This post isn't about the relative goodness of deep dish pizza, which I can't really compare to what I would consider real pizza. It's about pizza in Chicago, generally, and how disappointing I have found most of it, considering that people seem to think Chicago ranks with New York.
I haven't been to enough places to have an authoritative opinion, but I happen to have been to, and been disappointed by, a number of restaurants that made the top 10 in a Chicago Magazine article from June. I only glanced at the actual article, but saw enough to know that the author really had no clue, so maybe there is great pizza in this city, after all. Where is it?
1. Great Lake - I've been here, I thought the pizza was great.
2. Piece - I live near this place and have had it a number of times. The crust has no flavor and the sauce is bad. You really can't recover from that. The proprietor, based on what I saw in the article, is a pompous asshole who doesn't even know what a good pie is. Their beer is pretty good, but it is really astonishing that this can be anywhere near a top-ten list, let alone number 2.
3. Castel Gandolfo - Never been, any good?
4. Crust - I went once, it is pretty good, but a pretty weak number 4.
5. Coalfire - never been.
6. Lou Malnati's - pretty unexceptional, I thought. I actually preferred the deep dish I had at Pizzeria Due years ago. I haven't eaten much deep dish though.
7. Santullo's - Really, really weak, in my experience. After reading "I haven't found many options in the five boroughs as good as Santullo's" I wondered if I went to the same place as the author. In fact, I just gave them a second try, and my slice was sloppy and soggy to the point of falling apart. Even if it were crisp, like a NY slice should be, the sauce is pedestrian and even on a good day I think this would be a middling pizzeria in NYC.
Where's the good Chicago pizza?
I haven't been to enough places to have an authoritative opinion, but I happen to have been to, and been disappointed by, a number of restaurants that made the top 10 in a Chicago Magazine article from June. I only glanced at the actual article, but saw enough to know that the author really had no clue, so maybe there is great pizza in this city, after all. Where is it?
1. Great Lake - I've been here, I thought the pizza was great.
2. Piece - I live near this place and have had it a number of times. The crust has no flavor and the sauce is bad. You really can't recover from that. The proprietor, based on what I saw in the article, is a pompous asshole who doesn't even know what a good pie is. Their beer is pretty good, but it is really astonishing that this can be anywhere near a top-ten list, let alone number 2.
3. Castel Gandolfo - Never been, any good?
4. Crust - I went once, it is pretty good, but a pretty weak number 4.
5. Coalfire - never been.
6. Lou Malnati's - pretty unexceptional, I thought. I actually preferred the deep dish I had at Pizzeria Due years ago. I haven't eaten much deep dish though.
7. Santullo's - Really, really weak, in my experience. After reading "I haven't found many options in the five boroughs as good as Santullo's" I wondered if I went to the same place as the author. In fact, I just gave them a second try, and my slice was sloppy and soggy to the point of falling apart. Even if it were crisp, like a NY slice should be, the sauce is pedestrian and even on a good day I think this would be a middling pizzeria in NYC.
Where's the good Chicago pizza?
