This is our 3,000th Vital Vegas blog post. We were going to write a story about our incredible accomplishment, then realized even we don’t care all that much, so let’s talk about something important: Pizza.
The Las Vegas Strip should have lots of great pizza, but it does not. Downtown has it all. (Pizza Rock at Downtown Grand, Pop Up Pizza at Plaza, Whiskey Licker Up at Binion’s, Project BBQ at Circa, Evel Pie on Fremont Street, for starters.)
We are here to help. Here are our picks for the best and worst pizza on The Strip.
Let’s start with the best pizza to build some suspense for the pizza we would not feed to a starving piranha because it would be animal cruelty.
The best pizza on the Las Vegas Strip is Superfrico at the Cosmopolitan. No, it’s not “Secret Pizza.” That’s on our list of “Most Overrated Pizza on The Strip.”
The pizza at Superfrico is square-shaped and pan-style, with a crispy edge of crunchy cheese.
The “frico” in Superfrico actually comes from a traditional Friulian cheese dish featuring pan-fried cheese. The nation of Friulia should be very proud of itself.
To be honest, we didn’t start out thinking we were going to talk about Superfrico’s pizza. We were going to say Happy Camper has the best pizza, but that’s mainly because it’s the most recent best pizza we’ve had on The Strip.
Here’s more about Superfrico at Cosmo.
Happy Camper, at Fashion Show Mall, hasn’t gotten nearly as much buzz as it should.
This bar and restaurant took over the former Stripburger space at the mall across from Wynn Las Vegas, and we found it awesome. Of course, we were the first to share Happy Camper was coming, that’s just how things work in Las Vegas. Oh, look we sort of ended up writing a story about our accomplishments, anyway. Shocker.
The vibe at Happy Camper is lively, the decor is magical (featuring hundreds of disco balls) and the staff was universally helpful and friendly.
Here are the aforementioned balls.
The pizza was outstanding, leap-frogging over many longstanding but forgettable pizzas on The Strip.
People were loving the cocktails as well, including one featuring a flamingo.
We are not a shopping person, but we are definitely visiting Fashion Show more often now that Happy Camper is serving up such exceptional pizza.
Now, for the worst pizza on The Strip.
That distinction goes to Parry’s Pizzeria & Taphouse at the base of Waldorf Astoria.
Parry’s opened on February 7, 2024, and there’s a reason you haven’t heard anything about it. Limp, soggy, flavorless.
Pizza is highly subjective, but honestly, we would rather chew on Zach Galifianakis’ jock strap after he’s just played two hours of pickleball.
You know the pizza at Parry’s is bad if we think it’s worse than Giordano’s, a culinary calamity believed to be the way the gods are punishing Mankind for inventing country music. It’s worse.
Parry’s is the sister restaurant of Whataburger, which explains a lot. Parry’s is the Whataburger of pizza.
Our advice: Just start over.
We can only imagine the meetings Parry’s management is having about why they aren’t doing great business: “It’s the BLVD mall construction across the street!” “Whataburger is getting all the attention!” “The bartenders aren’t showing enough cleavage!” “It’s F1!”
They are probably right about the F1 thing, but mostly it’s the terrible pizza.
Just start over.
Parry’s does have a saving grace, however. They serve up a mountain of fried dough slathered in powdered sugar.
Runner up for worst pizza on the Las Vegas Strip: Pizzaoki in the Proper Eats food court at Aria.
Worst pizza off-Strip, Prince Street Pizza at Durango casino.
The food court @DurangoResort has some great food. It also Prince St. Pizza. pic.twitter.com/3Vls0xUL4Z
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) January 22, 2024
Any discussion about pizza sparks robust conversation, and by that we mean “passionate opinions from people who think like Corey Feldman dances.” Especially if they disagree with us, a noted and self-proclaimed pizza expert.
Still, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Have a favorite pizza place on The Strip? Fan of New York Pizzeria inside New York-New York? Are you in the Grimaldi’s camp? Willing to die on the hill of Moneyline at Aria or La Pizza at Eataly? Pin-Up at Planet Hollywood? Mulberry Street at Resorts World? Pizza Cake at Linq? Bonanno’s at half the food courts in town?
Let’s go.