10 Of The Best Pizzas Guy Fieri Tried On Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives

On "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" (DDD), Guy Fieri has sampled some of the wackiest foods America has to offer. The series has been a Food Network hit for nearly two decades and changed Guy Fieri's life, skyrocketing him to fame in the early 2000s. With over 50 seasons of the series under his belt, you can imagine he's sampled a lot of what America has to offer, from juicy hamburgers to out-of-the-ordinary pizzas. Lots and lots of pizzas.

In fact, he coined the term "Flavortown" during a segment about a pizza. "The first time I think it started, I had this gigantic pizza ... and I held it up and I'm like 'look at this thing, it's like the steering wheel on the bus going to Flavortown,'" he explained on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" (via YouTube). Pretty soon, his fans were calling him "The Mayor of Flavortown," an apt nickname considering the amount of flavor-packed food he's highlighted over the years, including some of the best and most inventive pizzas the nation has to offer.

If you're not familiar with Korean fermented cabbage known as kimchi, then it's high time to get on board. In addition to several health benefits, kimchi can add a spicy flavor and a slightly crunchy texture to a wide range of dishes. However, one dish you might not expect to find kimchi on is pizza. Guy Fieri, however, found a spot in Minneapolis, Minnesota that does just that, and according to the Food Network host, the result is culinary perfection.

Ann Kim, a James Beard award-winning chef, owns Pizzeria Lola, and this unusual pie is a nod to her Korean roots. It starts with a plum tomato sauce base, then gets topped with Korean sausage, gochujang, fresh scallions, sesame oil, and of course, housemade kimchi. The Lady Zaza pizza is cooked to perfection in a French copper wood-fired pizza oven, then finished with a sprinkling of black and white sesame seeds. "Of all joints we've tried, without question, this is way up there. Just dynamite," Fieri said (via YouTube) after trying the innovation pie.

Pastabilities in Syracuse, New York, which opened in 1982, is the oldest continuously-run restaurant in the city. Its specialty is fresh pasta, homemade bread, and Italian-American fare. But it was the restaurant's Duck Bacon Flatbread that took the host of "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" to the spot. Owner Karyn Korteling shows Guy Fieri how the restaurant's famous dish is made in an episode of DDD.

To build the pie, it all starts with one of their homemade flatbread which gets drizzled with garlic oil and topped with fresh mozzarella, dried cherries, caramelized onions, Humboldt Fog goat cheese, and smoked duck, and finished with pomegranate syrup and tons of fresh herbs and pepper. Fieri was particularly impressed with the flavor of the house-cured and house-smoked duck bacon. "The bread has such great chew. The fresh mozz, the tartness of that cherry, a little bit of funkaliciousness coming from that Humboldt Fog. Nobody takes the lead role except the duck bacon. It's probably one of the best duck dishes I've ever had," he said in a clip from the episode (via YouTube).

Vegetarians, this one's for you. Though according to Guy Fieri, even carnivores can appreciate the culinary splendor of the roasted carrot pizza at Weights and Measures in Houston, Texas. Executive chef Fernando Rios showed Fieri how it's done by thinly-slicing carrots and seasoning them with orange zest, olive oil, salt and pepper, honey, butter, and orange juice. Once roasted, the carrots act like a pepperoni or sausage topping, proving that vegetables can easily be the star of the show when it comes to pizza. The white pie is made with French soubise sauce as the base; then Gruyère cheese, roasted carrots, and Fresno peppers are dispersed across the fresh pizza dough and sauce before getting baked in a wood-fired oven.

"Outstanding. The tang of the Gruyère, the sweetness of the caramelized carrots, the spice of the Fresno ... it's giving me goosebumps. That is probably in the top three most unique pizzas I've ever had in my life," the Food Network star stated after trying a slice (via YouTube). The pizza is finished with cilantro and the crunchy Middle Eastern spice blend dukkah, which can contain different nuts and spices depending on the region and what's on hand. Rios makes the blend by roasting almonds, sesame seeds, cumin, hazelnuts, black peppercorns, coriander, and fennel, and then blending them down and adding in paprika and salt to create a crunchy, crumbly topping.

On the other end of the spectrum from the previous vegetarian pie sits this meat-heavy concoction found at Audrey Jane's Pizza Garage in Boulder, Colorado, owned by chef Audrey Kelly. The pizza starts with making dough, tomato sauce, and fresh pork sausage. The sausage gets put on raw and cooked with the rest of the pizza, which Fieri approved of. "Then you get all that rendering fat right onto that pizza," he explained on the DDD episode (via YouTube). The pizza has pretty classic toppings: shredded mozzarella, a ton of pepperoni, roasted jalapeños, chopped garlic in extra virgin olive oil, and, of course, the star of the show, sausage.

After coming out of the oven, the pie gets topped with a sprinkling of dried oregano. "The crust is outstanding. When you're going to the extent you're going to here ... it shows. The sausage is great, the Sicilian oregano is dynamite ... I can't find anything I don't like," Fieri told Audrey Jane (via YouTube). In fact, he liked it so much, he returned years later for another episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" to revisit this spicy pizza and to try some newer flavors that Kelly had cooked up.

The name of this pizza may be odd, but the flavor has the seal of approval from the Mayor of Flavortown. Inside the Wiseacre Brewing Co. in Memphis, Tennessee, there's a pizza and snack joint called Little Bettie's where you can indulge in foods that pair perfectly with a cold beer. The Thud Butt Pizza (named after one of The Lost Boys from the 1991 movie "Hook") is what drew Fieri to the location.

Chef Jared Riddle demonstrated to Fieri how most of the items for this pie are made in-house, including the pizza dough, which uses beer wort from the brewery, the ricotta cream base, the stracciatella cheese, and the pistachio and brown butter solids crunch that tops the pie. There's also plenty of mozzarella and large slices of mortadella. Once out of the oven, the pizza gets drizzled with a unique black pepper honey. "The dough is legit. The saltiness of the mortadella, the ricotta — nice and creamy but not too much — but once you get to this crumble of pistachios, that's where it gets crazy ... It's a different dimension of pizza," Fieri said in a clip from the episode (via YouTube), adding that it was a "trippy" and "dynamite pie."

The apple sausage pizza at this neighborhood joint in Fargo, North Dakota, is a local favorite, and Guy Fieri understood why after tasting the harmonious combination of flavors in The Sausage and Apple Pizza. In this creation, homemade dough gets layered with housemade béchamel sauce, Parmesan cheese, housemade fennel sausage, thinly sliced green apples, and sage, then topped with fresh snap pea micros after it comes out of the oven.

At first, Fieri was skeptical of this pie, particularly because of the way the chef, Casey Absey, made his pizza dough. He doesn't use a double gluten or 00 flour, which is generally considered the best flour choice for pizza, and he doesn't proof the dough before rolling it into balls. "This is unconventional to 99 percent of the pizza joints I've ever gone to," Fieri said to the chef (via YouTube). 

But Absey reassured him that he had done a lot of experimenting and figured out what worked best for him. In the end, Fieri agreed and became fully on board with this unusual pie, stating in the episode (via YouTube), "That is one delicious pizza. Great chew to the crust, you get a nice crackle on the outside with true gluten-style flour pull. And this little béchamel Parmesan cheese program works completely right ... I could just go on and on about it. Outstanding."

The Native Texan Pizza at Wild Barley Kitchen & Brewery in San Antonio, Texas, is well-loved by locals, and Guy Fieri understood why. Spicy and sweet, this pizza has a Texan twist that reaches outside the ordinary realm of pizza. Sourdough is the specialty at this joint, so naturally, a sourdough starter forms the foundation for its pizza dough. 

The level of detail that goes into this pie is impressive. The BBQ sauce is made in-house with a host of unusual ingredients, including cold brew coffee and beef tallow. The pizza is topped with a cheddar cheese blend, some juicy house-smoked brisket, pickled jalapeños, and pickled red onions, then finished with even more BBQ sauce. If Texas were a pizza, it would be this one.

The tangy and complex flavors of this pizza impressed Guy Fieri. "That pizza's exciting. It's spicy, it's rich, it's tangy. The dough is crunchy and super flavorful," he said to the chef and co-owner Holland Lawrence (via YouTube). "That is a benchmark pizza right there," he added after downing a slice.

The earliest pizzerias in America, like Lombardi's in New York City and Frank Pepe's in New Haven, Connecticut, used coal-fired ovens and still do today. And there certainly is something old-fashioned and special about the thin, crispy-on-the-outside but chewy-on-the-inside charred crust of a coal-fired pizza. This type of pizza, however, is a rarity outside of New York City and New Haven, making Nicky's Coal Fired in Nashville, Tennessee, all the more special.

When Guy Fieri made a visit to the spot, Chef Tony Galzin made one of the restaurant's most popular pies, called "Hey Paisano" for the Food Network host. All of the ingredients are made from scratch, including the sourdough crust, the capicola, the smoked mozzarella, and the béchamel sauce. In addition to these main ingredients, the pie also gets topped with red onions and finished with Calabrian chili honey. "The texture in the capicola is outrageous, the crust on this — and I love a little bit of the carbon — holds right up, the Calabrian chili honey; it's just a dynamite-executed pizza. You come to a place like this to get a pizza like that," Fieri said in a clip from the show (via Facebook).

When it comes to Hawaiian pizza, your mind probably conjures up images of pineapple and ham. However, Hawaiian pizza doesn't actually come from Hawaii; surprisingly, it comes from Canada. But one pizza that actually is Hawaiian: The Lilikoi Pork Pizza from Outrigger Pizza Company in Kihei, Hawaii. Chef Kevin Laut makes this special pie out of a trailer by the beach.

The inventive pie has a garlic aioli base, housemade pulled pork butt, Maui onions, sweet peppers, plus mozzarella and Romano cheese. When it comes out of the oven, freshly grated Parmesan cheese is added. Then the pork pizza is given a fruity twist with a drizzle of lilikoi, which is the Hawaiian name for passionfruit. It's the flavors of Maui infused into a pizza. After taking one bite, Fieri was immediately impressed. "Nothing's overdone. When you do get a little bite of pork, you love it ... Really dynamite pizza," was Fieri's takeaway (via YouTube).

Seafood on pizza — it's not for everyone. But if you do happen to be a lover of the so-called "fruits of the sea" like shellfish, then The Bacon and Clam Pizza at Joe Squared in Baltimore, Maryland, is sure to pique your interest. At least it did for Guy Fieri. When he visited the spot on an episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives," he tried what was Chef Joe Edwardsen's popular creation at the time (unfortunately, the local favorite closed during the pandemic). 

Fieri was a big fan of this surf n' turf take on pizza. "Crust is cooked off perfect. Nice texture. Nice chew ... Dude, crazy good," Fieri said in the segment (via YouTube). While the square shape and the ingredients of roasted garlic sauce, clams, bacon, ciliegine, and asiago are certainly what make this pie memorable, what really makes it special is the sourdough starter. Edwardsen explained to Fieri that he picked it up at a market in Florence, Italy, and it's allegedly 200 years old.