Last updated: June 2026 — restaurant information verified June 2026.
Nine years in Chicago and I still have this argument at least once a month.
Someone visits from out of town and asks where to get deep dish. I tell them Pequod’s. They’ve read something about Lou Malnati’s or Giordano’s. I explain the difference. We go to Pequod’s. They understand.
The honest version of the Chicago deep dish conversation is longer than most guides make it. Let me give you the actual picture.
First: The Thing Nobody Tells Tourists About Deep Dish
Chicago’s most famous pizza style is not what most Chicagoans eat most of the time.
Deep dish is what you eat when someone visits from out of town. It is the thing Chicago is famous for and the thing Chicago residents treat as a special occasion meal. On a regular Tuesday, most Chicagoans are ordering tavern-cut: thin crust, round pizza cut into squares (not triangles), sausage or Italian beef on top, from a neighbourhood spot with red-checked tablecloths and an opinion about the Cubs.
This matters for your visit because: if you spend your entire Chicago trip eating deep dish, you’re eating Tourist Chicago. The actual pizza culture of the city is broader, better, and cheaper.
That said — deep dish done properly is genuinely worth having once. Here’s where to have it.
Pequod’s Pizza: The One I Recommend
Pequod’s is at 2207 N Clybourn Ave in Lincoln Park — a brick building that doesn’t look like much from outside and is consistently one of the most difficult restaurants to get into in Chicago without a plan.
The thing that makes Pequod’s different is the crust. When you fill a deep dish pan with cheese all the way to the edge and bake it in a well-seasoned cast iron pan, the cheese that touches the sides of the pan caramelizes and chars slightly. It creates a dark, crispy, slightly sweet edge that you don’t get anywhere else. The rest of the pizza — the chunky tomato sauce on top (yes, on top — deep dish assembles upside-down from regular pizza), the sausage, the interior — is good. The crust is what people come back for.
What you pay: a medium deep dish (serves 2–3) runs around $28–35 depending on toppings. Add a pitcher of Old Style beer (~$18) and you’re looking at $22–25 per person before tip. This is not cheap, but it’s Chicago restaurant pricing, not a tourist scam.
The wait: Deep dish takes 45 minutes minimum to cook. This is physics, not inefficiency — you’re baking a two-inch thick pizza through to the centre. Pequod’s doesn’t take reservations for parties under 6. Get there when they open at 11:30am, put your name in, drink a beer at the bar, eat at noon. Or accept a 45–60 minute wait on weekends evenings and plan accordingly.
•RYAN’S PICK
The sausage and mushroom combination at Pequod’s is what I order. The Italian sausage is fresh and comes in large crumbled pieces, not pre-formed patties. If you want to go simpler, just sausage and extra cheese. Don’t order too many toppings on your first deep dish — the base pizza needs to be the focus.
Lou Malnati’s: Best Chain Option
If Pequod’s is full and you’ve committed to deep dish, Lou Malnati’s is the right fallback. It’s a chain with seventeen Chicago locations, which means the wait is usually manageable, the quality is consistent, and the staff have done this ten thousand times.
The distinguishing feature at Lou’s is the butter crust — richer and more flaky than Pequod’s pan crust, less caramelized edge drama, more traditional in the way Chicagoans who grew up eating deep dish think of it. The sausage here comes as a single layer of fresh Italian sausage spread across the entire pizza before the sauce goes on — this is a technique, not a limitation.
Prices are similar to Pequod’s. The Lincoln Park and Gold Coast locations are closest to most tourist activity. The River North location (predictably) has the longest waits.
Lou Malnati’s also does a mail-order frozen pizza that ships nationally — a genuinely decent option if you want to take Chicago pizza back to someone who couldn’t make the trip.
Giordano’s: Fine, But Not Where Locals Go
Giordano’s is stuffed pizza — a style distinct from traditional deep dish, with a second thin layer of dough on top that seals in the filling before the chunky tomato sauce goes on. It’s heavier than regular deep dish, which is already substantial. The result is dense and filling and somewhat overwhelming.
Giordano’s is everywhere in Chicago’s tourist areas — River North, the Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier adjacents — and it’s fine. It’s not bad pizza. It’s just the pizza that appears most frequently in guidebooks and the pizza most locals will gently steer you away from when asked.
If you’re staying near the Magnificent Mile and want deep dish without going across town, Giordano’s serves that function. If you have the option to get to Pequod’s or a good neighbourhood Lou Malnati’s, go there instead.
The Spots Locals Actually Know
Beyond the headline names:
Ricobene’s (5741 S Halsted St, Bridgeport) — technically famous for its breaded steak sandwiches, but the pizza is genuinely good and the prices are lower than anything in Lincoln Park or River North. This is the South Side working-class Chicago pizza experience. Worth the trip if you’re already heading that direction.
George’s Deep Dish (4938 N Broadway, Edgewater) — a newer spot on the North Side that a growing number of locals are recommending. Caramelized cheese crust in the Pequod’s style, without the Pequod’s wait. Still flying under most tourist radar.
Millie’s Pizza in the Pan — ranked by some 2026 sources as among the best pan pizza in the city. Worth investigating if you’re a pizza-focused visitor who wants to go off-list.
Pizano’s — founded by the son of the man who founded Lou Malnati’s. The family argument apparently produced two excellent pizza chains. Similar quality to Lou’s with slightly different sauce recipe.
The Tavern-Cut Experience: What Locals Actually Eat
You should eat at least one tavern-cut pizza while you’re in Chicago.
Tavern-cut pizza — thin crust, round pie, cut into squares — is what Chicago pizza actually is for most of the city’s residents, most of the time. The specific features: cracker-thin crust that holds up without flopping, sauce underneath the toppings (normal pizza logic), and always cut into squares. The sausage is typically fennel-heavy Italian sausage. You fold it in half and eat it with your hands.
The best tavern-cut is found at neighbourhood bars and pizza places in Wicker Park, Logan Square, Bridgeport, Beverly, and the Northwest Side — the kind of places with neon beer signs and sports on every screen. They’re not in most guidebooks. Ask a local.
My regular: Piece Brewery and Pizzeria in Wicker Park, which does excellent thin-crust New Haven-style pizza (not Chicago thin but excellent). Also Coalfire on West Grand, which does Neapolitan-ish in a Chicago context and is one of the better pizzas I’ve had in the city by any measure.
The Deep Dish Experience, Practically Speaking
Things that will make your deep dish experience better:
Order before you’re hungry. Forty-five minutes is the minimum cook time. If you sit down starving and then order, you’ll be miserable for 45 minutes before the pizza arrives. Have a beer, have a salad, plan to wait. Or time your arrival for when you’re just starting to think about dinner rather than when you’re actively hungry.
One pizza is more than you think. A medium Pequod’s deep dish (10 inch) is easily enough for two adults with average appetite, possibly three. Do not order one pizza per person. This is the most common first-timer mistake and results in carrying a box that weighs as much as a child.
Leftovers are the point. Chicago deep dish reheats exceptionally well — better than most pizzas. The caramelized cheese crust at Pequod’s is arguably better the next day when you can reheat it at 400°F and the edges crisp up again. Take the leftovers back to your hotel.
Don’t compare it to regular pizza. Deep dish is not pizza in the sense of a pizza you’ve had elsewhere. It’s a pizza casserole. Eat it as its own category of food and don’t try to rank it against Neapolitan or New York slice. They’re answering different questions.
My Honest Take on the Deep Dish Debate
I have eaten a lot of deep dish pizza in nine years. My honest ranking: Pequod’s is the most interesting, Lou Malnati’s is the most reliable, Giordano’s is the most available.
I also think the Chicago pizza argument obscures the more interesting question, which is: what’s the best pizza in Chicago? The answer to that is probably not deep dish. It’s probably a tavern-cut from a neighbourhood joint, or a Coalfire pie, or an Italian beef and giardiniera combo from Al’s Beef which is technically not pizza but answers the same question about what makes Chicago food actually good.
Get one Pequod’s. Eat the whole thing. Then spend the rest of your trip eating like a local.
What is the best deep dish pizza in Chicago?
Pequod’s in Lincoln Park (2207 N Clybourn Ave). The caramelized cheese crust — where the cheese burns dark and slightly sweet against the pan — is what makes it different from every other deep dish in the city. Get there when they open at 11:30am to avoid waits. Order a medium for two people, one topping, and let the pizza be the point.
Is Chicago deep dish pizza worth it?
Once, yes. More than that and you’re eating Tourist Chicago. Deep dish done well — at Pequod’s, at a good Lou Malnati’s — is a genuinely distinct eating experience that’s worth having. It’s also not what most Chicagoans eat on a regular basis. After your deep dish, try tavern-cut thin crust from a neighbourhood spot. That’s the other half of Chicago pizza.
Lou Malnati’s vs Giordano’s — which is better?
Lou Malnati’s, clearly. Giordano’s makes stuffed pizza (a different style, heavier, with a layer of dough on top), which is fine but not what most people mean when they say deep dish. Lou Malnati’s makes traditional Chicago deep dish with a butter crust and fresh Italian sausage. It’s also significantly less touristy in most locations. Go to Lou Malnati’s.
How long does Chicago deep dish take?
A minimum of 45 minutes from when you order. This is physics — you’re baking a two-inch thick pizza through to the centre, not a thin crust. Most places take 45–55 minutes. Some spots take longer. The correct approach is to arrive before you’re hungry, order immediately, have a beer and a salad, and eat the pizza as a proper second course. Do not arrive starving and then order deep dish.
What is the difference between deep dish and stuffed pizza?
Deep dish is a thick-crust pizza baked in a deep pan with the sauce on top — assembled upside-down from regular pizza, with cheese directly on the dough, toppings next, sauce last. Stuffed pizza (Giordano’s style) adds a second thin layer of dough on top of the cheese and toppings, sealing everything in before the sauce goes on top of that. Stuffed pizza is denser and heavier. Deep dish is what Chicago was talking about when it invented the category.
Getting to Pequod’s: The Practical Details
Pequod’s is at 2207 N Clybourn Avenue in Lincoln Park. Getting there requires a small amount of navigation that trips up first-timers.
By L: Red Line to Fullerton, then a 15-minute walk west along Fullerton to Clybourn, then south about a block. Or Brown/Purple Line to Armitage, then 10 minutes west on Armitage to Clybourn, then north. Either way, you’re looking at a 10–15 minute walk from the nearest L stop. Not a hardship in reasonable weather; annoying in January.
By Divvy bike: There’s a Divvy station at Wrightwood and Clybourn, practically at the door. If you’re coming from Wicker Park or Logan Square, the Milwaukee Avenue bike lane connects directly to Lincoln Park. 20 minutes, $5 for a day pass.
By rideshare: Fine. From Wicker Park: $8–12. From the Loop: $12–18. The rideshare advantage over the L here is that Clybourn is slightly inconvenient from any single L stop — if you’re in a group splitting the cost, it’s worth it. If you’re solo, the L walk is legitimate exercise before eating a two-inch-thick pizza.
Parking: Street parking on Clybourn is possible on weekdays before 6pm. On weekends evenings, assume you’ll be driving around for 15 minutes. There’s a small lot behind the building that’s usually full by 7pm on a Saturday. If you’re driving from the suburbs specifically for Pequod’s, go on a Thursday or Friday for lunch — zero parking issue, same pizza, shorter wait.
The Deep Dish Beyond Chicago: What You Can Ship Home
If you want to bring deep dish back to people who couldn’t make the trip, there are legitimate options.
Lou Malnati’s ships nationally. The Lou Malnati’s mail order program ships frozen pizzas packed in dry ice. The frozen version is genuinely good — better than any other frozen pizza option, legitimately close to the restaurant version once you bake it properly (the instructions matter: thaw overnight in the refrigerator, bake at 375°F for 40–45 minutes). A 9-inch single pizza ships for around $18–22 plus shipping; multi-pizza packs are better value. This is the most defensible deep dish souvenir in Chicago. Not the same as eating it at the restaurant, but the gap is smaller than you’d expect.
Pequod’s does not currently ship nationally — the caramelized cheese crust doesn’t freeze and reheat the same way Lou Malnati’s butter crust does. The Pequod’s experience is genuinely restaurant-only. This is part of why making the trip to Lincoln Park matters.
At the airport: O’Hare has a Lou Malnati’s location (Terminal 3). If you’re cutting it close on time and want to grab a frozen pizza for the flight home, it’s there. It’s not the same as eating it in Lincoln Park, but it’s not nothing either.
Deep Dish Seasonal Notes
Deep dish is a year-round food, but the experience of eating it changes with the season in ways that matter for planning.
Summer: Pequod’s wait times peak in summer — weekends from June through August, the wait can hit 60–75 minutes if you haven’t planned ahead. The arrive-at-opening strategy (11:30am) is especially important in July and August. The upside: Lincoln Park in summer means you can walk to the Green City Market, the zoo, or the lakefront before or after the pizza, which turns a meal into a half-day.
Fall and winter: The best time to eat deep dish is October through March, when the restaurant is warm, the wait is shorter (30 minutes or manageable), and a two-inch-thick pizza makes logical sense as a meal for the weather you’re sitting in. Pequod’s in January, with a pitcher of Old Style and a booth with coats piled on one end, is a more satisfying experience than the same pizza on a humid August evening.
Cubs game days: If you’re combining Wrigley Field with Pequod’s (sensible — they’re in the same general neighborhood), coordinate the timing. A Cubs game that ends at 4pm means the post-game crowds hit Pequod’s by 4:30pm. Either go before the game (11:30am opening, eat by noon, head to Wrigley for a 1:20pm day game) or well after (8pm, when the post-game crowd has moved to the Clark Street bars). Don’t show up at 5:30pm on a game day without a reservation and assume there’s space.
What Ryan Got Wrong About Deep Dish
I moved to Wicker Park at 23 with strong opinions about pizza. I ate deep dish every week for the first two months. By month three, I was exclusively eating thin crust like everyone else I knew.
The mistake was treating deep dish as an everyday food rather than an occasion food. It’s filling in a way that regular pizza isn’t — a single slice from Pequod’s will genuinely hold most adults for 4–5 hours. Order it for lunch and you won’t be hungry for dinner. Order it as part of a bar crawl and you’ll be the person suggesting you all go home at 9pm.
The other mistake: I went to Giordano’s first because someone at work recommended it. It was fine. I ate there four times before a colleague from Lincoln Park finally took me to Pequod’s and explained that Giordano’s was what people from the suburbs thought locals ate. The caramelized crust at Pequod’s is a legitimately different product. Don’t waste your first Chicago deep dish experience on the franchise.
Deep Dish vs. Stuffed Pizza: The Difference That Actually Matters
Chicago has two distinct thick pizza formats that get confused in out-of-town coverage. They’re not the same thing.
Deep dish: The pan creates a high crust wall, the cheese goes in first directly on the dough, then toppings, then crushed tomato sauce on top. Baked 45–55 minutes. What Pequod’s and Lou Malnati’s serve.
Stuffed pizza: Two layers of dough with fillings packed between them, topped with sauce. Thicker and more filling than deep dish. Giordano’s and Bacino’s are the main stuffed pizza operators. Takes even longer to cook — 50–60 minutes minimum.
For a first visit, deep dish is what you want. It’s more iconic, more widely available, and easier to find the best version of (Pequod’s) than the best stuffed version. Once you’ve done Pequod’s, Giordano’s stuffed is a reasonable second trip if you want the comparison. The reverse order — stuffed first — leads people to think Chicago pizza is heavier than it actually is.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you order deep dish pizza to go in Chicago?
Yes — both Pequod’s and Lou Malnati’s do takeout. For Pequod’s, call ahead and give them the 45-minute lead time: (773) 327-1512 for the Lincoln Park location. The pizza travels reasonably well for 20–30 minutes in the box. Don’t put it in the back of a rideshare that’s going to take 45 minutes across town — by then the crust will have softened and you’ve lost the caramelized edge, which is the whole point of Pequod’s.
What’s a reasonable budget for deep dish pizza in Chicago?
A medium deep dish at Pequod’s (serves 2–3 people) runs $28–34. Add drinks — Old Style draft is $5, craft beer $7–9 — and tip, and two people will spend $45–65 total. Lou Malnati’s is similar pricing. Budget $20–35 per person depending on how much you order beyond the pizza. This is not a cheap meal, but it’s not expensive for Chicago either — a comparable restaurant meal in River North would cost more.
