Giordano's — Restaurant in Leyden Township

A Navy Grad, New Yorkers, and a Deep Dish Showdown at Giordano’s (Rosemont)

After weeks of grueling naval academy training and diet restrictions, my nephew was finally free—and what did this newly minted graduate request? Chicago’s finest deep dish pizza… and a salad, because balance. Naturally, I took to asking around like a true food detective, and all signs pointed to Giordano’s in Rosemont. “As Chicago as it gets,” they said. Challenge accepted.

Now, full disclosure: I’m a New York pizza girl through and through. In my eyes, there’s only one rival to a proper NYC slice—and that’s Italy herself. So, Chicago had a lot to prove. Especially to a table full of skeptical New Yorkers and one brave guy from St. Louis.

The location? Super convenient—right by O’Hare with plenty of parking, which already earned points from our traveling crew. The exterior gave welcoming vibes, even though the Chicago spring sun was clearly confused and flirting with full-on winter. Thankfully, the weather didn’t dampen our celebratory mood.

Inside, we were greeted warmly, and despite showing up with a party the size of a small fleet and no reservation, the staff had a “no worries” attitude and got to work setting up a big table. While we waited, we admired the retro diner-style decor and spotless restrooms (always a sign of good things to come, in my book).

Once seated, we met our waiter—equal parts charming and hilarious, with enough brotherly love to make a Philly native proud. He walked us through the menu with personality and pizzazz, suggesting the Trio Sampler and calamari to keep us satisfied while we waited on the star of the show: the deep dish.

The Trio (bruschetta, chicken fingers, and fried mozzarella squares) was… fine. Comfort food with no frills. But the calamari? Lightly battered, perfectly crisp, and served with fried banana peppers and lemon slices. I could live without fried lemon slices for the rest of my life, but hey, points for creativity.

My mom and nephews also tried the chopped salad. Personally, I’m not a fan of noodles and lettuce sharing a bowl (that combo just doesn’t sit right with me), but they seemed to like it just fine—crisp, fresh, and hearty.

The kids scored early with their chicken tenders and fries—honestly enough food for a grown adult, and both kiddos cleaned their plates.

Then came the moment of truth: the deep dish pizza. We ordered half cheese, half pepperoni, and after about 45 minutes (standard deep dish wait), our server performed the ceremonial first slice. That cheese pull? Instagram-worthy. I could almost hear a choir sing.

The sauce was balanced, not overly tangy or sweet, and the crust? Buttery, flaky, and sturdy enough to hold the mountain of gooey cheese without being tough. It melted in your mouth like it had something to prove—and we all admitted, with slightly reluctant nods, that this was really good pizza. Was it NYC? No. But was it worth the hype? Absolutely.

For dessert, we shared the chocolate chip cookie skillet with vanilla ice cream—a warm, gooey finale that made our Chicago debut feel complete.

They even offered a military discount and gave our graduate and his buddy a round of heartfelt thanks before we left, armed with recommendations for the rest of our stay.

Final Verdict: Whether you’re team Thin Crust or Thick Crust For Life, Giordano’s is a worthy stop—especially after a long flight into ORD or a long journey through boot camp. Warm vibes, hearty food, and a slice of Chicago pride. Go hungry,...

After getting off at O'Hare and getting my rental car I decided I just wanted Chicago style pizza. I've been to Chicago many times and I've never been here. So said today was a day. Me and my wife pulled up and it was pretty easy parking. Nice big building. Get inside and immediately get seated. Once seated our waitress came up and super peppy started right up. We came in right before 6pm so she was already starting to fill up and since we had not been here before she said "if you plan on getting the traditional deep dish. I say order it now and if it's just you two eating get the small". Pretty awesome that she said that because boy was she correct. It took forever to get that pizza over an hour. But we'll talk about that more in a little bit. The part why that you lost a star in service was I knew we probably couldn't substitute toppings so we had decide on what we were willing to get at both me and my wife would eat. Because we mentioned we'd possibly want other things, we got talked up into picking what toppings we wanted so we were happy which was a great sales pitch. But I didn't realize that we were paying per topping as a build your own as opposed to substituting a topping or just picking what we wanted on a pre-made pizza. I'm not mad about the pizza I had made and I'm not even mad that I paid extra. I just would have liked to have known. But it's okay, I would have had it. I did ask for a salad recommendation and she suggested the Italiano salad. This was definitely a top-notch salad. Super thick slices of all the cuts of meat. The olives and everything just was delicious. Then the wait started. We did notice a bunch of people were waiting as so we weren't too worried about it. It did seems that you're looking at a 45-minute minimum for these pizzas. I'll tell you what though when it finally came out it was definitely worth it.The showmanship to pull their mozzarella for our first time was pretty cool and I'm sure it's done every time which is awesome as well. The small pizza was so big that me and my wife still had one piece left over and we definitely ate more than we normally do cuz it was enjoyable. I definitely recommend that you can only go here when you have time to wait. If you want the traditional deep dish and since I haven't had anything else that's pretty much all I can add to my experience. Hope this helps...

In town for a concert. Friends told us this is the place for chicago deep dish.

Food: greek salad was tasty, but looked sad and small. Leaves were bordeline wilting. My travel buddy said it looked terrible. It tasted pretty good. Tbey charged me $2 more than the price listed on the printed menu. $8 for a small sad salad, felt like insult to injury. 3 stars for the salad. The boneless wings seemed to be from the frozen aisle. 2 stars. The Deep dish pizza. We did half special and half Hawaiian. FANTASTIC! Both halves were very good. The crust was crunchy, the sauce had good flavor and the "toppings" were fresh and tasty. The only critique is that the veggies (mushrooms, onions, peppers) would probably taste better if they'd been sauteed in pan first. Being cooked inside the pizza inside the oven, they came out "steamed". Other than that, it was really good! 5 stars.

Service: Young lady at the counter said it'd be close to a 30 minute wait....unless we were okay sitting outside. Patio, it is! Antonio was nice, but to the point and gracious in accepting our compliments. The pizza is said to take 45 mins (deep dish). We waited almost 55 (yes, I timed it). After eating airline snacks all day, we were hungry and dealing with subpar starters, the Pizza was worth the wait. I told Antonio to bring a pitcher or carafe of water cuz i drink a lot of water. He told me h'd keep my glass full. Approximately 5 minutes after i had emptied both my and my companion's glasses (he had a water bottle, Antonio got the hint and sent somebody to come check on my water regularly. They had a mobile pay device that made check out easy. Service gets 3.5 stars.

Ambiance: Nice little neighborhood near the airport. Beautiful waterfall fountain across the way, nice outdoor patio with not too much noise. Bathrooms were well stocked and clean. Ambience gets 4 stars.

Overall, we were very pleased with our choice of Giordano's as the pizza lived up to the hype and made up for the other shortcomings. Those shortcomings mean i cannot give 5 stars....but the pizza...