Eating good at Giordano’s in Chicago, IL

Deep dish pizza is synonymous with Chicago. Being from New York there has always been a pizza rivalry between the two. So of course being in Chicago I had to try out one of the many infamous places to get great deep dish pizza. I had a ton of recommendations and would have loved to try them all, but the one I did get to try was Giordano’s.

We were taken to the Giordano’s on North Rush St. It was late and we were very hungry after the sunset cruise. Although it was late and a little over an hour away from closing time I was told there would be a 20 minute wait to be seated. I was handed a menu and told we could sit near the bar to wait.

Front of Menu ©2015 HollyDayz

I saw more and more people coming in. I already knew I wanted to order the deep dish pizza. I went back to ask the hostess which one in particular were they famous for. What she didn’t tell me until I went back to ask how much longer, was that I should order the pizza on the pre-order line. With the pre-order line they begin to make your pizza while you wait, because they say it takes about 45 minutes to make the pizza.

giordanos ©hollydayz
Menu ©2015 HollyDayz

I was a tad annoyed, but got on the pre-order line that was now pretty long. The moment I went to order I was told I couldn’t place the order because my table was ready and to place it with my waiter. As we walked over to the table I saw how many people were sitting around. The waiter took forever to come and I thought to myself ‘wow I could have ordered already.’


When he finally did come he let us know it would in fact take 45 minutes to an hour to make the pizza. Now being hungry and being a true New Yorker, where we wanted it to appear yesterday, this was a blow. At this point we were exhausted from running around Chicago all day and waiting for pizza sounded terrible. I looked around and saw a ton of people sitting around bored waiting for their food.

giordanos ©hollydayz
Some of the atmosphere ©2015 HollyDayz

Some people ordered appetizers which seemed to take time to come as well. Once done they continued to sit around waiting for their pizza. My waiter disappeared and never came back with anything I asked for. When I did catch him walking around asking him how much longer he really didn’t want to tell us. We were becoming hangry.


Finally about an hour or so later the waiter appeared with a pizza. He cut a slice and put it on the plate. Now as New Yorkers we typically eat our pizza folded, but with the deep dish a knife and fork was used. It was extremely cheesy and tasted great. I was happy that the long wait and sub par service amounted to great tasting pizza.

giordanos ©hollydayz
Deep Dish Pizza ©2015 HollyDayz

We asked another waiter for a box to take the rest of the pizza to go. I ended up leaving Chicago with the leftovers and re-heating it back up. They put it in a very sturdy box. The pizza still tasted as amazing as when I first tasted it.


Giordano’s deep dish pizza was really good. I would go back seeing as I learned that I can pre-order since that wasn’t explained from the jump. I would also arrive before I became really hungry because it seemed all the food took a long time to be served. I may try another location if I was to go back, to potentially receive better service.

Have you ever been to Giordano’s? What was your experience like?

See more of my time in Chicago and get some ideas for your next visit!