Chicago Pizza Smackdown: Gino’s East vs. Giordano’s
You can’t go to Chicago without trying some of its famous deep dish pizza. It would be like a slight to the city. Like making rude gestures at it. Like a sin. In short, it would just be really bad.
So, when I first decided I was going to visit the Windy City, “eating deep dish pizza” immediately was put on my list of must-do things.
I asked around for suggestions on where to go, and I got a whole slew of answers. Chicago certainly has a lot of pizza options.
In the end, I decided to try out two of the places that seemed to come up the most in recommendations: Gino’s East and Giordano’s. Each has a long history in Chicago, and each is known for making a killer deep dish pizza.
Deep dish, in case you aren’t familiar, is not just a really thick pizza. It’s a really thick, inside-out pizza. I say inside-out because, unlike other types of pizza where it goes crust-sauce-cheese-toppings, deep dish pizza goes crust-toppings-cheese-sauce.
And it is delicious.
I ate at the original Gino’s East location on Superior Street, just off Michigan Avenue, in downtown Chicago. There was always a line out the door at this location whenever I saw it, and I ended up using a concierge business card from the John Hancock Observatory in order to skip the line and get priority seating (you can do this, too, if you visit the Observatory!).
I wasn’t able to eat at one of Giordano’s downtown locations, but instead popped into its restaurant near the Chicago-Midway airport, where there was no line or wait for a table.
I can’t really compare things like time spent standing in line or service since I didn’t eat at two downtown locations, but I CAN compare the pizza for you.
So here we go.
Chicago Pizza Smackdown
Menu Options
Both Gino’s and Giordano’s serve deep dish and thin-crust pizza, along with an assortment of pasta, calzones, sandwiches and salads. (Though Giordano’s calls its deep dish pizza “stuffed pizza.”) Why you would go to either of these places and order anything but pizza is beyond me, but the option is there for you.
And, although they don’t advertise it or include it on the menu, Gino’s also serves gluten-free pizza. I didn’t try it, but my friend Katie said it was good.
Smackdown winner: Draw, because both menus offer up a variety of things.
Tally: Gino’s — 1 Giordano’s — 1
Atmosphere
I can’t speak to any locations except the ones that I actually ate at, of course.
Gino’s East on Superior had a really lively atmosphere, but wasn’t super loud. Inside Gino’s, guests can write on the walls, chairs, staircases, you name it, so it was fun to look around. The building also has somewhat of an “underground” feel to it, even though it’s 3 stories high. This is probably due to the fact that it didn’t seem to have many windows, and is painted in fairly dark colors.
The Giordano’s I ate at was nothing special — it was your average pizza joint with lots of old pictures from Chicago lining the walls, and white-and-red checkered tablecloths.
Smackdown winner: Gino’s, because the writing on the wall says so.
Tally: Gino’s — 2 Giordano’s — 1
Pizza Cook Time
After waiting a while for a table, you can expect to wait an additional 45-60 minutes for a deep dish pizza at Gino’s. This has little to do with how busy the place is, and more to do with the fact that deep dish pizza takes quite a while to cook.
At Giordano’s, you can expect to wait roughly 35 minutes for one of their stuffed pizzas.
Smackdown winner: Giordano’s, though not by much.
Tally: Gino’s — 2 Giordano’s — 2
Price
At Gino’s, I split a medium, 6-slice pepperoni pizza with two other people. The total cost of the pizza was $23.20. A small (4-slice) pepperoni pizza would have been $17.70, and a large (8-slice) pizza with one topping would have set us back $27.45. Prices are generally based on how many toppings you want inside your pizza.
At Giordano’s, one friend and I split a small (10-inch) pepperoni pizza for $15.35. The menu said this pizza would serve 1-2, and it wound up having 6 slices, and was more than the two of us could eat. A medium (12-inch) one-topping pizza here costs $19.20, and a large (14-inch) would be $21.75.
Smackdown winner: Giordano’s, because you seem to get more pizza for the price you pay.
Tally: Gino’s — 2 Giordano’s — 3
Crust
The crust is my absolute favorite part of any pizza. I like it to be crunchy and seasoned well. I know not everyone is a crust fan, but if you are, listen up.
Gino’s pizza is made with a “golden crust” that almost tastes like it has cornmeal in it. It was amazing. I could have eaten this crust and nothing else for days — it was that good. It was crunchy but not too hard, and had a really good flavor without overpowering the rest of the pizza or being really greasy.
Giordano’s crust wasn’t anything special. It was crisp and tasted fine, but it paled in comparison to Gino’s as far as I was concerned.
Smackdown winner: Gino’s, because of that tasty cornmeal crust.
Tally: Gino’s — 3 Giordano’s — 3
Sauce
When it comes to sauce, I didn’t really have a preference. Both use a chunky tomato sauce that’s neither too sweet nor too acidic. In fact, I thought they were both pretty tasty.
Smackdown winner: Draw, because I thought they were both good.
Tally: Gino’s — 4 Giordano’s — 4
Cheese/Toppings
While both places offered up a wide variety of toppings to put inside your pizza, I went with just pepperoni on both occasions.
Gino’s pizza was a nice balance of topping, cheese and sauce. I didn’t feel like any element dominated over the others.
Giordano’s pizza is fabulous if you love cheese. Their stuffed pizzas certainly ARE stuffed – with gooey, not-too-greasy cheese. I like extra cheese on my pizza, but this would not be the right pizza for someone who doesn’t.
Smackdown winner: Gino’s, because I’m all about balance.
Tally: Gino’s — 5 Giordano’s — 4
Final Tally: Gino’s wins!
When it comes down to it, I much preferred Gino’s East. Yes, you could pay less and not have to wait as long for stuffed pizza at Giordano’s, but the deep dish at Gino’s is worth it in my opinion.
Taste-wise, Gino’s wins, hands-down for me.
Plus, the atmosphere of Gino’s East was fun. Who doesn’t love a place where you can write on the walls?
Since originally writing this post, I went on a Chicago Pizza Tour and tried deep dish at a couple other spots, too, like Pizano's and Pequod's. All I can say is Chicago is an AWESOME pizza city!
Have you eaten at either of these Chicago pizza joints, or perhaps others I didn’t get a chance to try? Which serves up YOUR favorite deep dish pizza?
Amanda Williams is the award-winning blogger behind A Dangerous Business Travel Blog. She has traveled to more than 60 countries on 6 continents from her home base in Ohio, specializing in experiential and thoughtful travel through the US, Europe, and rest of the world. Amanda only shares tips based on her personal experiences and places she's actually traveled!
No corn meal in the Gino’s. Long believed myth but it’s just yellow food coloring (eggshade, actually) that creates that color.
Interesting! For me, it *tastes* a bit like corn meal, too. I’ve done a bit more digging since so many Gino’s-copycat recipes call for corn meal. It looks like at least one or two Gino’s locations DO put corn meal in their crust, but it’s a pretty small amount.
I see elsewhere in the comments that both Uno’s and Lou Malnati’s came Up. Interesting stories – but Uno’s is widely acknowledged to be where deep dith pizza started, and Adolpho “Rudy” Malnati Sr. was one of the main chefs(?)/cooks(?) at Uno’s. He later left and started his own chain of restaurants which bear his name, and has locations all the way out in Phoenix, AZ.
If you like sweet sauce, Gino’s is your pizza. If you like savory sauce, then it’s Giordano’s. I’m a Savory Girl, any day-all day!
Go to Chicago pizza and grinder and get a pizza pot pie. It was amazing.
I worked across the street from Gino’s on Superior back when it opened & every payday a group called our order in ahead & were at the door when they unlocked it. Best ever! Used to be only downstairs from the street at the time. My son sent me deep dish from “his” Lou Malnati’s (I now live in FL & miss Chgo. Pizza) & it was fantastic. Put them side-by-side, think I’d still reach for GINO’S! My opinion is Giordano’s & Uno don’t measure up. Loved your comparisons!
Both Gino’s East and Girodano’s are deep dish, but Giordano’s is a stuffed pizza like Nancy’s, to be precise. Giordanos’s was founded by brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio, but the Chicago deep dish revolution was spawned when Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo (born Richard Novaretti) opened Ono’s, but it is said the pizza chefs Adolpho “Rudy” Malnati and/or Alice May Redmond likely developed the recipe. Founder of Gino’s East (Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli) hired Alice Mary Redmond and her sister Ruth Hadley. Rudy Malnati’s son Lou founded Lou Malnati’s and his son Rudy Jr founded Pizanno’s. There is a common misconception that there is cornmeal in Gino’s pizza dough. The crust gets its golden color from corn oil and food coloring (FDC yellow #5 and #6), not cornmeal. If ever you pass through Chicago again, try Burt’s Place, Gulliver’s, or Pequod’s (all similar and founded by Bur Katz), and in particular, try Lou Malnati’s … superior to both Gino’s and Giordano’s in the opinion of many deep dish loving Chicago residents including this 71 year old who has lived in Chicago all of his life.
I think your comparison of the buildings/atmosphere was pretty crappy. You went to Gino’s best restaurant and then one of the “outlying” secondary Giordano’s.
The downtown Giordano’s is amazing and has all kinds of signatures from famous people around the inside of the building. It’s lit just right (not too bright or too dark), isn’t overly loud, and has a pretty damn polite staff (at least from my experiences there). Had you gone to that one I’m almost certain you would’ve picked it over Gino’s.
If you’re going to make comparisons, then compare apples to apples. Don’t compare apples to bowling balls.
Touche, Greg, touche. Still liked Gino’s pizza better though!
[…] The Observatory also has a concierge near the elevators that can help you plan your stay or other activities in Chicago. I picked up a business card here and was able to use it to get priority seating at Gino’s East. […]
We ended up going to Gino’s and loved it. We are going back next month and we are staying close to Pizzeria Due’s. don’t know if we are going there or back to Gino’s yet.
I would also highly suggest Pizano’s, too!
[…] In fact, if you’ve been a reader here long enough, you might remember that on my first trip to Chicago back in 2011 I made it my mission to try to determine which of Chicago’s most popular pizza joints made the best deep dish, resulting in my Chicago Pizza Smackdown. […]
[…] our plan for Friday evening had been to eat some deep-dish pizza and then go see an improv show. But when the line at Gino’s East stretched around a corner, we […]
I freaking loved Gino’s East! I made it my mission to go while stopping over on my Amtrak trip across the US. The crust reminded me of shortbread cookies, and the atmosphere with all of the graffiti was WILD!
An Amtrak trip across the U.S. sounds pretty epic! Awesome that you managed to fit Gino’s in!
Great review! We are going in march and were thinking if going to either Gino’s or Pizzeria UNO. I was hoping to find out about the pass from John Hancock that fast tracked you through the line. We will ge going to John Hancock as part of our city pass and I was hoping for new info about this Gino’s concierge service. How do I obtain it and what was its cost? Thanks!!!
I haven’t eaten at Pizzeria UNO, but I know a lot of people like their pizza, as well.
As for the concierge pass, if you go up the Hancock tower, simply go over to the concierge desk (it’s near the gift shop in the observation deck) and tell them you heard they can give you a business card that will help you skip the line at Gino’s. That’s all my friend and I did, after getting a tip about it from someone else. Though we still did end up waiting at Gino’s, because the guy at the door had no idea what to do with the pass. Lol.
Haha I see. Thanks for the quick reply 🙂
I love both of these places and but I’ll agree that if I had to choose one, Gino’s would win. Girodano’s wins for having more accessible locations though – you can even find their pizza in Florida.
[…] March, I made my very first trip to Chicago for a long weekend with my best friend from college. We ate some deep-dish pizza, checked out Chicago’s tallest towers, and saw some great improv, among other things. It […]