October is National Pizza Month, which seems like a pretty good excuse to answer a question we hear in one form or another all the time:

What kind of pizza should I order?

The answer isn’t always about toppings.

At Naples Pizza & Restaurant in Barnegat, you can start by deciding what you want from the pizza itself. Thin and square? Thick and substantial? A traditional round pie? A heartier pan pizza?

Quick answer: If you want a thinner square pizza, start with Grandma Pizza. If you’re craving a thicker square slice, look at Sicilian. Pan pizza offers another hearty option, while a traditional round pizza gives you the familiar format with plenty of choices for toppings and specialty combinations.

Here’s how to narrow it down.

Start With the Crust, Not the Toppings

Pepperoni or vegetables. Red sauce or white. Chicken or something simpler.

Those decisions matter, but there’s another choice that can completely change your pizza: the style of the crust and pie.

Naples Pizza has served Barnegat since 1984, and the current menu includes several different pizza formats. Rather than trying to compare every possible combination, start with the experience you’re craving.

Do you want something thinner and crispier? Something thick and substantial? Something familiar and easy to share?

Once you answer that question, choosing your pizza gets much easier.

Grandma Pizza: Thin, Square and Crispy

Grandma Pizza is a square pizza with a thinner profile than Sicilian.

It’s a good place to start if you like the idea of a square pie, but don’t necessarily want a thick, breadier crust. Naples’ Traditional Grandma Pizza is also one of the restaurant’s documented customer favorites.

The Grandma style gives you that distinctive square format while staying noticeably different from a thick Sicilian pie.

| Choose Grandma Pizza if: you’re looking for a thinner square pizza and a crispier style.

Naples also offers Grandma variations, but we’re going to leave the full topping tour to our specialty pizza guide.

Want to understand this style in more detail? Read what makes Grandma Pizza different.

Sicilian Pizza: Thick and Substantial

Grandma and Sicilian pizzas may both arrive in a square format, but that doesn’t make them interchangeable.

Sicilian pizza is the thicker choice.

That’s the most useful distinction when you’re standing in front of the menu trying to decide between the two. Grandma goes in the thinner direction; Sicilian gives you a thicker, more substantial base.

| Choose Sicilian Pizza if: the thicker crust is part of what you’re craving.

If those are the two styles you’re considering, we’ve already done the deep dive for you. See our complete Grandma Pizza vs. Sicilian Pizza comparison.

Pan Pizza: For a Heartier Pizza Night

Naples’ menu also includes pan pizzas.

Pan pizza is worth considering when you want a more substantial pizza, but aren’t specifically looking for Grandma or Sicilian style. The current Naples menu includes several pan options, giving you different flavor directions within the same heartier format.

| Choose pan pizza if: you’re craving a substantial pizza and want to explore different topping combinations in a pan format.

Instead of listing every current pan pizza here, check the Naples Pizza menu before ordering. That keeps this guide focused on choosing the right style while the menu remains the source for the current selection.

Round Pizza: Keep It Classic or Make It Your Own

Sometimes you’re not looking for a different crust style at all.

You just want pizza.

A traditional round pie gives you the familiar pizza-night experience and plenty of room to keep things simple or choose something with a little more going on. It’s also an easy choice when you’re ordering for people with different tastes. You can start simple or explore one of Naples’ current specialty combinations.

| Choose a round pizza if: you want a familiar pizza format with plenty of flexibility in what goes on top.

If toppings are really what you’re trying to decide, that’s where our Specialty Pizza in Barnegat guide becomes more useful than this one.

Grandma vs. Sicilian vs. Pan vs. Round: What’s the Difference?

Here’s the simplest way to think about it:

There isn’t one style that’s right for everyone.

That’s actually part of what makes pizza night fun. One person may immediately head toward a square Grandma pie while someone else wants the thicker Sicilian experience. Another group may be perfectly happy keeping things classic with a round pizza.

National Pizza Month is as good a reason as any to try a format you don’t usually order.

What If the Toppings Matter More Than the Crust?

Then start there.

Maybe you’ve already decided that tonight calls for Buffalo Chicken. Maybe you’re craving vegetables. Maybe you want a white pizza rather than a traditional red-sauce combination.

In that case, you don’t need another enormous list here. Our specialty pizza guide is specifically designed to help you choose based on those kinds of cravings.

If you’re choosing between pizza and the rest of Naples’ Italian menu, head to our What to Order at Naples Pizza guide.

Different question, different guide.

What Makes Naples Pizza’s Crust Different?

Whichever style you choose, what happens before the pizza goes into the oven matters.

Naples makes its pizza dough fresh daily. The dough is mixed and divided into balls, then refrigerated for approximately 24 to 48 hours. Before it’s used, the dough rests at room temperature and is hand-stretched.

Naples uses a Bakers Pride gas deck oven with brick stones and bakes pizzas at high temperature. It’s a pizza-making process that Naples has developed over decades of serving Barnegat.

If you’re the person who wants to know why the crust turns out the way it does, you can go behind the scenes in our guide to how Naples Pizza makes pizza in Barnegat.

Celebrating National Pizza Month in Barnegat

National Pizza Month doesn’t require a special promotion or a limited-time pizza.

For us, it’s really just an opportunity to celebrate something we’ve been making in Barnegat for more than 40 years.

Naples Pizza has served Barnegat since 1984, welcoming generations of local families as well as customers from around Ocean County. Pizza has changed in plenty of ways over those years, but Naples continues to make its dough fresh and serve the pizza styles our customers know.

So this October, consider changing up your usual order.

If you normally order round pizza, try a square pie. If Sicilian is your usual choice, see what makes Grandma different. If you always focus on toppings, start with the crust this time.

You might find a new favorite.

Ready to Choose Your Pizza?

Whether tonight calls for Grandma, Sicilian, pan or a classic round pie, start with the style you’re craving and go from there.

Naples Pizza & Restaurant is located at 550 N Main St, Suite D, Barnegat, NJ, serving Barnegat and surrounding Ocean County communities.

Naples offers dine-in and takeout. We do not offer delivery.

Ready for pizza night?

View the Naples Pizza Menu and order online for pickup in Barnegat.