Best Pizza in Riverside? Our 2026 Fun Family Goal
Some years, my family likes to set a little fun goal to discover the best “something” in Riverside over the course of the year.
A couple years ago, it was finding the best ice cream in Riverside. We would go to a new ice cream shop every month or so and buy some ice cream. Then we’d fill out scorecards to determine whether this place had good flavors, ambiance, toppings, etc. and more.
It’s a fun way to work on a mission together, and my children really like having their input heard and getting to share their opinions.
An added bonus is that if we want to keep the price down on food, you can just order one or two items and have everyone share, like how they do it on a cooking show, where all the judges will sometimes eat from one dish.
Best Pizza in Riverside?
For 2026, we’re going to hunt for the best PIZZA in Riverside.
Here’s the list of possibilities - I can’t imagine we’ll be able to try all of these in one year but we’ll do our best to try several from this list. A few of these are favorites of ours already, but most of these I found from perusing the internet:
Antonious Pizza - they two locations, one by the Mission Inn and one on Indiana near Arlington
Antonio Pizza in Mission Grove (by the movie theatre)
Antone’s near Riverside Plaza
Bricks and Birch (in the Food Lab) - this is one we’ve enjoyed before!
Bella's near Madison and California
Canvas Pizza -people online were quite passionate about this pizza pop-up! They don’t have regular hours so I’m following on Instagram and hoping we catch them sometime!
California Pizza Kitchen - it’s may not be very authentic, but I love their California Club pizza (toss in ranch instead of mayo!) and my children love their kids’ menu!
Capone’s Pizza and Pasta on Arlington and Van Buren
DeMatteo's has two locations - one in Woodcrest and one at Magnolia and Arlington.
D'Caesaro Pizza & Italian - the internet has much love for this restaurant on the corner of Arlington and Adams. I’m excited to try it!
Enzo's - this one is controversial! Some people online seem to love it, and others say it’s not what it used to be. Will see! This one is by the Tyler Mall.
Fat Lip - not in Riverside, but this Corona location looks delicious!
Inner Pizza x Devereaux House on Nelson St. - so, it took me awhile to “get” what this is, but seems cool? This is connected to Arcade Coffee company (one of our favorites) and right next to their Backstreet sandwich location. A few nights a week, they do a wine bar and pizza pop up. While I believe kids are welcome, I think this would be more fun as an adult outing!
Marcelo's Pizza and Pasta, near UCR
New York Pizza on Van Buren - this pizza got my husband and I through many a night when we had four kids in four years (!!)
Pietro's Italian Cuisine - near Elliott’s for Pets
Pizza Guys is a chain with a location in Woodcrest/Orangecrest. My 9 year old has loved their cheesy bread for several years, and when we went in there to buy pizza on New Year’s Eve, we were so surprised to see some dear friends of our family working behind the counter! They recently purchased this location and the parents and their young adult sons and daughters run it together. 🥹 We’re excited to support them and continue to enjoy their yummy pizza.
The Pizza Place in Woodcrest
Porky’s Pizza just over the border in Corona
Romano’s in Mission Grove
Slice House - this is a chain that recently opened in Canyon Crest… we’ve eaten here a couple times - the pizza by the slice is HUGE!
Scratch Pizza - locations in Riverside, Norco, and Jurupa Valley
SF Hole in the Wall - this place has two locations - one in San Francisco and one in Riverside! Kind of random, but sounds yummy!
Tommy Salami’s Pizza on Van Buren in Woodcrest refers to themselves as Best Pizza in Riverside so we’ve got to try it!(and they have rave reviews online)
2 Brothers Pizza on Riverwalk and Collett (formerly known as First Class Pizza)
My kids have a few other requests for chain pizza - Little Caesars (lol), Domino’s, Blaze, Mod Pizza, Mountain Mike’s Pizza - and perhaps we’ll try John’s Incredible Pizza or Chuck E Cheese for good measure!
I’ll try to report back and link to the places we visit as the year goes on! Do you have any suggestions we should add to our list?
How to Hold a “Best _____ in Riverside” Challenge With Your Family
This is something you could do with your family too!
Some idea of categories you could evaluate:
best coffee shop
best playground
best French fries
best swimming pool
best boba tea
best library
best ice cream
best cheeseburger
best pizza
best cookie
best hiking trail
best tacos
You can make a list of the places you want to try - search for “best cookie in Riverside” and there will be some ideas that come up from Reddit, Yelp and more.
My husband and I had fun thinking together of what makes a good pizza - is it the sauce? the crust? does service and atmosphere matter? - and we made some categories to score on a scale of 1-5. At the end of the year we’ll be able to rank the places based on their overall score!
If you’d like to print scorecards to use, this you can view and edit our scorecard using this Canva template here - feel free to edit it and make it your own! (For personal use only).
