I arrived back from India just about a week ago, but then headed right to Chicago to visit a client there for the balance of the week.  But before leaving it was important to have more Chicago Pizza!  While I do find places around the country with pretty good NY style pizza, I yet to find a Chicago style pizza outside of the Chicago area…

It took about an hour to get seated – this is the downtown location, right in the center of the city.  But it was worth the wait…notice how thick these pizzas are (Second picture down).  This is not like the UNOs pizza you get in the franchise stores around the country…but then in the third picture you can see the construction of this pizza.  Unlike a good NY Pizza, this pizza has a thick layer of cheese on the bottom, with the toppings melted into the cheese.  Then there is a sauce, which is not at all like the pizza sauce I might find in Manhattan, on top of the cheese.  The sauce was saucier, sweeter, and had some tomato chunks in it – unlike most pizza sauce.  And unlike a NY pizza, the sauce is on top, not on the crust.

In this case I ordered meatballs and sausage.  Normally I would try the pizza without toppings first, just to make sure the pizza itself is good.  Once you know it’s good pizza, it’s okay to add toppings. But I can’t really imagine eating a Chicago pizza with this much cheese, without any toppings.  I think that’s why  this is called “Stuffed Pizza” rather than Sicilian Pizza – a thicker type of NY Pizza, or Pan Pizza – which you might find at Pizza Hut. Notice they do not call it deepdish pizza…it’s simply, stuffed pizza…

The crust on these pizzas is also interesting…it looks like NY pizza dough when they are making in the back…but it’s much thicker on the pie, and the taste is completely different.  That’s because they add a small amount of corn meal to the dough to give it more body.  You don’t really taste the cornmeal – but you do feel it.

My wife, who joined me for this adventure, says the salad dressing is also excellent – so it’s not just the pizza…I try not to eat bunny food when I am eating pizza.  Somehow it doesn’t make sense to fill up on other things when there’s a great pizza sitting in front of me.  One thing that is always somewhat disappointing – it’s hard to eat several slices of this stuff like I would in NY…it is really filling.  Figure on 1.5 slices unless you’re still in the teenage years.

So next time you’re in Chicago, give Giordano’s a try.  But call ahead to get your pizza started – it takes about 45 minutes to cook one of these things.