Berkeley takes pizza more seriously than almost any city its size, and it does so in two completely opposed traditions that both happen to be institutions. One is a worker-owned collective selling a single vegetarian pizza that changes daily. The other is a deep-dish house that people drive across the bay for. Knowing which you want is most of the decision.

Cheese Board Pizza

Cheese Board Pizza at 1512 Shattuck Avenue is the one that defines Berkeley pizza, and it works unlike anywhere else. It is a worker-owned collective, part of the wider Cheese Board Collective whose bakery and cheese shop sit next door at 1504 Shattuck.

There is one pizza a day. It is always vegetarian, the toppings change daily, and you do not get to choose. That is the entire model, and the queue down the pavement suggests nobody minds. Live music plays inside on many evenings, people eat sitting on the median strip across the road, and the whole thing functions as a neighbourhood institution rather than a restaurant.

Normal hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11:30am to 2:30pm and 4:30pm to 8pm, closed Sunday and Monday.

Important right now: Cheese Board Pizza has been closed for its annual break and returns to its regular schedule on 11 August 2026. The collective closes for a stretch each year, which catches out visitors who plan a trip around it. Always check before you travel.

Zachary Chicago Pizza on Solano

Zacharys Chicago Pizza at 1853 Solano Avenue is the other institution and the opposite proposition: Chicago-style stuffed deep dish, in a room that has been packed for decades.

Hours are Monday to Thursday 11am to 8:30pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 9pm, and Sunday 11am to 8:30pm.

The thing to know before you go: a stuffed deep dish takes a long time to bake, typically around 30 to 45 minutes from ordering. Regulars phone ahead and order a half-baked pie to take home and finish in their own oven, which is genuinely the best way to eat it if you are not in a hurry to sit down.

Solano Avenue is also worth arriving on early, because it is one of the more pleasant walking strips in the north of the city and it hosts the Solano Stroll street festival each September.

The rest of the field

North Beach Pizza is a long-running Bay Area name with a Berkeley presence and covers the standard American slice-and-pie territory that neither of the institutions above actually serves.

Pizza Twist is the other name that shows up in local searches, and it is worth knowing that Berkeley has a genuinely good spread of Indian-influenced and fusion pizza, which reflects the city rather than being a gimmick.

Around the campus and along Telegraph Avenue, the by-the-slice trade runs late and is priced for students. It is not destination pizza and does not pretend to be, but at eleven at night it is the correct answer.

Which one should you go to?

Want to understand Berkeley in one meal: Cheese Board, accepting whatever pizza they made today. Feeding people who want to choose their own toppings: not Cheese Board. Want a proper sit-down dinner with a big table and leftovers: Zachary. Want a slice on the way home: the Telegraph corridor. Vegetarian by default: Cheese Board again, since the entire operation is.

Vegans should be aware that Cheese Board is a cheese shop at heart and the pizza is built around it; there is no vegan version. The stuffed deep dish is likewise cheese-dependent by construction.

What it costs

Pizza is one of the categories that keeps Berkeley affordable. In a city ranked among the most expensive in the country, where the average apartment rent runs above 3,400 dollars a month and students budget roughly 3,800 to 4,200 dollars a month all in, a Cheese Board lunch remains one of the cheapest genuinely excellent meals in the Bay Area.

The deep-dish house is a full restaurant bill rather than a cheap meal, but a large stuffed pie feeds more people than it looks like it will, and the leftovers reheat better than any other style of pizza.

Where the pizza is, by neighbourhood

North Shattuck, sometimes called the Gourmet Ghetto locally, holds Cheese Board and sits within a short walk of Chez Panisse, the restaurant that made this stretch famous. Solano Avenue in the north of the city holds the deep dish. The campus and Telegraph corridor holds the late trade.

Fourth Street in West Berkeley is the other food destination worth knowing, and our guide to the best restaurants in Berkeley covers it along with the Shattuck, downtown and Marina clusters.

Practical advice

Queues are the defining feature of Berkeley pizza. At Cheese Board the line moves considerably faster than it looks, because there is only one pizza and no ordering decisions to slow it down. At the deep-dish house the wait is in the oven rather than the queue, so phoning ahead is the fix.

Parking in North Shattuck and on Solano is street parking and it is competitive at peak times. Both are walkable from the wider neighbourhood and Solano is reachable on foot from the north Berkeley residential streets, which is how most regulars arrive.

A closing note that applies to this whole category: hours and annual closures shift, as the Cheese Board break above shows. Everything here was accurate in August 2026, and the freshest word will always come from a neighbour who walked past this morning.

More Berkeley guides

Eating: best restaurants in Berkeley, pizza, bakeries, Italian, Indian, breakfast and brunch, coffee shops and bars. Out and about: Tilden Regional Park, things to do, parks, free things to do, with kids, dog friendly, date ideas, farmers markets and events. Living here: neighbourhoods, cost of living, moving to Berkeley, schools and safety.

A short history of why Berkeley pizza is like this

The two institutions are not accidents of taste, they are products of Berkeley itself. The Cheese Board began as a small cheese shop and became a worker-owned collective, which is why there is no manager to ask for a different pizza and why the staff behind the counter own the place. The single-pizza model follows directly from that structure: fewer decisions, less waste, and a kitchen that can be run by people sharing the work equally.

It also sits a few doors from the restaurant that popularised Californian cooking and local sourcing in the first place, on a stretch of North Shattuck that became a food destination because of it. The daily-changing vegetarian pizza, built on whatever is good that week, is the same idea in cheaper form.

The deep-dish tradition on Solano is the transplant, brought from Chicago and adapted, and its longevity says something about a city with a very large student and academic population that arrived from elsewhere and wanted the food it grew up with.

Eating pizza with a crowd

Practical notes for feeding several people. Cheese Board sells by the half pizza and by the slice, and because there is only one variety there is nothing to negotiate, which makes it unusually easy for a large party. There is very little seating, so plan to eat outside; on a warm evening the median strip and the surrounding pavement fill with people doing exactly that, and it is one of the more pleasant sights in the city.

Deep dish is the opposite: order fewer pies than you think you need, because a stuffed pizza is far heavier than a thin crust and a large one stretches across more people. Order it when you arrive rather than after drinks, given the bake time.

For anything involving a mix of dietary needs, check our wider Berkeley restaurants guide, since neither institution flexes much on what it makes.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cheese Board Pizza?

A worker-owned collective at 1512 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley that makes one pizza a day. It is always vegetarian, the toppings change daily, and you cannot choose. The bakery and cheese shop sit next door at 1504 Shattuck. Live music plays many evenings and people eat sitting on the median across the road. Normal hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11:30am to 2:30pm and 4:30pm to 8pm, closed Sunday and Monday.

Is Cheese Board Pizza open right now?

It has been closed for its annual break and returns to its regular schedule on 11 August 2026. The collective closes for a stretch each year, which regularly catches out visitors planning a trip around it, so always check before travelling.

What are the Zachary Chicago Pizza hours in Berkeley?

At 1853 Solano Avenue: Monday to Thursday 11am to 8:30pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 9pm, Sunday 11am to 8:30pm. Note that a stuffed deep dish takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes to bake, so phone ahead. Regulars order a half-baked pie to finish in their own oven at home.

Cheese Board or deep dish?

They are opposite propositions. Cheese Board is a single daily vegetarian pizza from a worker-owned collective, cheap, quick and the more distinctively Berkeley experience. The Solano Avenue deep dish is Chicago-style stuffed pizza, a full sit-down dinner with leftovers. If you want to understand the city in one meal, go to Cheese Board. For a proper dinner with a large table, go for the deep dish.

Is there vegan pizza in Berkeley?

Not at the two institutions. Cheese Board is a cheese shop at heart and its pizza is built around that, with no vegan version, and stuffed deep dish is cheese-dependent by construction. Berkeley has strong vegan options generally, but the famous pizza is not among them.

Where is the best pizza in Berkeley?

It depends what you mean by best. By local consensus the two that matter are Cheese Board on North Shattuck for a daily-changing vegetarian pizza, and the Chicago-style deep dish on Solano Avenue. North Beach Pizza and Pizza Twist cover more conventional territory, and the Telegraph Avenue corridor handles late-night slices near campus.