Pizza Loves Emily

Pizza Loves Emily, Brooklyn: The Verdict

Ranked #20 on Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats in North America for 2025 (up from #24 in 2024), Pizza Loves Emily at 919 Fulton Street in Crown Heights earns its place on that list. If you want seriously considered pizza in Brooklyn without the price tag of a tasting menu evening, this is a strong answer. Booking is easy, the hours are practical, and the OAD ranking gives you a verifiable benchmark that this is not just a neighborhood default.

Chef Matt Hyland's operation has built a consistent track record across three consecutive years of OAD Cheap Eats recognition, moving upward each cycle. That trajectory matters when you're deciding whether to make the trip from Manhattan or plan a return visit from within Brooklyn. This is a place that is getting better, not coasting.

Planning Your Visits: A Multi-Visit Strategy

Pizza Loves Emily rewards returning. If you are visiting Crown Heights for the first time, treat the initial dinner as a benchmark run: go Tuesday through Thursday when the room is less pressured (dinner runs 5–9 pm on those nights), order broadly across the menu, and establish your baseline. The goal is to understand what Hyland's kitchen does well before you start making requests.

A second visit should be a weekend lunch. Saturday and Sunday lunch service runs 12–3:30 pm, and the pacing is different from dinner. Weekend lunch at a pizzeria of this caliber is often where you get the most attentive table experience, since the evening rush hasn't begun and the kitchen is fresh. It's also, practically, when you can linger without feeling the pressure of a fully booked dinner room behind you.

A third visit, if you're building this into a broader Brooklyn dining rotation, pairs well with the neighborhood. Crown Heights has developed enough around Fulton Street that you can extend the evening. For context on what else the borough offers, see our full New York City restaurants guide.

Is It Worth the Trip?

Against Brooklyn pizza peers, Pizza Loves Emily holds a different position than Leading Pizza (more old-school, Williamsburg-anchored) or Artichoke Basille's (slice-focused, late-night). Hyland's spot is more deliberate, the kind of place where you sit down and commit to a meal rather than grab and go. For a full sit-down pizza dinner in Brooklyn, it competes directly with Angelo's Coal Oven Pizza and Don Antonio, though those skew toward different style profiles. Denino's Pizzeria & Tavern is the better call if you want a tavern atmosphere over a more focused pizzeria setting.

For a special occasion at this price tier, Pizza Loves Emily works better than you might expect. It's not a white-tablecloth environment, but a well-chosen pizza dinner with considered ordering can read as celebratory without the formality or cost of a $300-per-head tasting menu. Google reviewers back this up with a 4.4 across 1,756 ratings, which is a meaningful sample size at a venue of this type.

Outside New York, if you're benchmarking regional pizza programs, Ken's Artisan Pizza in Portland and 800 Degrees Pizza in Los Angeles occupy similar positions in their respective cities: serious pizza, accessible price points, repeat-visit menus. Pizza Loves Emily is in that tier nationally, which the OAD ranking confirms.

How It Compares

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is lunch or dinner better at Pizza Loves Emily? Lunch is the better call if you want a less pressured experience. Saturday and Sunday service runs 12–3:30 pm, giving you time to order deliberately without a packed dinner room. Dinner on weeknights (5–9 pm, Mon–Thu) is the move if you want the full evening atmosphere and slightly extended Friday/Saturday hours.
• Can Pizza Loves Emily accommodate groups? Groups are manageable here , booking is easy and the format (shared pizzas, casual pacing) suits tables of four to six. For larger parties, call ahead; no phone number is listed publicly, so plan through the website or reservation platform. Groups wanting a private room or formal event setup should look elsewhere.
• Is Pizza Loves Emily good for solo dining? Yes. A solo visit at the counter or a small table during weeknight dinner service is direct. The menu scales well for one, and the casual atmosphere does not make solo diners feel out of place. It's a better solo option than many sit-down restaurants in Brooklyn at this price point.
• What are alternatives to Pizza Loves Emily in New York City? For a different Brooklyn pizza style, Leading Pizza in Williamsburg is the old-school counter alternative. Don Antonio is the better choice if you want Neapolitan-leaning technique in Manhattan. Artichoke Basille's works for late-night slices; Angelo's Coal Oven Pizza and Denino's are the picks if you want a more tavern-style setting.
• What should I order at Pizza Loves Emily? No specific dishes are confirmed in our data, so we won't invent them. What we can say: the OAD Cheap Eats ranking at #20 in North America for 2025 signals that the pizza program itself is the draw. Order around the pies, not as a supporting act to starters.
• Is Pizza Loves Emily good for a special occasion? Yes, within the right frame. This is not a white-tablecloth setting, but a considered pizza dinner with deliberate ordering can read as celebratory without the formality or expense of a tasting-menu restaurant. At a 4.4 Google rating across 1,756 reviews and an OAD ranking, the quality floor is high enough to carry a low-key milestone dinner.
• Can I eat at the bar at Pizza Loves Emily? Bar seating availability is not confirmed in our data. The venue operates as a full sit-down pizzeria rather than a bar-forward space, so counter or bar seating, if available, is secondary to the main dining room. Arrive early if you want flexibility on seating type.
• What should a first-timer know about Pizza Loves Emily? Book ahead even though it's easy to get a table , walk-ins may work on quieter weeknights, but confirming a reservation removes the risk. Treat the first visit as a full dinner commitment rather than a drop-in: the format rewards sitting down and ordering across the menu. The OAD ranking (top 25 in North America for affordable dining, two years running) sets the expectation correctly , this is serious pizza at an accessible price point, not a tourist-trap pizzeria.