant run by a local Italian family.
This is our go-to choice for takeout pizza. The crust is delicious, the toppings are flavorful, and the pizzas are big. (On that note, be sure to pay attention to the pizza sizes when ordering. A ‘baby’ pizza here is like a small at other restaurants, while a ‘small’ is more like a typical medium, etc.)
They offer all the classic pizza toppings you’d expect. And they also carry thick crust Sicilian style pizzas as well as subs if you want to change things up. But you really can’t go wrong with their classic Neopolitan pizzas.
The same owners recently opened a second restaurant in SW Roanoke called Tony Avellino’s with the same great pizza if you are closer to that side of town.
Mellow Mushroom – Best crust
Mellow Mushroom serves delicious pizza with a thick flavorful crust and lots of tasty specialty pizzas.
You can find Mellow Mushroom pizzerias in many cities throughout the southeast and they are slowly starting to expand into other parts of the country. But Mellow Mushroom really doesn’t feel like a chain restaurant. Every single location has it’s own unique colorful decor and special menu options. And more importantly, the pizza doesn’t taste like other chain pizza restaurants.
Mellow Mushroom Roanoke has a kitschy 1970s vibe inside. There is a full bar with plenty of drink options including draft beers and cocktails in addition to the dining area.
Mellow Mushroom pizza is really all about the crust. The specialty pizzas include all kinds of interesting flavor combos and the toppings all taste fresh and delicious.
But it’s the crust that makes this pizza stand out. It’s thick, chewy, and finished with delicious garlic butter and parmesan cheese. Allegedly the secret ingredient is molasses, but whatever the reason, this dough is unlike any other pizza dough.
They also carry vegan and gluten free pizzas if you have special dietary needs. This location does not have a separate kids menu like many Mellow Mushrooms do, but you can probably get by with just splitting a pizza as a family anyway.
Aside from the pizza, everything else we’ve tried at Mellow Mushroom has also been delicious. I personally recommend the wings, the meatballs, and the pretzels which taste a lot like that amazing crust.
On the Rise – Best Breakfast pizza
If you haven’t yet had breakfast pizza, you are seriously missing out. Sure, lots of us have had leftover pizza from the fridge for breakfast but I’m talking about fresh, delicious, respectably breakfasty pizza.
On the Rise is a local bakery in downtown Roanoke right on Market Street. It has an amazing location in a historic building packed with character. There is also a second On the Rise location in Grandin Village that carries the same great baked goods along with a small selection of handmade gifts.
Most mornings at On the Rise, you’ll find a selection of two or three different breakfast pizza options all ready to be heated up for you. Each pizza includes scrambled eggs, cheese, and other toppings like bell peppers, sausage, and jalapeno on top of a thick, chewy crust. Every one we’ve tried has been delicious.
While you’re enjoying breakfast, you might also want to grab a few of their fresh pastries. The muffins here are the best I’ve ever tasted.
They also serve more traditional pizzas at lunchtime with the same unique crust and I highly recommend those as well.
Fork in the Alley – Best wood-fired pizza
Fork in the Alley offers delicious pizzas baked in a wood fired brick oven along with burgers, sandwiches, salads, and specialty hot dogs
The restaurant is a tiny little place literally tucked away in an alley in the Crystal Spring section of Roanoke. When you eat here, you have your pick of settings. There’s the dark tavern-like interior where you’ll find the bar and a few tables, the larger sunroom area where you’re protected from the weather but get tons of natural light, and the open patio for dining outdoors when the weather is nice.
Pizzas from Fork come out with that signature almost-but-not-quite charred crust that you can only get from a real brick oven and every topping tastes incredibly fresh and flavorful.
Lago Pizza – Deep dish pizza
You may notice that I didn’t include the ‘Best’ designation for this deep dish pizza. The truth is I’m not a fan of deep dish pizza – it’s the one kind of pizza that I just don’t love. So I haven’t personally tried Lago Pizza’s deep dish yet.
But I wanted to include it here because I know there are those who absolutely love deep dish pizza and it isn’t always the easiest thing to find here in the South. Their deep dish gets great reviews so if that’s your thing, it’s definitely worth a try.
I have an old friend who’s a deep dish lover who is coming to visit later this spring. While she’s here, we’re definitely going to hit up Lago and after that I can give a more thorough review.
After extensive research and thorough taste-testing, I feel quite confident these are the spots for the best pizza around Roanoke. But if you have other options you think we may have somehow missed, I’m more than happy to give them a try!
In the meantime, if you’re in the Roanoke area, I’s suggest you check out our post on the 30+ best things to do in Roanoke. It includes all kinds of recommendations for exploring the city, outdoor activities, and more great food recommendations.
And if all that pizza has you ready for some exercise, we also have a whole list of the best hikes near Roanoke.
Jeff Fitzgerald says
Lago does make a good deep-dish. It’s not on the level of Pequod’s or even Lou Malnati’s, but still a solid pie on the level of Pizzeria Uno. The difference is in the crust.
I don’t know why deep dish isn’t more popular in the South, where we love this level of excess.
Mitch says
Thanks for the recommendations! Regardless of the type, crust really is what separates good pizza from great pizza.