Best Pizza in St. Maarten
Where to eat real pizza in St. Maarten: five Italian kitchens from a Napoli-style counter in Simpson Bay to brick-oven rooms in Maho.
There is more genuine Italian cooking on this island than a Caribbean destination has any right to hold, and pizza is where you notice it. The kitchens below are run by Italians, fire real ovens, and import what they cannot get here - which is why the gap between these five and the delivery chains further down the road is so wide.
They split by occasion rather than by quality. Maho has the two brick-oven rooms: one a proper sit-down dinner with handmade pasta and a wine list, the other a casual plaza counter that also does takeaway and delivery and stays open later than anywhere else on the list. Simpson Bay has the Napoli-style specialist and a northern Italian dining room with a lounge attached. Cole Bay has the newcomer, small and barely reviewed but rated by everyone who has been.
Two practical notes. Nearly all of them are evening-only - dinner service from 5 or 6pm - so pizza is not a lunch plan here unless you check first. And in high season, roughly December to April, the Maho and Simpson Bay dining rooms fill early; book if you want a table before 8pm rather than after.
1. Pizza Italy — Best for true Napoli-style pizza
The specialist rather than the all-rounder: pizza made in the traditional Napoli style, with ingredients brought in from Italy rather than substituted locally. Pastas and the rest of the Italian card alongside, but the oven is the reason to come. In Plaza del Lago at Simpson Bay, and rated 4.5 across 386 reviews.
Local tip. Napoli-style means a soft, quickly fired base rather than a crisp one - it is meant to fold, not to snap.
Worth knowing. Dinner only - doors at 6pm, kitchen stops at 10:30pm - so this is not a lunch plan. It is a pizzeria first, so come for the oven rather than the room.
2. Roma Restaurant - Cucina Italiana & Artisan Pizza — Best for the best-reviewed Italian on the island
Beside Casino Royale in the Oasis complex at Maho Village, and the strongest record of any Italian kitchen here by a distance - 4.8 across 753 reviews. Roman cooking done properly: brick-oven artisan pizza, handmade fresh pasta, antipasti, risotto and seafood, in a room built for a full dinner rather than a quick slice.
Local tip. Both our hours and Google agree exactly on this one - 5pm to 11pm, seven nights - so you can plan around it with confidence.
Worth knowing. The priciest on this list at $$$, evening-only, and busy enough in season that walking in after 8pm is optimistic. Book.
3. Rialto Pizza Pasta — Best for the late one, and takeaway
A casual Italian counter in Maho Plaza rating 4.8 across 158 reviews, doing pizza, pasta, calzones, salads and antipasti with homemade sauces and generous portions. The one on this list that does dine-in, takeaway and delivery equally well, which makes it the practical choice rather than the occasion one.
Local tip. Open 11am to 2am, every day - by a wide margin the longest hours here, and the only real answer to pizza after midnight.
Worth knowing. It is a plaza shop rather than a dining room, so manage expectations on atmosphere. It is the pizza that earns the place, not the setting.
4. Isola Ristorante & Lounge — Best for northern Italian with a lounge attached
On Billy Folly Road in Pelican Key, cooked by an all-Italian team working northern Italian dishes with brick-oven pizza alongside. The lounge bar makes it a longer evening than the others manage - dinner, then drinks, without moving. Rated 4.4 across 409 reviews.
Local tip. It is the one to pick when the table is split between people who came for pizza and people who did not.
Worth knowing. The pizza shares the kitchen with a broad Italian menu, so this is a restaurant that makes very good pizza rather than a pizzeria. $$$ and evening-only.
5. Il bacio ristorante Italiano Sxm — Best for the small Cole Bay newcomer
A small Italian room in The Hills shopping mall on Welfare Road in Cole Bay. Everyone who has reviewed it has rated it five stars, which is the strongest possible score on the thinnest possible evidence - ten reviews. Included because the people who have been are unanimous, and because Cole Bay has nothing else like it.
Local tip. It runs later than the Maho and Simpson Bay dining rooms on Fridays and Saturdays, going to midnight rather than 11pm.
Worth knowing. Ten reviews is not a track record, we hold no menu or photographs for it yet, and it is closed Wednesdays. Treat it as a promising unknown rather than a safe bet.
