The Best Deep Dish Pizza in Chicago (2026)
Chicago Dining Guide
Why we wrote this guide
Chicago deep dish is not a topping choice. It is a construction method. In December 1943, at 29 East Ohio Street, Pizzeria Uno opened and served the first Chicago deep-dish pizza: a high-edged pie baked in a round pan, with a buttery crust pressed up the sides, cheese laid on the dough, toppings in the middle, and chunky tomato sauce ladled on last so it would not burn during the long bake. That inversion, sauce on top, cheese on the bottom, is the whole idea. Everything Chicago is known for pizza-wise starts at that 1943 counter.
This guide covers deep dish and its close cousin, stuffed pizza, only. We left out tavern-thin, Neapolitan, and coal-fired pies on purpose; those are their own tradition and deserve their own list. Here we rank the places that built the deep-dish canon and the ones still baking it best in 2026.
One distinction to get straight before you order. Deep dish is a single layer of dough with cheese, toppings, and sauce stacked inside a tall pan. Stuffed pizza goes further: a second, thin layer of dough is laid over the fillings, sealed to the bottom crust, and then sauce goes on top of that upper crust. Stuffed is denser, deeper, and more of a commitment. Giordano's is the stuffed benchmark; almost everyone else on this list is true deep dish.
Last updated September 2026. Hours, bake times, and booking channels were current at publication; call ahead for large parties or holidays.
The ranked guide
1. Lou Malnati's Pizzeria (River North)
If one name is synonymous with Chicago deep dish, it is Lou Malnati's. Lou Malnati learned the style in the kitchen of the original Pizzeria Uno, then opened his own place in Lincolnwood in 1971, and the family has since become the most recognized name in the category. The signature is the Malnati Chicago Classic: lean sausage, extra mozzarella, and vine-ripened tomato sauce on the trademarked flaky Buttercrust. That crust, more like a buttery pastry than a bread, is what sets Lou's apart. Ask for "The Lou" if you want the vegetarian version with spinach, mushroom, sliced tomato, and a three-cheese blend. See Lou Malnati's Pizzeria.
Best for: first-timers who want the definitive modern Chicago deep dish, and anyone who cares more about the crust than the toppings.
2. Pizzeria Uno (River North)
This is where it all began. Pizzeria Uno opened in December 1943 at 29 East Ohio Street, founded by Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo with Rudy Malnati Sr. in the kitchen, and it is widely credited as the birthplace of Chicago deep-dish pizza. The original location still operates on the same corner. Order the Numero Uno: sausage, onions, peppers, and mushrooms in a deep-dish pan, the pie the house calls its first choice. A sister store, Pizzeria Due, opened a block away to handle the overflow. Coming here is less about chasing the single best slice in the city and more about eating the pie that invented the format, in the room where it happened. See Pizzeria Uno.
Best for: pizza pilgrims and history-minded visitors who want to eat the 1943 original at the source.
3. Giordano's (Gold Coast / Magnificent Mile)
Giordano's is the stuffed-pizza standard-bearer. Italian-immigrant brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio opened it on the South Side in 1974, adapting their mother's double-crusted "Italian Easter Pie" into what became Chicago's defining stuffed pizza. The move that matters: a thin top layer of dough seals the cheese inside, and the chunky tomato sauce goes on top of that upper crust. The result is deeper and denser than standard deep dish, closer to a savory pie than a pizza, and the sausage and spinach stuffed pies are the ones to get. Budget roughly 45 minutes for the bake. The Rush Street location on the Magnificent Mile is the most prominent city address. See Giordano's.
Best for: anyone who wants to understand stuffed pizza, and big appetites that treat a slice as a full meal.
4. Pequod's Pizza (Lincoln Park)
Pequod's is the cult favorite, and the reason is the crust. Burt Katz founded Pequod's in Morton Grove in 1970, and the famed Lincoln Park location opened in 1992, made iconic by a ring of caramelized, almost-burnt cheese fused to the rim of the pan. That caramelized cheese-ring crust gives every edge a smoky, crunchy, slightly bitter contrast that no other deep dish in the city replicates. Get the classic sausage deep dish or the caramelized-crust pepperoni, and try to grab a corner. The room is a dark, rowdy pizza-tavern with sports-bar energy and a legendary line, so the reservation is worth it. See Pequod's Pizza.
Best for: crust obsessives and locals who want the most distinctive deep dish in Chicago.
5. Gino's East (Magnificent Mile / Streeterville)
Gino's East opened in 1966, started by two cab drivers, Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli, with their friend George Loverde, just a block off the Magnificent Mile. Its trademark is the dough recipe developed by longtime pizza chef Alice Mae Redmond, carrying the classic Supreme of sausage, onion, green pepper, and mushroom. The other half of the Gino's experience is the room itself: decades of customer graffiti scrawled across the walls on all three floors, a tradition that turns the wait for your pie into an activity. It is one of the most recognizable deep-dish landmarks in the city. See Gino's East.
Best for: visitors who want the iconic tourist-landmark deep dish with a cornmeal-forward crust and a memorable room.
6. Pizano's Pizza & Pasta (Near North Side)
Pizano's keeps the Malnati deep-dish bloodline alive. It was opened in 1991 by Rudy Malnati Jr., son of Rudy Malnati Sr. from the original Pizzeria Uno kitchen and half-brother of Lou Malnati, so the family recipe runs straight through it. The deep dish is classic and buttery, built on the family's secret dough, but Pizano's is equally famous for a buttery, caramelized-edge thin crust that Oprah named a favorite and USA Today ranked among the top ten in the nation. It is the most relaxed sit-down room on this list, a State Street pizzeria and pasta house blocks from Water Tower Place, which makes it an easy weeknight pick. See Pizano's Pizza & Pasta.
Best for: those who want the Malnati lineage in a calmer room, and anyone deciding between deep dish and a great thin crust in one visit.
Deep dish vs stuffed pizza
They look similar in a photo and taste very different at the table. Both are baked in a tall, round pan with a crust pressed up the sides, and both invert the usual order by putting cheese down first and sauce on top. The difference is the second crust.
Deep dish is a single bottom crust. Cheese goes directly on the dough, toppings go on the cheese, and chunky tomato sauce is ladled over everything. It is tall, but it is one continuous open-faced pie. Lou Malnati's, Pizzeria Uno, Pequod's, Gino's East, and Pizano's all make deep dish.
Stuffed pizza adds a second, thinner sheet of dough on top of the fillings, sealed to the bottom crust, with sauce spread over that upper layer. That extra crust traps far more cheese inside, so a stuffed pie is noticeably deeper, denser, and heavier than deep dish. Giordano's is the classic example. As a rule of thumb: deep dish is a tall pizza, stuffed pizza is a savory pie. If you want more cheese and a bigger commitment, go stuffed; if you want the toppings and sauce to shine, go deep dish.
How to visit
Deep dish and stuffed pizza take roughly 30 to 45 minutes to bake to order, so the single most useful move is to plan for the wait or beat it. Where preordering is offered, place the pizza order when you sit down, or before you arrive, so the pie is baking while you settle in.
Book direct where you can. Lou Malnati's (River North) and Pizzeria Uno take reservations on OpenTable; Giordano's (Rush Street) takes reservations on SevenRooms and books in advance rather than same-day. Pequod's takes reservations on Tock, with larger groups using the table-request form. Gino's East runs mainly on walk-ins, with the Magnificent Mile flagship the only Chicago location that takes reservations. Pizano's takes reservations by phone. Across all of them, walk-ins are welcome but peak-hour waits are real, and a reservation plus a preordered pie is the difference between a 10-minute sit-down and an hour on the sidewalk.
FAQ
What is Chicago deep dish pizza?
Chicago deep dish is a pizza baked in a tall, round pan with a buttery crust pressed up the sides. Unlike most pizza, the cheese goes directly on the dough, the toppings go next, and chunky tomato sauce is ladled on top so it does not burn during the long bake. The result is a tall, hearty, knife-and-fork pizza that takes about 30 to 45 minutes to bake.
Who invented deep dish pizza?
Deep dish was invented at Pizzeria Uno, which opened in December 1943 at 29 East Ohio Street in Chicago. It was founded by Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo, with Rudy Malnati Sr. in the kitchen, and the original location still operates on the same corner today. It is widely credited as the birthplace of Chicago deep-dish pizza.
What is the best deep dish pizza for first-timers?
For a first Chicago deep dish, Lou Malnati's is the most reliable introduction: it is the most recognized name in the category, and its flaky Buttercrust and Malnati Chicago Classic define the modern style. If you want to eat the original, go to Pizzeria Uno instead, where the format was invented in 1943. To understand stuffed pizza, add a visit to Giordano's.
What is the difference between deep dish and stuffed pizza?
Deep dish has a single bottom crust with cheese, toppings, and sauce stacked inside a tall pan. Stuffed pizza adds a second thin layer of dough over the fillings, sealed to the bottom crust, with sauce on top of that upper crust. Stuffed pies are deeper, denser, and hold more cheese than deep dish. Giordano's is the classic stuffed pizza; Lou Malnati's, Pizzeria Uno, Pequod's, Gino's East, and Pizano's are deep dish.
Browse every Chicago pizza spot.
After the pizza: where the night goes
Deep dish is a commitment. A single slice at Lou Malnati's or Pequod's runs to a
proper meal, the bake takes 45 minutes, and nobody walks out of one of these rooms
hungry. Which is the practical problem with planning a Chicago night around it -
you have eaten by nine and you are not eating again.
The answer is to plan the second half before you sit down. Chicago's rooftop season
is short and its good tables go early, and the River North club rooms fill on a
Saturday well before midnight.
Go up first. LH Rooftop sits on top
of the 1923 Beaux-Arts LondonHouse at the bend of the river, which is the view most
people picture when they picture Chicago from above.
Cindy's crowns the Chicago Athletic
Association and looks straight over Millennium Park.
Z Bar at the Peninsula is the quieter,
more considered room of the three. Our full list is the
best rooftop bars in Chicago.
Then go out. TAO Chicago is the second-floor room in River North built around a 20-foot HUSH mural and a retractable disco ball dropping from a 10-foot Japanese bell, and is the room most visitors mean when they say they want a Chicago club night.
Prysm runs three zones and a 20-by-20 LED wall for a
harder electronic night, and Joy District splits a sports parlor, a dance club and its own rooftop across one River North address - useful when a group cannot agree.
Or eat properly the next night. If the pizza was the tourist obligation, the
best steakhouses in Chicago and the
Michelin-starred rooms are the city
doing what it actually does best. The
best restaurants in Chicago covers the
whole field.
Rooftop tables and club tables in Chicago are worth holding in advance rather than
chancing on the door. Our Chicago team places both.
Build a custom itinerary with our concierge team. Pair the venues mentioned above into a single concierge-confirmed evening. See the full Las Vegas events calendar for every upcoming DJ and pool party across the city.
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