RFK Cuisine · Pizza · Chicago
Best Pizza Restaurants in Chicago 2026
Pizza · Chicago · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
Deep-dish was invented in this city in 1943, and Chicago has been arguing about pizza ever since. The argument is bigger than outsiders think: the deep-dish on the postcards is only one of several Chicago styles, and locals will tell you it is not even the one they eat most. There is the buttery deep-dish, the pan pizza with its caramelized cheese rim, the thin and crackly tavern-cut square that is the real everyday pie, and a serious coal- and wood-fired Neapolitan scene that the rest of the country forgets Chicago has at all. Ranked below are the six pizzerias that show the city at its best across those styles, from the family deep-dish that most Chicagoans name first to the coal oven that does the opposite in two minutes flat and a Roman pizza-by-weight counter that ignores the deep-dish argument entirely, with the address, the style and the pie to order at each.
1.Lou Malnati's
The consensus champion of Chicago deep-dish, family-run since 1971 — order the sausage pie the minute you sit down.
Lou Malnati's is the deep-dish most Chicagoans name first, and the one to start with if you are new to the form. The Malnati family has run it since 1971, and the recipe is the benchmark: a flaky, almost shortbread-like butter crust pressed up the sides of a deep pan, a layer of sliced mozzarella against the dough, a thick disc of seasoned sausage or spinach, and chunky crushed tomato spooned on top. It bakes for the better part of an hour and arrives like a savoury cake. There are locations across the city — the Gold Coast flagship on North State Street is the largest — and the quality holds across them. This is the deep-dish to measure the others against. A pie for two lands around 25 to 35 dollars. Order it the moment you sit. Come for the definitive Chicago deep-dish, and the buttercrust everyone else is chasing.
Walk in, order deep-dish first thing; the classic sausage deep-dish, the buttercrust, a side of the chopped salad, a local beer.
2.Pequod's Pizza
The Lincoln Park pan pizza with a ring of burnt cheese baked onto the crust — go for the single best slice in the city.
Pequod's Pizza, on Clybourn Avenue in Lincoln Park, makes the pie that locals argue is better than any deep-dish: a pan pizza ringed by a band of mozzarella that is baked directly against the hot steel until it caramelizes into a dark, crunchy, almost burnt crust. The inside is molten and saucy in the Chicago way, with the sauce above the cheese, but it is that caramelized rim — the frico ring — that makes it. The room is a dark, sticker-covered tavern that stays open past midnight, and it draws long weekend waits for good reason. It is less famous nationally than the deep-dish names, and better than most of them. A pan pizza for two lands around 20 to 30 dollars. Go early or expect to wait. Come for the caramelized crust that has turned more deep-dish sceptics than anything else in the city.
Go early, walk-in tavern; the pan pizza with the caramelized cheese crust, the sausage, a pitcher of beer in a back booth.
3.Spacca Napoli
Chicago's most serious Neapolitan, from a Naples-certified pizzaiolo — book it for a charred Margherita in two minutes flat.
Spacca Napoli, in Ravenswood, is the city's reminder that Chicago does Neapolitan pizza as well as it does deep-dish. Jonathan Goldsmith trained and certified as a pizzaiolo in Naples and opened the room in 2006 around a custom oak-stoked oven that fires a pizza in under two minutes — soft, blistered, leopard-spotted in the true Neapolitan way. The Margherita and the marinara are the tests, the seasonal specials the reward, and the ingredients are taken as seriously as the dough. It is a warm, family-run trattoria rather than a tourist deep-dish hall, and it books up on weekends. This is the opposite of deep-dish in every way except quality. Individual pizzas run around 16 to 22 dollars. Reserve for the weekend. Come for the best Neapolitan pizza in the city, from a pizzaiolo who learned it at the source.
Reserve for weekends; the Margherita, the marinara, a seasonal special pizza, a glass of Italian red from the list.
4.Coalfire
Chicago's original coal-oven pizzeria, charring thin crust at 800 degrees — go for a blistered pie with a smoky edge.
Coalfire, on Grand Avenue in West Town, was Chicago's first coal-oven pizzeria, and the coal is the point: a clean-burning 800-degree oven that chars the thin, hand-stretched crust faster and harder than wood, leaving a blistered, smoky edge you cannot get any other way. The style is an American spin on Neapolitan — a little crisper, a little more charred — and the toppings lean toward quality over quantity, from a clean Margherita to house-made sausage and seasonal specials. It is a small, casual neighbourhood room with a second outpost in Lakeview. Where Spacca Napoli is classical Naples, Coalfire is the coal-fired American cousin. Individual pizzas run around 16 to 22 dollars. Walk in midweek; weekends fill. Come for the smoke and char only a coal oven gives, in the room that brought it to Chicago.
Walk in midweek; the charred Margherita, the house-sausage pie, a seasonal special, a beer at the bar.
5.Pizzeria Uno
The River North room where deep-dish was invented in 1943 — go once for the history and a pie in the original booth.
Pizzeria Uno, on the corner of Ohio and Wabash in River North, is where Chicago deep-dish was invented in 1943, when Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo built the first deep, pan-baked pizza inside these brick walls. That makes it a pilgrimage as much as a meal: the room is small and dim and almost unchanged, the deep-dish is the genuine article, and you are eating the dish in the spot it was created. Purists argue Lou Malnati's and Pequod's have since surpassed it on the plate, and they have a case, but no other room can claim the history. It is touristy and the wait can be long, which is the price of the story. A deep-dish for two lands around 25 to 35 dollars. Go off-peak to beat the line. Come once for the birthplace of deep-dish, and order the pie that started all of it.
Go off-peak, walk-in; the original deep-dish, a seat in the historic dining room, a cold beer while it bakes.
6.Bonci
Gabriele Bonci's Roman pizza-by-weight counter in the West Loop; go for a tray of al taglio that has nothing to do with deep-dish.
Bonci is the outlier on this list and a welcome one — the first US outpost of Gabriele Bonci, the Roman baker whose Pizzarium reset the standard for pizza al taglio, with a flagship in the West Loop at 161 North Sangamon. This is Chicago pizza's opposite pole: not deep, not pan, not a whole pie, but long rectangular trays of high-hydration, long-fermented dough, topped with seasonal produce and cut to order by weight with scissors. The lineup changes through the day with what comes in, from a perfect potato-and-rosemary to inventive vegetable and cured-meat combinations, and you point at what you want and pay by the gram. It is counter-service and casual, the antidote to a heavy deep-dish night, and a reminder that Chicago's pizza city has room for Rome too. Walk in, order a mixed tray across several styles, and eat it standing if you must. The Roman counterpoint.
Walk in, counter-service; a mixed tray of al taglio by weight, the potato-rosemary, the daily seasonal slices.
How Chicago eats pizza
The thing to understand about Chicago pizza is that deep-dish is the export, not the everyday. Most Chicagoans, most of the time, eat tavern-style: a thin, crackly, cracker-crusted pizza cut into small squares — the 'party cut' or 'tavern cut' — shared over beers at a neighbourhood bar. Deep-dish and its taller cousin stuffed pizza are the special-occasion, out-of-towner pies, eaten a few times a year. On top of all of that sits a genuine coal- and wood-fired Neapolitan scene. The city contains all of these at once, and arguing about which is the 'real' Chicago pizza is itself a local pastime.
A few mechanics. Deep-dish and pan pizza take 30 to 45 minutes to bake, so order the moment you sit; the coal and wood ovens turn a pie out in two minutes. These are casual, affordable rooms — most take walk-ins, though Pequod's and the original Pizzeria Uno draw long weekend waits, so go off-peak. Tipping follows the US norm of roughly eighteen to twenty percent. Many of these will bake a pie to go, and Lou Malnati's ships its deep-dish frozen across the country, which is how a lot of the diaspora gets its fix. For the rest of the city's tables by neighbourhood and occasion, the Chicago dining guide lays it out.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for the real thing
The downtown deep-dish chains aimed squarely at conventions and tour buses. The big River North and Loop deep-dish halls trade on the name and the queue more than the pie. For deep-dish that earns it, go to Lou Malnati's, or to Pequod's for the caramelized-crust pan pizza instead.
Deep-dish, if what you actually want is a quick slice. Deep-dish is a 45-minute, knife-and-fork commitment, not a grab-and-go slice. When you want fast, thin and crisp, the tavern-cut squares at a neighbourhood bar are the local move, and the coal-fired pies at Coalfire come out in minutes.
Frequently asked
What is the best deep-dish pizza in Chicago?
Lou Malnati's is the consensus pick for Chicago deep-dish, built on a flaky butter crust, a layer of sliced mozzarella, sausage or spinach, and chunky tomato on top. It has been a family operation since 1971 and runs locations across the city. For a different take, Pequod's Pizza makes a pan pizza with a ring of caramelized cheese baked onto the rim of the crust — many locals' favourite single slice in the city. Pizzeria Uno, where deep-dish was invented in 1943, is the historic original.
Is all Chicago pizza deep-dish?
No, and this is the great misunderstanding about Chicago pizza. Deep-dish and stuffed pizza are the famous tourist styles, but the pizza most Chicagoans actually eat day to day is tavern-style: a thin, crisp, cracker-like crust cut into squares, the 'party cut'. The city also has excellent coal- and wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, at Coalfire and Spacca Napoli. A complete picture of Chicago pizza takes in deep-dish, pan, tavern-thin and Neapolitan, not just the deep-dish on the postcards.
How much does pizza cost in Chicago?
Pizza is affordable across the board. A deep-dish at Lou Malnati's or a pan pizza at Pequod's feeds two and lands around 20 to 30 dollars for the pie; a full dinner with drinks rarely passes 30 a head. The Neapolitan rooms, Spacca Napoli and Coalfire, price individual pizzas around 16 to 22 dollars. Deep-dish takes 30 to 45 minutes to bake, so order it as soon as you sit down. None of these is an expensive meal.
How long does Chicago deep-dish take to cook?
A real deep-dish takes time. Because it is built in a pan and layered deep with cheese, filling and chunky tomato, a Lou Malnati's or Pizzeria Uno deep-dish bakes for roughly 30 to 45 minutes, so order it the moment you sit down rather than waiting to decide. Pequod's pan pizza is similar. The coal- and wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas at Coalfire and Spacca Napoli are the opposite — they cook in two minutes or less in an 800-degree oven.
Do you need a reservation for pizza in Chicago?
Mostly no. These are casual rooms — Lou Malnati's, Pequod's, Coalfire and Pizzeria Uno take walk-ins, though Pequod's and the original Uno draw long weekend waits, so go early or order ahead. Spacca Napoli takes reservations and is worth booking on weekends. If you want deep-dish without the wait, most of these will bake a pie for pickup, and Lou Malnati's famously ships its pizzas frozen across the country.
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