Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
New Haven apizza$$
Order: White clam pie
The coal-oven pie people drive to New Haven for, since 1925.
Best for: the white clam · Reserve: no reservations
157 Wooster St, New Haven, CT 06511
North America · United States
Where to eat in New Haven
New Haven eats apizza: thin, charred pies from coal ovens on and around Wooster Street, with the white clam pie as the one to drive for. Wooster Square also keeps its Italian pastry shops and red-sauce rooms, and around Yale the same few blocks hold the burger counter that says it made the first hamburger sandwich, an award-winning bagel shop, an Ethiopian dining room open since 1999 and a 2026 James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist.
New Haven at a glance
- What to eat
- White clam pizza; Apizza tomato pie; Italian pastry in Wooster Square; Homemade pasta on Wooster Street; Hot buttered lobster roll.
- When to go
- Best: May–June and September–October. Also good: April, July–August and November. Hardest: January–February.
- Top tables
- This guide lists 4 award-winning restaurants, starting with ROLi, Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant, Louis' Lunch and Zeneli Pizzeria.
- Where locals eat
- Local favorites off the prestige lists include Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Sally's Apizza, Modern Apizza and Zuppardi's Apizza.
- Markets
- CitySeed Wooster Square Farmers Market.
The dish to eat here
New Haven apizza
Thin pizza baked very dark in a coal-fired oven, best known as the white clam pie.
The best three: Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Sally's Apizza, Modern Apizza.
28places in New Haven, ready to save to your trip
8Eat tonightChef's picks, the well-known and the discoveries6Dishes to tryWhere to eat each one, and how to cook it at home5Walk itA walking tour in eating order4Romantic dinnersTen tables for date night
What is in the 28
4 award-winning12 local favorites1 hot right now1 markets5 walking tour stops8 chef's picks3 sandwich shops4 romantic dinners5 breakfast spots2 new openings14 dish spots
What to eat in New Haven, and where
Each dish comes with the places that do it best. Tap Add to my trip on the ones you want, or find them on the map above.
White clam pizza
Fresh clams, garlic, olive oil, oregano and grated cheese on a charred crust, no mozzarella
The 3 best places to eat it in New Haven
- 1
Order: White clam pie
The clam pie most people mean when they say New Haven pizza.
- 2
- 3Zuppardi's Apizza
Order: Clam pie, clams shucked to order
Fresh-shucked clams, family-run since 1934.
Seen in Food & Wine
Apizza tomato pie
The plain New Haven pie: crushed tomato and grated cheese, add mozzarella if you like, baked dark
The 3 best places to eat it in New Haven
- 1Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
Order: Tomato pie with mozzarella
Coal oven since 1925.
Seen in Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana - 2Sally's Apizza
Order: Tomato pie
Since 1938; Pepe's equal for the red pies.
Seen in Wesleyan Argus, NBC Connecticut - 3
Italian pastry in Wooster Square
Cannoli, sfogliatelle (lobster tails) and pasticciotti from century-old shops
The 2 best places to eat it in New Haven
- 1Libby's Italian Pastry Shop
Order: Cannoli, pasticciotti, zeppole
Family-run since 1922, next door to Pepe's.
Seen in CTvisit, Hartford Business Journal - 2Lucibello's Italian Pastry Shop
Order: Lobster tail (sfogliatella), Sicilian cannoli
Crisp shell, rich cream filling, by reviewers' accounts.
Seen in Food GPS, Daily Nutmeg
Homemade pasta on Wooster Street
Cavatelli and ravioli in Little Italy's dining rooms
The 3 best places to eat it in New Haven
- 1Consiglio's
Order: Homemade cavatelli or lobster ravioli
A Little Italy fixture for over 80 years, a few doors from Pepe's.
Seen in Only In Your State, OpenTable - 2Tre Scalini
Order: Pasta from a long menu, with the wine list
An upscale room at the corner of Franklin and Wooster.
Seen in Only In Your State, OpenTable - 3ROLi
Order: Handmade pasta
Roland Olah's 2026 James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist.
Seen in Connecticut Public
Hot buttered lobster roll
Connecticut style: warm lobster in butter on a toasted roll
The 3 best places to eat it in New Haven
- 1Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale
Order: Hot lobster roll on a toasted bun
Best of New Haven 2023 winner for lobster roll.
- 2Shell and Bones
Order: Lobster roll
An upscale oyster and seafood room, not a shack.
Seen in Hungry Onion - 3The Lobster Shack
Order: Warm buttered lobster roll
Moved from Branford to East Haven; summer only.
Seen in New England Today
Ice cream
Farm-dairy scoops downtown, Italian ice on Wooster Street
The 3 best places to eat it in New Haven
- 1Arethusa Farm Dairy
Order: A scoop in a waffle cone
Ice cream from the family's own Litchfield herd.
Seen in Stacker, Info New Haven - 2Ashley's Ice Cream
Order: Anything with the bittersweet hot fudge
A dog-themed York Street shop open since the 1970s.
Seen in Info New Haven - 3
The most celebrated tables
The top 4 restaurants in New Haven, per 2026.
More award winners
ROLi
James Beard semifinalist, Best New Restaurant (2026)
A seasonal European kitchen with handmade pastas, piri-piri gambas and Hungarian lángos, a chef's counter and a horseshoe bar. It opened in summer 2025.
Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant
James Beard semifinalist, Best Chef: Northeast (2026)
Shilimat Tessema has cooked Ethiopian food on Temple Street since 1999, served on injera to share.
Louis' Lunch
Food & Wine top burger restaurants, No. 6 (2025)Library of Congress: birthplace of the hamburger sandwich
The family still cooks burgers in cast-iron grills from 1898.
Zeneli Pizzeria
Yelp Top 100 US Restaurants, No. 87 (2026)
Traditional Neapolitan pizza and pasta on Wooster Street; Connecticut's only entry on Yelp's 2026 national list.
When to go and what is in season
New Haven food calendar: month by month → What is in season, what to eat and the food festivals each month.
JFMAMJJASOND
Peak May–Jun, Sep–OctShoulder Apr, Jul–Aug, NovHard Jan–Feb
Why these months
The CitySeed Wooster Square farmers market runs Saturdays April 4 to Nov 21 in 2026 (Visit New Haven). Yale commencement in late May and move-in and Yale home football weekends in the fall fill hotels; book early. Winter is cold, but New Haven Restaurant Week ran March 15 to 28 in 2026 (Info New Haven).
In season
- Local produce at the Wooster Square market Apr–Nov Producer-only market on Saturdays, 9am to 1pm, in the 2026 season.
- Hot lobster rolls May–Sep Shoreline lobster shacks east of the city are busiest in summer.
Food events
- New Haven Restaurant Week Mar March 15 to 28, 2026: two weeks, 21 restaurants in eight neighborhoods.
- CitySeed Wooster Square Farmers Market season Apr Saturdays 9am to 1pm, April 4 to November 21 in 2026.
Closures to plan around
- Frank Pepe and Sally's take no reservations; weekend waits run 45 minutes to two hours.
- Olmo has almost no seating inside.
- Louis' Lunch keeps short hours; check before you go.
From published guides and tourism boards. Months are our mapping of how guides describe the seasons; 2027 event dates are expected, not confirmed. Prices come from single sources of varying age, so treat them as a rough guide. Compare cities by month
Secret discoveries
Locally loved places that are not on the big prestige lists.
classic
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
Order: White clam pie; a plain tomato pie with mozzarella for anyone who won't eat clams
The coal-oven pizzeria on Wooster Street, open since 1925. The line moves faster than it looks, and The Spot next door is the same family and often shorter.
classic
Sally's Apizza
Order: White clam pie
Open since 1938 and Pepe's closest rival on the same street; some regulars say its clam pie is the better one.
Seen in Wesleyan Argus, NBC Connecticut · worth confirming hours before you go
classic
Modern Apizza
Order: Half white clam, half casino pie
The third of the old coal-oven houses, serving pizza since 1934, away from Wooster Street.
Seen in NBC Connecticut, Nothing Familiar · worth confirming hours before you go
family-run
Zuppardi's Apizza
Order: Clam pie with clams shucked to order
Family-run since 1934, a few minutes from New Haven's famous names, and named in Food & Wine's 2026 best pizzas in America.
Seen in Food & Wine · worth confirming hours before you go
bar
BAR
Order: Mashed potato, bacon and red onion pie
A bar and brick-oven pizza room on Crown Street that has served its mashed potato pie since the 1990s. It also sells slices.
Seen in CTbites, The Infatuation
classic
Louis' Lunch
Order: A hamburger on toast, with cheese, tomato and onion if you like
A tiny brick lunch room at 261 Crown Street, cooking in 1898 cast-iron grills. Food & Wine put it No. 6 on its 2025 burger list. Check hours before you go.
Seen in Louis' Lunch, Patch
family-run
Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant
Order: A combination platter on injera
A family-run Ethiopian room on Temple Street since 1999; chef Shilimat Tessema was a 2026 James Beard Best Chef: Northeast semifinalist.
Seen in Connecticut Public, CTvisit
cafe
The Pantry
Order: Breakfast; portions are large
A busy neighborhood breakfast spot that The Infatuation says is worth the wait.
Seen in The Infatuation · worth confirming hours before you go
bakery
Olmo
Order: A bagel with schmear, or the eggplant sandwich
Won Best of the Fest, Best Beyond the Boroughs and Best Schmear at NYC BagelFest 2023. Tiny inside, mostly takeaway.
Seen in Daily Voice, Atly
bakery
Libby's Italian Pastry Shop
Order: Cannoli, pasticciotti, Italian ice in summer
A family pastry shop next to Pepe's, open since 1922.
Seen in CTvisit, Hartford Business Journal
bakery
Lucibello's Italian Pastry Shop
Order: Lobster tail (sfogliatella) or a Sicilian cannoli
A Grand Avenue pastry shop dated to 1929, run by the Faggio family for about 50 years.
Seen in Food GPS, Daily Nutmeg · worth confirming hours before you go
street-food
Arethusa Farm Dairy
Order: Ice cream in a waffle cone
Ice cream from the milk of the family's own Litchfield herd; the New Haven shop opened in 2016.
Seen in Stacker, Info New Haven · worth confirming hours before you go
Food markets in New Haven
Plan a food trip to New Haven All 131 food citiesExplore the 250 food marketsMore in North America
Awards come from the guides named on each listing (2026). Researched November 7, 2026. Restaurants change; confirm hours, reservations and current stars before you go. Some addresses, phone numbers and websites come from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so call ahead to confirm. Local favorites are editorial picks, not rankings.
Chef Amazing’s lists for New Haven: where locals eat, new openings, romantic dinners, ice cream, cooking classes and more, each place with what to order. Cooking classes in New Haven: who teaches, what you cook, how long and how to book.
Every place in this guide, A to Z (26)
- Arethusa Farm Dairy Downtown (Chapel St)
- Ashley's Ice Cream Downtown
- Atelier Florian Downtown
- BAR Downtown
- Bella's Cafe Westville
- CitySeed Wooster Square Farmers Market
- Consiglio's Wooster Square
- Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana Wooster Square
- Johnny Salami's New Haven area
- Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant Downtown
- Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale New Haven area
- Libby's Italian Pastry Shop Wooster Square
- Louis' Lunch Downtown
- Lucibello's Italian Pastry Shop Wooster Square (Grand Ave)
- Malby Bakery
- Meat & Co. East Rock
- Modern Apizza East Rock
- Olmo Downtown (Whitney Ave)
- ROLi Wooster Square
- Sally's Apizza Wooster Square
- Shell and Bones City Point
- The Lobster Shack East Haven
- The Pantry East Rock
- Tre Scalini Wooster Square
- Zeneli Pizzeria Wooster Square
- Zuppardi's Apizza West Haven
Chef Amazing · Will Travel for Food · Food cities · 250 food markets · The Best 100