12 October 2026 · 8 min read
Detroit is one of the few American cities that gave the country its own pizza shape. The Detroit-style pie is baked in a rectangular steel pan, with a thick, airy crust that fries crisp against the pan's edges and cheese pushed all the way to the border so it caramelizes into a lacy, browned edge. It was invented at what is now Buddy's Pizza in 1946, and the format has since spread across the country — chains and independent pizzerias from Los Angeles to New York now advertise "Detroit-style" slices on their menus. But Detroit itself is still the place to compare how much an actual square pie costs against the national chains and sit-down Italian spots that share the same blocks the style grew up on.
Pizza Restaurants · Detroit, Michigan
We pulled current prices directly from the websites of several Detroit pizzerias in October 2026, rather than relying on secondhand listings or old menu photos. The spread is wider than you might expect — a cheese pie can run from the low teens to nearly $20, and a loaded specialty pizza can clear $25 before tax and tip. Below is what we could verify, store by store, plus a look at what explains the gap. Where a pizzeria's own site didn't publish current numbers, we say so directly rather than guessing — this is meant as an honest snapshot, not a complete price list for every pizzeria in the city.
Round pizzerias sell by diameter — small, medium, large, extra-large. Detroit-style shops don't always work that way. Some, like Michigan & Trumbull in New Center, sell a single standard pan size and vary the price only by topping, so there's no "large" to compare against a "small." Others, like Shield's Restaurant Bar Pizzeria, post a real small/large split, which gives us an actual large-pizza price to anchor this piece around. When a shop only sells one size, we've noted that rather than guessing which size category it falls into.
Several well-known Detroit pizzerias — including Supino Pizzeria and Niki's Pizza — publish their menus as images or hand off pricing to a third-party ordering system, so current prices weren't readable from their sites at the time of writing. For those, check current prices directly on the linked ordering page or by phone before you order.
The cheapest way into a Detroit-style pie is a plain cheese, build-your-own pizza. At Shield's, a small cheese pizza runs $13 and a large is $19, with additional toppings at $1.25 on a small and $2.25 on a large. That large cheese price — $19 — is the clearest verified large-pizza baseline we found in the city.
Michigan & Trumbull's menu doesn't split by size, but its plain cheese or build-your-own "Detroit Red" pie is listed at $14, with a vegan build-your-own version at $13. Since the shop sells only the one pan size, that $13–$14 figure is effectively what a base pizza costs there, full stop — no size upgrade available.
Pizza Restaurants · Detroit, Michigan
Once you move off a plain cheese pie, Detroit prices climb quickly. At Shield's, most specialty pizzas — the Shield's Super, Vegetarian, Meat Lover's, Margherita, Gold Medal, Grilled Chicken Parmesan, BBQ Chicken, and Genovese — are priced at $15.50 for a small and $24.99 for a large. The Philly Steak pizza runs slightly higher, at $16.50 small and $25.99 large.
Pizza Restaurants · Detroit, Michigan
Michigan & Trumbull's specialty pies land in a similar band without the size split: Red-sauce specialties like the Meat Lovers and Cowabunga Supreme are $19, while White-pizza specialties such as the Bagley Chorizo, Buffalo Chicken, and Sweet Baby Angie run $16–$17. The cheapest specialty on their menu, the Cadieux E Pepe, is $13.
A loaded Detroit-style specialty, in other words, tends to land somewhere between $17 and $26 across the pizzerias that publish pricing — noticeably more than a plain pie, and on the high end, close to what you'd pay for a full sit-down Italian entrée.
Detroit's pizza scene doesn't stop at counter-service pizzerias. Andiamo Detroit Riverfront, inside the Renaissance Center, and other full-service Italian restaurants in the city sell pizza as one menu item among pasta, seafood and steak — so comparing it directly to a takeout pie is a little like comparing apples to a tasting menu. If you're after a sit-down dinner with a pizza course rather than a pizza-focused order, expect per-person pricing closer to a full restaurant meal than a $19 takeout pie, and check the current online menu for that location's specific pizza pricing, since full-service Italian restaurants revise prices more frequently than counter shops.
Italian Restaurants · Detroit, Michigan
On the other end, Sicily's Pizzeria and Subs in southwest Detroit represents the neighborhood slice-shop tier — a sit-down-optional, counter-first pizzeria that's a more direct price comparison to the build-your-own pies above than a riverfront Italian dining room is.
Pizza Restaurants · Detroit, Michigan
Here's what we could verify directly from each pizzeria's own website as of October 2026. Where a shop doesn't split by size, we've listed its single standard price rather than guessing a size category.
| Pizzeria | Plain/Cheese | Specialty (high end) | Size structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shield's Restaurant Bar Pizzeria | $13 small / $19 large | $24.99–$25.99 large | Small and large |
| Michigan & Trumbull | $13–$14 (one size) | $16–$19 (one size) | Single standard pan |
| Buddy's Pizza | Check current prices | Check current prices | Varies by location |
| Supino Pizzeria | Check current prices | Check current prices | Menu posted as image |
| Niki's Pizza | Check current prices | Check current prices | Varies; order-online pricing |
The clearest takeaway from the two shops with published, apples-to-apples numbers: a large cheese pizza in Detroit starts around $19, and a large specialty pizza tops out close to $26.
A few patterns show up across the listings we checked. First, size structure matters more than it does for round pizza — a shop that sells one oversized standard pan, like Michigan & Trumbull, can price a loaded specialty at $19 because it's not also offering a cheaper small option to anchor against. Second, toppings and protein add up fast: Shield's charges $2.25 per topping on a large pizza, so a build-your-own with three or four add-ons can approach specialty-pizza pricing even before you pick a named combo off the menu. Third, where the kitchen sits inside a larger restaurant — as with sit-down Italian dining rooms — pizza is priced as one dish among many rather than as the restaurant's core product, which tends to push it toward entrée pricing rather than takeout pricing.
Neighborhood plays a role too, though less than you'd expect for a single-city comparison. New Center, Eastern Market, and southwest Detroit pizzerias in this roundup all land in a comparable working-class-to-middle price band; it's the riverfront and downtown sit-down dining rooms that break from that pattern, not a particular side of the city.
None of the prices above include sales tax, and none include a tip or delivery fee. A pizza ordered for pickup at the counter is the closest you'll get to the menu price; add a card-processing surcharge at some counter-service shops, which a few Detroit pizzerias now apply on top of the listed price. Order through a third-party delivery app instead of the restaurant's own site, and expect the total to run noticeably higher once service fees, delivery fees, and an app-suggested tip are added on top of the menu price — often enough to turn a $19 pizza into something closer to $30 by the time it arrives. If a pizzeria takes orders directly through its own website, as several on this list do, that's typically the cheaper path to the same pie.
Tipping norms vary by order type: a sit-down meal at a restaurant like Andiamo follows standard full-service tipping, while a counter order that's picked up in person is a smaller, optional tip rather than an expected 18–20%. Delivery, whether through the restaurant directly or a third-party app, generally calls for a tip closer to what you'd leave a server, since a driver is doing the same job.
If you're planning to eat your way through the city's pizza scene, Detroit's pizza restaurants page is the fastest way to see what's nearby, and the Italian restaurants category is worth a look if you want pizza as part of a full sit-down meal rather than a takeout order. The Detroit, Michigan directory page rolls up every category in the city if you're comparing pizza against other options nearby.
A few practical notes before you order: several of the pizzerias above only publish full pricing through their own online ordering systems rather than a static menu page, so the fastest way to confirm an exact price is to start an order on the restaurant's own site rather than relying on a printed menu photo. If you're ordering for a group, ask whether the kitchen offers a larger "party" pan beyond its standard size — several Detroit-style shops do, but it's not always listed online. And if you're choosing between two nearby pizzerias on price alone, remember that a single-size shop's "only" pizza and a small/large shop's "large" aren't necessarily the same amount of food — check slice count or pan dimensions, not just the price, before assuming one is the better deal.
In Detroit, the floor for a large, plain Detroit-style pizza is about $19, and a fully loaded specialty pie tops out close to $26 at the pizzerias that publish clear pricing. Shops that sell a single standard pan size, rather than a small/large split, tend to price that pan in the same $13–$19 range regardless of size — so the real lever on your bill is toppings and specialty combos, not pizza size. Check current prices directly on each restaurant's own ordering page before you order, since several Detroit pizzerias don't post full menus as readable text.
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