Owner and pizzaiolo Piergiorgio Quintiero is a purist when it comes to making Neapolitan pies. Of course that means using finely milled Caputo Tipo “00” flour to make a dough that’s fermented for 72 hours before being stretched, topped, and fired in a 770-degree wood-fired Mugnaini oven for 100 seconds. The result? Gorgeous, gattopardo-spotted pies of the highest order.

The Cali pizza chain brought Neapolitan legitimacy to Maitland when it opened two years ago, and the wood-fired pies have clearly grown on the neighborhood’s denizens. Owner Joe Roberts adheres to Neapolitan pizza-making practices by using finely milled Caputo “00” flour for the dough followed by an in-house ferment. Pizzas are wood fired between 850-950 degrees and plated in just 90 seconds. There are 19 different variants offered, from egg and bacon to truffle and vegetable to (gasp!) Hawaiian. 

Francesco Aiello’s popular Maitland restaurant draws in pizza lovers from all over thanks to pies that seem a cross between New York- and Neapolitan style. The lightly charred 13-inch rounds are ladled with Aiello’s housemade red sauce before being baked in a wood-burning oven at 700 degrees. The all-veg “Campagnola” is a favorite as is the “Calabrese” employing spicy Calabrian salami. A trio of calzones are also offered.

Brandon McGlamery’s Luma on Park may have shuttered mid-pandemic, but Prato, his other Park Avenue restaurant, continues to spotlight Italy’s dynamic duo of carbs – pizza and pasta. As far as the former is concerned, wood-burning Acunto ovens spit out modern Neapolitan beauties like the “Widowmaker,” a stunner comprising hazelnut romesco, cavolo nero, fennel sausage, and a farm egg. The crust is inspired by the thick, doughy, and much-ballyhooed version Nancy Silverton and Joe Bastianich made famous at Pizzeria Mozza in L.A.

It’s a given that the Roman couple behind Rome’s Flavours in Winter Park would serve Roman-style pies, and the thick, doughy rectangles served here are evocative of the ones found in the Eternal City. Rustic pizzas like the “Villa Borghese” (with plum tomatoes, mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, and truffle oil) and the “Colosseo” (plum tomatoes, mozzarella, hot salami, gorgonzola, and roasted red peppers) are in keeping with the restaurant’s Roman mien, plus they’re an ideal nosh when strolling brick-lined Park Avenue.

The pizzas can be polarizing, but there’s no denying LMP’s popularity among the college crowd and that they serve the largest honkin’ slices in town. For the especially gluttonous, whole pies are offered in 20- and, oof!, 30-inch options all of which can be beatified with toppings ranging from chili to mojo pork to smoked chicken.

The fact this pizzeria is still going strong after serving Brooklyn‘s Canarsie neighborhood for 20 years then serving Orlando’s Colonialtown neighborhood since 1994 says it’s doing something right. For more than a quarter century, Pizzeria Del-Dio has been satisfying Orlandoans’ cravings for properly floppy New York-style pizza and it don’t show signs of slowing down. Thick-crusted Sicilian numbers, like the meat supreme with sausage, bacon, ham, meatballs, and pepperoni, is the Don Corleone of pizzas in this town, while the heart-shaped vegetarian pie always makes an impression.

Bruno Zacchini got this city jacked for neo Neapolitan-style pies as round hounds lost their minds over model margheritas and pizzas with intriguing topping combinations like barrel-aged maple syrup, blueberries, fontina, mozzarella, bacon, and guanciale. Zacchini’s starter dough undergoes an in-house ferment for 48 hours before being pulled, tossed, topped, and red oak-fired at 1000 degrees for 90 seconds resulting in a superbly charred and flavorful crust.

Brick & Fire used to bake its pizzas in a brick-fired oven in its old Church Street Station days, but since moving to its current location 13 years ago, it’s been a conventional pizza oven doing all the work. Doesn’t seem to affect the quality of their pizzas any. The dough chef Mark Dollard uses to create his New York-style pies is mixed with a red ale from Orlando Brewing lending pizzas like the four-meat with stout red sauce and the mushroom pesto a more “bready” flavor. Proximity to area hospitals and clinics means first responders and medical professionals get a 15 percent discount.

This Belle Isle stalwart draws folks from all over for its pizzas baked in a unique wood-fired oven that simultaneously lifts and rotates the dough. The cornicione of Tartini’s Slovenian-style pies are blistered, doughy and have a lot more girth to them than the average Neapolitan pie. Dig into the namesake Tartini pizza with Genoa salami, soppressata, sausage, and pepperoni and find out. It’s a thin-crust wonder. Calzones, scored for effect and tear-ability, are like works of art.

Neapolitan pizza geeks are known to make the drive to Lake Nona just to indulge in the mozzy archetypes fashioned by Emilio Parascandolo and sons Fabio and Massimo. Whether it’s the “Pistacchiella” with bufala mozzarella, pistachio, and mortadella, or the “Tartufata” with imported mozzarella, mushrooms, prosciutto, parmesan, and truffles, every pie is made with a serious adherence to tradition and custom. And, no, pineapples are not a topping option.

Like Pizza Ponte at Disney Springs, Via Napoli at Epcot is another pizzeria run by the Patina Group, only the pizzaiolos here are doing everything possible to make their Neapolitan pies taste just like the ones found in Naples. That amounts to pizzas fashioned from Caputo flour imported from Naples, San Marzano tomatoes, handmade fior di latte mozzarella and water flown in from Naples (or Rome depending on the day). It’s about as authentic a Neapolitan pizza being in the city, if not the state.