Giordano’s

With nearly 60 locations, Giordano’s is a Chicago stuffed pizza juggernaut.¹ Though the bulk of Giordano’s restaurants are in Chicago and its suburbs, it has locations as far west as Denver and as far east as its spanking new 186-seat restaurant in downtown DC.

Giordano’s pizza is a first in the DMV. One might argue that the late Armand’s, Uno, and Pi Pizzeria filled the Chicago-style niche, but the reality is nuanced and requires a brief tutorial. Chicago-style pizza, aka “deep-dish” pizza, has a thick, flaky crust and is cooked in high-walled steel pans. A thick layer of mozzarella sits atop the crust, with marinara sauce on top. The thick crust has a long bake time; the marinara on top keeps the cheese from burning. Giordano’s serves stuffed pizza, a Chicago-style variant that includes a thin layer of crust above the cheese and below the marinara. Although Pizza Hut serves stuffed-crust pizza, an abomination in DishingPizza’s humble opinion, it bears no resemblance to a Giordano’s-style stuffed pizza.

DishingPizza stepped into the downtown DC location for the weekday lunch special, which offers a 6″ stuffed or thin-crust pizza, and salad or fries² for $10.99. Although this Giordano’s is located in a touristy area and it’s tourist season, the bustling crowd appeared to be mostly area office-workers.

The 6″ pizza resembles, but is slightly larger than, the original hockey puck-shaped Amazon Echo Dot. Thankfully, the Giordano’s pizza tastes better than the Echo Dot. Never having actually eaten an Echo Dot, DishingPizza makes a dangerous assumption because the pizza ain’t that great.

The flaky, buttery crust is lighter and airier than one might expect from a Chicago-style pizza. It’s impressive that such a delicate crust supports the heavy cheese, sauce, and toppings. The marinara sauce contains notes of onion, garlic, and oregano — decent, but it tasted more industrial than homemade. Finally, the cheese was ample but equally undistinguished. The proportions of the pizza are wrong, with too much crust and too little pizza. Giordano’s decision to sell 6″ lunch pizzas devalues its brand.

Rather than serving 6″ individual pizzas with the high walls of the outer crust dominating the pizza, Giordano’s should serve slices from larger pies at lunchtime. Yes, DishingPizza suggests that Giordano’s become a slice joint at lunchtime — the world would be a better place with more lunchtime slice joints.³ Will Giordano’s listen to DishingPizza’s sage advice? Not in a zillion years. Giordano’s has become a behemoth, with a robust side business hawking their frozen pizzas⁴, which are invariably inferior to its fresh pizzas.

Although DishingPizza had high hopes, DishingPizza does not love or even much like Giordano’s. This corporate, formulaic, cookie-cutter restaurant is galaxies from the Mom & Pops that DishingPizza seeks. Will Giordano’s succeed in its DC location? Undoubtedly. Tourists will flock to the place, thrilled to experience the Windy City from the Nation’s Capital.

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Giordano’s
600 14th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20005
59 additional locations throughout the country, mostly in the Chicago area

Type: Chicago-style, stuffed-crust

Pizza quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐

Pie (14″ round): $32.75
Pie price per square inch: $0.21

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1. Lou Malnatti’s has 77 locations, not that anyone’s counting. ↩︎
2. Fries seem an odd choice to have with pizza, yet DishingPizza witnessed healthy-looking people ordering them. Perhaps the mindset is, since I may be killing myself eating stuffed-crust pizza, I might as well finish the job. ↩︎
3. Astute readers may reasonably ask, if DishingPizza knew the 6″ was problematic, why not just order a larger pie and bring the rest home? Having leftover decadent, stuffed pizza is excessive, even for DishingPizza. Admittedly, DishingPizza might try to acquire some friends and order a large pizza. ↩︎
4. Giordano’s even sells a six-pack of frozen 6″ pizza for $89.99. ↩︎