Earlier this year, Dave Portnoy, the creator of Barstool Sports and well-known for his One Bite pizza reviews, went to Frank’s Pizza & Pastaat, located Restaurant 6620 Belair Road in Baltimore, to try some of their food. Following his visit, patrons started to wait in line down the block before the restaurant opened, excited to try the cheesesteak and pizza that Portnoy had given such high marks. We gave it a try today.
Dave Portnoy gave Frank’s New York-style cheese pizza an amazing 8.3 on his famous 1–10 rating system, and their cheesesteak an even more incredible 9.0. We also had some of the pizza, choosing slices of cheese and pepperoni. We thought it was a lighter, perhaps crispier version of Rockville and Gaithersburg’s favorite, Giuseppi’s. Regarding the cheesesteak, we both thought it was excellent; one of us gave it a slightly better rating than SOKO in Takoma Park because of the delicious sesame seed roll, while Mr. MoCo gave it a slightly lower rating.
Founded in 1985, Frank’s was named Baltimore’s Best Pizza by The Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Magazine in 2023 and 2024. Among the best 73 pizzas Portnoy has assessed, the 8.3 rating is the highest of any pizza in Maryland. For comparison, since 2013, more than 1,000 pizzas have been rated, with an average One Bite pizza rating of 6.8.
Frank’s has been a family restaurant since 1985. During the pandemic, brothers Gerry and Daniel bought it from their parents, and they have since added their own ideas to the menu. It offers sandwiches, pastas, calzones, stromboli, and pizzas in the New York and Detroit styles. The well-liked cheesesteaks can be served Baltimore-style by adding lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and other toppings, or Philly-style with hand-sliced ribeye and Cooper Sharp American cheese.
