How a tiny LA mom-and-pop pizza joint skyrocketed to ‘best’ in the world

It all began in 2022 with eight counter seats, one scorching-hot oven and an audacious goal — to make the best pizza in Los Angeles.

Four years later, Pizzeria Sei isn’t just the best pizza in the City of Angels — it’s also some of the best in the world.

That’s according to this year’s 50 Top Pizza global rankings, announced Tuesday in Naples, Italy — where experienced judges from the Boot and elsewhere handed out the coveted awards to a lucky few.

The pint-sized spot that Chef Willian Joo and his partner Jennifer So opened in LA’s Pico-Robertson area tied at number five, worldwide, beating out scores of Italian offerings — an astonishing feat that tells the world what Southern California diners already know.

“So proud of William and all of our team at both locations working tirelessly to keep up with demand while retaining the highest quality possible,” So wrote on social media following the stunning win.

In a Los Angeles restaurant landscape stunned by endless closures, spiraling costs and changing habits, Pizzeria Sei’s signature, Tokyo-style Neapolitan pies have found an insatiable audience — one that quickly demanded a considerable expansion of the operation.

Even after the pair opened a larger flagship in Palms this summer, reservations tend to disappear soon after they are released — while hopeful walk-ins have been known to line up before the doors open.

Chef Joo’s culinary foundation includes stints at LA greats like Providence — his pies combine traditional Neapolitan pizza-making techniques with Japanese precision, producing blistered, leopard-spotted crusts with a distinct sea salt crunch.

A true, Tokyo-style Neapolitan emphasizes dough fermentation and texture — Joo’s version pinches and crimps the dough’s rim before it hits the oven.

Takeout from the original location, now branded as Sei Pizza Bar, is the easiest way to experience the phenomenon — with small-ish pizzas starting at $21, currently. For that, you’ll get a marinara pie without cheese — tomato, garlic, basil, oregano, extra virgin olive oil and a bit of Sicilian sea salt.

One diner who managed to snag a reservation at the new Palms location, at the corner of Overland and Tabor, declared the original Sei their “favorite pizza in the city,” before diving into a $38 special pizza, called the Culture Diavola.

The ultra-thin, crispy pie — topped with gochujang, candied guanciale and stracciatella — was “one of the most complex and unique pizzas I’ve ever had,” the diner gushed on Reddit.

“So much going on here, and it works beautifully together,” they added. “Sweet, salty, tangy.”