Restaurant in Brooklyn, United States
Ranked top-20 nationally. Walk in, order smart.
Ranked #16 on the 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 list, Pizza Secret is the clearest case for traditional Neapolitan pizza in Brooklyn. Pizzaiolo Rosario Granieri, trained at Eataly and Rossopomodoro, runs a compact Park Slope spot built around the craft. Booking is easy, the format is casual, and the credential is real. Eat in — this style of pizza does not travel well.
Pizza Secret earned the #16 spot on the 50 Leading Pizza USA 2025 list, which puts it in rare company for a neighborhood pizzeria on 5th Avenue in Park Slope. If you are looking for traditional Neapolitan pizza in Brooklyn with a verifiable ranking behind it, this is the clearest yes in the borough. The only constraint worth knowing: seating at a spot this size fills on busy nights, so arriving without a plan on a Friday or Saturday is a gamble.
Pizza Secret sits at 72 5th Ave in Park Slope, a neighborhood that rewards walking in with a clear order in mind. The space is compact, consistent with the Neapolitan pizzeria format, where the focus is the oven and the pie, not elaborate tableside theater. That spatial simplicity is part of the pitch: this is a room built around production, not ambiance performance. If you want a sprawling dining room or extensive tasting menu environment comparable to The French Laundry in Napa or Le Bernardin in New York City, Pizza Secret is solving a different problem entirely. It is a precision pizzeria in a practical room.
For the explorer who wants to understand why the space matters: Neapolitan pizza is a high-heat, short-bake format where the oven is the controlling variable. The layout at Pizza Secret prioritizes proximity to that process. Compact seating means shorter ticket times and pizza that arrives as intended, not recovering from a long journey across a cavernous dining room.
Given the editorial focus here, the honest answer is that Neapolitan pizza is among the formats that travels least well. The thin, high-moisture crust that makes a wood-fired Neapolitan worth the trip is also what makes it most vulnerable to steam and time in a box. Pizza Secret's ranking and its traditional technique are built for the in-room experience. If you are deciding between eating here versus ordering delivery, eat here. The 50 Leading Pizza USA ranking is a credential earned in the room, not in a delivery bag. That said, if proximity or circumstance makes takeout your only option, picking up in person and eating quickly nearby is a reasonable compromise. Delivery to a location with more than a 10-minute travel time is where quality loss becomes material.
For comparison, pop-up pizza operations like Bad Cholesterol sometimes lean into formats that hold better off-premise. Pizza Secret's traditional Neapolitan approach is not that format.
Executive chef and pizzaiolo Rosario Granieri founded Pizza Secret in July 2018. His background includes time at Eataly and Rossopomodoro, both venues with direct Italian operational lineage. That training context matters for understanding the product: this is not a New York interpretation of Neapolitan pizza but an attempt at the source format, made by someone with institutional exposure to how it is done in Italy. The 2025 ranking suggests that attempt is landing. For food and travel enthusiasts tracking where the craft pizza conversation is going in the US, Pizza Secret is a documented data point worth visiting.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy. Park Slope is accessible by subway, and 5th Avenue has consistent foot traffic, so the location itself creates no logistical friction. Check current hours before visiting, as they are not confirmed in available data. Dress code expectations at a Neapolitan pizzeria in Park Slope are relaxed: come as you are. Price range is not confirmed in available data, but the Neapolitan pizza category in Brooklyn generally sits in the accessible-to-mid range per person, making this one of the more approachable ways to eat at a nationally ranked pizza destination.
For more on what else to do around a visit, see our full Brooklyn restaurants guide, our full Brooklyn bars guide, and our full Brooklyn hotels guide. If you are building a broader Brooklyn food day, Barker Cafeteria handles daytime sandwiches nearby, and 6 Restaurant, Bong, and Border Town round out a diverse Park Slope and Brooklyn dining circuit. For experiences and wineries in the borough, see our full Brooklyn experiences guide and our full Brooklyn wineries guide.
Against the Brooklyn pizza field, Pizza Secret's 50 Leading Pizza USA 2025 ranking (#16 nationally) gives it a credential that most local competitors cannot match on paper. Il Leone works in a similar Neapolitan-adjacent lane with naturally leavened dough, which appeals to readers who prioritize fermentation depth and want to compare two serious approaches side by side. If you can only do one, Pizza Secret's external ranking makes it the more defensible first choice, but Il Leone is worth the follow-up visit. Third Time's the Charm takes a wood-fired, supper-club format that is a different experience altogether — better suited to a group that wants a full evening rather than a focused pizza meal.
If your group is split on what to eat, Border Town and Vato (Northern Mexican and Basque influences, with a tortilleria and bakery component) are strong alternatives for non-pizza occasions. Kelang covers Malaysian, a completely different category. None of those are direct substitutes for what Pizza Secret does, which keeps the decision simple: if the meal is about pizza, Pizza Secret is the ranked choice in Brooklyn right now.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza Secret | Pizza Secret is a traditional Neapolitan pizzeria in Brooklyn's Park Slope, founded in July 2018 by executive chef and pizzaiolo Rosario Granieri. Granieri, who previously worked at Eataly and Rossopomodoro, shares his passion for authentic Neapolitan food, crafting pizzas with techniques passed down through generations. The pizzeria was ranked #16 on the 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 list. | Easy | — | |
| Border Town | Northern Mexican / Tortilleria-focused | Unknown | — | |
| Il Leone | Neapolitan-style / naturally leavened pizza | Unknown | — | |
| Kelang | Malaysian | Unknown | — | |
| Vato | Tortilleria / Northern Mexican and Basque influences; bakery | Unknown | — | |
| Third Time's the Charm | Wood-fired pizza / supper-club style | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy, so planning days ahead rather than weeks is typically sufficient. That said, a #16 national ranking on the 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 list drives consistent foot traffic to 72 5th Ave, so arriving off-peak or calling ahead on busier weekend evenings is a reasonable precaution. Walk-ins are part of the format here.
This is a neighborhood Neapolitan pizzeria in Park Slope, not a tasting-menu room. Come as you are — casual works. There are no dress expectations beyond what you'd wear to a relaxed dinner in Brooklyn.
It depends on what you mean by special. If you want to mark something with genuinely credentialed food, Pizza Secret's #16 placement on the 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 list gives it a serious claim. If you need a private dining room, formal service, or a multi-course format, the compact Park Slope pizzeria setting isn't the right fit.
Go for the pizza — that's the entire point. Rosario Granieri trained at Eataly and Rossopomodoro and founded the spot in July 2018 specifically around traditional Neapolitan technique. The space is compact and the format is casual, so arrive with a clear order in mind rather than expecting a long exploratory meal.
Pizza Secret's 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 ranking (#16 nationally) gives it a credential most Brooklyn competitors can't match directly. For wood-fired Neapolitan in NYC with comparable editorial recognition, Roberta's in Bushwick and Lucali in Carroll Gardens are the most commonly cited alternatives, though each runs a different format and booking difficulty. Pizza Secret's Park Slope location suits a different crowd than either.
Yes. A compact neighborhood pizzeria on a walkable stretch of 5th Avenue is one of the more comfortable solo formats in Brooklyn. You're not committing to a multi-course tasting or a table for two — ordering a pizza at a credentialed spot like this is straightforwardly practical on your own.
The space is compact, consistent with a traditional Neapolitan pizzeria format, which means large groups should call ahead rather than assume a table for eight is available on arrival. Smaller groups of two to four are the natural fit. If you're planning a group dinner around the #16 50 Top Pizza USA 2025 ranking as a draw, confirm capacity in advance.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
