BiNARYstar wrote:Lou Malnati's for deep dish.
Rosati's for thin crust.
Peaquods for their lunch special- $5 beer+pizza meal
You are my pizza twin (except I've never done the pequads lunch special, but I love their pizza).
I've always been surprised at how many people love Giordanos simply because there's nothing really special about it IMO, and their quality control and quality of ingredients is only so-so. It's a nice place, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't blame someone for liking it, but finding it "the best" strikes me as not having been to many other nice pizza places. Lou Malnati's may not be for everyone, but I've found their quality of ingredients to be very high as well as their quality control. If their pizza isn't for you, then that's fine, but there are places that do Giordano's style pizza better than Giordanos IMO.
There used to be a place called Edwardo's that I went to which was a smaller chain which was basically the same thing as Giordanos, but I got much fewer dudes from them.
I've never had the sausage patty from Gino's East, so I can't comment on that, and as such, I don't want to rip them because I'm not a fan of their signature pizza, but I found otherwise their pizza to be kind of similar to Lou Malnati's but just not quite as good.
For thin crust I really enjoy Rosatis, but there could be better places. They make a nice thin crust, but I've found most good places thin crust pizza is pretty similar.
Btw, Lou Malnati's thin crust sucks IMO, so when I talk about how good it is, deep dish is implied there.
Pequads is a place I've only been to once, but it was great. Aurelios is also pretty good and very unique tasting because it's kind got a very sweet taste to their sauce which is distinctive, but it took me a few times to get used to it.