June marks the unofficial awards-and-rankings season in California’s gastronomic world, and one of South County’s standout pizzerias is the first to make headlines. Truly Pizza, the Dana Point pizzeria that recently welcomed a Laguna Beach location, landed at No. 4 on the 2026 edition of 50 Top Pizza USA, and influential guide to the country’s best pizza joints.
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The pizza slingers also took home another of the guide’s honors, Pizza of the Year (formally known as the Latteria Sorrentina Award) for its Umami Mushroom Pizza, a white pie layered with roasted mushrooms, toasted sesame oil, a seed-studded crust and bonito flakes scattered across the finished pie.
The latest distinction marks a major jump for Truly Pizza, which ranked No. 42 on the guide’s 2024 list before leaping to No. 9 last year. Only four restaurants placed above it this year: Una Pizza Napoletana in New York City, which came in at No. 1; Pizzeria Sei in Los Angeles and Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, which both tied for second place; and Jersey City’s Razza, which came in at No. 3.
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“To receive this honor for a third consecutive year while simultaneously growing into new communities is incredibly rewarding,” said Donna Baldwin, co-founder of Truly Pizza, in a written release. “Opening Laguna Beach has already been such an exciting milestone for us, and we’re grateful to continue sharing Truly Pizza with even more guests across Southern California.”
New York City, unsurprisingly, made the bulk of this year’s Top 50. The Empire State scored 27 restaurants in this year’s guide, with California following at 13 and Florida with 10.
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Founded in 2017 by three Italian food journalists and gastronomes, Luciano Pignataro, Albert Sapere and Barbara Guerra, 50 Top Pizza ranks pizzas around the world. In an interview with PMQ Pizza, a business publication and media outfit dedicated to the pizza restaurant industry, Sapere said his team judges pizzas accordingly: “With a very simple and direct system: We first carry out a large survey, which is organized by geographical area. In the specific case of the United States, after the survey, we proceed with our anonymous visits by simple paying customers.”
He goes on the say that for the U.S. guide, each inspector is based in the United States “in order to better represent the pizza world that operates under the banner of the stars and stripes.”
Founded by Baldwin, John Arena, Chris Decker and Michael Vakneen in 2023 in Dana Point, Truly Pizza recently announced early plans for a location in Venice, which will mark the pizza purveyors’ first brick-and-mortar foray in Los Angeles. This spring, the popular pizzeria opened its second location in Laguna Beach.
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Find it: 24402 Del Prado Ave, Dana Point; 320 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach.