Una Pizza Napoletana

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

One Man, One Oven, One Standard

At 175 Orchard Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Una Pizza Napoletana is the full and only expression of Anthony Mangieri's life's work. Every ball of dough is made by his hands. Every pizza is shaped, topped, and baked by him alone — a level of personal accountability that is almost without precedent in a city of thousands of restaurants.

Mangieri's path to this point spans decades. Raised in New Jersey in an Italian-American family, he developed an obsession with pizza as a teenager, traveling the tri-state area in search of the best examples. At 22 he opened a small bread bakery in Red Bank, New Jersey. In 1996, he established Una Pizza Napoletana in Point Pleasant Beach, beginning a singular pursuit centered on naturally-leavened dough and wood-fired baking. The restaurant arrived in New York's East Village in 2004, relocated to San Francisco in 2010, and returned to New York in 2018. The current Lower East Side location reopened in 2022 following an extensive rebuild shaped entirely by Mangieri's vision.

The Work Itself

The foundation is Neapolitan pizza — but the result is something more personal. What began as deep respect for Neapolitan tradition has been refined over years of daily repetition into something guided by instinct and restraint. The dough is naturally leavened. The baking is wood-fired. There are no shortcuts and no delegation.

The menu reflects that philosophy: intentionally minimal. Six pizzas anchor it — the classic Marinara with San Marzano tomatoes, Amalfi Coast wild oregano, and Mangieri's own extra-virgin olive oil; the Margherita with DOP buffalo mozzarella; the Bianca; the Filetti with local market tomatoes; the Cosacca with Pecorino Romano; and a rotating Special Pizza. Toppings can be added — salted Italian anchovies, 36-month Vacche Rosse Parmigiano Reggiano, fresh-sliced pepperoni, Neapolitan long hot peppers — but substitutions are not accepted. The menu is a statement, not a negotiation.

Starters are few and well-chosen: house-marinated Gaeta, Cerignola, Castelvetrano, and Taggiasca olives; lupini beans with fennel pollen and chili; an imported Italian burrata with Vesuvio semi-dried tomatoes and broccoli rabe. Desserts are made fresh every morning — an almond cremolata using almonds roasted in the pizza oven, and a melon sorbetto based on a 100-year-old Mangieri family recipe.

The wine list stays in Campania, with bottles from the Amalfi Coast, the slopes of Vesuvio, and the Campi Flegrei, alongside a focused Champagne selection. Italian craft beers from Baladin round out the drinks.

The Room and the Recognition

Guests are seated within sight of the oven. The dining room is intimate, filled with one-of-a-kind works of art made by friends over the years. Operating at this deliberately small scale allows Mangieri to maintain an uncompromising focus on every detail — from fermentation and sourcing to the final seconds in the oven.

That focus has not gone unnoticed. Una Pizza Napoletana has been named the number one pizzeria in the world by 50 Top Pizza in 2022, 2024, and 2025, and has earned recognition from the Michelin Guide. Gambero Rosso has also awarded the restaurant 2 Slices — its recognition for outstanding Neapolitan pizza — further affirming what regulars already know: this is Neapolitan pizza at the highest level currently being practiced anywhere.