The Best Pizza in Portland, Oregon

Portland may not spring to mind as a quintessential pizza town in the same way as New York or Detroit. But perhaps it is that lack of an overriding identity that has produced so many exceptional and exceptionally varied pizza places in a fairly small footprint. National outlets have taken notice, and many of the high-profile spots on this map regularly have lines out the door. But don’t sleep on the hole-in-the-wall neighborhood joints either, this isn’t the kind of cuisine where spending the most or waiting the longest is the only way to get the best of what’s out there.

It’s been said there’s no such thing as bad pizza, but all pizza is not created equally. Pizza is both a canvas and the artwork itself, a golden ratio of dairy, carbs, and tangy tomato, upon which artisans from around the world have left their mark. There are certain indications of quality — a bit of char on the crust or the amber glow of properly molten cheese — but no one formula for success, as evidenced by the profusion of signature pizza styles below.

— Additional reporting by Rebecca Roland and Brooke Jackson-Glidden

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