Venice is the wrong place to look for a New York slice and the right place to look for the opposite of one. The pizza here has gone in a specific direction — wood ovens, garden produce, short weekly hours — and the couple of counters doing the folded-slice format are doing it in a distinctly Californian way. Understanding that split before you walk down Abbot Kinney saves you from the most common Venice disappointment, which is arriving on the wrong day of the week for the pizza you had in mind.
The best wood-fired pizza in Venice runs four days a week, and the counter that covers the other three keeps different hours again. Ask Karpo which Abbot Kinney kitchens are firing today before you make the drive.
Fiorelli, 1033 Abbot Kinney Boulevard — Four Days a Week
The most interesting pizza in Venice is not in a restaurant. Fiorelli Pizza operates out of The Cook's Garden at 1033 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, where chef Michael Fiorelli and his business partner Liz Gutierrez cook hand-fired pies in a custom oven with toppings picked from the garden on the same site.
That last detail is the whole proposition and it is not marketing. Produce that travels twenty feet from the bed to the oven behaves differently to produce that has been in a crate — it is why the vegetable pies here are the ones to order rather than the safe cheese option, and why the menu shifts with what has come up rather than staying fixed.
The constraint is the schedule: Thursday to Sunday only. Four days a week is the entire operation, which means a Venice pizza plan on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday cannot include the best thing in the neighbourhood. Build the trip around those four days or accept that you are eating something else.
Abbot's Pizza Company — the Everything Crust
The slice-shop side of Venice is anchored by Abbot's Pizza Company on Abbot Kinney, and it is not attempting a New York impression. Its signature is a bagel-style everything crust — sesame, poppy, garlic, onion baked onto the base — and a salad pizza that is genuinely a salad on a pizza rather than a garnish.
This is where the East Coast comparison breaks down productively. A New York slice is engineered to be rigid enough to fold and reheat; the Venice version is built around toppings and crust seasoning, and it does not want to be folded. Order it as its own thing rather than as a substitute, and it is very good. Order it expecting a Manhattan counter slice and you will be disappointed by something that is not trying to be that at all.
Gjelina Take Away, 1427 Abbot Kinney — the One That Came Back
Gjelina Take Away opened in 2011 next door to the original Gjelina and is the neighbourhood's default counter: part pizzeria, part sandwich shop, part bakery. It is also the entry most often reported wrong, because it shut in June 2024 and a fair number of write-ups stopped there. It reopened with a new menu and is currently running 7am to 9pm daily.
Those hours make it the most useful address on the street. Breakfast runs from 7am to 11:30am, after which it turns over to pizzas, sandwiches and salads for the rest of the day — which means it covers the early morning and the mid-afternoon, the two windows where the garden oven up the road is not open. If you are working out one place on Abbot Kinney that will be serving whenever you happen to arrive, this is it.
If You Want the Ranked Pie, You Are Leaving Venice
It is worth being clear about what Venice is not. The pizza that put Los Angeles into the national conversation this year is Pizzeria Sei on West Pico Boulevard, ranked second in the country in 50 Top Pizza's 2026 United States guide — and that is a cross-town drive from the beach, not a walk down Abbot Kinney.
So decide what the evening is for. If the point is the best pizza in Los Angeles, the destination is Pico Boulevard and Venice is not on the route. If the point is a good afternoon in Venice that includes very good pizza, the garden oven on Abbot Kinney is the answer and it is a better version of that specific day than anything a ranking will give you.
Walking Abbot Kinney
The street does most of the work. Abbot Kinney runs roughly a mile through the neighbourhood, the addresses above sit along it, and the whole thing is comfortably walkable end to end — which makes this one of the few pizza crawls in Los Angeles that does not involve moving a car between stops.
The sensible shape is a late-afternoon start on a Thursday through Sunday: garden pies first while the oven is running, a slice later if you are still hungry, and the rest of the street in between. Parking is the actual constraint rather than distance, so park once at one end and walk, rather than trying to move between addresses that are four minutes apart on foot.
One more scheduling note that applies to the whole street rather than any single address: Venice runs on beach hours, not city hours. Kitchens here open later and close earlier than their equivalents on the east side of Los Angeles, and weekday afternoons are quieter than anywhere inland. That works in your favour if you can come midweek — the same pizza, no queue, and somewhere to park within a block of where you want to eat.
Practical notes
Fiorelli Pizza, at The Cook's Garden, 1033 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice — wood-fired pies with toppings from the on-site garden, from chef Michael Fiorelli and partner Liz Gutierrez; open Thursday to Sunday only. Abbot's Pizza Company, Abbot Kinney Boulevard — slices and whole pies, known for its bagel-style everything crust and salad pizza. Gjelina Take Away, 1427 Abbot Kinney Boulevard — open since 2011, closed briefly in June 2024 and reopened with a new menu; currently 7am to 9pm daily, breakfast 7am to 11:30am then pizzas, sandwiches and salads. For the nationally ranked option, Pizzeria Sei sits at 8781 West Pico Boulevard, a cross-town drive away. Abbot Kinney is walkable end to end; park once rather than moving between stops. Hours change seasonally — confirm before you drive over.
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Ask Karpo first
The best oven on this street runs four days a week and the counter next door keeps different hours again. Ask Karpo which Venice kitchens are open today, what the garden menu looks like right now, and whether it is worth driving to Pico Boulevard instead.
