Ever since I was a little kid, living in Chicago, I’ve loved deep dish pizza.  While it’s been a long time since I lived there, in my memory I knew that Giordano’s was my favorite.  While I’m sure other great deep dish pizza places have come around since the early 1990s, Giordano’s holds a special place in my heart.  Now, I must say, not all deep dish pizza is created equally.  I’ve had Pizzeria Uno’s from time to time and it just doesn’t stack up.  I’ll explain why, later in this post.

As I mentioned at the Taste of Chicago, the Husband had never had deep dish pizza before.  His first slice was at the Taste.  He enjoyed it, and looked forward to making it to Giordano’s if there was time, as most of the group talked it up quite a bit (those of us who’d been there).  After our mediocre start to a dinner at Navy Pier, we quickly decided to head to the closest Giordano’s we could find – the one on Rush.

After a good walk, we made it to the restaurant to find a ton of people waiting outside! Further evidence of its greatness One of us headed inside to put our name on the list and we found out it was an hour and a half to two hour wait.  Knowing we were in for a good meal, we decided to wait it out and head across the street to get a drink.  Across the street, we found Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap.  We found room at the bar for all six of us and enjoyed some beers and good company (and air conditioning!) while we waited.  When we made it back across the street, our table was just about ready!

The restaurant’s quite large and they don’t waste space with too much of a waiting area (hence, the reason we saw so many people outside).

With such a long wait and how long it can take to make the pizzas, we were given the option to order our pizzas ahead of time! Great idea! We looked through the menu anyway when we were seated, but decided to just get our pizzas.

Our waitress headed back to the kitchen and both pies were ready to go.  (I only took a picture of one because they look the same at first!)  We ordered two mediums for the six of us – one cheese and one with pepperoni and mushrooms.

Here’s a shot of my pepperoni and mushroom slice (can you see the “toppings” toward the bottom?).

Our pizzas were excellent! The Husband is in love Two mediums was more than enough for the six of us and we took a good number of slices back as leftovers (well Rachel did since she lives there).  While Urbanspoon lists this place as $$$, it’s way more affordable when you get pizzas.  I think it came out to about $8/person for 2-3 slices each.  So good!  Our waitress was friendly and our waters stayed filled.  I’m so happy that the Husband is a fan.  Hopefully we’ll be back again soon!

Oh, and I promised I would tell you the difference between Pizzeria Uno and Giordano’s… while I”m sure there are many differences, the big one I noticed is the crust.  Pizzeria Uno has TONS of butter in their crust.  Giordano’s doesn’t.  It’s not needed.  All the flavor you need is in the pizza itself. My mouth is watering just thinking about our dinner