Best Deep Dish Pizza, outside of Chicago
 

Ive tried Lou's and Gino's in Chicago.

Anyone have their favorites outside of Chicago? any on the West Coast?

The best deep dish pizza in Detroit is Buddy's since 1946. Deep dish Chicago style is a little thicker than most deep dish I have had around the country.

http://www.buddyspizza.com/

Best in the SF Bay Area is Zachary's -- wish we had one on the west side of the Bay -- although Patxhi's and Little Star aren't bad.

Outside of the Chicago, but elsewhere in the midwest, Giordano's is great :)

Oregano's in the Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff areas. Awesome buttery flaky crust but it holds up to the toppings.

It is by no means world-class, but there is a new American-operated brew pub in Tokyo which has the only passable deep-dish that I have encountered anywhere in Asia. Several local friends of mine became completely addicted to it around the same time...

http://en.devilcraft.jp/

I'll take NYPD right next door instead, thank you very much :p

Oregano's in the Phoenix area does a pretty good one. It has Chicago roots too.

http://www.oreganos.com/index_main.html

No. ;)

I've tried to go the location right near me at Scottsdale and Shea. However there is always a least an hour wait. I won't wait an hour for anything, let alone a pie. So everytime this happens I simply walk 50 feet to the left and grab a table at NYPD.

In Austin, it would probably have to be Conan's.

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Any suggestion for NY?

You can get good pizza of any style in Chicago. I doubt whether that's the case for NY. And if you could, I doubt anyone from NY would admit it. :D

Ever wonder why there's an hour wait at Oregano's and you can walk right into NYPD? :D

I'll believe that you can get good NY pizza in Chicago when I see it. You certainly can't out here, although that's as an expat New Yorker; I'd imagine a Chicago local might say the same about what passes for good Chicago pizza here in the Bay Area.

So... any recommendations for NY pizza in Chicago?

I don't believe you can tell good pizza by "seeing it," but since you're from NY, you probably can. ;)

Gigio's on Broadway. I don't expect you'll agree with me if and when you try it, but it's obscure enough that you probably won't be able to contradict me any time soon. :)

Buddy's is not deep dish it is Sicilian style which is VERY different than a good Chicago deep dish pizza.

I'm not saying Buddys is bad pizza, it is quite good I've been a number of times, but it isn't Chicago deep dish.

Being Italian and living in NY I'm always amazed by the different kind of pizza in the US...

As you probably know in Sicily it doesn't exist a "sicilian" style pizza.. And I've never understood what's the NY pizza..

When I think about pizza I can usually recognize three different kind: bad pizza, real pizza, and deep-dish pizza (which doesn't exist in Italy, that's why I call it "american" pizza..) ;-)

So, any suggestion for a real deep-dish pizza in NY?

Heh, "try it"? Although I did say "good NY pizza" -- I've tried a lot of pizza that called itself "NY style" which was perfectly good pizza, but you can tell just by looking at it that the only thing "NY style" about it was the name -- or as one of the better California woodfired style chains out here calls it "east coast"... ummm, no. Good for what it is, but the only way you'd sell it in NY would be to call it "California" or "gourmet."

Another Detroit option
 

http://pizzapapalis.com/Locations.aspx There are various locations around Detroit, but I have only tried the one downtown (Greektown).

OK, gotta remember to try this on my next trip. I'll compare it to Pizza Chicago, our local Chicago-style place, not to the real Chicago competition.

BTW, I happen to like Connie's in Chicago over -- dare I say it? -- Lou Malnatti's.

You can say it, I wouldn't. Honestly, Connie's isn't bad. Connie's is a distant fourth (and last) on my list of places where I'll eat deep dish (Malnati's, Gino's East and Pizzeria Uno/Due). No one else measures up. (And again, for those who like Giordano's, it's OK, but it's not traditional deep dish pizza. It's stuffed pizza.)

Little Star Pizza - 3 SF Bay Area locations. It is deep dish, not stuffed. Yum.

I would vote for Carmen's in Evanston - and Evanston is certainly outside of Chicago.

Try Vito's in Sunnyvale. Vito and his sons are from Brooklyn, and their product is very much identifiable as the genuine article.

In Chicago, Ranalli's is not really New York style, but it is sort of a hybrid of New York and Chicago style, and quite good in it's own right.

BTW, as a New Yorker who went to Grad School in Chicago, and then went to Silicon Valley for professional endeavors, I consider myself highly qualified to speak on this issue.

I'll have to try it next time I'm in that end of the bay. Funny thing is someone else mentioned that to me recently, but was off on the locaion and I assumed that was a name change of the rather "meh" Giovanni's over by Fry's.

Oh, I screwed up, my rating of Connie's was for stuffed pizza, not deep dish! I stand corrected (if I am standing at all).

Yes!!! When I lived there in the late 1980's - early 90's, I would exist on their pepperoni or spinach pies. It is still my favorite Chicago area deep dish place.

For those that care (like I do when discussing food;)), Carmens is stuffed pizza, not deep dish.

For something different in Chicago try Piece on North Ave in Bucktown. It's New Haven style pizza and is quite tasty!

http://www.piecechicago.com/

Piece has been mentioned more than a few times in the Chicago Forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chicago-511/ and just for those who might be wondering, Piece is not deep dish.

There have also been a couple Do’s at Piece, I think this was the last one: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...ay-8-16-a.html

Since all we're talking about is Chicago pizza in Chicago, it seems that there is no "best" deep dish pizza outside of Chicago. :)

Zachary's by far! In fact I'll make the heretical statement that I think Zachary's is better than anything I've had in Chicago (and I grew up there).

-W

If people don't know the difference between stuffed and deep dish, I'm not sure their opinions on what is the best deep dish pizza can be trusted. ;)

And, FWIW, looking at Zachary's menu, they offer stuffed and thin crust. If you prefer stuffed, that's fine, to each his own, but it is NOT TRADITIONAL DEEP DISH PIZZA!

http://www.zacharys.com/menu.html

Carmen's actually offers both...a deep dish as well as a stuffed pizza. I've never had their stuffed pizza....the deep dish was/is awesome!

my bad! I went to their website, the cover is a pic of stuffed pizza and on the menu, pan is located beneath stuffed, so you can see why I though Carmens was stuffed only.

Out of curiosity, what's the difference between stuffed and deep-dish pizza?

Think of a stuffed pizza as being similar to a two-crust pie with the filling between the crusts or pastry shell. Then they pour pizza sauce over the top. Deep dish has a thick crust on the bottom with the cheese, sauce and other ingredients on top.

I asked the same question to a friend of mine and he replied:

The first one is an american dish, the second one a deep american dish, don't know how the word pizza got in there... ;-)

Of course it's only a stupid joke.. But we're Italian..

Are you sure you didn't ask your friend the difference between thin crust pizza and deep dish? Otherwise, it may not be only the joke that is dumb. ;)

The fact is that neither of us can look at a deep-dish, stuffed, ny stile, chicago style pizza, and think of a pizza. We have no "style" for pizza.
We only have two kind of them.. The good ones and the bad ones..