Deep Dish Pizza at Gino's East

In spirit of upcoming St. Patty's Day, my trip to Chicago last year, all the delicious restaurants we ate at, and the fact that I said I would post about them but never did, I'm giving you my version of Chicago restaurant week, hoping I can help at least one traveler looking for some Chicago foodie hot spots (that was me last year). Being a deep dish mecca city, I'm starting with Gino's East.

You can't go to Chicago and not have deep dish pizza at least once. My first visit I tried Lou Malnati's, and this go-around I visited Gino's. Depending on who you talk to, there's a few different top dog Chicago deep dish restaurants, and Gino's is typically one of them.

When we tracked down the place, we of course had to wait in line outside.


I'm not sure if this is a typical thing for Gino's East or if all the restaurants were just full from Saint Patty's day. Either way, the line moved through quickly (maybe 15 minutes) since we chose to eat at the bar, and it was definitely "worth the wait!"

The inside had true personality with visitor graffiti lining the walls.

As we sat at the bar, we of course had to consume one final green beer, and if for any unknown reason you're unfamiliar with green beer, it's simply regular beer with a dose of green dye, in spirit of St. Patty's day.

As we sat at the bar, we of course had to consume one final green beer, and if for any unknown reason
We chose to start our meal with the Tuscan Harvest Salad - mixed greens, Granny Smith apples, dried cranberries, walnuts, blue cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette. Considering how stuffed we were from our vacation of excessive eating, we embraced the greens.

But the true winner for the night was the deep dish pizza - ham and pineapple for us. It didn't take more than a piece to send us back into a food coma, though.

My true verdict on Gino's - and I'm not a food critic by any means - was that it wasn't anything special. I'm pretty impartial to deep dish pizza in the first place (love big, floppy New York slices way better), and the flavors didn't really send me spiraling out of control. My over-indulgence for the weekend could also be to blame.

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of deep dish, as mentioned, I still 100% recommend that you visit Gino's East (or another raved deep dish kitchen) while you're visiting Chicago... at least once. It's just a Chicago tourist must.