Culver City punches hard on pizza for a city its size, and the reason is that it has attracted specialists rather than chains: a Brooklyn institution that chose Culver City for its Los Angeles outpost, a fermentation-obsessed Orange County favourite that moved north in 2026, and a set of neighbourhood rooms that review consensus keeps pushing to the top of the city’s restaurant lists. This guide covers who bakes what, where they are, and which one suits the evening you are actually having. For tonight’s wait times, the neighbours on our Culver City feed will know before any booking app does.

Folks Pizzeria: the new arrival at Helms

Folks Pizzeria opened on 1 May at 3273 Helms Avenue, inside the Helms Bakery District, and it is the most talked-about pizza opening the city has had in years. Chef-owner Joey Booterbaugh and his partner Chloe Tran launched Folks in 2019 in Orange County, where they built a following on fermentation-forward 14-inch pizzas and a tight natural-wine list, and the Culver City site is their expansion north.

The style is the point: long-fermented dough, which is what produces the open, blistered, genuinely chewy crust rather than the dense bready base most 14-inch pizzas end up with. The Infatuation’s verdict — that the pizzas are good down to the last bite of crust — is the specific compliment a fermentation-led kitchen is aiming for, because the crust edge is exactly where lesser pizza gets abandoned on the plate.

Beyond pizza, the opening menu has run to free-range chicken wings with ‘nduja and pork-cheek sugo meatballs, with white pies including a Pancetta & Potato and a seasonal spring pizza built on asparagus and English peas. There is indoor and outdoor seating, and the patio is equipped with heaters and blankets, which makes it one of the more usable outdoor rooms in the city on a cool evening. The phone is (310) 331-0743.

Roberta’s: Brooklyn wood-fired, at Platform

Roberta’s sits inside Platform, the curated retail development on Washington Boulevard at the Hayden Tract. The original Roberta’s in Bushwick is one of the most influential pizzerias in the United States, and when it came to Los Angeles it chose Culver City — which tells you something about where the Westside’s food centre of gravity moved to.

This is wood-fired, Neapolitan-leaning pizza with the leopard-spotted blistering that a properly hot wood oven produces and a domestic oven cannot. It is critically acclaimed, it is not cheap, and the setting — a design-led shopping court with Blue Bottle and a run of boutiques around it — makes it a natural stop in a longer afternoon rather than a quick weeknight dinner. If you are eating your way around Platform, our downtown guide and restaurants guide cover the neighbouring options.

Nardò and the neighbourhood favourites

Nardò turns up repeatedly near the top of Culver City’s review-based restaurant rankings, and specifically as a pizza destination — diners describe it as among the best pizza they have had, which is a strong claim in a city with Roberta’s down the road. It is a full restaurant rather than a slice shop, so treat it as a sit-down dinner.

The wider Italian picture matters here too, because several of Culver City’s best pizza plates sit inside restaurants that are not primarily pizzerias. Pasta Sisters at 3280 Helms Avenue is the pasta specialist rather than a pizza kitchen, but it anchors the same Helms block as Folks, and Carasau and Brunello’s at 6001 Washington Boulevard cover the traditional Italian end. We go into all of them in the Italian restaurants in Culver City guide.

Which one for which evening

• Best crust in the city, with a patio that works year-round: Folks Pizzeria at Helms.
• A destination wood-fired pie, as part of a longer afternoon: Roberta’s at Platform.
• A proper sit-down dinner where the pizza happens to be excellent: Nardò.
• Pizza as part of a wider Italian meal: see the Helms district cluster and Washington Boulevard.

Styles, and what the words actually mean

The three main rooms above are baking meaningfully different pizza, and it is worth knowing which you are choosing. Wood-fired Neapolitan-style, as at Roberta’s, is baked very hot and very fast: a thin, soft centre, a puffed rim, and the char spots that give it the leopard look. You eat it immediately and often with a knife and fork, because the centre is deliberately not rigid. Long-fermented pan and round pies, as at Folks, trade speed for time — the dough is left to develop over a day or more, which builds flavour and an airier, chewier structure that holds up in the hand and, crucially, still tastes of something at the crust edge. Neither is better; they are different dishes that share a name.

One practical consequence: wood-fired pizza travels badly. If you are ordering to take home, the long-fermented styles survive the trip far better, and anything Neapolitan should be eaten within a few minutes of leaving the oven or not ordered at all.

Takeaway, delivery and eating with a crowd

Culver City is well served by delivery platforms, but the local advice is the same as everywhere: the pizza is materially better eaten where it was baked, and the gap is widest at the wood-fired end. For a table of people, the 14-inch format at Folks shares well and the wings and meatballs give you something to order around, which is harder at a strictly Neapolitan room where the pies are individually sized.

With children, Helms is the easier destination — it has its own parking, the complex is open and walkable, and there are shops to wander between while you wait for a table. Platform works too but is busier and more boutique-oriented. Both are far more forgiving than trying to park on Washington Boulevard on a Friday night.

Parking and getting there

The Helms Bakery District has its own parking and is the easiest of the pizza destinations to drive to. Platform also has parking on site. If you are coming without a car, the Metro E Line stops at Culver City Station — roughly 26 minutes from 7th Street/Metro Center, trains about every 15 minutes — and both Helms and Platform are a short walk or a very short ride from there.

Pizza and a drink

One of the quieter pleasures of the Culver City pizza scene is that the wine is taken as seriously as the dough. Folks built its original reputation partly on a tight natural-wine list, which is a deliberate choice — high-acid, lower-intervention wines cut through fat and salt in a way that a heavy oaked red does not, and they are the reason a glass alongside a pancetta-and-potato white pie works better than it has any right to. If beer is more your thing, LA Ale Works at Ivy Station is the nearest local brewery, and Father’s Office is on the same Helms block with a long craft-beer list if you want to move on after dinner. The bars guide covers where to go afterwards properly.

Late night, and the weekend crush

Be realistic about timing. Culver City eats out heavily at the weekend and these are small kitchens with finite oven capacity — a wood oven can only turn out so many pies an hour no matter how busy the room is, which is why waits at the destination pizzerias on a Friday or Saturday evening are a structural fact rather than bad management. The local pattern is to eat early, around 5:30 to 6:30pm, or late after the first wave clears. Midweek is materially easier at every one of these rooms, and a Tuesday or Wednesday is when you can walk in and sit down at the places that would have you waiting an hour on a Saturday.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best pizza in Culver City?

The two destination choices are Folks Pizzeria at 3273 Helms Avenue, known for long-fermented 14-inch pies, and Roberta’s at Platform, the Los Angeles outpost of the Brooklyn wood-fired institution. Nardò is the neighbourhood favourite that review rankings repeatedly single out for pizza.

When did Folks Pizzeria open in Culver City?

On 1 May, at 3273 Helms Avenue in the Helms Bakery District. It is the Culver City expansion of the Orange County pizzeria that Joey Booterbaugh and Chloe Tran launched in 2019.

Is Roberta’s in Culver City the same as the Brooklyn one?

Yes — it is the Los Angeles location of the Brooklyn pizzeria, and it sits inside the Platform development on Washington Boulevard.

Is there pizza with outdoor seating in Culver City?

Folks Pizzeria has both indoor and outdoor seating, with heaters and blankets on the patio for cooler evenings.

Where can I park for pizza in Culver City?

Both the Helms Bakery District and Platform have their own parking, which makes them far easier than looking for street parking on Washington Boulevard.

What is long-fermented pizza dough?

Dough left to develop over a day or more before baking. It builds more flavour and a lighter, chewier structure, and it is why the crust edge on a well-made long-fermented pie is worth eating rather than leaving.

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