Giordano's "Let's Eat" Pizza Review: A Chicago Classic

By: Alana DeRose

The year 2021, marks the 47th consecutive year that the Chicago classic pizzeria, Giordano’s has been up and running since they first opened their doors in Chicago back in 1974 by Argentina native brothers Joseph and Efren Boglio, and now Giordano’s has acquired 64 new locations with a few of them being in nine different states such as Arizona Colorado Florida Indiana Iowa Minnesota Ohio Nevada and Wisconsin and created frozen pizzas that they deliver so you can enjoy a taste of Chicago anywhere in the country. However no matter how many times you get a slice after getting off a rollercoaster, or indulge as a victory meal after winning thousands of dollars at the casino, or even enjoy as a warm meal after skiing in Colorado -- it will never be as good as the slice you’ll get at the homeplace in Chicago.

Also, Giordano’s sells more than just pizza they also give their customers to choose chicken (with bone and boneless), pasta, salads, sandwiches, calamari, and soup. They also have a variety of options for those who are vegan or vegetarian, but sadly outside of the salads, Giordano’s doesn’t offer many gluten-free options for those who have a gluten intolerance.

Now on Friday, February 12th I’ve had the luxury of being able to eat some Giordano’s pizza for dinner, and I have to say not what I expected.

However, I will have to be honest, Friday isn’t the first time I had Giordano’s either, so I kind of already knew what to expect, but this time it wasn’t what I expected at all.

Maybe because I was so used to eating Lou Malnati’s [another Chicago pizzeria] deep dish pizza all the time (well considering it is literally down the street from me) that I just assumed it would taste pretty much the same, but also at the same time I haven’t had Lou’s deep dish pizza in a while either, usually when my mom orders the pizza she orders thin crust and deep-dish with sausage. Wellllll -- I wasn’t a really big fan of spinach and the deep dish pizza would have spinach in it making it very much yuck! So I just stuck to the thin crust.

However, on Friday I slipped on my big girl pants and decided to grab a piece of deep-dish pizza, with spinach inside, from Giordano’s.

I also grabbed two thin-crust pieces, one sausage, and one cheese.

My mom ordered a medium-sized spinach-sausage deep-dish pizza, which is a custom order (yes they do custom orders), and a large thin-crust pizza with half sausage and half cheese, and the pieces were nicely sized. Now with the deep-dish, there was four of us that took a slice (trust me that’ll be all you need) and we were all able to have some the next day, but with the thin-crust six of us took at least 2-3 slices and there was barely any left for the next day, so yea just a little heads up.

When I grabbed my pieces of pizza they weren’t hot, which is fine the pizza was already ready for a solid 20 minutes before my dad picked it up, but the pizza was still really good. Down below I’ve rated each piece of pizza and why it’s rated that way.

Thin Crust Cheese:

Rating - 8/10

• Delicious crust. Very delicious cheese. Would’ve been an 8/10 if warmer. Kind of tasted like Beggars (which is super good by the way!)

Thin Crust Sausage:

Rating - 7/10

• Delicious crust. There was only one sausage on my pizza, but it was also a little triangle piece, so whatever. Would’ve been a 7/10 if warmer.

Deep Dish Spinausage :)

Rating - 9/10

• Excellent crust, even better sauce! The cheese was also very delicious, and by itself, it was even better. Loved the taste of the crust. I could eat only the crust and it would still be good. Same for the sauce and the cheese. Could barely taste the spinach, but could taste the sausage. Loved it! Would’ve been 10/10 if warmer.

Average - 8/10

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Chicago, I highly recommend stopping at this pizzeria. It’s no surprise it’s been named the best pizza in Chicago by so many, and trust me you won’t be disappointed.