Why Italian Experts Give Barcelona The Crown For The Second-Best Pizza

As J. Kenji López-Alt pointed out on Instagram, the best slice of pizza you'll find in New York City is probably the one that's closest to you. It would seem that the same principle applies to most parts of Italy, whose third-largest city of Naples famously played host to the dish as we know it today — though earlier versions of it appeared in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Today, Naples alone is home to more than 8,000 pizzerias.

If you ask the Italian pizza experts behind 50 Top Pizza, a prestigious annual guide that bestows pizza purveyors around the world with Michelin-level fanfare, the best pizza you can sink your teeth into (other than the kind from their home country, of course) can be found across the sea in Barcelona, Spain. The guide specifically spotlights Sartoria Panatieri, deeming it the best pizza place in all of Europe. Here's what makes the pies at the award-winning restaurant so noteworthy.

If the name Sartoria Panatieri sounds familiar, it's probably because you recognize it from 2022's 50 Top Pizza list, which ranked it as the fifth-best pizza place in the world. Judging from this year's top placement, chefs Rafa Panatieri and Jorge Sastre are clearly on a roll. According to the list-makers, the "farm to pizza" restaurant gets big points for its use of local ingredients from small farms and producers. "A lot of care is put into each stage of preparation, such as the excellent homemade cured meats," reads the 2023 guide. "It is a product full of personality and the pizza toppings are always balanced." 

There is little doubt that every pie at Sartoria Panatieri is delicious, but 50 Top Pizza pays special attention to one particularly striking creation: The "salsa de tomates cherry asados, and mozzarella y holandesa de albahaca" is a wood-fired pie with a base of roasted cherry tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil hollandaise. Other standouts on its menu include a mortadella number with pistachios, spinach, raisins, and ricotta cream.

Much like the ever-evolving Michelin guide, 50 Top Pizza makes decisions with the help of a band of anonymous inspectors who work all year long to make the pizza rounds across the globe. It sounds like a pretty great gig, but if it's anything like the Michelin life, it might not be as glamorous as it seems. "We believe that only the work of a large team can help us make a list that primarily conveys current trends," 50 Top Pizza curator Barbara Guerra told CNN. 

It would be too easy to compose the list based on the inspectors' favorite Neopolitan-style pizza. Instead, restaurants are judged by "personality and consistency," quality (regardless of style), and friendly service, says Guerra. To that end, she credits Sartoria Panatieri with having a "completely different personality" from other pizza spots. If you find yourself in Barcelona, you know where to go.