Dave Portnoy's Best Pizza in Chicago: Every Top One Bite Score Ranked
The short answer
Dave Portnoy's highest One Bite score in Chicago belongs to Giordano's, at 8.4. Right behind it sit Lou Malnati's at 8.2 and Vito & Nick's at 8.1, with PIZZ' AMICI also at 8.1. Famous deep-dish names like Pequod's score 7.4, and Gino's East on the Magnificent Mile lands at 6.2. Portnoy has also publicly called Zaza's among his favourite Chicago pizzas after an 8.2-range review that local news covered as a fast-track for the shop.
Chicago is the hardest city for a New York–trained One Bite palate. Deep dish is not a "slice," tavern-style thin crust is cut into squares, and the city's pizza identity is split between tourists who want a fork-and-knife pie and locals who swear by a cracker-thin tavern pie. This guide ranks Portnoy's top Chicago scores from the fan-maintained One Bite Pizza Rankings tracker, explains the deep-dish vs tavern-style fight, and gives you a crawl plan that fits both styles.
How One Bite works when the pizza is deep dish
Portnoy's method is simple: one bite of plain cheese, score out of 10 to one decimal place. We explained the rules, and why a 7 is already a strong score, in our guide to how Dave Portnoy's One Bite pizza reviews work.
Chicago breaks the method. A deep-dish pie is not a walk-up slice. Portnoy still scores it, but the review is usually a forkful of cheese, sauce and crust rather than a folded New York triangle. That is why Chicago's ceiling sits lower than New York's on his board. New York has a cluster of 9s. Chicago's best scores sit in the mid-to-high 8s. That gap is about style, not a claim that Chicago pizza is "worse." It is a different product being judged by a scale built for thin slices.
Interactive: Portnoy's top Chicago One Bite scores
Scores below come from the One Bite Pizza Rankings tracker, which logs published Portnoy reviews. Sort by score or style when you plan a trip.
The top of the board: Chicago's highest One Bite scores
1. Giordano's: 8.4
Giordano's is Portnoy's highest Chicago score on the public rankings list. The chain is known for stuffed pizza: a high-edged crust, a thick layer of cheese, toppings under the sauce, and a long bake. Tourists know the downtown locations; locals argue about whether the original stuffed style still holds up against independent shops.
An 8.4 puts Giordano's ahead of every other Chicago entry on the tracker and roughly in line with strong East Coast neighbourhood shops, not the absolute elite of New York. If you only have one deep-dish stop and you want the Portnoy number, this is the one the list points to.
2. Lou Malnati's Pizzeria: 8.2
Lou Malnati's is the other deep-dish name every visitor hears. The Malnati family history runs through Chicago pizza lore, and the butter crust is the house calling card. Portnoy's 8.2 puts it just behind Giordano's on the tracker.
For a first-timer, Lou Malnati's is often the safer "classic Chicago" stop: deep dish, sausage, and a wait that is part of the ritual. Pair it with a tavern-style place later so you taste both of the city's main styles.
3. Vito & Nick's Pizzeria: 8.1
Vito & Nick's is the tavern-style counterweight. Thin crust, party-cut squares, and a South Side reputation that predates Instagram. An 8.1 puts it in a virtual tie with PIZZ' AMICI and above most of the tourist deep-dish circuit.
If you want the pizza Chicagoans argue about in group chats, start here rather than in a Magnificent Mile dining room.
4. PIZZ' AMICI: 8.1
PIZZ' AMICI ties Vito & Nick's at 8.1 on the rankings list. It is another reminder that Portnoy's Chicago favourites are not only the national chains. Smaller and newer names can match or beat the famous deep-dish brands on his scale.
5. Zaza's and the "favourite in Chicago" claim
Local TV coverage after Portnoy's visit reported an 8.2-range score for Zaza's and quoted the owner saying the review fast-tracked the shop's attention. Press write-ups have also described Zaza's as among Portnoy's favourite pizzas in Chicago. Treat that as reported colour around the visit, and treat the tracker numbers above as the cleanest public leaderboard for apples-to-apples comparison.
Deep dish vs tavern style: who wins on Portnoy's board?
On raw peak score, a stuffed/deep-dish brand (Giordano's) sits at the top. On depth of local love and style diversity, tavern-style shops like Vito & Nick's punch above their tourist fame. Portnoy's Chicago tour is really two tours:
Deep dish / stuffed: Giordano's, Lou Malnati's, Pequod's, Gino's East
Tavern-style thin: Vito & Nick's and a long list of neighbourhood square-cut shops
New Yorkers who only eat deep dish in Chicago are sampling the tourist product. Locals will often send you to a thin, crispy tavern pie first. Portnoy has scored both, which is why this ranking is more useful than a "best deep dish" list alone.
Famous names that score lower than their fame
Reputation and One Bite score diverge hard in Chicago.
Pequod's Pizzeria: 7.4. Famous for a caramelised cheese crust that pizza Twitter treats as religion. A 7.4 is still a solid Portnoy score, but it is not near the top of his Chicago board.
Bonci Pizzeria: 7.4. Roman al taglio in Chicago, scored the same as Pequod's on the tracker.
Coalfire: 7.4. Coal-fired pies, also at 7.4.
Piece Brewery & Pizzeria: 7.1. New Haven–inspired pies in Wicker Park.
Gino's East – Magnificent Mile: 6.2. One of the most photographed tourist stops, and one of Portnoy's lower Chicago marks on the public list.
Art of Pizza: 6.8. A neighbourhood favourite that does not crack the top of his board.
The lesson is the same as in New York: fame, lines and cheese pulls are not the One Bite scale. Plain cheese and crust structure decide the number.
How Chicago compares with New York, Boston and the rest
New York owns the 9s. Di Fara sits at 9.4, with a pack of 9.3s behind it, which we ranked in our Dave Portnoy best pizza in New York City guide. Boston and the broader Massachusetts scene include Monte's in Lynn, the only US 10 on the tracker, plus a deep bench of 9s we covered in the Boston pizza tour. Chicago's best scores cluster in the 8s.
That does not mean skip Chicago. It means calibrate expectations. An 8.4 in Chicago is a city-best mark on this particular scale. An 8.4 in Brooklyn would be a strong neighbourhood shop, not a headline. Style mismatch explains most of the gap.
A one-day Chicago One Bite crawl
Geography matters more than score order.
Lunch, deep dish: Giordano's or Lou Malnati's for the 8.4 / 8.2 tier.
Afternoon, tavern-style: Vito & Nick's (8.1) if you can make the trip south; otherwise hunt a well-reviewed tavern pie closer to where you are staying.
Optional third stop: PIZZ' AMICI (8.1) or a newer shop that has been reviewed since your guidebook was printed.
Skip if short on time: Gino's East Magnificent Mile if you are chasing Portnoy's numbers rather than a photo.
Eat light. Chicago portions are not New York slices. Two pies across a day is plenty.
Why Portnoy's Chicago scores spark fights
Every Portnoy Chicago video comments section turns into the same argument: deep dish is a casserole, tavern style is "real" Chicago pizza, and a New Yorker has no standing. The useful way to read the scores is narrower. They answer one question: how did these specific pies score on his published scale? They do not settle the cultural fight, and they are not a Michelin ranking.
For visitors, that is enough. Use the numbers to pick two stops, one deep and one thin, and ignore the comment-section war.
What to order if you are following Portnoy's Chicago list
Portnoy's reviews lean on plain cheese, but you are allowed to eat like a tourist once you have the score context.
Deep dish and stuffed
At Giordano's and Lou Malnati's, the classic move is a sausage deep dish or stuffed pie. The sauce sits on top of the cheese. Expect a 30 to 45 minute bake. Share it. A personal deep dish is still a lot of food.
Tavern style
At Vito & Nick's and similar shops, order a thin cheese or sausage thin crust cut into squares. The point is crunch and sauce balance, not height. This is the pizza many Chicagoans will tell you is the real everyday pie.
What not to treat as the whole city
A single Magnificent Mile deep dish does not represent Chicago pizza. It represents the tourist corridor. Build at least one neighbourhood stop into the day.
Neighbourhood map for a Portnoy-aware weekend
Downtown and River North
This is where visitors land first. Giordano's and Lou Malnati's have convenient locations. Use them for the deep-dish checkbox, then leave downtown for the second meal.
South Side tavern tradition
Vito & Nick's anchors the thin-crust side of Portnoy's higher Chicago scores. Plan travel time. This is not a walk from the Bean.
Wicker Park, Logan Square and the newer wave
Shops like Piece, Coalfire and a rotating cast of newer ovens show up in the 7s on Portnoy's board. They are worth eating if you live in the neighbourhood. They are not the reason to fly to Chicago for an One Bite pilgrimage.
Tourist traps vs tracker leaders
Gino's East on the Magnificent Mile is easy to photograph and easy to overrate if you only read hotel concierge lists. Portnoy's 6.2 is a useful cold shower. Famous does not mean top of his board.
How the One Bite Pizza Rankings tracker fits into this guide
This article uses the fan-maintained One Bite Pizza Rankings site as the public leaderboard. Portnoy's own videos and social posts are the primary reviews; the tracker is the practical way to compare scores across cities without scrubbing years of clips by hand. Scores can be updated when he re-reviews a shop. If you are travelling next month, check the tracker again before you build a crawl around a single number.
We used the same source for our New York City ranking, which is why the cross-city comparisons in this piece are consistent. When local TV or newspapers report a visit, we treat that as colour and quote it as such, not as a replacement for the tracker.
The Chicago pizza timeline Portnoy walked into
Chicago pizza did not start with Instagram. The city developed deep dish in the mid-20th century as a distinct restaurant pie, while taverns served thin, square-cut pizzas designed for a crowd and a beer. That split still defines the city. National chains and airport outposts exported deep dish as "Chicago pizza" to the rest of America. Locals kept arguing that the thin tavern pie was the weekday truth.
Portnoy arrived as a New York slice reviewer with a national audience. That made every Chicago score a referendum. Supporters said he finally put numbers on tourist myths. Critics said a folded-slice scale cannot judge a casserole pie. Both reactions miss the narrower use of the list: if you already decided to eat with Portnoy's map in your pocket, these are the Chicago numbers he actually published.
Mistakes visitors make when chasing Portnoy scores in Chicago
Only eating deep dish. You will miss Vito & Nick's and the tavern tradition that sits near the top of his local board.
Assuming a 7.4 is a fail. On One Bite, 7 is complimentary. Pequod's at 7.4 is not a roasting.
Waiting two hours for a photo stop that scores a 6. Check the tracker before you queue.
Comparing Chicago 8s directly to Brooklyn 9s without context. Different styles, different ceilings.
Treating one visit as the final word. Shops change. He re-reviews. The board moves.
What Portnoy's Chicago list means for pizza media
One Bite turned restaurant disagreement into a spreadsheet sport. Chicago is where that sport collides with regional identity. The comments under a Giordano's or Pequod's review are half food talk and half culture war. For publishers and creators, that is engagement. For a hungry visitor, it is noise. Strip it back to the table: highest Chicago score on the public tracker, best thin-crust counterweight, famous names that score lower than their posters, and a crawl that respects travel time.
That is the job of this ranking. It is not a claim that Portnoy settled Chicago pizza. It is a field guide to the scores he has already put on the record.
Frequently asked questions
What is Dave Portnoy's highest pizza score in Chicago?
On the public One Bite Pizza Rankings tracker, Giordano's leads Chicago at 8.4.
Did Dave Portnoy like Lou Malnati's?
Yes. Lou Malnati's scores 8.2 on the tracker, just behind Giordano's.
What did Portnoy give Pequod's?
7.4. It is famous, but it is not near the top of his Chicago list.
Is deep dish or tavern style higher on his board?
The single highest Chicago score on the tracker is a deep-dish/stuffed brand (Giordano's at 8.4). Tavern-style shops like Vito & Nick's sit close behind at 8.1.
How does Chicago compare with New York on One Bite?
New York has multiple 9-plus scores. Chicago's best sit in the mid-to-high 8s. Different styles, different ceilings on this scale.
Related reading on Page Twenty One
Sources
Scores: One Bite Pizza Rankings (onebitepizzarankings.com). Method context: Page Twenty One One Bite explainer. Zaza's local coverage: FOX 32 Chicago. City comparisons drawn from the same public rankings list used for our NYC guide. Last updated November 2026.
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