Giordano's — Restaurant in Chicago

When you come to Chicago, everyone tells you that trying an authentic deep dish pizza is a must, and Giordano’s is one of the most popular names that comes up. With thousands of reviews, it’s a spot you can’t miss if you want the “classic Chicago pizza experience.” We decided to give it a try while visiting the city, and overall it was memorable, hearty, and very filling!

Our group was just a party of two, which worked in our favor since we were seated fairly quickly compared to the larger groups we saw waiting. There isn’t a huge waiting area in the front, so if you’re coming with a bigger party, be prepared to stand or wait outside until your table is ready. When our name was called there was a little confusion—the hostess asked if we had received a text, but we never gave a phone number. It was quickly sorted out, but it was a slightly odd system.

Once we were seated, service moved along smoothly. We started with the bruschetta appetizer, and I have to say it was excellent—loaded with fresh, juicy tomatoes and topped with creamy, flavorful cheese. It was generous in portion and honestly one of the highlights of the meal. I’d definitely order it again.

For the main course, we went with the classic deep dish pizza, since it was our first time and we wanted the authentic experience. Important tip: deep dish pizzas here take about 45 minutes to cook, so plan ahead and don’t come if you’re pressed for time. When the pizza arrives, it’s usually brought out by a food runner rather than your server, and they often offer to cut into it for the famous “cheese pull” photo moment. Personally, I preferred to cut into my own pizza—it felt less intrusive and more enjoyable to serve it myself—but I know some people love the dramatic presentation.

The pizza itself is exactly what you’d expect from a Chicago deep dish: extremely hearty, thick, and absolutely loaded with cheese. Honestly, one slice was enough to fill me up. It’s the kind of pizza where you pace yourself, because it’s so dense and rich. I ended up taking the rest home, but I’ll admit it doesn’t reheat as well the next day. The layers of cheese can trap the toppings so sometimes the crust and cheese heat up while the inside is still cool. If you’re not a fan of cold or unevenly heated leftovers, I’d suggest ordering just enough for your table and enjoying it fresh.

The atmosphere at Giordano’s is lively and family-friendly, with lots of people clearly excited to try their pizza. There was even a section off to the side that looked like it was set up for larger gatherings or possibly business/corporate events. Everyone around us seemed to be having a good time—except for one thing that stood out: the photographer.

In the middle of dinner, a photographer came around snapping photos of tables, and it felt awkward. He didn’t really ask or give time to prepare—just quickly took pictures, sometimes when people were mid-bite. Later, another employee came by with the printed photos in Giordano’s frames, offering to sell them. If you declined, they tried lowering the price or adding extras, essentially bargaining while you were trying to eat. Watching other tables, I noticed a lot of people gave forced smiles for the photo and then immediately commented on how unnecessary it felt. Many refused to buy the pictures altogether. From my perspective, it disrupted the dining experience. The photographer’s time and energy would probably be better spent supporting the restaurant floor, especially since most guests didn’t seem to want the photos in the first place.

Overall, Giordano’s delivered on the deep dish pizza experience—it’s rich, filling, and definitely worth trying at least once if you’re in Chicago. The bruschetta appetizer was outstanding, and the service was friendly and efficient. Be prepared for the wait time on the pizza, the limited seating area upfront, and the random photo sales pitch, which took away from the otherwise enjoyable experience.

If you want a true Chicago style pizza experience, Giordano’s is one of the...

their calamari is reaaaaally good. especially with the crispy lemon. I’ve been here one other time and I had a great experience and the service was pretty good. we definitely enjoyed the deep dish pizza and our time there. During this visit, I had thought the food was definitely worth the long wait time.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you come in knowing what you want to order AS you’re being seated. The wait for the food is understandably a bit long (especially for the deep dish pizzas). I would also recommend checking on your order if you’ve been waiting for more than 45 minutes….

We had a party of 4 at around 4pm Saturday 4/19. By the time we were seated, it was NOT BUSY. There were plenty of empty tables and most people had already cleared out by the time we finished appetizers and ordered a pizza.

I was visiting from out-of-state, and I was very excited to try their Chicago tavern style pizza this time. The wait to be seated was quite quick (about 10-15 mins), and a lot of tables were opening up so we were so excited to the whole Giordano’s experience.

However, we had to wait a while for someone to take our order and once he did, he was already giving us sass and was in a rush to leave. It seemed like he wanted us out of there ASAP. He could NOT be bothered to look us in the eye when talking.

I believe he was the bartender that was also tending some of the tables. So I see how stressful and difficult that can be. Was it our fault though??? We weren’t being difficult with our orders or being rude either. So we’re really confused as to why we were being treated like that. And I also don’t understand why he had to take out his stress on us?!

We had already finished our appetizers and fully enjoyed what we had. We waited and waited… and waited for the pizza and flagged down our server (about 1 hr and 15 mins after ordering the Tavern pizza). And before we could even ask about it, he told us “Pizza takes time to cook” WITH ATTITUDE and immediately left. It felt like he was blaming us for being impatient when we had already been waiting PLENTY of time before asking for assistance.

During this time that we were waiting, we didn’t get any refills of water and BUT he definitely made sure to give us rude comments and a lot of attitude.

After noticing that he had completely forgotten about us, he quickly gave us a pitcher of water and a refill of a drink. He then came back and told us it’ll be done in 3 minutes. We waited for 3 mins and then more time passed… He almost put a pizza down on our table and then told us “oh wait wrong table”…. We were confused. There was no follow up after that. We didn’t receive any apologies/explanations for the mixup or any updates about our Tavern pizza.

We THEN waited 20 MORE minutes without any updates on whatever happened to our mysterious Tavern pizza. We decided to ask our server for the check and to cancel the pizza so we can leave but before we could, he quickly dipped out to the back and hid… SOOOO we ask another server to help us.

We paid and he told us “I don’t know what happened to your pizza. I’m sorry I don’t know what’s going on in the back”.

It would’ve been much more understandable if he had just acknowledged the wait and let us know what happened— maybe they were busy or maybe something went wrong. But instead, it felt like he was covering up a mistake and left us in the dark the whole time.

We would’ve gladly waited if it had not been the rude comments that the bartender made. I really don’t appreciate that he blamed it all on his coworkers without holding accountability to what he failed to do — communicating with us what happened so we can understand what went wrong. He could have let us know ahead of time so that way we could cancel the order and not waste our time waiting.

We did not appreciate the (bartender, Henry C. according to the receipt) server’s attitude and lack of hospitality. And I don’t think I would come back the next time. But the rest of the staff were pretty nice and...

So, we came from out of state for a volleyball competition this past weekend. After hearing how wonderful the pizza was and looking online for a late night place to eat because our tournament ended at 945p, we saw that this location was open until “midnight” what we saw online. We get there at 1022p. When we arrive I tell the host that it’s a big party of initially 16 and right away by his facial reaction we should’ve just left, but we didn’t. He stated he didn’t know if he could sit us together because they still had several tables full and that they closed at 11p. We decided ok, we can be seated separately. During our wait, a lot of tables cleared out and he then stated we can seat you all together and we informed him that now we were only 12 and that it would be perfect. He then proceeds to tell us that we all will have to be on 1 check and that there are no exceptions. (Well, OK, but why not let us know at first when we initially came in) Ok-fine. We agree. At this point we’d been waiting for about 15min. And it was only getting later. Our girls were tired and hungry. One of the servers walked up to the counter and the host informs him, you have a party of 16. The server rolled his eyes and said. “16! Ugh, this is it. I’m done after this” to which I replied, actually it’s only 12 of us now. Once seated, our server. I believe I heard Avery was his name, came up to us and greeted us. Said “we close at 10, deep dish takes 45min to cook, thin crust 25”Asked if we were ready to order and because we hesitated for a second with what kind of drinks do you have and asked our girls what they wanted to drink, he says, “I’ll come back when you are all ready to order. And walked away.” Again. It was late and we were tired. We came together and everyone decided on what to eat and when he came back we ordered. During one of the orders, the person who suggested we come to your restaurant had ordered a pizza the night before-she is trying to place the same exact order. He tells her no, she can’t order it that way. She says, but I ordered it like that before, and he replies loudly with “ma’am, I’m not going to argue with you, if you want it that way, that’s how you have to order it.” She places her order and he walks away so fast from our table that we couldn’t even ask for anything else at this point. At this point. We had had enough. We got up and left your restaurant because of the unnecessary and disrespectful attitude from your employees. It was unfortunate, because we had heard of how great your pizza was and were excited to try Chicago style pizza. But the rudeness and disrespect was not going to be tolerated anymore. As we left, the host kept apologizing, but he was part of the problem as well, so I’m unsure as to he why apologized. He made the comment to another staff member in Spanish saying that he didn’t understand why people would show up to restaurant 30minutes before closing knowing the pizza takes a long time to cook. Well, because online we saw you were open until midnight. That’s why. Would not recommend this place specifically for their attitude and the way they treated their customers. We ended up going to Rosati’s Pizza who was open later, had friendlier staff and...