Giordano’s Pizza Chicago
Posted By: martha on June 29th, 2009
When visitors come into town, they usually want try some “famous” Chicago pizza. From what I’ve noticed, these famous Chicago pizzas usually include Pizzeria Uno, Gino’s East, and Giordano’s. As a native Chicago pizza snob, I have been trained to scoff at these brands. However, there are various reasons why these joints have garnered legendary status—some of it involves pure historical benevolence (aka, being at the right place at the right time) while some of it involves the quality of their pizza. I put aside my snobbery for a night and put on my impartial hat at Giordono’s.
Pizza eaters know that if you’re ordering a deep dish or stuffed pizza to expect at least a 45-minute wait. Well, on this busy Friday night, we certainly waited the full 45 minutes (and then some) for our pizza. It would have been a much easier wait if they had remembered our appetizers, but I digress. Giordono’s has simple décor with their standard checked tablecloths and booths, but its simplicity has an air of coziness. As a former Giordano’s waitress, however, I know that they don’t hire the world’s most experienced servers—in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if serving at Giordano’s was many of their servers’ first food service gig. The lack of quality of wait staff can be a deterrence on busy nights, but don’t let that begrudge you from trying their stuffed pizza. Yes, there is a reason why Giordano’s has stayed so popular for all of these years, and it is because of their appetizing, cheesy pizza. The cheese layer is thicker than the tomato layer, as is expected with stuffed pizza, and the crust is pleasant to eat with a nice crunch. The ingredients are unremarkable but usually pretty fresh. The price is pretty standard with a 12-inch stuffed pizza hovering around the $20 mark. Is it Chicago’s finest pizza? No. Is it a stuffed pizza that non-native Chicagoans should feel comfortable trying? Yes, absolutely—as long as they know that outside of this chain with over 20 accessible Chicagoland locations, there are other stuffed pizzas more worthy of trying—if they are lucky enough to be in the neighborhood to try them.
Giordano’s Pizza gets 5 out of 8 slices
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From what I gather COTTO BENE means cooked well done. This pizza was barely cooked at all. As you can see from the photos, the crust was raw, and the cheese wasn’t even fully melted. I was actually kind of shocked at how little they cared about the food they served to me. Any pizza maker who was paying attention would have seen that this pizza was far from cooked well done.
Here is a photo that singer Katy Perry allegedly posted of herself on Twitter the other day. Personally I think this photo would be a bit nicer if the tray was either up or down a little bit. Katy Perry is one of the more beautiful women in the spotlight nowadays, and has an amazing figure. She really makes that pizza look tasty!
We noticed something new the other day at Pizza Time in Boca Raton. On the display counter were a half dozen or so of these new looking pizzas. They called them Margherita pies and told me they are so addictive he guarantees I will come back for them. Guess he didn’t realize I don’t really like chunky sauce, and thick fresh mozz cheese, but we tried it anyways.
