Speaking of Pizza

[Deleted User]easylike (deleted user)
in General

I have eaten pizza from San Francisco to New York City and have established my favorite pizza hands down is Chicago deep dish right out of Giardinos' kitchen. Anyone want to pay homage to their favorite pizza place?

Also does anyone remember the old Pizza Hut making their version of deep dish "pizza pie"? I think it was 1980'ish

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Comments

  • SouthernDollSouthernDoll

    I’ve no clue about Pizza Hut having a deep dish/pizza pie 🥧 that was before my time for sure but sounds like it would’ve been interesting to try while it was available. I do enjoy a deep dish from Giordano’s.

    I’m glad you’ve great taste in pizza to know deep dish for the win 🏆 every time !!!!

    There’s an array of great deep dish restaurants but a small list to work with and compare to find your favorite spot and not ranked in any favorite order either :

    • UNO’s
    • Lou Malnati’s
    • Rosati’s
    • Aurelio’s
    • Bacci
    • Punky’s
    • Beggars Pizza
    • Gino’s East
    • Nancy’s
    • Connie’s
    • Fabulous Freddy’s (Bridgeport)

    These are the places my family and I order from but if anyone knows another spot for great deep dish pizza 🍕 I am definitely all ears for it !!!

    ~ Happy Cuddling Everyone 🤗 ~

  • TeddyBear4u2024TeddyBear4u2024

    I spent just shy of a year living in a Chicago suburb called evergreen park. Ironically I never had deep dish while I was there.

    Went for pizza a few times with coworkers and they were all tired of deep dish.

    The best pizza I had came from my neighborhood, simple pepperoni and garlic pizza using Wisconsin cheese on a thin crust

    https://maps.app.goo.gl/CprEjXjiSNPnv2KUA

    One day I will have to finally try a deep dish pizza when I make it back there.

  • dennis22554dennis22554

    Chicago style deep dish is unique and mouth watering
    ...not sure chains do it justice

  • [Deleted User]easylike (deleted user)

    dennis22554 I'm with you 100%. Theres's Danny Boys here in the Cleveland area that attempts to duplicate good old Chicago deep dish, and it falls short.

    So SouthernDoll, how do any on the list you provided compare to Giardinos?

  • TeddyBear4u2024TeddyBear4u2024

    I know it is not pizza, but @sideon mentioned portillios in the other thread, and that is probably one the places I miss the most. The combo shíxh was Italian sausage with Italian beef on a hoagie style bun with Au Jus.

    There are a couple of places in ATL and one of them does and decent job (they said they flew the bread in from Chicago?), but the other was a bit of a disappointment.

    Would be cool if they opened a location in Atlanta area.

  • Carrie_AnneCarrie_Anne

    Hokey Pokey Pizza in Seoul. Haven’t had anything that tasted that good since I’ve been back.

  • SoosonSooson
    edited February 2025

    @SouthernDoll Lou Malnati used to work for UNO's. Then left and started Lou Malnati's.

    I hear people raving about Pequod's tho haven't tried yet.

    Thec Big New Yorker Pizza Hut introduced in the late 90s was their best. Sweet sauce and only came in extra large size.

  • GuyverGordonGuyverGordon

    @g_w_t_w with or without the sweet potato?

  • SoosonSooson

    This is how Dick Portillo started .
    About 10 years ago he sold the business for 1 Billion.

  • SoosonSooson

    @easylike your comments inspired me to give Giordanos a try. Its been years. I'm kinda hooked on Lou's

  • Carrie_AnneCarrie_Anne

    @GuyverGordon
    lol I’ve just read about those experiences on Reddit including powdered sugar! Thank goodness I never encountered that!!
    I always had great food recommendations from people who have lived there for more than 10 years.

  • [Deleted User]amcuddles608 (deleted user)

    I'm a few hours away from Chi Town, so I've had Malnati's and Giordano's. Good stuff. A bit on the heavy side for my liking, but still a fan.

    The Chicagoans and other midwesterners here might not like what I am about to say, but my favorite might actually be from the hole-in-the-wall, straight-over-the-counter type places in New York. The slices so big you can fold 'em, like in the movie Big Daddy.

  • HappyHikesHappyHikes

    New Haven, Connecticut is home to some amazing pizzerias.

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    My favorite pizza place is the one that has online ordering and delivers to me. Beyond that, I'm not picky. Though I'm not a fan of pizza that's 90% bread.

  • Midnight01Midnight01
    edited February 2025

    @TeddyBear4u2024 I'm in Oak Lawn. Rosangelas in EP is great. I still think whatever they charge is just that, with tax included. I'm partial to Palermo's on 95th. I'm a fan of their sweet sauce. And most people in Chicago don't really eat deep dish, they order tavern style thin crust, but to each their own. And Portillos used to be wayyy better before they sold.

  • GuyverGordonGuyverGordon
    edited February 2025

    @g_w_t_w I have to tell you that it wasn't "bad"; maybe not something I would seek out necessarily...but it wasn't awful.

    ... it was an experience 😄 ... that and having corn in it.

  • SideonSideon

    Lou Malnati's deep dish, sausage crust pizza. I get 6 pizzas shipped here 2-3 times a year. During COVID years, I made my own from scratch (roll out sausage, bake it, paper towel/soak up all the grease, add marina sauce, 2-3 kinds of cheese, topped with pepperoni (and sometimes mushroom)) - but it's JUST not the same as Lou's.

    I envy you all that are in the Chicago area. Between Lou's and Giordano's and wet Italian beef sandwiches at Portillo's... I'd be in food heaven and a subsequent food coma. For the record, I just ate dinner, but I could go for a slice. Note to self: go to the gym tomorrow.

  • Carrie_AnneCarrie_Anne

    @GuyverGordon I need more info.

  • TeddyBear4u2024TeddyBear4u2024

    @Midnight01 when did they sell? My time there was right around 2012/2013...

  • TeddyBear4u2024TeddyBear4u2024

    Nevermind is see @Sooson already provided that info.

  • AchterbahnAchterbahn

    I've had pizza in Chicago, and it's good, but the first thing I want to return to next time I'm in Chicago is Portillo's.

    However, for pizza, I need to go in a different direction. My favorite pizza place is NY Pizza Suprema on 8th Ave near 31st in Manhattan.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
    edited February 2025

    The best pizza I ever had was down an unobtrusive side street in Florence: you didn't find the place by accident, somebody had to tell you about it. They had to be hidden down a little side street because they were selling, you know, pizza, and at the time I was there pizza was not really approved of in Florence. (Pizza being a dish from - eugh, I can hardly bring myself to say it - south Italy. 😆🙄)

    There were a lot of happy tourists but the locals bought and ate with a guilty expression.

  • Carrie_AnneCarrie_Anne

    @Achterbahn
    A Portillos just recently opened in walking distance from where I live. I’ve gone a few times, it’s good but nothing that exciting to me except maybe the desserts. So please tell me what I should try there, that made such an impression?

  • Vocalist100Vocalist100

    @easylike They were called Priazzo. I remember heading down to one in Augusta to play Dungeons and Dragons and ordering the Florentino (the all cheese one) while I played. They were fantastic!

    As for my favorite pizzas, it can vary, but I've found both Lou Malnati and Pequod's (considered one of the best Chicago style) to be very bland (the crust at least) with little to no flavor. Giordano's is decent, but I surprisingly prefer Jet's over those (probably the turbo crust is what does it). Home Run is also decent, but their cheese and garlic bread is highly addictive. I seem to prefer either Detroit style, or barring that, St Louis style (although Imo's is the only one I've tried of that style).

  • [Deleted User]easylike (deleted user)

    Thank you Vocalist100. I just googled it. Nobody around me remembers them and they think I'm imagining things. I loved that "pizza pie", it had to be the meat lover's version, I'm sure. That explains why I love Giardinos.

  • SideonSideon

    Anyone remember Shakey's Pizza? Godfather's Pizza?

    Shakey's is where my love of all that is pizza began, along with their baked potato slices that were heaven. They used to show old classic movies, like Laurel and Hardy and the Little Rascals and Shirley Temple in all their black and white glory.

  • SouthernDollSouthernDoll

    @easylike

    Ooohhh that’s a great question,I would say the 2-3 most compatible to Giordano’s would be Lou Malnati, UNO’s and Rosati’s.

    All 3 of these places have it spot on for the insane amount of cheese 🧀 used on their deep dish’s 😍 my personal favorite is UNO’s hands down if you get the chance to go, you have to get it ordered inside as take out doesn’t do it justice. They have the best sauce by far and beer buttery crust !!! The other two are good as well, but when ya know …. Ya know. I know I like them the best plus they are also in Florida where I’m originally from so it’s the deep dish I was raised on primarily as a kid ….. thus making my answer biased but I still like it. Thanks for asking !

    @Sooson

    How interesting that is Lou Malnati used to work for the owner of UNO’s, no wonder why both of them are so good because Lou’s is my second favorite ironically. Now, it’s no wonder why those are my two favorites, Lou learned from a great pizza maker and developed his own. As far as portillo’s goes they still have the best cheese fries 🍟 🧀 ever 😍 yes it’s a basic order to get from them indeed, but they are delicious and satisfying !!! Their beefs are good too but honestly my order is always a cheese fry and strawberry 🍓 milkshake for the past 4 years when I go there 😂

    *I heard they have a really good chocolate cake shake but I can’t bring myself to try it. Once I found out they used mayonnaise for their chocolate cake in middle school I never ate it again 😂 childish I know but the mental block is there and every time I see their cake in the restaurant I have flashbacks to the chunky kid on Matilda having to eat the big chocolate!


    cake in front of the school 🏫 Lbvs

    ~ Happy Cuddling Everyone 🤗 ~

  • SouthernDollSouthernDoll

    @Vocalist100

    How funny I actually wanted to add jets pizza to the list but figured it was too debatable to say whether or not they’d qualify for deep dish. My mom got the entire household hooked on their bbq chicken deep dish pizza it was surprisingly delicious, it’s sad Jet’s is so underrated because their version of deep dish is good !!

    ~ Happy Cuddling Everyone 🤗 ~

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    @Sideon In Los Angeles at the time we had a Shakeys and a Round Table AND a Godfather’s Pizza come in, lease the SAME building (corner restaurant of a mid sized strip mall with a Thai food/donut place and a Subway) back to back to back, and all quickly die.

    Because Pizzasaurus Rex was right down the street and it wasn’t even the same sport, you know?

    I still dream of being 17 with an extra large pepperoni, pineapple, and jalapeño.

  • QuietTimesQuietTimes

    Thin crust pizza is where it's at. Jon Stewart was right about Chicago deep dish pizza. It's not pizza, it's a casserole. (See his full rant on YouTube).
    I mean, you do you, but that's not pizza.

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