The 50 Top Pizza has filled a gap we needed to fill in the awards world: the world’s best pizzas. We know the best restaurants thanks to the Michelin, the 50 Best or the Macarfi, but we were missing a global list that would point out who are the best producers of the most universal dish in the world.
In this list Barcelona occupies a special place. The best European pizzeria last year was Sartoria Panatieri born in Barcelona and this year, although they no longer occupy the throne, they maintain their silver medal becoming the second best pizzeria in Europe and the best in Spain.
But apart from Sartoria, Barcelona is home to 10 other pizzerias that are among the best in Europe in different categories. Aside from the main list, the 50 Top Pizza, these awards also point out the most important “50 European Special Awards 2024”(Special awards to pizzerias in Europe for outstanding performance in some aspects); the “50 Top Pizza Europe 2024 – Excellent Pizzerias” (Pizzerias in Europe that have not made it into the Top 50 but stand out) and the “The Best Independent Pizzerias in Spain 2024” (Independent Pizzerias in Spain that stand out and participate in Pizza Week).
Among all these lists are a dozen pizzerias in Barcelona (and its metropolitan area) that we explain below to make a route for the best pizzas in your area and choose your own favorites.
Sartoria Panatieri
El capo di tutti capi. Jorge Sastre and Rafa Panatieri’s pizzeria does not stop receiving awards, and despite having “lost” the first position this year, they continue to hog the spotlight. Apart from being the second best pizzeria in Europe, Sartoria Panatieri takes the special Green Oven award for sustainability and appears, of course, on the lists of Excellent Pizzerias and The Best Independent Pizzerias in Spain 2024.
Frankie Gallo Cha Cha Cha Cha
A historic pizzeria in Barcelona, one of the first to take pizza, until then traditional, to the avant-garde, raising the level of quality and innovation in their recipes. As the 50 Best themselves say “The history of pizza in the Catalan capital passes through this avant-garde establishment”.
📍 Carrer del Marquès de Barberà- Carrer de Roger de Llúria
La Balmesina
Another pizza innovator in the city. The name today, inspired by the street where it started, sounds humble compared to the name that the pizzeria has become, key headquarters of good pizza in the city. Always full thanks, as they say in 50 Top, to “the attention to non-industrial products, the selection of natural wines, craft beers and kombucha emphasize the coherence of the whole experience”. Of course, also their dough, with “whole wheat flours and a fermentation of at least 72 hours with a biga starter” and their wonderful lunch menu.
📍La Balmesina, Carrer de Balmes
Gina Balmesina Pizza bar
La Balmesina’s little sister, the spin-off, with a menu based on top quality ingredients made in local artisan workshops or homemade, with starters, pizzas and desserts and special attention to vegan options and natural wines. The top 50 pizzas are “Manuel Marinara” and “Artichoke and Pancetta”.
📍 Riera de Sant Miquel Street
Point
In the heart of Enric Granados, Punta is a new modern Neapolitan pizzeria made with long fermented dough that “melts in your mouth”. The Top 50 recommend the 3P pizza with smoked provola cheese, Piennolo del Vesuvio cherry tomatoes and peppers and the Diavola with a Calabrian ‘nduja and PDO Pecorino Romano.
📍Carrer d’Enric Granados
Trafalgar – Cocktail & Pizza Club
Trafalgar is on our list of best pizzas for a reason, and its appearance in the Top 50 proves it. The pizzeria, with an industrial feel and electronic music, is what you’d expect to find in New York or Berlin, with three zones: the first floor has a pizzeria on one side and a cocktail bar on the other, and a raised floor that houses a chill-out space furnished with leather sofas and armchairs. The menu presents the pizzas as “tracks” of a disco and they taste like authentic Neapolitan pizzas, eaten, of course, in an atmosphere far removed from the southern Italian city.
📍Carrer de Trafalgar, Barcelona
Cruel Pizza (Pineda de Mar)
In Pineda de Mar, a summer resort area on the coast of Barcelona, Cruel hides contemporary Neapolitan-style pizzas with a pronounced crust, including vegan, organic and vegetarian options and with a clear desire to fuse Italian cuisine with local products. A great stop in the Zone.
📍 Carrer Doctor Bertomeu, Pineda de Mar
Il Figlio di Emiliano (Sabadell)
Eric’s story we’ll tell you about it and is so curious that it’s no wonder she managed to sneak into this list a few months after opening her pizzeria. In his pizzeria in Sabadell, daughter of his first homemade “clandestine” pizzeria set up by the pandemic and boosted by social networks, he cooks authentic Neapolitan pizzas with ingredients brought mostly from Italy’s Campania region.
📍Carrer Mare de Déu de les Neus, Sabadell
Maximmus Pizza (Sabadell)
Another pizza in Sabadell. With a typical Naples pizza oven in the shape of a crescent moon to respect the local motto: “Fast cooking, but slow fermentation and maturation”. The Top 50 recommend everything from the classic margarita to the Iberian, including a pizza dedicated to the little ones and a variety of wines.
📍Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, SabadellSabadell
Mecànic Pizza (Sant Cugat del Vallés)
A surprise on the other side of Collserola, just 20 minutes by train from the city center. A large wood-burning oven presides over the place, creating “the right atmosphere” to appreciate the dough that ferments for three days and is topped with raw materials brought from Italy and tasteful starters such as “smoked burrata or tricolor dishes like lasagna and carbonara”.
📍Carrer de Sant Esteve, Sant Cugat del Vallès
Pizzeria Marghe 1889 ( Terrassa)
Another great representative of the Vallés, with three locations for a project that offers “high quality organic products, both Italian and Catalan, from small artisan producers”. The 50 Top say that “this project is a direct result of the Italian pizza revolution, which transformed pizza from a poor man’s food to a true gourmet option,” with signature pizzas “with natural, preferably seasonal, and well-mixed ingredients.”
rambla d’Ègara, Terrassa – Travessia de la Creu, Girona – Carrer de la Riera, Lloret de Mar