I was only in Chicago for 24 hours, but I managed to eat Chicago style pizza twice.
Too much? Maybe. Delicious and gooey? Absolutely.
Prior to this quick layover, I had never tried Chicago-style pizza before. Sure, I been on a city break to Chicago when I was younger, but somehow both myself and my parents seemed to totally overlook the whole Chicago institution that is deep dish pizza. I don’t remember what exactly we ate for those three days, but it definitely wasn’t a delicious tray of cheesy gooeyness.
So, despite only being there for a day at the beginning of this year, I was determined to wrong this right. First stop on the pizza train to deliciousness was Giordanos.
Giordanos is known for its stuffed pizza. This means that the thickness of the pizza tends to be even deeper than most other regular deep dish pizzas and the crust is more like that of an actually pie, rather than simply tasting like a bread crust. From what I can tell, this also means a thicker layer of cheese underneath the tomato topping, which is perfect for a cheese face like moi.
We ordered the Giordanos Special, which came with sausage, green peppers, mushrooms and onions. I loved the taste of the crust and the fact that the tomato sauce was sweet but obviously had seasoning in it.
I also came to understand the meaning of the name “stuffed” pizza, because after eating a couple of pieces, I could barely still fit into my jeans. Of course, like trooper, I didn’t let that stop me, and carried on eating until I spent the rest of the night feeling uncomfortably full. *groan*
Despite that, it was a perfect start to my time both in Chicago and sampling deep dish.
Next stop on the Deep Dish Express was Pizzeria Due, situated in the centre of the city, across the river. It’s sister restaurant, Uno, is supposedly the birthplace of the first ever deep dish pizza, so these two restaurants have a good reputation.
It was a cold walk over to the restaurant from the train station (it was the second day of January, after all) and I was looking forward to repeating my delicious experience from the previous night. However, not wanting to order the same toppings as we had had before, we chose the spinach pizza which came with a three cheese blend on top.
Knowing how the pizzas were made (toppings underneath the sauce) I was worried that spinach would be too watery. The only other time I have had spinach on a pizza it was cooked on top, meaning it had chance to dry out in the oven. Unfortunately, I was right.
The pizza still looked great when it arrived in the pan and the crust they use here is different to Giordanos as it is more crumbly in texture, but equally as tasty. There is a higher ratio of tomato sauce than cheese, which did disappoint me slightly, but I realised that this was probably (slightly) healthier for me!
Once we cut into it, I could tell that the spinach had been a bit watery and mixed with the cheese during cooking and also the toppings had a tendency to slide off the pizza into the pan. This didn’t put me off by any means, but just wasn’t as appealing as the previous pizza I’d eaten.
Overall, between the two, although the styles are different, I would have to give the edge to Giordanos. The crust to me was slightly tastier and less dry and the amount of cheese, although almost over-facing, was exactly what I had been hoping for. I also liked that the pizza kept its shape well when you were eating it and made for tastier leftovers than Due’s.
If you follow in our foodsteps:
- We visited the Giordanos in Downers Grove, although there are several locations across Illinois.
- Pizzeria Due is situated at 619 North Wabash Avenue in Chicago.
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