The city folks who moved out to live in Northridge soon found the fresh country air gave them a big appetite and thin-crust pizzas just weren't satisfying enough. To keep their customers coming back for more, the pizzerias of Northridge adjusted the thickness of their dough bases accordingly, and so Northridge is known for thick crust pizza. Thick crust is one of the truly traditional Italian pizzas along with thin crust, Sicilian, Neapolitan, and the less commonly seen Roman. While all are prepared from the same basic ingredients, they all have distinct characteristics, but ask any Italian and they'll tell you, thick crust is the king of them all.

Best delivery pizza in Northridge, California

Pizzasaurus Rex is the pizzeria you should call if you want the best delivery pizza in Northridge and you want it quick. This Northridge pizzeria has been providing the same swift prep and dispatch service since the late 80s. That's almost twenty-five years of pizza-making experience in the bag or better said, in the delivery box. Located in a corner shopping mall on Lassen Street, Pizzasaurus Rex's small but organized premises are designed for the job of pizza delivery and take-out with no dining-in area at all. It's all kitchen and pizza ovens with just a counter for pick-ups from customers and the delivery guy. Pizzasaurus work on the simple concept that you choose your topping ingredients so you get exactly the pizza you want. That means you can pick from between one to seven different items to go on your pie so long as they have them in stock.

Best takeout pizza in Northridge, California

If you've been out hiking the trails in the Wilbur Tampa Park and come down from the hills hungry, you can get the best take-out pizza in Northridge on your way back into town. As you're driving south down Tampa Avenue, keep your eye out for the Porter Ranch Town Square shopping complex and when you see it, head for the parking lot. Once you're parked, you'll spot Ameci Pizza and Pasta straight away and that's the door you need to head through to get the best take-out pizza in miles. Ameci bake old-world thick crust as well as New York-style pizzas and have a great selection of thoughtfully put-together toppings for both meat-eaters and vegetarians. They also have gluten-free pies and cauliflower crust on the menu too, which is perfect if you have specific dietary requirements.

Best pizza near Northridge, California

Thousand Oaks

It's not hard to find an escape from the city as Northridge is surrounded by plenty of superb countryside. To see some of the best of it though and do something completely different at the same time, you should head twenty-five miles west to Thousand Oaks. In Thousand Oaks, you can go hiking through Wildwood Park to see the Paradise Falls, where there's a super swim pool you can leap into to cool down. After you've dried off, pay a visit to the Malibu Wine Safari Ranch on the outskirts of town where there's wine tasting and exotic animals like zebras roaming around. When it's time to eat, check out D'Amore's Pizza on Thousand Oaks Boulevard. They make superior Italian-style pies.

Santa Clarita

For a family fun day away from Northridge, Santa Clarita is hard to beat. You can let loose a few screams and rid yourself of any accumulated stress with a visit to the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park where just looking at the roller coasters, never mind riding one, is likely to induce a panic attack. If it's summer when you go then you can get a damper thrill in the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor waterpark so long as you take your swim things with you. If you're not into theme parks or prefer not to be around too many people then take a hike through the famous rock formations of the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area before having a pizza at Chi Chi's on Soledad Canyon Road.

Pasadena

You can still have an interesting culturally-oriented day without going into Los Angeles if you go to Pasadena instead. Pasadena is a thirty-mile trip from Northridge that will take you around forty minutes if you take the I-210 eastbound. In Pasadena, you can visit the Norton Simon Museum or the USC Pacific Asia Museum which both house collections of Asian art. Explore Pasadena's historic district then, before having a pizza at Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana on East Colorado Boulevard, have a leisurely stroll through the Descanso Gardens where there are shady fruit orchards.