Pizza, the first dish that comes to our mind when we think of Italy, is an iconic dish of considerable popularity worldwide. Nowadays, with this theme of globalization one can eat pizza everywhere. The thickness of the crust depends on what the customer prefers; both thick and thin crust are popular. Pizza is a popular fast food item in United States and there are many regional variations, like the famous Chicago pizza style or deep-dish pizza. For those who are used to Domino’s pizza or Pizza Hut, like me, a deep-dish pizza is an altogether different beast than the ones that offer these known fast food pizzerias.
There a lot of places that offer the famous deep-dish pizzas in Chicago including Gino’s Pizza, Pizzeria Uno and among them is Giordano's, which has proclaimed itself as "Chicago's World Famous Stuffed Pizza,". Giordano’s located in Gold Coast, Magnificient Mile was my starting point in this adventure not because it is the best Chicago has to offer, but because it was the one I heard of while I was there. The stuffed pizza entered the American culinary scene when Giordano's opened in Chicago. The Blogio Brothers, who founded Giordano's in 1974, are from a small town near Turin, Italy, and claim that their stuffed pizza is based on their mother's Easter pizza, which featured a double crust and was stuffed with ricotta cheese.
Anyhow, because of its deep- dish pizzas or location, Giordano’s is generally flooded with locals and tourists and it is common for people to wait more than an hour or two to be seated, that is why is recommendable to make a reservation beforehand. My company and I made a reservation one day before but we still had to wait more than ten minutes to be seated. Once one enters in the restaurant, there is a bar where you can spend time but it only has a few seats. So you can either go at an off- peak time or else put your name down and leave for a while.
Our table ready with iced-cold water glasses was located in the second stage, near a large window. At first sight the restaurant was packed, there wasn’t space for more people.The tasteful decoration with red-brick walls covered with big frames in a row and the natural lighting and moderate temperature create a perfect atmosphere. There are televisions placed in many parts of the restaurants so people could watch their favourite matches. The restaurant is big enough to make their customers feel comfortable, it has two stages with big tables and smaller ones but the bad distribution of those tables and the flowing of customers and waiters gave the impression of low organization.
The waiter, a chatty young, came to the table to note the order Giordano’s menu offers a variety of starters, sandwiches, salads, Italian dishes, desserts and three types of pizzas: the crispy extra thin crust pizza, hand- stretched thin crust pizza and the stuffed deep dish pizza. We ordered three types of pizza, the most famous in the menu, Cheese Pizza, Chicago Pizza and More Meat and meat Pizza. The stuffed deep-dish pizza takes 45 minutes to cook but it is worth it. At first glance the whole stuffed pizza looks virtually identical to the Giordano’s website photo. The outer crust around the edge of the pizza is generally higher. The difference of a Domino’s pizza and the Giordano's is very clear, the deep dish pizza has more cheese, more toppings and more sauce. The stuffed pizza has a thinner bottom crust that seemed more like a pie crust than a pizza crust. On top of that is between 3/4 and 1 full inch of cheese with the toppings mixed in rather than on top. The next layer, which most people don't realize is there, is a paper-thin layer of dough. It is that second layer that makes the pizza "stuffed." As is the case with a deep dish pizza, the chunky tomato sauce goes on top.
As cheese lover I decided to start with the Cheese pizza. The Giordano’s crust contains some corn flavor and a noticeable amount of butter, it has the flavour of a heavy piece of toast. The next layer is the mozzarella cheese, lots of mozzarella. On top of the cheese there is tomato sauce, which was good but not great. The sauce is much chunkier than it is typical in Domino’s pizza but it had no that pinch of sweetness that I generally like. That said the pizza was still excellent, it was tasty and cheesy but not greasy, which is a really good compliment for the stuffed cheese pizza.
The Chicago pizza was my second victim, in which I had big expectations, because of the name, perhaps. Right away, I saw a problem. Some of the sauce on top had dried a bit. I'm not sure if they just didn't put enough sauce on or if they cooked the pizza a little too much.. The Chicago Pizza was stuffed with green peppers, mushrooms and onions finely chops mixed with ricotta cheese. However, the cheese flavor outshone all the flavor of the other ingredients giving the feeling of having another piece of the Cheese pizza, no difference between them. After the cheese pizza I expected this one had a different flavor but it turned into a complete disappointment. The Meat & more meat pizza closed this adventure leaving a good taste in the mouth. It was stuffed with pepperoni, bacon, sausage and salami. It was a bomb of flavor in the mouth. This time on top of the sauce there were thin layers of bacon in chops as part of the decoration. The mixture of flavors was perfect and there was enough meat which it is strongly appreciated. In my stomach there was not room for more food. the pizzas had a small size but there are medium and large size for the most gluttons. The price varies depending on the size from 20$ to 30$, which is quite convenient for a stuffed dish pizza in Chicago.
I've always been a fan of cheese, and this was for me a wonderful adventure. If the cheese is not your thing, perhaps that would be too much cheese for you. But Giordano’s offers a great variety of options that will make easier the decision. Giordano’s is worth a visit every self- respecting pizza connoisseur and the fact that you can get a deep dish pizza in the place where it began, Chicago, is a bonus.
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