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Best Deep Dish & Chicago Style Pizza

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Connie's Pizza being prepared (credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Alternate title: obligatory pizza article.

It's hard to write about Chicago style and deep dish pizza. It's just heavy dough, some cheese, and a whole lotta sauce, correct? How do you even set one decent pie against another? How do you know the difference? It has to be impossible, right?

WRONG. What are we, laymen? Maybe. Possibly. I'm really not too sure. I don't even know what that word means, to be honest. Regardless, here's the plan: to go over some of the best pizza in Chicago, here and now, and to talk about what makes THEM great.

Here we go...

locations background
(credit: giordanos.com)


What? Did you think we were going to name a bunch of places you've never heard of? The best is the best, even if everybody and their mother already knows 'em, and that's why Giordano's is on this list, because they're the best.

They've got the sauciest, the doughiest, the cheesiest pizza, hands down. You'll feel sick after eating there - ready to burst or vomit - but that's a good thing.

Wonder if it tastes as good coming back up as it does going down...

bacinos
My heart goes out to you... (credit: bacinos.com)


Bacino's stuffed pizza comes with a sauce thicker than most, with gigantic tomato chunks that'll fill your mouth up. Their pies are ideal for veggie lovers, with superb spinach and mushroom pizzas (vegetables? Gross! Am I right, or what?). Their sauce is also more spiced than most stuffed pizzas, adding extra tastes along with the usual tanginess of tomato that can, if we're being truthful here, sometimes be a bit too much.


The inventors of the deep dish gotta be mentioned, so here they are. Thick crust and mountains of sauce - they started it. They're not quite as heavy as places like Giordano's, so those who find some deep dish to be a bit much, this might be the spot for you. They also have a few menu of fine Italian fare. You know, in case you're a wuss.

Art of Pizza is a hole in the wall. Literally. But that doesn't hurt the taste of their thick and tasty pizza pies. With enough room to pretty much just stand, show up one afternoon and have a quick bite (that's right, you can buy deep dish by the slice here). Or! Order out and pick it up. Personally, I like to eat at home. That way I can catch up on my Tivo'd soaps.
lous
(credit: loumalnatis.com)

Founded by original chef of Pizzeria Uno Rudy Malnati's son, Lou Malnati's holds true to a family tradition of great pizza. Their restaurants are top notch and all over the place. Their sauce, instead of relying on quantity and thickness (because people love their sauce to be viscus... actually, I mean viscous... I'd correct that mistake, but it's too funny), is a bit thinner than some deep dish. If anything, this just makes their quality ingredients stand out.

Also, it's my parent's favorite. (But, let's face it, their decisions are questionable at best.)

So there ya go! A little guided tour of pizza-dom in Chicago. What should you do now? First: comment here. Tell me what I missed. Tell me how generic this article is. THEN... go eat some pizza. That's all.
Mason Johnson, CBS Local Chicago (Glutton)
Other great pizza lists include: Best Cracker Thin Pizza and Best Pizza in Chicago. Check 'em out!
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