It was V Lounge's state-of-the-art, Neapolitan-style wood-burning pizza oven that started this madness.

There was a new pie in town, and people everywhere were talking about it. Which, of course, meant that I had to join in the conversation.

Is it the best pizza on the island, as some were claiming? And is it even possible to definitively declare one pizza better than another, let alone find the one that I can call "the best"?

The thing about pizza is that, more than any other kind of food, its appeal depends on the personal preferences of the eater.

I've had great pizza that was smothered in cheese, and great pizza with almost no cheese at all. I've had incredible, saucy deep-dish pizza, and equally edible barely sauced thin-crust pizza.

With so many different kinds of pizza out there — from New York-style to Chicago deep-dish-style to no real style at all — how does one determine which pizza is the best?

The short answer: You don't.

So instead of trying to find this city's best pizza, I decided to try to find this city's favorite pizza. And to do so, I needed reinforcements.

I put out a call to Honolulu Advertiser readers for pizza lovers who would be willing to help me find our favorite pizza. There were no prerequisites for joining the pizza team. You just had to love pizza — all kinds of pizza. A few hundred people responded, and I narrowed the group down to eight, and on a Friday evening two weeks ago, we set out to find our favorite pizza in Honolulu.

THE CHALLENGE

Though the pizza eaters didn't need to be food experts, I did make it very clear that this challenge wasn't for the weak. Everyone on the team had to be willing to eat at least one slice of pizza at six locations over a period of seven hours.

Each person was also required to rate each pizza based on a purely unscientific ratings system on which crust, sauce and toppings were rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest possible score and 5 being the best.

Each person was also given a notebook to take notes. The following results are based on their ratings and opinions, and are in no way meant to be the final word on who makes the best pizza in Honolulu.

This wasn't science, it was entertainment, so please, don't take us too seriously.

THE TEAM

Members of the pizza team were strangers to me and to each other — except for the two couples on the team and one tag-along team member who joined the group at our first stop at Bar 35. The only thing we all had in common was that we all love pizza.

As one taster, Moani Wright-Van Alst, said in an e-mail: "I could seriously eat pizza every day." Fellow taster Milton Wheeler was chosen for the team based on this e-mail: "Pizza? I love pizza. Round pizza, square pizza, veggie, cheese or meat pizza, frozen or wood-burn gourmet, pan or thin crust ... it's all good."

THE STRATEGY

The plan was to hit six places whose pizza has generated some sort of buzz — either among food critics or among the pizza-eating public. With that in mind, we visited, in this order: Bar 35, Antonio's New York Pizzeria, La Pizza Rina, Harbor Pub, V Lounge and J.J. Dolan's.

For consistency's sake, we ordered the plain cheese pizza at every venue, and the results of our pizza tasting are based on comparing the six different cheese pizzas.

5 P.M.: BAR 35

Bar 35 (35 N. Hotel St., 537-3535) was the first stop on our pizza crawl. This Hotel Street bar is known for its thin-crust, oblong-shaped gourmet pizza, popular among the pau hana and late-night crowds.

The pizza: We ordered the "Simple Pleasure" pizza ($10) — tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil.

The verdict: Bar 35's pizza was the team's fourth-ranked pizza, based on the tasters' individual ratings.

Likes: The fresh toppings, the mild cheese and the sauce, which packs a mild spicy punch.

Dislikes: The crust was too thin — "cracker-like," as two tasters said — and couldn't stand up to the toppings; the pizza wasn't filling enough.

"This is good pupu-type pizza to snack on while drinking," said Jeremy Gudoy. "But I wouldn't come here just for the pizza."

Bonus pie: We also tried the "French Kiss" pizza, which is a cheese pizza made with brie, and the consensus was: We love the French Kiss.

6 P.M.: ANTONIO'S NEW YORK PIZZERIA

Our plan was to head to J.J. Dolan's after Bar 35, but the place was standing room only, so we made the trip to Kähala for Antonio's New York-style pizza. Owned by a couple of New York City natives, Antonio's (4210 Wai'alae Ave., 737-3333) boasts authentic thin-crust pizza, and a massive pizza-loving fan base.

The verdict: Antonio's was the team's third-favorite pizza.

The pizza: The "Pizzaola" — cheese pizza with olive oil, sweet basil and parmesan ($17.60 for an 18-inch pizza).

Likes: Antonio's not-too-thick and not-too-thin crust was a big hit with the group, as were the ample toppings, and the large slices.

"Delicious-looking pizza!" said Michael Shimada. And everyone knows that good food starts with the eyes.

Dislikes: The pies at Antonio's were too lightly sauced for some people, and too heavy on the salt for others.

Bonus: We also tried "The Village" pizza with pepperoni, Genoa salami, Italian sausage, mushrooms and black olives, which was extra satisfying. Too satisfying, actually. The tasters couldn't limit themselves to just one slice of Antonio's pizza, prompting murmurs of being too full to go on. But go on we did ...

7:30 P.M.: LA PIZZA RINA

La Pizza Rina (1425 S. King St., 941-6634) is a local family favorite, and it appears frequently in guide books as a good affordable place to grab a pie. Though La Pizza Rina claims to make New- York-style pizza, it really just makes pizza.

The pizza: We ordered the plain cheese pizza with a medium crust ($12.25 for a 16-inch pizza).

The verdict: La Pizza Rina's pizza came in fifth of the six places we visited.

Likes: La Pizza Rina's pizza is hearty — thick crust, lots of sauce, lots of cheese — and appealed to the group in a home-cooked, comfort-food kind of way.

Dislikes: Sometimes more is just more, and the main complaint about this pizza was that for all its heartiness, it suffers a bit in terms of sophistication.

Bonus pie: After Antonio's, we needed a break from bonus pies.

9 P.M.: HARBOR PUB

As a dive bar near the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, pizza isn't the first thing that comes to mind when someone suggests a meet-up at Harbor Pub (1765 Ala Moana Blvd., 941-0985). But its pizza is an underground local favorite.

The pizza: We ordered the pub's cheese pizza ($15.95 for a 16-inch pie). The menu says it's topped with four cheeses, but it doesn't say what variety of cheeses, and the server didn't know, either.

The verdict: Harbor Pub's pizza was the group's least favorite.

Likes: Skip to the "dislikes."

Dislikes: Harbor Pub was the low point of the evening. The service was bad, and the pizza was ... well, it turned a group of pizza lovers into pizza haters. The unanimous consensus: The pizza tasted like grocery-store frozen pizza, and "the place smells like pirates!" said taster Gary Payne.

Bonus pie: We also ordered the signature "Harbor Combo," that comes with ham, salami, pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers, black olives and onions. It was largely left uneaten.

10 P.M.: V LOUNGE

This was the place that set the whole evening in motion. We were on a search for our favorite pizza because V Lounge's (1344 Kona St., 955-2640) wood-fired pizza came to town, making fans of everyone who tries it. The bar, owned by the Vertical Junkies, a local urban-event promotions crew, added Neapolitan -style pizza to their repertoire about a month ago.

Manning the wood oven is chef Alejandro Briceno, a former patisserie chef for Nobu who left his gig with the sushi giant to make pizzas for the club kids. When Briceno started making his pizza, it was only available after 10 p.m. As of last week, it's available everyday except Sunday from 5 p.m. until the dough runs out.

The pizza: We ordered the Margherita — mozzarella, tomatoes and basil ($12).

The verdict: This was the group favorite. Guess all those people were right, after all.

Likes: The pizzas are cooked in an 800-degree kiawe-wood-burning oven, which creates a nice char on the underside of the crust — a big hit with the group. The blackened bubbles of crisp, kiawe-sweetened dough make the crust. The crust was thin, but not flimsy, and the toppings were fresh and sweet.

Dislikes: In true Neapolitan style, Briceno goes light on the cheese, which challenged some people's ideas of what pizza should be.

"It's really good, but there's not enough cheese for me," said Keli'i Pomroy. "More cheese and this pizza would be cherry."

But even after a long night of pizza-eating, and one bad pizza experience 30 minutes earlier, the tasters couldn't limit themselves to just one slice of Briceno's pizza.

Bonus pie: We also ordered the "Prima" pizza, which comes with the classic (but sometimes unpopular to American tastes) topping: a raw egg cracked over the top of the baked pie, along with pancetta, mozzarella and truffle oil. The runny egg scared a few people away, but if they had taken the chance on it, they would have found the pizza to be an incredible riot of earthy flavors and rich textures.

12 A.M.: J.J. DOLAN'S

By midnight, we had finally made it back to J.J. Dolan's in Chinatown. The place was still packed, but we had no choice but to wedge ourselves through the door and order our final pizza of the night. The group was tired and beyond full. But we persisted, and it's a good thing we did.

The pizza: We got the "Classic Cheese Pie" ($15).

The verdict: Despite having reached our pizza thresholds much earlier in the evening, this pizza was the group's second-favorite, and only by a hair.

Likes: The group's opinion is that when it comes to cheese, J.J.'s is tops. Not to mention the buttery crust and the sauce that Wright-Van Alst said was "perfectly flavored so as not to overwhelm the toppings."

Dislikes: The group loved the sauce so much, they wanted more of it.

Bonus pie: We couldn't have handled eating another pizza if our lives had depended on it.

CONCLUSION

After a long night of pizza-eating, our top three favorite pizza makers in Honolulu are:

1. V Lounge

2. J.J. Dolan's

3. Antonio's New York Pizzeria

By the time we rolled out of J.J. Dolan's, we had all vowed to abstain from pizza for at least a little while. Then we got to the parking lot, and peering through my car windows into the back seat piled high with boxes of leftover pizza, I thought I'd ask the group if anyone wanted the uneaten slices, anticipating a quick "no" from the overfed tasters.

"I'll take the Antonio's," said one. "And I'll take the V Lounge pizza," said another.

No coercion needed. Pizza lovers, indeed.