Vote for the best pizza place in the Portland area: Readers Choice Awards

Does Portland have the best pizza city in the country? It sounded absurd the first time a national pizza pundit said it. A little less so the second time. But now, when a majority of Portland’s best pizzerias are so new even local pizza obsessives haven‘t heard of half of them, we’re not so sure.

Last month, we ranked our top 15 Portland pizza places for 2024, a list that included nine pizzerias that weren‘t yet open in 2021, the year the “Modernist Pizza” authors seconded the take that America’s best pizza city is right here in Oregon.

Now it’s your chance to have a say. Below are the 10 finalists for The Oregonian’s Readers Choice Awards for best pizza in the Portland area, as chosen by your nominations.

You can vote for the best pizza place once a day at this link or at the bottom of this post until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. We’ll reveal the results on Friday, Nov. 15 at oregonlive.com/readers-choice.

Apizza Scholls

This New Haven style pizzeria topped our dining critic Michael Russell’s ranking of the 15 best pizza places in Portland last month. These are real East Coast pies, thin, wide and crispy, with both red and white sauce options and an array of toppings. When Russell heads there with friends, they’ll get as many of the classics as they can, like New York White, Tartufo Bianco, Apizza Amore (with capicola) and Amatriciana (with bacon), and he tries to make room for a slice of each.

4741 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 5-9 p.m. daily (arrive 15 minutes earlier if you want a booth); apizzascholls.com

Dimo’s Apizza

Dimo’s is a good example of the lengths local chefs are taking to recreate and even improve on regional pizza styles in a city still developing its own. To mimic New Haven’s traditional coal-fired flavor, Connecticut-born chef Doug Miriello came up with a two-oven system, cooking each pizza in an old electric oven then further charring it in a wood-fired Italian dome.

701 E. Burnside St., 4-9 pm. Monday-Wednesday, 11. a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday; dimosapizza.com

Hapa Pizza

Russell didn’t include Beaverton pizzerias in his ranking, but if he had, this Neapolitan spot with its Asian-inspired toppings was would have made the cut. Hapa, which owners Aaron and Natalie Truong describe as an expression of their “experience of growing up as Asian Americans and being a hybrid of multiple cultures,” was also named one of the best pizza places in America by the New York Times earlier this year.

12755 S.W. Broadway St., Beaverton, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. or sold out Wednesday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. or sold out Saturday; hapapizza.com

Ken’s Artisan Pizza

Over the past year, everyone from random travel websites to Italian pizza ranking organizations have picked the Southeast Portland pizzeria started by Ken Forkish (and now owned by Peter Kost) as one of the best pizzerias not just in America, but the whole world. These days, chef Vince Krone and his team bake more than 300 pizzas per day in Ken’s wood-fired oven, starting with outstanding dough and quality toppings.

304 S.E. 28th Ave., 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4:30-9 p.m. Sunday, kensartisan.com

Pizza Jerk

This family-friendly pizzeria makes thin-crusted East Coast-style pies that, to someone from New Haven, might just taste like home. Cheese and pepperoni are well executed, but most folks end up ordering the It‘s Always Sunny in Cully, a Hawaiian variation made with pepperoni, pineapple, hot peppers and honey. And for the parents out there, the soft serve ice cream machine and play area out back are not to be missed.

5028 N.E. 42nd Ave., 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. daily; 1708 S.W. 6th Ave., Suite 120, 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Sunday-Tuesday, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; pizzajerkpdx.com

Pizza Kat

When catering gigs dried up early in the pandemic, Crown Paella owners Emily and Scott Ketterman pondered alternatives, settling on pizza. Scott describes their pies as “New York-style pizza with an artisan bent.” Their naturally leavened dough produces a tangy, just-chewy-enough crust that makes you want to try it with every available topping.

2174 W. Burnside St., 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday-Monday and Wednesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday; pizzakat.com