Three friends. One city. Zero bias.
The Philly Pizza Project started as a simple idea: Philadelphia has a serious pizza scene, and nobody was documenting it with the rigor it deserves. We wanted to change that.
We visit restaurants together — always as a group of three — so every score you see on this site reflects a genuine collective judgment, not a single palate. We order multiple pizzas per visit, score each one independently, then average our results into a final group score that goes into the ranking.
We have three separate, never-combined rankings: Neapolitan, New York Style, and Detroit Style. We believe these are fundamentally different products that deserve to be evaluated on their own terms.
Every pizza is scored on five criteria. Every restaurant visit is scored on four additional criteria. All scores are weighted — not just averaged — because not all criteria are equally important.
| Criterion | Weight | What we look for |
|---|---|---|
| Dough | 25% | Texture, fermentation, structure. The foundation of everything. |
| Sauce | 20% | Tomato quality, balance, intensity. Does it taste like real tomatoes? |
| Cheese | 20% | Quality, distribution, melt. Is it the right cheese for the style? |
| Bake | 15% | Bottom char, color, heat spots. Is it properly cooked? |
| Overall Balance | 20% | Ingredient ratio, first bite cohesion. Does it all work together? |
The score that goes into the ranking is the group average of GA, MW, and MA's overall impression scores. Each of us gives a holistic score for the visit — not a formula, just an honest number that captures how we felt about the experience overall. The pizza criteria table exists to inform that judgment and to give readers a transparent breakdown of what we were paying attention to.
Occasional guest reviewers join us and their scores appear in the write-up, but they don't affect the ranking average.
The European on the panel. Grew up eating pizza the way it's supposed to taste — simple, honest, properly fermented. Has strong opinions about dough and isn't afraid to share them.
Born and raised in Philly. Knows these neighborhoods, these ovens, these expectations. The local authority — if a place doesn't earn its place in this city, MW will say so.
American, with roots that run deeper than most. Has eaten her way across the country and carries both sides of the Atlantic in her palate. Consistently the toughest scorer — which keeps everyone honest.