Di Fara Pizza

The Verdict

Di Fara Pizza earns its place in Brooklyn with over five decades of consistent output and consecutive recognition in Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats rankings — ranked #90 in 2024 and #114 in 2025, and a Pearl Recommended Restaurant for 2025. If you want to understand what makes New York slice culture worth arguing about, this is a legitimate place to do it. The room is unassuming, the operation is small, and the hours are limited, which means timing your visit is the actual skill required. Walk in during the tail end of the lunch window on a weekday and you'll have the counter largely to yourself. Show up at peak Saturday afternoon and expect a wait.

What Di Fara Is

Domenico DeMarco has been associated with this Avenue J address since 1965 — that's sixty years of the same approach in the same borough location, a track record that very few pizza operations anywhere can match. The format here is counter-service pizza: you order, you wait, you eat. There is no tasting menu, no progression of courses, no sommelier. What there is, is a slice tradition that has attracted serious food press attention and sustained OAD rankings alongside far more expensive restaurants in OAD's North American coverage. For the food enthusiast who wants depth and context, that sustained critical attention over multiple years is more meaningful than a single review spike.

The hours are the single most important logistical fact about Di Fara: Monday closes at 5 pm, which rules out after-work visits on that day. Tuesday through Sunday runs to 8 pm, giving you a workable dinner window. Given the 1424 Avenue J address in Midwood, Brooklyn, build in transit time from Manhattan , this is not a casual detour, it's a deliberate trip, and that intentionality tends to filter the room toward people who actually want to be there.

The Experience Arc

Di Fara doesn't operate on a tasting menu architecture, but there is a logical progression to visiting well. Arrive early in the service window: the first slices of any session tend to come out of a freshly heated oven, and the aroma of blistered dough and cheese cutting through the air in the small room is the clearest signal that timing matters here. If you're eating in, you're getting the pizza at its closest to optimal temperature. Take it to go and you're trading quality for convenience in a way that the OAD evaluators presumably were not doing when they ranked it. For first-timers, ordering more than you think you need is reasonable practice , the operation can sell out.

For the explorer-minded diner who tracks venues across the country, Di Fara sits in interesting company at the Cheap Eats tier. Compare it to Cellarmaker House of Pizza in San Francisco or Pizzana Brentwood in Los Angeles and you're looking at very different regional expressions of serious pizza. Di Fara's draw is specifically its longevity and its Brooklyn context , the sixty-year continuity on Avenue J is not incidental, it's the entire argument.

How It Compares in New York City Pizza

Within New York City's pizza category, John's of Bleecker St offers a Manhattan-based alternative with its own long history, considerably easier to reach if you're based in the West Village. Fini Pizza skews more contemporary and is worth considering if accessibility and a shorter trip are priorities. Di Fara's edge is specifically the OAD-recognized track record and the Midwood institution status , but that edge costs you a deliberate Brooklyn trip. Decide whether the pilgrimage is part of the appeal before you commit the afternoon.

Explore More in New York City

Di Fara is one stop in a deep New York City food landscape. For a full picture of where to eat, drink, and stay, see our full New York City restaurants guide, bars guide, hotels guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide. If you're tracking serious American restaurants more broadly, Emeril's in New Orleans, Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Alinea in Chicago, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, The French Laundry in Napa, and Providence in Los Angeles are all worth your time at their respective price points.