I could not agree more about Yelp. It is appropriately named since ARF was taken. The one for NYC has mysterious choices.

djkbooks, Frontera Grill has sort of fond (and not so fond) memories for me. That's the place where Lee and I were having lunch a year ago October when he suddenly was passing out. EMS came and he ended up spending the night in Northwestern Hospital. The manager of Frontera Grill couldn't have been nicer despite all the chaos we caused with the paremedics, the guerney, etc. He comped our meal and drinks which we had just finished, and even sent me a nice note later hoping everything was fine. I've since realized that day was kind of "the beginning of the end" as it's when they told me at Northwestern that he was starting to "shut down" and the passing out was essentially his Alzheimers interferring with the brain telling the body to stay awake. But yes, I loved that place, even better than its more expensive sister adjacent called Topolobampo.

We had a Ditka's here in Naples and it closed. General consensus was it was mediocre. I never went.

Ok, I will chime in here...
I do love Lou's deep dish and have probably tried every pizza place in Chicago and lived to tell. My favorite place would be unrealistic for you to get to. That said, I'd try Lou's. I am not a fan of the sausage either. It's just a personal taste thing.

I am so with exiled here...You must try a Chicago style dog when you are here.

Since Frontera was mentioned...I also love that place! Everytime I eat there I am left to dream about it until the next visit. Make reservations!

You know Great Lakes was just ok. If you want that Naples style pizza in Chicago go with Spacca Napoli.

Oh heck get some steak too while you are here. Gibson's is a great idea.

Now you need to figure out how to eat so much food!!

This is not in defense of Yelp, in particular, but this applies to every one of these websites I've mentioned. They can all be fairly easily manipulated, IMHO.

I never look at a single website if I'm reseaching restaurants, always three (and possibly more). That's why I mentioned all of those above, although there are many more I could include. To be honest, I have heard and read some criticisms of Chowhound as well as the others.

And it's even a very good thing to check the city's health department to see information on the restaurant's past health violations/closures. You'd be surprised at some of the restaurants who've had problems - one is even just mentioned above, just recently too.

What I do is look for are *patterns* in the reviews - slow service, lost reservations, food issues, etc. Not that I'm going to read 100+ reviews of the same restaurant on the same site.

That being said, NP, I couldn't believe that Gibson's wasn't mentioned on the Yelp website under Chicago steakhouses (highest rated). I did a quick check and do see it's the #13th highest-rated steakhouse in Chicagoland (that includes suburban restaurants), based on 289 reviews (as of now).

I do wish, though, that they (and other websites) didn't include all the restaurants in the Chicagoland area (including the 'burbs) in these searches. (That's why you get places such as the LongHorn Steakhouse in Norridge on a Chicago list.)

IMHO, should definitely be separated into Chicago and suburbs on the initial search. Advanced searches can be started from there.

I hope that your trip here (if you get here) is an enjoyable one, despite the weather.

Having been to Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, and Uno's in Chicago, my hands down favorite is Giordano's, and my favorite location is on Rush Street. However, there are lots of other locations! The spinach stuffed is incredible, but I also love their thin crust pizza.

http://www.giordanos.com/

Sandy

sandypaws, is that the place where you write on the walls?
Our pizza at Malnati's last night was good -- nothing great. But certainly better than some of the descriptions here, and despite being deep dish, the crust really wasn't that thick or doughy. My friend really likes deep dish and he mentioned a place on Rush where you write on the walls that was "much better".

Gino's East is where you write on the walls. The original is right by the Hancock

I've had deep dish at Lou Malnatti's, Giordano's (where they do stuffed crust style deep dish), and Gino's East. I don't think you can go wrong at any of them if you like this style of pizza, though I preferred Gino's East slightly (this last has a yellowish crust that's heavier on cornmeal). It is a heavier and more filling pizza than New York style, though. Consider the option of paying a little extra for a butter-crust deep dish if you go to Lou M's.

Sorry I didn't get to read this until today. I have homes in Chicago suburbs and Florida. We were in Chicago this weekend and had Lou's pizza (deep dish). And last week, there was a Chicago reunion party in Florida where they had Lou's pizza shipped in (along with Vienna hot dogs and Eli's cheesecake). Hope you enjoyed your dinner at Gibson's. Next time your are in town, try Quartino's (owned by Gibson group) near the Dana Hotel.

dmg. Did Quartino's also. One of my favorites in Chicago. But I had no idea they were owned by Gibson group.