The Best Pizza in Chicago (2026)
Chicago Dining Guide
Why we wrote this guide
Chicago is a pizza capital, full stop. No other American city has invented so many distinct styles or argues about them so passionately. The deep-dish debate gets the headlines, but the real story is range: on a single afternoon you can eat a knife-and-fork deep dish, a cheese-stuffed double-crust pie, a cracker-thin tavern square, a charred Neapolitan, and a coal-fired margherita, all within the city limits. This guide covers every one of those styles.
We wrote it because "best pizza in Chicago" is one of the most-searched questions in American food, and most of the answers you find online pick a side (usually deep dish) and stop there. Locals know better. A Chicagoan who eats pizza every week is far more likely to order thin-crust tavern-style on a weeknight than to wade through a deep dish. So we ranked the whole field, primer included, and told you what each place is actually best for.
A quick primer on the styles, because the names get misused constantly:
- Deep dish is the tall, pan-baked pie born in Chicago in 1943. It is built upside-down from the way you would expect: a buttery, often cornmeal-laced crust is pressed up the sides of a round steel pan, cheese goes directly on the dough, toppings and sausage go on the cheese, and chunky tomato sauce is ladled on top so it does not scorch during the long bake. It takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes in the oven and is eaten with a fork.
- Stuffed pizza is deep dish's taller cousin. A second thin layer of dough is laid over the fillings, sealed to the bottom crust, and the sauce goes on top of that upper crust. The result is a dense, sealed pie, most famously associated with Giordano's.
- Tavern-style (also called Chicago thin) is what most locals actually eat: a thin, crisp, cracker-like round crust cut into small squares, or the "party cut," not wedges. It is the everyday Chicago pizza, served in taverns across the South and Southwest sides for generations.
- Neapolitan is the soft, blistered, wood-fired Naples style: a puffy leopard-spotted rim, San Marzano tomato, fresh mozzarella, baked hot and fast.
- Coal-fired is an American cousin of Neapolitan, baked in a roughly 1,500-degree coal oven that chars the thin crust harder and crisper than wood.
Last updated September 2026.
The ranked guide
1. Lou Malnati's Pizzeria (River North)
Deep dish. Founded by Lou Malnati in Lincolnwood in 1971, this is the most recognized name in Chicago deep dish, and for good reason. Lou learned the style at the original Pizzeria Uno, then the family built it into an institution. The signature is the Malnati Chicago Classic: lean sausage, extra mozzarella, and vine-ripened tomato sauce on the trademarked flaky Buttercrust. Order "The Lou" (spinach, mushroom, sliced tomato, three-cheese blend) if you want the vegetarian benchmark. That buttery crust is the whole argument for deep dish in one bite. See Lou Malnati's Pizzeria.
Best for: First-timers who want the definitive deep dish, and groups (the River North location takes reservations).
2. Pequod's Pizza (Lincoln Park)
Deep dish, caramelized. Founded in 1970 in Morton Grove by Burt Katz, with the famous Lincoln Park location opening in 1992. Pequod's is the pan-style pie with the cult following, and the reason is the caramelized cheese-ring crust: mozzarella pushed to the edge of the pan so it fuses to the metal and blackens into a chewy, burnt-cheese ring around every slice. The classic sausage deep dish and the caramelized-crust pepperoni are the orders. It is dark, rowdy, and sports-bar loud, with a legendary line. See Pequod's Pizza.
Best for: Deep-dish obsessives who want that burnt-cheese crust, and anyone who books ahead on Tock to skip the wait.
3. Pizzeria Uno (River North)
Deep dish, the original. This is where it all began. Pizzeria Uno opened in December 1943 at Ohio and Wabash, 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. The pie to order is the Numero Uno: sausage, onions, peppers, and mushrooms on the buttery cornmeal crust that started the entire style. Eighty years on, the original location still operates at the same corner. See Pizzeria Uno.
Best for: Pizza history pilgrims, and anyone who wants to eat the pie that invented the genre at its original address.
4. Giordano's (Gold Coast / Magnificent Mile)
Stuffed. Opened in 1974 by Italian-immigrant brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio, who adapted their mother's double-crusted "Italian Easter Pie" into Chicago's defining stuffed pizza. This is the taller, sealed cousin of deep dish: a double crust packed with cheese, with chunky tomato sauce ladled on top. The famous stuffed sausage and stuffed spinach pies are the signatures. Budget for the roughly 45-minute bake. See Giordano's.
Best for: The stuffed-pizza experience, and Mag Mile visitors who book the Rush Street location ahead online.
5. Bartoli's Pizzeria (Roscoe Village)
Deep dish. Opened in 2013 by Brian Tondryk, who revived and perfected the deep-dish recipe of his grandfather Fred Bartoli, a co-founder of Gino's East. The pie is built on the family recipe: a house-made spinach-and-cheese layer over creamy mozzarella, topped with house sauce. Bartoli's has stacked up "Best Pizza in Chicago" honors (Tribune 2016, Food & Wine 2017, USA Today 2019) while staying a low-key neighborhood spot with no tourist crush. The tavern-thin crust here is excellent too. See Bartoli's Pizzeria.
Best for: Locals-in-the-know deep dish without the Loop crowds, and people who want both deep dish and thin under one roof.
6. Pizano's Pizza & Pasta (Near North Side)
Deep dish and thin. Opened in 1991 by Rudy Malnati Jr., son of Rudy Malnati Sr. of the original Pizzeria Uno kitchen and half-brother of Lou Malnati. Pizano's carries the Malnati deep-dish lineage but is best known for something different: its buttery, caramelized-edge thin crust, an Oprah favorite and a USA Today national top-10 pick. The family's secret dough recipe drives both the thin and the classic deep dish. See Pizano's Pizza & Pasta.
Best for: Thin-crust fans who still want Malnati pedigree, and a relaxed sit-down meal near Water Tower Place.
7. Gino's East (Magnificent Mile / Streeterville)
Deep dish. Opened in 1966 by cab drivers Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli with friend George Loverde, a block off the Magnificent Mile. Gino's is famous for two things: the dough recipe chef Alice Mae Redmond developed over 29 years in the kitchen, and decades of customer graffiti scrawled across the walls of its dark, basement-vibe dining room. The Supreme (sausage, onion, green pepper, mushroom) is the classic order. See Gino's East.
Best for: Deep dish with a side of Chicago kitsch, and anyone who wants to sign the wall.
8. Robert's Pizza & Dough Company (Streeterville)
Tavern-thin. Founded in 2016 by husband-and-wife team Robert Garvey and Dana Hokin, whose "Za Dough" recipe was perfected over two decades of home baking. The result is a thin, brick-oven artisan crust that landed Robert's on 50 Top Pizza's list of the best in the USA. It sits on the Ogden Slip with a scenic waterfront patio, craft cocktails, and, unusually for great pizza in this town, real reservations. See Robert's Pizza & Dough Company.
Best for: A modern, sit-down thin-crust dinner with a river view and a cocktail, booked ahead on OpenTable.
9. Spacca Napoli Pizzeria (Ravenswood)
Neapolitan. Opened on Valentine's Day 2006 by Jonathan Goldsmith, a former social worker who became a pizzaiolo at 50 and baked his pies in an oven built by Naples artisans. Spacca Napoli has been ranked among the world's top pizzas by 50 Top Pizza, and it is the definitive Chicago Neapolitan: soft, blistered crust, San Marzano tomato, fior di latte. Order the Margherita, the Marinara DOP, or the Bufalina with buffalo mozzarella. See Spacca Napoli Pizzeria.
Best for: Neapolitan purists and anyone who wants a warm, family-run, Italian-village room far from the deep-dish tourist trail.
10. Coalfire Pizza (West Town)
Coal-fired. Opened in 2007 by Dave Bonomi as Chicago's first coal-oven pizzeria, popularizing the American-Neapolitan charred thin crust pulled from a roughly 1,500-degree coal oven. That heat gives Coalfire its signature: a hard-charred, crisp crust you cannot get from wood. The coal-fired margherita, the charred-crust pepperoni, and the seasonal white pie are the orders. See Coalfire Pizza.
Best for: Char chasers who want the blistered, high-heat coal-oven style, and a quick casual dine-in.
11. Vito & Nick's Pizzeria (Ashburn, South Side)
Tavern-thin. The South Side original. The Barraco family's tavern lineage dates to a 1923 tavern, and they began making pizza in 1946 at this location, now a Chicago thin-crust institution and a Pizza Hall of Fame member. This is the platonic tavern-style pie: cracker-thin, cut in squares, built on an original Sicilian recipe, with the house Italian sausage as the move. No frills, no reservations, no tourists, just the real thing. See Vito & Nick's Pizzeria.
Best for: Purists chasing true Chicago tavern-thin, and anyone who wants to eat where locals actually go.
12. Zarella Pizzeria & Taverna (River North)
Tavern-style and artisan. The newcomer, and a genuinely useful one. Zarella is Boka Restaurant Group's 2025 pizza concept from chefs Chris Pandel and Lee Wolen, a lively River North pizzeria and Italian taverna. It serves tavern-style and artisan pizzas alongside house pastas and taverna plates, and, rare for great Chicago pizza, it is a full sit-down, reservation-friendly restaurant with a bar. See Zarella Pizzeria & Taverna.
Best for: A polished, reservable pizza-and-pasta dinner in River North when the group wants a table, wine, and a proper night out.
Deep dish vs tavern-style vs Neapolitan
Three pies, three completely different experiences. Here is the quick way to choose:
- Deep dish (Lou Malnati's, Pequod's, Pizzeria Uno, Gino's East, Bartoli's) is a tall, pan-baked, knife-and-fork pie. Crust up the sides, cheese on the dough, sausage and toppings next, chunky sauce on top. It is rich, slow to bake (30 to 45 minutes), and a genuine meal. One or two slices is plenty. Stuffed pizza (Giordano's) is the even taller, double-crusted version of this idea.
- Tavern-style / Chicago thin (Vito & Nick's, Robert's, Bartoli's thin) is the everyday local pizza: a crisp, cracker-thin round cut into small squares. Light, shareable, fast, and what most Chicagoans eat on a normal night.
- Neapolitan and coal-fired (Spacca Napoli, Coalfire) are the char-and-char-not cousins: soft, blistered, wood-fired Naples style versus the harder, crisper, roughly 1,500-degree coal-oven style. Both are thin, both are about the crust, and both bake fast and hot.
Short version: deep dish and stuffed are the tourist bucket-list pies and a full meal; tavern-thin is the local weeknight default; Neapolitan and coal-fired are for crust people.
How to visit
Most great Chicago pizza is walk-in or call-ahead, so a little planning goes a long way, especially with deep dish.
- Order deep dish ahead. A deep dish or stuffed pie takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes to bake. Many spots let you call in your pizza order before you arrive so it is ready (or nearly) when you sit down. This is the single best trick for beating the wait at Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, Pizzeria Uno, and Gino's East.
- The reservation-friendly ones book direct. Lou Malnati's (River North), Pizzeria Uno, Robert's, Zarella, and Coalfire all take reservations on OpenTable, and Giordano's (Rush Street) takes reservations via SevenRooms. Book those directly through each venue page.
- Pequod's is on Tock. Reserve Pequod's (parties of 1 to 12) via Tock; walk-in seating is limited and fills fast, so booking is the smart play for the Lincoln Park location.
- The rest are walk-in or phone. Bartoli's, Pizano's, Vito & Nick's, and Spacca Napoli are walk-in or call-ahead. Vito & Nick's is walk-in only, first-come, first-served. Spacca Napoli takes phone reservations and holds indoor tables about 10 minutes; the patio is first-come.
- Tip for tourists: the Magnificent Mile and River North spots (Giordano's, Gino's East, Pizzeria Uno, Lou Malnati's) get slammed at peak hours. Go early or late, or book ahead.
FAQ
What is Chicago deep dish pizza?
Deep dish is a tall, pan-baked pizza invented in Chicago in 1943. A buttery, often cornmeal-laced crust is pressed up the sides of a round steel pan; cheese goes directly on the dough, then sausage and toppings, and chunky tomato sauce is ladled on top so it does not burn during the long 30-to-45-minute bake. It is eaten with a knife and fork. Stuffed pizza is a taller variant with a second layer of dough sealed over the fillings.
Where is the best deep dish in Chicago?
Lou Malnati's is the most recognized name and the safest pick for a definitive deep dish, thanks to its flaky Buttercrust and Chicago Classic pie. Pequod's is the cult favorite for its caramelized burnt-cheese crust ring. Pizzeria Uno is the 1943 original and the historical answer. For stuffed pizza specifically, Giordano's is the landmark.
What is the best tavern-style (thin crust) pizza in Chicago?
Vito & Nick's on the South Side is the classic tavern-thin institution, a Pizza Hall of Fame member making cracker-thin, square-cut pies since 1946. Robert's Pizza & Dough Company is the modern, sit-down thin-crust standout in Streeterville, and Bartoli's tavern-thin is excellent on the North Side.
Where do locals go for pizza in Chicago?
Locals lean thin-crust tavern-style more than deep dish for everyday eating: Vito & Nick's, Bartoli's, and neighborhood spots over the Mag Mile tourist stops. For deep dish, Pequod's in Lincoln Park has the strongest local cult following, and Bartoli's in Roscoe Village is the insider deep-dish pick without the downtown crowds.
Browse every Chicago pizza spot to compare styles, neighborhoods, and how to book each one.
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