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Ocean City has more good pizza per block than just about any boardwalk in the country.
Walk the stretch from 7th Street to 12th Street and you’ll pass half a dozen counters, each one with regulars who will tell you, without being asked, that theirs is the only one worth stopping for.
We’re partial to one of them. Obviously.
We’ve been on these boards since 1956, and 2026 makes seventy summers of it, so we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But we’ve also eaten our neighbors’ pizza for most of those seventy years, and the honest truth is that this island’s pizza argument is a good argument.
There’s no wrong answer, only a favorite.
We’ve put ourselves first, then listed the rest the way you’d actually walk them, heading north from 7th Street. Here’s what the rest of the world says about each one, and what to order when you get there.
The Six Spots at a Glance
- Manco & Manco (9th & 12th Street) – cheese first, sauce on top, since 1956
- Roma Pizza (7th Street) – red gravy and the local vote
- Pisa Pizza (8th Street) – the low-key walk-up
- Prep’s Pizzeria and Dairy Bar (10th Street) – white pizza plus ice cream, since 1965
- Three Brothers from Italy (10th–11th Street) – 26-inch pies and the Beat That Pie challenge
- Primavera (11th Street) – the biggest menu, for mixed groups
1. Manco & Manco Pizza
Where: 9th Street and the Boardwalk, and 12th Street and the Boardwalk · Since: 1956
Both boardwalk stores are seasonal. Our Somers Point store on the mainland is the year-round one.
Thin crust. Crispy bottom. Cheese laid down first, sauce striped over the top.
That’s been the pie since our first summer, and we have never found a reason to change it.
Cheese First, Then the Sauce
Most pizza goes sauce, then cheese. Ours goes the other way, and that’s not a gimmick — it came down from Trenton with the founders.
Trenton is tomato-pie country, where the sauce goes on last by tradition. Two families brought that method south to the boardwalk in 1956 and never let it go.
The cheese keeps moisture off the dough, so the crust stays crisp to the last bite. The sauce sits on top, where you taste it first.
It’s why our slice looks different from every other slice on the boardwalk, and why people can pick it out blindfolded.
Made in Front of You
There’s no back kitchen. Our piemen work the counter in the open — spinning dough overhead, laying cheese, striping sauce, pulling pies, cutting them while you watch.
Half the reason people stop is the pizza. The other half is the show.
Some of our piemen have been doing it for decades. Same hands, same technique, same slice you had as a kid.
A Boardwalk Family Since 1956
Two families from Trenton opened the first pizza window on the Ocean City Boardwalk in the summer of 1956.
A second store followed at 7th Street, and a third arrived at 12th Street and the Boardwalk in the late ’80s, under Frank Manco and his wife Kay. The full story of how boardwalk pizza got here is worth a read on its own.
In June 2017 we opened the 9th Street store inside the old Strand Theater — a restored Ocean City landmark, and by a good margin our biggest room yet.
Today it’s run by the third generation: Mary and her husband Chuck Bangle.
You can also get Manco & Manco at Citizens Bank Park during Phillies home games, at five stands around the park.
What the Critics Say
“A boardwalk staple in Ocean City since the 1950s.”
— Food & Wine, Best Pizza in Every State (New Jersey’s pick)
“The slices are bigger, the crust is crunchier, and the cheese-to-sauce ratio is scientifically perfect.”
— The Infatuation, Manco & Manco review
They also noted the other thing you can count on seeing here: “a line out the door.”
What To Order
Start with the classic thin and crispy cheese. It’s the pie that built the place.
After that, the white broccoli, the Venetian, or the buffalo chicken.
Walking the boards? Get a cut. Feeding the whole crew? Get a whole 18″ pie and grab a table.
Good To Know
Lines are longest between 6 and 8 p.m. all summer. Come before 5 or after 9 and you’ll walk right up.
2. Roma Pizza
Where: 656 Boardwalk, at 7th Street, the south end of the strip
Roma is the one the locals vote for, and this year they voted loudly.
An OCNJ Local reader survey named it the best pizza in Ocean City, and a Philadelphia Inquirer taste test this July put its plain slice at the top of a four-shop field — ours included.
We’d like a rematch. But fair is fair, and a list that left Roma off wouldn’t be worth reading.
What People Say
Two things, every time. The crust, which reviewers call the best they’ve had, full stop. And the “red gravy” — the house tomato sauce, and the thing regulars drive in for.
The meatballs have a following of their own.
What To Order
A plain cut, so you can taste what the fuss is about. Then the meatballs, if you’re staying.
Good To Know
It sits at the quieter end of the boards, below the rides, so the lines are usually shorter than anything north of 9th.
3. Pisa Pizza
Where: 812 Boardwalk, near 8th Street · Since: more than forty years on the boards
Pisa is the quiet one. No challenge, no dairy bar, no crowd out front.
Just a counter that’s been turning out classic boardwalk slices for four decades.
What People Say
Reviews are genuinely mixed, and it’s worth saying so. The people who like Pisa really like it, and the phrase that comes up most is some version of “great boardwalk pizza without the hype and the crowds.”
Others have found it inconsistent. Its Tripadvisor ranking sits well down the Ocean City field (#91 of 117), so go in knowing this is the low-key option rather than the consensus pick.
What To Order
A plain cut, eaten standing up.
Good To Know
It’s the fastest walk-up on this list on a busy August night, which on this boardwalk is worth something.
4. Prep’s Pizzeria and Dairy Bar
Where: 1004 Boardwalk, at 10th Street, next door to Playland’s Castaway Cove · Since: 1965
If Manco’s is the boardwalk’s oldest pizza argument, Prep’s is the other side of it.
Ask anyone who grew up on this island and you’ll get one name or the other, usually with a story attached.
The name isn’t a family name. Joseph and Catherine Reuben opened the place in 1965 and named it for their sons, who went to St. Augustine Prep.
The family’s children took it over, and day-to-day it’s run now by Sandy Colao, who was born and raised in Ocean City. Sixty years, one family, one boardwalk block.
What People Say
Reviewers put Prep’s in the top tier of Ocean City restaurants on Tripadvisor (#16 of 117), with “best pizza on the boardwalk” showing up over and over. The crust gets called thin and crispy; the cheese gets called the best on the island.
Cat Country 107.3 has run the Manco-versus-Prep’s question as its own feature. By Dave Portnoy’s scores, it’s about as close as it gets: Manco’s 7.3, Prep’s 7.1.
What To Order
The white pizza has a genuinely devoted following.
And the dairy bar is the reason Prep’s wins a lot of family votes — Richman’s and Breyer’s on one side of the counter, pizza on the other. If half your group wants a slice and the other half wants ice cream, this argument ends here.
Good To Know
Like us, the pizza maker works up front, feet from the register, with an ocean view. The orange storefront is impossible to miss.
5. Three Brothers from Italy
Where: 1030 Boardwalk, between 10th and 11th Street
Three Brothers is the one you’ve probably seen on somebody’s phone.
The slices are enormous. A whole Three Brothers pie runs 26 inches across and weighs about six and a half pounds, which is roughly the diameter of a bicycle wheel.
What People Say
The reviews split, and they split predictably. People who love it call it flat-out the best on the boardwalk and rave about the portion size; people who don’t say the cheese can run bland.
Restaurantji carries about 300 reviews and Tripadvisor around 80, and both land solidly positive. Nobody argues about the size.
The Challenge
Three Brothers runs the “Beat That Pie” challenge — take on the full 26-inch pie, with prizes based on how fast you finish. It runs Tuesdays from 2 to 3 p.m., and a crowd forms on the boards to watch.
The record, as of 2021, was eleven minutes. Joey Chestnut, then a fourteen-time hot dog champion, needed eighteen.
What To Order
A single slice, unless you’re feeding teenagers, in which case a whole pie is the value play on this block.
Good To Know
Go at challenge time even if you’re not eating. It’s free boardwalk theater.
6. Primavera
Where: 1102 Boardwalk, at 11th Street, next to Air Circus
Primavera is the north-end stop — the one to know about when you’re already up by the kite shop and the rides and don’t want to walk back down.
It’s the broadest menu on this list. Traditional boardwalk pies, artisan-style pizzas, plus Italian plates, burgers, salads and sandwiches.
It handles the group where exactly one person doesn’t want pizza.
What People Say
The slices are the headline. Reviewers on Yelp (close to 200 reviews there) and Tripadvisor consistently call out the size, and more than one says a single slice was the whole meal.
A fair number rank the crust above ours, which we’ll allow. The consistent knock is price: drinks in particular run high, and a few reviewers have service complaints.
What To Order
A plain slice, and judge the crust for yourself. If you’re sitting down, the menu goes well past pizza.
Good To Know
Big group, mixed opinions, north end of the boards — this is your stop.
How to Walk It
All six sit along five blocks, so you can do the whole argument on foot in half an hour. Heading north:
- 7th Street — Roma Pizza
- 8th Street — Pisa Pizza
- 9th Street — Manco & Manco
- 10th Street — Prep’s, next to Playland’s Castaway Cove
- 10th–11th Street — Three Brothers from Italy
- 11th Street — Primavera, next to Air Circus
- 12th Street — Manco & Manco
Go Early or Go Late
Lines build between 6 and 8 p.m. all summer, everywhere on this list.
Before 5 or after 9, you’ll walk right up.
Order a Whole Pie for Groups
More than three people, a whole pie beats standing in line twice.
Grab a table and let everyone come to you.
Know What’s Open Off Season
Most boardwalk pizza is seasonal, ours included. Our 9th Street and 12th Street stores close for the winter.
Our Somers Point store on the mainland stays open year-round, so a February trip down the shore can still end with a hot slice.
Start Where the Boardwalk Started
Six good options, and you should try all of them at some point. That’s the correct way to settle a pizza argument.
But if you only get one cut this trip, make it the one people have been lining up for since 1956.
