Best pizza in Chicago
 

First time to Chicago and want to especially enjoy the pizza. Which is the best or most unique in Chicago?

My personal favorite is My Pi in Lincoln Park. Not only is the pizza great, it's a very cozy restaurant that feels more like a ski lodge, and you can get big pitchers of good beer.

There is no such thing as <i>most unique</i> of anything. Unique means &quot;being the only one&quot; and something is either the only one or it's not.

As for the best, that's entirely a matter of opinion. Some of the most frequently mentioned are Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, Pizzeria Uno (and Due). Giordano's has several locations around the city and Uno, Due and Malnati's are a short walk from most of the major downtown hotels.

There are about 50 good threads on this. Do a search for Chicago pizza here and you will see for yourself.

The controversy is never ending.

I have liked different ones at different times. Uno's or Due's (same pizza then with two serving places) in the 1960's was the most superlative in my opinion. It is good now too. But then it was unique and at its best. The entire ambiance was different then, as well, there.

Right not Lou Malnati's for deep dish is great, and can be delivered long distance.

The most unique is probably Chicago Oven Grinders near Lincoln Park. It's pizza served upside down, in a bowl.
It's scrumptious.

My favorite pizza is a very, very thin crispy crust near me called Arrenello's. It is more like pizza in Naples with a sweeter sauce and yet more cheese than in Italy. There are 100s of great thin crust pizza in the city and suburbs. Rosati's, Papa Luigi and Rosangelo's are just some I know. It is far, far more complex than the thin crust/thick crust controversy.

Our thin crust at its best is far more crisp than the bendable pizzas of elsewhere.

Sometimes I am in the mood for a Gino's East deep dish with cornmeal bottom etc. Giordano's too is others favorite. But I have found that it is different at different places. At its best, it is good- but to me, it is often not done at its best. If deep dish isn't layered and cooked exactly right it can be a sodden mass.

I was raised on Lou Malnati's, so I'm clearly biased. I love it! The deep dish with sausage and black olives...yum. Giordano's would be my pick for thin crust.

My vote goes to Ginos East.

I am also a Gino's East pizza lover. If you get sausage, ask for the patty - layered, rather than the crumbled.

Another vote for Gino's East.

Woody

My favorites are Lou Malnati's for deep dish and Edwardo's sausage for stuffed, I haven't had an Uno's in a while but their Chicago Classic used to be my favorite pizza. Everyone has different tastes for pizza, I've personally never liked Gino's East....

Arenello's is also really good but they are south suburbs and NW IN if it's the same place. My husband has picked up a couple of their stuffed pizzas recently and boy are they good!

Thanks, Kristi. There's an Arenello's within 10 blocks and I never had the deep dish, just the thin crust that I adore. So I will try it next for sure.

I'll ask for stuffed, and maybe it is not a deep dish in the same sense of a L. M. or a Uno's style.

If it isn't even more confusing for out of towners, they are starting to ask for thin, medium, and stuffed crust at several other places now. Connies is one. Not my favorite at all but others like the medium there.

Arenello's stuffed is more along the lines of Edwardo's or Giordano's (very heavy) but the pizza it reminds me most of is Garcia's or Flying Tomato that I used to get in college in Bloomington IN and later near Purdue in Lafayette.

Any other recommendations for THIN crust pizza, or do most of the recommendations already mentioned also excel at thin crust?

IMHO, the &quot;best&quot; categories of thin, thin crust are out of the downtown Chicago area.

I mentioned my favorite Ed &amp; Joe's in Tinley Park, and someone from AZ came on Fodors and said that was his favorite too. There are probably 40 or 50 different excellent thin crust pizzas. Papa Luigi's in Chicago Ridge is excellent. Palermo's in Oak Lawn is great. Some adore Home Run Inn (not I- I think it generic) and also Chesdan's on Archer Ave. Chesdan's King Pizza (thin crust with the works makes it &quot;king&quot;) is a sweeter sauced excellence too (a la Arrennllo's)- and now they have ventured to the burbs as well.

Northside you'll have to ask someone else, but I know they have 3 or 4 exceptional followings, if not more.

Ed &amp; Joe's is fantastic. The crust is crispy and also light, the sauce is perfect- not sweeter a la Naples- but spice balanced just right- with clear dried/ roasted tomato base flavor, all the ingredients are totally fresh and you can taste each flavor distinctly in the toppings. No mushrooms or peppers ever come out of a can. They use 3 kinds of cheese and make their own sausage.