Gino's East - Magnificent Mile

Chicago deep dish can be polarizing. Not my favorite style, but good every once in a while as something different. Liked the sauce and cheese. Cornmeal crust is different. I can see some hating it but it was ok for me. Restaurant is great overall. Definitely get the mozzarella sticks.

Gas.

Gino's East, Chicago-style pie with that signature sauce-on-top action. Clock's ticking, you'll need to order 45+ min ahead for this hearty delight. A solid 8.0 on the pizza scale, no doubt.

Not a huge fan of the deep dish but never had the real thing in Chicago until now, had to try it. It was good. Not my favorite but definitely wasn’t bad. Not worth the wait imo. Great sauce, great cheese, just a little too heavy for me. Tried the Italian Special and Spinach Margarita. I.S. was 7.3 I will say the S.M. was a 7.5 so I’ll round that to 7.4.

Very thankful that my beautiful wife Jen brought me home this pizza while in downtown Chicago. It’s pretty ok. Good sauce. Good cheese but not a big fan of the crust. Good solid deep dish but I’ve had better.

This was one of those pizzas that that taste better when you aren’t fully coherent translation this taste better after a night out (this is the situation in which I had it). I probably wouldn’t go back to Gino East if I’m in Chicago. I went with the thin, perhaps they are better known for the deep dish but honestly doesn’t seem like it would be a good Chicago deep dish. P.s get the mozzarella sticks, they were actually quite good.

The cornmeal crust was an interesting take. Lots of sauce on top. Sausage had a nice spice to it. Another thick crust pizza that wasn’t too filling.

Dave is smoking that crack Gino’s is the best deep dish Chicago has to offer

Grease: 6.4 Flop: 0.2 Options: 4.6 Sauce: 7.9 Crust: 8.6 Overall: 7.2

The cheese and basil have great flavor. They compliment each other well. The crust is bland and the sauce is just tomato paste. No added herbs.

Cool spot, definitely visit, write your name on the wall, cheese was good, sauce was tangy, crust tasted doughy

The locals say it’s the best, I disagree. The crust is a soggy mess. Reminds me of an undercooked frozen pizza. The sauce was good.

Very average. Rivals a solid frozen pizza.

The sauce really stood out on this one. It had a nice tang to it. The crust had more of a grittiness to it. It wasn’t bad, just different from some of the other joints. I would have liked it to come out a bit warmer. It was somewhat lukewarm. There wasn’t even much of a cheese pull. With that being said, the overall taste and texture was great. It would probably be higher if it would have been warmer.

I asked the Chicago locals, other than Giordano’s & Lou Malnati’s, who has the best deep dish pizza? Aside from a couple Pizzeria Uno’s, Gino’s East was the resounding answer. Now, I don’t love deep dish style to begin with but this was absolutely BRUTAL. The number one reason this pizza is horrendously terrible is the dough & crust are made with cornmeal. I’m sorry, that is not a substitute for pizza dough. This is just as heavy as the other deep dish styles but it feels more like a dessert. The cheese is overwhelmingly thick and the sauce is horrifically acidic, neither ingredients meld well with the cornmeal. This is not pizza, this truly is a casserole/dessert pie. Just not my style, the cornmeal doesn’t work for me whatsoever. I’d pick just about any pizza in NYC over this. I’m sorry, but it’s not even in the discussion with the 2 Big Guns (Giordano’s & Malnati’s) in the deep dish game.

Gino’s East, 8.1! That’s a review.