Giordano's Pizza Chicago
This is the fourth post in the Weekend Trip to Chicago series. Other post include Topolobampo Chicago and Frontera Grill Chicago by Rick Bayless.
Chicago's pizza is legendary.
Chicago is especially known for its deep dish pizza and stuffed deep pizzas.
Stuffed deep pizza? What is that?
Similar to deep dish pizza, stuffed deep pizza comes with a pie-like crust. What makes it different from a typical deep dish is that stuffed deep pizzas have another layer of crust on TOP of the toppings (you can sort of see it in the photo below). Essentially, the pizza is stuffed full of what are usually "toppings" (which should really be called "stuffings"). Finally, tomato sauce is generously slathered on top.
In Chicago, Giordano's is by far the most famous stuffed pizza joint. Started in 1974 by the Boglio brothers in Turin, Italy, it has since exploded to 53 locations in Illinois and ten more locations in other parts of the U.S. Even with 53 locations in Illinois, there always seems to be wait no matter where you go. We decided to go at an odd hour - 4PM to be exact - and we didn't have to wait.
You want to order your pizza soon after you sit down because it will take 45-50 minutes for them to bake the pizza.
While waiting for your pizza, you can enjoy your starters. This "entree sized" salad ($8.95) was surprisingly pleasant. They wisely advised us not to order the family size ($16.50), which would have been way too big. This was already a very generous size.
Garlic Parmesan Fries ($3.95) with ranch dipping sauce.
The pizzas range in price from $16-$23.75 for a small (serves 2-3), $20.75 - $31.50 for a medium (serves 3-4), and $25.50 - $37.25 for a large (serves 4-6). You can order two different halves, so we went with half The Special (sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, onions) and half was our own custom-made pizza with artichokes, onions, and black olives.
The pizzas are delicious and certainly live up to their hype. I love the pie-like crust. The pizzas are very filling and it's hard to eat more than one or two slices. We had four people, and we couldn't even finish our medium pizza.
Giordano's Pizza Chicago
*multiple locations*
[…] seats at the bar, which allowed us to eat much, much sooner. We visited another institution, Giordano’s, which also makes deep dish pizza. Deep dish pizza takes about 45 minutes to bake, so you really […]