The Best Hole-In-The-Wall Restaurant In New York

To earn the title of best hole-in-the-wall restaurant in New York, you've gotta serve some serious food — especially when you're a pizza joint. Food Republic did a deep dive for each state to discover their best obscure food spot, drawing from public opinion, reviews, and press coverage. We determined that Louie & Ernie's Pizza in the Bronx deserved the title.

The buzz around Louie & Ernie's is real and well deserved. New York pizza dough already has a reputation for great flavor, but this place has perfected its particularly crispy-bottomed slices over more than 70 years of business. And it's not just about the traditional red sauce slices. White pizza, calzones, and the rectangular Sicilian Godfather pie — loaded with peppers, sausage, pepperoni, and mushrooms — round out a menu that's as varied as it is excellent.

When it comes to flavor, Louie & Ernie's closely guards its secret recipes. Still, many reviewers rave about the way the cheeses — from sharp parmesan to gooey, creamy mozzarella — blend with a sprinkle of oregano on every pie. The result leans heavily on salt and herbs, with the crust soaking up the grease from cheese and meats alike to create one of the most satisfying pizzas in New York. One Reddit user even called the sausage pie "phenomenal," and another commented that it's their "favorite slice in the world." But this kind of excellence didn't just happen; it was cultivated over decades in a city known for some of the best pizza in the world.

If you can consistently make a great to-go slice, you'll always have demand in New York. Louie & Ernie's sheer quality has kept it around since 1947, surviving moves, changes in ownership, and even COVID, to become our pick for the best hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the city.

Brothers Louie and Ernie Ottuso started the business in Harlem, later moving it to its permanent home near Pelham Bay in the Bronx in 1959. That's when the business's future owners, John and Cosimo Tiso, entered the picture, helping out with the Ottuso family's shop. After Ernie developed health problems, the Ottusos were forced to sell. Fortunately, they had been training their successors for years, and the Tiso brothers took over in 1987, keeping the original name.

It was the Tiso brothers' devotion to tradition that turned Louie & Ernie's into the celebrated restaurant it is today, never chasing trends and sticking with what they've done for decades. Their passion even passed down a generation: John's daughter, Victoria, went on to open her own pizza parlor, Tori T's Pizzeria. In a city overflowing with history and particular pizza fanatics, the greatest mark of distinction is tradition — and Louie & Ernie's has kept that legacy alive through so many changes that it's become a true generational staple of the Bronx.