Best Pizza in Roma Norte

Roma Norte has long been one of Mexico City's most eclectic food neighborhoods, its tree-lined streets hosting everything from traditional fondas to cutting-edge tasting menus. But in the last five years, an unlikely trend has taken hold: pizza. Specifically, really excellent pizza. The neighborhood now boasts more high-quality pizzerias per block than perhaps any other neighborhood in Latin America, a concentration driven by a wave of Italian expats, pizza-obsessed Mexican chefs, and the neighborhood's walkable, cafe-culture vibe that makes pizza the perfect casual meal.

The pizza styles represented here are diverse. You'll find authentic Neapolitan operations with imported Stefano Ferrara ovens hitting 450 degrees Celsius, turning out leopard-spotted crusts with San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte. You'll find New York-style by-the-slice joints that have adapted their recipes to Mexico City's altitude (dough behaves differently at 2,240 meters above sea level). And increasingly, you'll find chefs who are doing something uniquely Mexican-Italian — topping pizzas with huitlacoche, oaxacan cheese, and chipotle, or using blue corn masa in their dough.

Roma Norte's pizza scene is concentrated along a few key corridors: Calle Orizaba, Avenida Alvaro Obregon (the neighborhood's grand boulevard), and the side streets between Tonala and Jalapa. Most spots are casual — you can walk in wearing whatever you came from Parque Mexico in — and many offer excellent natural wine and craft beer lists to complement the pies. Delivery is common, but pizza in Roma Norte is best eaten at the counter, watching the pizzaiolo work.

Baking pizza at 2,240 meters above sea level presents unique challenges that Roma Norte's best pizzerias have learned to master. Dough ferments faster at altitude due to lower atmospheric pressure, which means hydration ratios and fermentation times must be adjusted. The best pizzerias here have developed their own altitude-adapted recipes through years of trial and error — you'll notice the crusts tend to be slightly denser than what you'd find in Naples, compensating for the faster rise.

Water quality also plays a role. Mexico City's water is harder than Naples', which affects gluten development. Several top pizzerias filter or treat their water specifically for dough-making. These are the details that separate a good pizza from a great one — and the spots on this list have all figured them out.