STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The final search in our series this year was, fittingly, for the best regular slice in town.
The latest Best of Staten Island 2025 category kicked off earlier this month by asking readers to nominate the best cheese pizza that could be found across Staten Island.
Fifty-five pizzerias were nominated on our social pages for the Best of Plain Pizza 2025 contest. Then, the voting began, and our winners were determined.
The top three vote-getters were Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.
The Advance/SILive.com recently visited each pizzeria to find out why our readers chose each one to order their cheese pizzas.
Napoli Pizzeria, 1206 Victory Blvd. in Sunnyside & 97 Lincoln Ave. in Grant City, (718) 727-5353 & (718) 887-0055, respectively
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
Tommy Flanagan celebrated his 29th birthday with a visit from the Advance/SILive.com for being the top vote getter for Best of Regular Pizza this month.
The young owner — who has years of experience working in various restaurants across Staten Island — is the operator of both Napoli Pizzeria locations on Staten Island.
“I started making pizza when I was 15 years old,” Flanagan said. “Some people just do it as a job.
“But it’s like an art to me.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
Flanagan says he loves the science behind having a good quality, light and airy dough — which we were lucky to taste during our visit.
You can expect the Napoli regular pie to come out thin and crispy.
“No flop and no fold is what you want to see,” said Flanagan. “I like my pies well done, too.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
The pizzeria also has a large fan base on social media for its comedic takes and skits based on customer interactions in the store.
“Everyone always posts food on social media,” Flanagan said. “We like to post about funny incidents that can happen with customers.
“Most of my customers are, actually, good to us.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
Flanagan says at the end of the day, what matters to him most is his relationship with his customers who voted for him this year.
“My customers are like family to me,” he said. “I know them, their names, they have my phone numbers and call me for orders.
“It means everything to me to know we have supportive customers that are like family here.”
Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe, 1298 Forest Ave., Port Richmond, (646) 968-4777
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
Another year, another top-3 finish for Ungaro.
In 2023, they won for Best of Vodka Pizza — a simple, three-ingredient recipe passed down to the family.
And this year, the winning pizza is even simpler still.
“Just sauce and cheese,” said Kim Ungaro. “That’s it.
“The simpler, the better for the regular pie.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
Ungaro’s coal-fired oven famously cranks out its pizzas in about 3 minutes, at around 700 degrees.
It’s a distinct flavor and Ungaro recommends you eat it at the restaurant once it comes fresh out of the coal oven.
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
“You have to come dine in because there’s nothing like having it inside,” Ungaro says. ”Nothing makes me happier than a Friday or Saturday when the dining room is full and people are happy to wait for a table.”
Ungaro says she can’t thank every one of her customers enough for continuing to show support and vote for her in our Best of contests.
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
“We’re so grateful for our customers,” she said. “We love what we do and we love serving you.”
Brother’s Pizzeria, 750 Port Richmond Ave., Port Richmond, (718) 442-2332
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
For more than 50 years, this pizzeria has been making some of the best pizza Staten Island has to offer.
Brother’s Pizzeria has finished (almost every year) in our top-3 voting — most recently for our Best of Specialty Pizza in 2024.
Many know this Port Richmond mainstay is most famous for the signature Sicilian pie.
But regular customers are quick to remind you not to overlook Brother’s regular round pie.
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
And the whole Giove family is quick to remind you of that, too.
“Everybody comes to us for the Sicilian,” said George Giove. “But our regular cheese is just as good.
“This is always going to be the number one seller.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
“We have the top Sicilian, not only in Staten Island, but in the world,” said Filippo Giove. “But our regular pizza is a very underrated pie here.”
As is the case for most regular pies, just quality cheese, sauce and dough is what makes up Brother’s offering.
Although, the secret ingredient may be in the cook time.
“You can’t rush perfection,” added Filippo. “The extra 15 seconds [in the oven] makes a difference, believe it or not.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaio
Winning isn’t new to this family when it comes to pizza. But they still make it a point to thank their customers for backing them all these years later.
“Thank you to everyone that voted for us,” said Giorgio Giove. “We always appreciate the love and support.”
“This week is about thanks and family,” said George. “This is a family-run business and there’s nothing better than that.”
The top three vote-getters for Best of Regular Pizza in 2025 are Napoli Pizza in Sunnyside, Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe in Port Richmond and Brother’s Pizzeria in Port Richmond.Shane DiMaioHow Best of Staten Island works
We like to keep it pretty simple for our Best of Staten Island contest. Over the course of the year, we feature seven different “Best of” categories.
For each category, there’s one week of nominations, one week of voting and two weeks that focus on the top winners, as chosen by our readers. Only brick-and-mortar businesses are considered, unless otherwise noted.
This year, we’ve already featured the best dance schools, best breakfast, best tacos, best burgers, best bars and best nail salons on Staten Island.
In 2024, we featured the best sandwiches, dance schools, pasta dishes, hair salons, coffee shops, specialty pizza and bakeries on Staten Island.