How To Order Cheese Pizza In NYC Like You Actually Know What You're Doing

Visiting a huge metropolis like New York City can be intimidating, from figuring out the public transit, to deciding from which of the tens of thousands of restaurants you want to grab a bite. One must-do while you're in the city, though, is pizza; ask any New Yorker and they'll tell you NYC pizza is the very best. For many, that starts with the pizza's unique dough, which contains both oil and sugar; for others, it's all about the quality of the cheese or the sauce. However, just like there's an art to making it, there's an art to ordering it, too. If you don't want to stick out like a sore thumb when you walk into a pizza joint and order a piece of cheese pizza, just say these magic words: "I'll have a plain slice, please."

It's NYC code for the ultimate piece of city pizza, what is traditionally a large, foldable slice on its characteristically thin crust, that's topped with seasoned tomato sauce, and finished off with mozzarella — no more and no less (though you might occasionally find a sprinkling of parm, too). If you were to ask instead for a "slice of cheese pizza," everyone in the parlor would know you're just visiting or a new transplant to the city (albeit not the worst fate in the world, but when in Rome, it's important to do as the Romans do).

There is some debate as to whether real New Yorkers say "plain" or "regular" when referring to cheese pizza in NYC. Over on Reddit, under the r/Pizza subreddit, one thread addressed exactly this controversy, and the comment with the second-most upvotes declared, "Everyone saying regular is said in NY is absolutely wrong lol[,] it's plain always." To which someone else — an NYC native, no less — disagreed, with others adding that either word is acceptable. We'll call it a draw, and surmise that it may, in fact, be pizza joint-specific.

However, another challenger, and the one with the most upvotes, said they actually refer to the pizza as "cheese," though they gave no indication as to whether or not they actually grew up or currently live in NYC. Despite the large number of upvotes (almost 400, as of writing), commenters were quick to correct them, indicating all the ways pizza shop employees could misunderstand if someone asked for a cheese slice.

Another point that these Redditors inadvertently made, too, is that pizza is almost never referred to by its actual name in New York. Instead, pizzas are referred to as "pies," and it's apparently another big tell if someone uses the former versus the latter (and how this pie-obsessed city doesn't give New York state the title of most pizza eaten by volume is beyond us).