The Best Chicago Style Pizza? Where to dine Sat night?

Hey All,

I have reviewed the GNR list and have a bunch of places in mind to try from there (Smak Tak, Hopleaf, Spoon, Sun Wah, Maxwell Street, maybe even Calumet Fisheries) but I wanted to ask for a couple Saturday and Sunday night suggestions for restaurants that have great food and an edgier (somewhat hip) atmosphere for a first visit to Chicago. I like Tallulah's menu and am already planning Sweets and Savories.

I have no idea what neighborhood we'll be in but it should be fairly accessible by the L and we're staying in Downtown. I have gone through the forums like crazy and read about Blackbird, Avec, Sola, North Pond, Bistro Campagne, Vie and Sepia. Where would you go if you were me...??? We're coming in from Los Angeles and I have spent lots of time in NYC.

Also, where to get some good Chicago style pizzaaa????

I'll just stick with the pizza rec.

Hands down, my favorite is Art of Pizza (3033 N. Ashland) - their stuffed pizza to be specific. Other places in Chicago make a decent pie. For me the mark of a good pizza is one you don't need to load with toppings. Art of Pizza is the only place where I've been wowed by their cheese pizza. Perfect balance of three simple ingredients. Just a heads up though, it's not a fancy place. It's simply a counter restaurant with some tables, but sometimes that makes for the best. Mind you, this isn't super EL friendly (I think it's about 3 blocks from the Paulina brown line), so if you're looking for something downtown, all of the others are pretty similar:

Pizzeria Uno, Pizzeria Due, Lou Malnati's, Gino's East, Giordano's.... None of them are spectacular, but they all make a respectable pizza.

Out of the other places you mentioned, I've only been to Sola. I absolutely loved my meal there, but I wouldn't necessarily call it hip. Great meal, but if I was in Chicago for a couple days, it might not be the one place I would make a destination out of. If you want hip, check out Lula Cafe (in Logan Square) - definitely not as fancy as the others, but always makes for a fun dinner or brunch.

For the best pizza and most unique experience, go to Union Station, and get on the Milwaukee North line to Morton Grove. Walk north on Lehigh, take a right on Lincoln and then left on Ferris (about 4 blocks, total) and you'll be at Burt's Place. But call and place your order first. (Details on menu & phone number here, courtesy of GWiv.)

I also will take on the pizza. You wil see a ton of threads on favorites, etc. However, to me, if you're going to be downtown, I would head over to Pizano's at happy hour if you have to have a Chicago pizza fix.
http://www.pizanoschicago.com/
63 E. Madison

For me, if I was visiting for the weekend, I wouldn't spend a night waiting in line in the tourist areas for pizza, I would much rather make a reservation at a great place, and save pizza for lunch. I like Pizanos for happy hour, because I think it really reflects on the Chicago after work vibe, you'll see everyone from construction workers to attorneys in there. I'd get a medium pan pizza if you want Chicago style and have it for an appetizer with friends and save myself for good Chicago cuisine.

And just so you know Vie while a great destination spot is far from the downtown loop, and will require transportation.

If I were you I would try Avec, Aigre Doux, Cafe Spiaggia, Maxwell street on Sunday, I would skip Sun Wah and go to Spring World or Lao Schezuan in Chinatown.

Sweetestgirl75 wrote:I have no idea what neighborhood we'll be in but it should be fairly accessible by the L and we're staying in Downtown. I have gone through the forums like crazy and read about Blackbird, Avec, Sola, North Pond, Bistro Campagne, Vie and Sepia. Where would you go if you were me...??? We're coming in from Los Angeles and I have spent lots of time in NYC.

For your non-pizza recommendation, in my opinion, Sola and Bistro Campagne are not in the same category as the other restaurants you listed. They are decidedly, IMHO, a notch below both in atmosphere and food, although they're fine places to eat, just not in the same league. So I'm eliminating them right off the bat.

FWIW, with few exceptions, purely "hip" restaurants do not really survive in Chicago, as opposed to in LA, where they'll eat plated styrofoam if the restaurant is deemed hip and Lindsay Lohan has been there. In other words, "hipper" restaurants like Blackbird, Avec and Sepia, which I'd rate above Vie and North Pond in terms of hipness, also have good food and drink. Out of those three, Blackbird is the more serious foodie experience in a minimalist atmosphere, Avec is more casual and the food is more rustic. If it matters in your assessment, Sepia has a decided focus on first-rate cocktails, whereas Blackbird and Avec are more wine-focused (although you can get decent beer at Avec). I haven't been to Sepia in a several months, and Blackbird in way too long, but my recent visit to Avec a couple weeks ago confirmed that it's as good as ever. Keep in mind that Avec does not take reservations and waits are the norm during regular dinner hours.

North Pond and Vie are the somewhat more "traditional" restaurants of all you listed. They are seriously focused on the eat local "movement." I've not been to North Pond, but I had an utterly transcendant meal at Vie recently on my birthday. Keep in mind that Vie is in the suburbs.

Personally, I'd go to Blackbird.

im likeing pizano's the best these days

Since you're staying downtown, my pizza recommendations -- as a life long Chicago pizza aficionado -- are all within a 5 mile radius of that area (about a 5 or 10 minute cab ride, depending upon traffic):

1. Pizano's - some say it's Oprah's favorite pizza. And their deep dish and thin crust pizzas are great. There is a downtown location (right off Michigan Ave. on Madison St.) and a second location not too far away on the near north side (State St). http://www.pizanoschicago.com/

2. Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due (I prefer Due's) on the near north side -- where the deep dish pizza craze all started. The great pizza that they serve is not the same as the junk pizzas served at the franchises across the country. While not as good as many remember, they are still excellent and worth a trip to experience their special brand of pizza. The website unfortunately advertises the nationwide franchise, which serve totally different pizzas and food, which is so hard for many to understand, I know.

3. Lou Malnati's -- on the near north side (Wells St) and a couple of other close locations (one in Lincoln Park). Great deep dish (as well as thin crust) that many consider the best in the metropolitan area. It usually wins the No. 1 ranking in media surveys and contests.
http://www.loumalnatis.com/locations/ch ... north.html

4. Gino's East -- another group of Chicago pizza enthusiasts consider this to be the best deep ever developed. And so many have mistakenly attributed "corn meal" as the secret ingredient to their pizza crusts, but that has proven to be inaccurate (no corn meal). But one of Chicago's Best and included on many nationwide television shows that feature Chicago Style Pizza.
http://featuredfoods.com/a-store/gino_p3a.pdf

5. Giordano's -- a unique style of double crust "stuffed" pizza that many find fascinating. It is stuffed like a dessert pie with crust on the bottom, then cheese then fillings (e.g. sausage, or pepperoni, or spinach, or whatever), then another layer of crust on top, then the tomato sauce is put on top of that. A very different kind of deep dish stuffed pizza. This pizza you either love or hate, but they started out with only one Chicago location and now have 40 restaurants in Illinois and 5 in Florida, so they have got to be doing something right. http://www.giordanos.com/shop/home.php

6. Home Run Inn (or HRI) -- This pizzeria is usually rated No. 1 in Chicagoland. But their pizza is a thin crust (used to be "thick-thin" but has changed to a regular thin crust). And IMO, it is the best thin crust pizza in the world. They, too, started out with one tavern location and have now built a pizza empire in the Chicago area. While maybe a little more than a five mile cab ride, I highly recommend going to their original pizzeria on 31st in Chicago. http://www.homeruninn.com/

7. Vito & Nicks -- Chicago southsiders would take big issue with HRI being the best as they are strongly loyal to their cracker crust style of pizza served at the 60 year old tavern that's known as Vito & Nicks (near Midway Airport), the original on 84th and Pulaski. While a little more than a five mile cab ride, it, too, is a special Chicago pizza institution for great, great Chicago thin crust pizza (as many in Chicago consider Chicago Style pizza to originally be thin crust and not the now famous "deep dish" style that Chicago has become famous for). http://www.vitoandnick.com/

8. Pat's -- on Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Park and just a short cab drive away from the loop. It has a fantastic type of thin crust pizza that their followers consider the best around. It is excellent and worth a trip. http://www.patspizza.info/

There are many, many others that I'm sure will be mentioned here. For deep dish, Louisa's in the south suburbs and Burt's in the far north suburbs are great, but a long drive from downtown Chicago, as are many of the other of "Chicago finest" pizzas (e.g. Marie's, Candlelight, Nancy's, Connie's, Fox's, Aurelio's, etc.). I know Art of Pizza has their following, but it is not one of my favorites. Also not one of my favorites is the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Pizza that bakes a pizza upside down in a bowl. They are mainly for tourists IMO.

For a Saturday evening dinner, I highly suggest the Palm restaurant with its view of the ferris wheel and other events at the lakeside Navy Pier. Their steaks, lobster and just about everything is really good. A little pricey, tho, but worth splurging on. http://www.thepalm.com/sitemain.cfm?site_id=10

Hope you enjoy your visit.

of the deep dish pizzas, i think you need to go with Lou Malnati's Deep Dish Butter Crust w/ Sausage Patty. i don't think another deep dish pizza compares when it comes to the "heartiness" people perceive Chicago Style Pizza to embody

Sweetestgirl75 wrote:I have reviewed the GNR list and have a bunch of places in mind to try from there (Smak Tak, Hopleaf, Spoon, Sun Wah, Maxwell Street, maybe even Calumet Fisheries) but I wanted to ask for a couple Saturday and Sunday night suggestions

Just to make sure, Maxwell Street Market is open only on Sundays from 7am to 3 pm, and if you do it right, you won't feel like eating much for the rest of the day. Excellent map of the market by LTHer crrush is an invaluable tool for navigating it.

MBK wrote:of the deep dish pizzas, i think you need to go with Lou Malnati's Deep Dish Butter Crust w/ Sausage Patty. i don't think another deep dish pizza compares when it comes to the "heartiness" people perceive Chicago Style Pizza to embody

that sounds like a heart attack in a pan.

I agree with the Lou Malnati's suggestion if you want a decent baseline for Chicago deep dish. Also, for someone who doesn't want to trek all the way out to Morton Grove to visit Burt's, I'm still a fan of Pequod's, although many claim that it's declined. I don't know, as I've only been going there for two years and it's a pretty damn good pie to me. Similar style of pizza as Burt's (since Burt used to run Pequod's in the 70s, IIRC), a style I would call contemporary Chicago deep dish. It's perhaps somewhere between a pan pizza and a deep dish, and its signature is a caramelized (looks burnt, but isn't) cheese crust.

Pequod's Pizza
2207 Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614

For thin cracker-crust-style Chicago pizza, Vito and Nick's is my favorite by a longshot, but is not really easy to get to from the Loop. (Orange Line to Pulaski, Pulaski 53A south bus to 84th Street.) It's probably about an hour to an hour fifteen by public transport (including wait times.) and 30-40 minutes by cab (assuming light traffic.) More convenient would be Pat's if you want to try our style of thin crust. Don't get freaked out by the square cut.

You also can't go wrong with the original Uno's or Due. I'm not a fan of Gino's or Giordano's, so I wouldn't recommend either. If you want to try stuffed pizza (there's really two main types of Chicago-style deep dish pizza--"stuffed", which includes a top layer of crust, and regular ol' deep dish which doesn't. I personally use "deep dish" to refer only to non-stuffed pizza, but some consider "stuffed" pizza a subset of deep dish. It can be very confusing) I would recommend Edwardo's over Giordano's.

Put ten Chicagoans in a room and ask about their favorite pizza and you'll get twenty different recommendations - all of them generally good ones. Personally, I love the pizza at the main chains - the double-crust "stuffed" pizza at Giordano's (my favorite of all), Bacino's, and Edwardo's, and the single-crust "pan" pizza at Lou Malnati's (my favorite of this type), Uno's (original location only) and Due, Gino's East, and Pizano's. My recommendation is to go with any of those I mentioned that happen to be closest to where you will be at the time. Most of those chains have locations in the downtown areas. (Oh, and I don't like the "burnt crust" style pizza at Burt's Place or Pequod's. Different strokes.)

As for your other questions, let's take Avec first. It's somewhat unique in several ways, some of them good, some of them not. Let's start with the "not" part. They don't take reservations and on weekends the wait is often 90-120 minutes long. The seats are uncomfortable, and the restaurant is very noisy. The seating is "communal"; it consists of 8-10 seats at a bar, and the tables are all eight-tops. Unless you have a group of 8 people, you'll be sitting with strangers. It generally works out well, since everyone knows that and it's expected that you'll socialize with others. The food is contemporary Mediterranean. I tried a bunch of things the last time I ate there and I was mostly disappointed; they were okay, but nothing special at all, IMHO. Other people rave over the food; again, different strokes. In any case, you can avoid most of the downsides by going at a late hour (the kitchen is open till 1) or during the week (although they get a big pre-opera crowd too). So now you know all the downsides and you can decide for yourself whether and, more importantly, when to go there. (Bottom line, I just would not go on a Saturday night to a popular place that does not accept reservations. Some people don't mind waiting a long time for a table; I do.)

As for the other places you mentioned, most of them are what you might call contemporary American/global casual fine dining restaurants. This style of restaurant has proliferated in Chicago and its suburbs, just like it has in most large cities around the country. Just like with pizza, you can argue till you're blue in the face about which one is "best" and come up with oodles of recommendations. Here's my opinion: I don't think it matters all that much. I think your best bet is to choose a good one that is convenient to where you happen to be. And I say this having tried most of them, and having my own opinions about which are better than others. I just don't think it's worth spending over an hour in transit taking a commuter train to the suburbs (such as to Vie in Western Springs, or my personal favorite of all of them, Michael in Winnetka), compared with walking five minutes to a place close to your hotel. In the downtown area, you can get a truly outstanding meal at Aigre Doux (my favorite downtown) or Naha or MK in River North, or at Custom House in the South Loop, or at Blackbird in the West Loop. Yes, each is slightly different from the others, the meals are not identical - but they're all good, and I don't think the difference in overall quality is sufficient to justify taking the time to go to a restaurant in the suburbs like Vie or Michael, or one in an outlying city neighborhood like Sola, Tallulah, or Bistro Campagne. It's not that those other places aren't good; they are. It's just that they aren't sufficiently better to justify spending a couple hours of your vacation getting there and back. OTOH if you happen to be spending time in one of those neighborhoods/suburbs anyway, by all means consider the places located there!

There is one exception to the above, and that is North Pond, which is a very special and unique restaurant. Not because of the quality of the food, which is very good and comparable to the others (Chef Bruce Sherman was nominated for a James Beard award), but because of its location and setting. North Pond is 2-4 miles north of "downtown", in the middle of Lincoln Park - the park itself, not just the surrounding neighborhood of the same name. It faces its namesake pond, and the city skyline rises above the opposite shore. The renovated building once served as the warming shelter for ice skaters on the pond. Going there is like going to another world, away from the city, but so close. And you get the feeling of being in a special place, regardless of whether you're in the front room with the full-length windows looking out over the pond, or the rear room with the open kitchen along one wall. For this reason, North Pond is the one restaurant in which eating there doesn't make you feel like you could just as easily be in Los Angeles or New York.

So that's my $.02 to consider on top of all the rest of the advice you're hearing.

Enjoy your visit!

I have to say that my experience with Art of Pizza was a weird one. I went there on a Friday night around 10:15 and was excited as I heard it was highly rated for their deep dish. When I got there, I didn't care that it wasn't a full blown restaurant, but a smaller one with a counter and slices available. I wanted a whole pizza, but the guy at the counter said we could only order slices, which I was not expecting. He said they were about to close! I couldn't believe it, 10:30 closing on a Friday in August! So I ordered one slice of each style they had. I was shocked and a little mad to see that they didn't have deep dish at all, but stuffed. (Some people equate any thick pizza as deep dish, I don't - they are different, and always taste different. In my opinion, stuffed pizza is near the bottom for me. I'll take thin, deep dish, New York, New Haven over it.) The "regular" pizza was lame, just a glob of cheese on doughy crust. The stuffed slice was the best stuffed pizza I ever had! Even though it was just a warmed up slice at the end of the night, and I was pissed that it was stuffed, not deep dish, it was amazing for what it was. It was a true George Costanza type of scene, I was pissed and thrilled at the same time!

Thank You all SO, SO much for all this. I love that Chicago loves food as much as all of you do!

For a pretty hip, new place that also has great food and is downtown, try Mercat a la Planxa on S. Michigan in the Blackstone Hotel. Not that I know the hipster scene but it had that vibe when I was there and I think it's gotten on some "hot" restaurant list here and there.