Review of 'Giordano's'
Though not the oldest in town, Giordano's has been serving “stuffed pizza” since 1974. It has to be some of the best “Chicago-style deep-dish pizza” I have ever had.
Wandering around downtown Chicago on a Friday night having just arrived from London (England) we were in search of somewhere to eat, but not just anywhere, somewhere we could have decent pizza. Yes, the old tourist thing of searching for deep dish pizza in Chicago. Yes, I am guilty, but loving it. “Giordano's” had come up in several guides to pizza in the city. Yes, it is a chain, but the reviews were quite positive so we decided to give it a try. Located downtown in Prudential Plaza, this is office building and hotel central but the place was hopping at 5:30 with the reception area beginning to get congested (it would get much busier as the evening wore on, we had to pretty much push our way through to get out). There is a bar area to the right of reception and to the left are the seating areas.
After taking our name the servers suggest we look at the menu and place our order for pizzas straight away as they are all cooked from scratch so would take about 35-40 minutes. By the time we had done so our table was ready so we were shown in. We were placed right outside a glass window looking into the small kitchen where we were able to not only see the pizzas being made but also the line of delivery people waiting to pick up orders. It was certainly busy.
The menu is a good length with not only pizza but sandwiches and other Italian classics. But, to be honest, we came here for the pizza and in a matter of moments we had made our decision: A small “Chicago Classic - Deep Dish” pizza (recommended for 2-3 people; $24.35; “Pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers & onions”). This we ordered while waiting for our table (and given a receipt which we handed to our server when seated) though we added our drinks and a starter of “Wisconsin Cheese Curds” ($9.25; “Classic Wisconsin cheese curds, lightly breaded and served with your choice of house-made marinara or our signature ranch dipping sauce”) which arrived about 20 minutes later.
As might be expected, the curds were quite bland but the marinara sauce helped with that and they certainly went down easy. The portion size was quite good – larger than expected.
About 45 minutes after ordering, the pizza arrived at the table piping hot. The server immediately suggested we get out our cameras to film/video her cutting out the first piece and it is easy to see why this is a bit of a thing - The strings of cheese stretched for as far as she was able to stretch. The pizza was quite delicious with a pie-like crunchy crust and a deep layer of cheese and well-herbed sauce. There was a good amount of green peppers also in evidence which were, wonderfully, not overcooked and added yet more flavour to the pie. The base of the pizza was not at all soggy and all of it flaked wonderfully with a fork. Absolutely delicious.
The small pizza we ordered had six slices but we only managed to eat four between the two of us, our drinks (soft drinks, as might be expected, are bottomless) and the starter. We ended up having cold pizza for dinner the next day, but no complaints!
The service was a bit…abrupt…but the place was absolutely jammed and we could tell she was being run off her feet, however, she was polite. The bill did not include a tip (though it did include a helpful guide to how much each various percentage was) which we were able to add when the receipt finally was issued. We will definitely be back, if not to this location, to one of their many others throughout the US.
Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”
Review Date: 2020-02-21
Cuisine: American/British
Address: 130 E Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
Public Transport: 
Lake
Location: Chicago (USA) - Downtown
Map:
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Telephone: +1 312-616-1200