The best pizza spots in Chicago.

The pizza pot pie is the order here, a domed, inverted individual pie that takes a full thirty minutes and arrives unlike anything else on the North Side. The combo grinder and the shareable meditation bread round out a menu built for a long, unhurried table. Walk-in waits run about an hour even off-peak, and the room holds the whole party before seating, so plan accordingly.

Paradise Park runs tavern pizza out of a large, booth-heavy room with bar seating and enough space to absorb a full Friday crowd. The specialty and appetizer pizzas draw repeat visits, and the format suits group nights well. Reservations are worth making for anything after five on a weekend; the place fills fast and the scale of the room rewards showing up with a full table.

Pizzeria Uno is where the deep-dish story starts, a 1940s Chicago invention that became the tourist icon. The Uno Pizza, loaded with pepperoni, sausage, onions, green peppers, and extra cheese, is the standard order. The food takes close to forty-five minutes, which is the nature of the format. Locals eat tavern-cut far more often, but if deep-dish is on the itinerary, this is the original room.

Piece makes New Haven-style pizza in Wicker Park, a thin-crust format that sits apart from both the deep-dish and the local tavern tradition. The pies run massive, and the house-brewed beer list gives the room a brewpub character that suits long group meals. Two large pies and a large salad handled five people with room to spare. A solid detour if the Connecticut-style cracker-thin is what the table is after.

Exchequer sits in a historic building near the Loop with mafia-themed wall decor and a bar crowd that treats the place as a regular stop. The baked goat cheese and meatballs are strong enough openers that the pizza sometimes gets skipped entirely. The room has a lived-in character that separates it from the newer downtown spots, and the bartenders get named in the record with enough regularity to mean something.

Pizzeria Due is the companion room to Uno, a few blocks away, running the same deep-dish tradition with attentive service and a forty-minute wait on the pie. The Italian chopped salad and thin crust are also on the menu for those who want a shorter ticket time. Due draws a mix of regulars and first-timers; the staff reputation holds up across the record as the room's consistent strength.

Bonci operates as a by-the-slice room where the format lets a table sample several varieties in one sitting. The crispy onion pizza and spicy eggplant are the standouts; the vegan options have their own following. Slices are sold by weight, cut to order from large rectangular trays, which is the Roman al taglio approach. For a quick midday stop or a casual group lunch, the format works.

Jimmy's Pizza Cafe runs New York-style slices at a price point that keeps it squarely in everyday-lunch territory. The margherita holds up as the best slice in the case; the white pizza and garlic knots round out an order for two. The room is kid-friendly and low-key, and the ticket size at the one-dollar price tier makes it a practical neighborhood stop on the North Side.

Deep-Dish Slices, Counter Service, Inexpensive

The Art of Pizza offers both deep-dish and thin-crust at a counter-service price point, which is a practical combination in a city where the debate never really ends. The deep-dish sausage and pepperoni slice gets the most attention, with a crust that holds its crunch and a sauce that runs savory. Staff friendliness is a consistent note in the record. Pickup orders benefit from timing, since slices can sit.

Reno is a Logan Square room where the pistachio pizza with mortadella is the standout, a combination that earns its reputation among the neighborhood's regular crowd. Monday dollar-wing nights draw a different group than the weekend lunch contingent, and the quinoa salad holds its own as a standalone. The menu runs wide enough that a large table can split several directions without anyone settling.

Fireside leans bar-and-grill more than pure pizza, and the room knows it. The bang bang shrimp, a full slab of ribs, and truffle fries are the items the record returns to. Bears games fill the place, and the staff manages the crowd without losing track of the regulars. The pizza is on the menu, but the room operates more like a neighborhood sports lounge with a kitchen that can handle a full dinner order.

Milly's runs a pre-order model out of West Town: orders go in online in the morning, pickup later in the day. The Craigslist.org pizza, loaded with peppadew peppers, sausage, mushrooms, red onions, toy box tomatoes, and spinach ricotta, and the Updog with kumato tomatoes are the signature builds. The system requires planning, but the pies coming out of it sit at the top of the pan-pizza record in the city.

The River North Parlor location adds a large outdoor patio to the group-pizza formula the brand runs across its locations. Signature cocktails draw as much attention as the pizza, and the room handles birthday parties and Sunday group bookings when the request comes in early. The patio fills fast in warm weather; reservations cover indoor and outdoor seating both, and the record suggests the outdoor option moves first.

Philly's Best is a cheesesteak counter, not a pizza room, and the menu is honest about what it is. The Chicken Philly and the classic with peppers and onions are the orders. The place runs late-night hours and draws a loyal crowd that returns for the cheesesteak specifically. Reviewers who have been to Philadelphia note the sandwich is its own thing, not a replica, but a solid version on its own terms.

Fontano's sits close enough to the Loop event corridor to catch the lunch crowd coming off conventions and festivals. The deep-dish gets positive notes from first-timers, and the menu runs subs alongside it for those who want a quicker option. The Italian sub has drawn mixed reactions on bread texture and sauce-to-bread ratio, which is worth knowing before the order goes in. Solid for a group that cannot agree on one format.

Nancy's in the West Loop runs both deep-dish and tavern-style thin crust, which makes it a practical late-night stop for the out-of-towner and the local in the same visit. The tavern-style cheese and giardiniera pizza is the right order for the Chicago-fluent table: thin, cut in squares, with giardiniera doing the work it was built for. The Caesar salad and thin crust sausage round out a short menu that covers both pizza traditions without padding the list.