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Wilson (Red)
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Gigio's was awesome, and I don't even like NY style pizza. It's big, flat, cheesy, and greasy. All signs of a delicious slice.
We ordered two extra large pizzas and got two free litters of RC, and we demolished it in about 10 minutes.
Gigio's is the bomb. Clark's father, who grew up in Edgewater, and worked at the Aragon in his younger years, recommended that we try this place. Referred to it as the greasiest pizza in the city.
We jumped on the chance to try this place. And boy, was he right. Pizza? Deliciously greasy, but damn good thin crust. Especially in these parts of the city
The later into the night you go, the more random characters you come across asking for your change as you leave and as you go in. Nothing at all fancy about this place, considering its been open since Clark's dad used to live up here, and the staff, we can only imagine is in a long bloodline of Gigio's pizza owners. Not the friendliest, a little pushy, but we would be too, if we was in the epicenter of uptown, dealing with some of the people who come in there.
Since our first experience, we've visited this establishment a number of times, and one of the best traits about Gigio's (other than they're cheap slices, oven warmed upon ordering) is that they are open super late. You can stumble into this place drunk at 2am, and they'll happily throw a slice or two your way, and even give you a little bit of attitude or back talk with it. That's whats up.
So I am over at my boyfriend's apartment in Uptown because my bathroom ceiling in my apartment in Lakeview has caved in, when in my semi-hysterics my boyfriend decided to order me pizza because I said I was hungry and crabby (wouldn't you be if your bathroom ceiling caved in?).
We order from Gigio's. It was delicious. We got a free bottle of RC. It was a nice thin crust but not so thin that it was like eating pizza on a cracker. There was ample cheese and sausage. The mushrooms were kind of chewy though. You could tell they were canned, but overall the pizza was yummy.
The pizza helped me calm down a little. I'm still crabby about my bathroom ceiling, but who wouldn't be?
Great thin crust pizza, very cheap prices. The outside is super basic with hand-painted signs, and the inside is below basic. Some say the workers are rude, but that's too strong. They're just not terribly polite to customers but will certainly chat with you while you wait for your food.
It's very much a whole-in-the-wall aesthetic with minimal AC in the summer, so you might get hot waiting for your slices. But it's completely worth the wait. I always get a peperoni and a sausage slice, since each is so good and I can never forgo one or the other.
This part of Uptown isn't the prettiest but it's certainly vibrant with all kinds of businesses for entry-level immigrant stores (African hair weaves, Cambodian grocers) and also bookstores, bike shops, and just to the north some more upscale restaurants. This kind of economic mix is a sign of a health city. Come, enjoy the 'hood and love the pizza.
Ordered pizza for delivery. It was fast and delicious. Lots of toppings.
Gigio's is a total dive but a delicious one. The slices are huge, SUPER greasy, and tasty. A slice of cheese is only $2.60 and there's not even any tax. You can't beat that. The guy at the register seems a bit surly but that seems fitting given the ambiance (or lack of). Recommended for all pizza lovers.
I truly miss this place since I moved to Hyde Park. I've been eating at this place since I was a little girl, and the pizza still taste the same...DELICIOUS!!! Their thin crust is so good, and the slices are huge. It can be a bit greasy at times, but that's what makes it so good...not to mention the big dumb pieces of sausage they throw on top of it as well. This is one of my all time favorite pizza joints! : )
Best Pizza In Chicago. Period.
I've been ordering delivery from this establishment for over 10 years now and have never been disappointed.
I'm an East Coast transplant, and was truly craving anything that resembled the wonderful, yeast-dough crust that we have there vs. the pie dough weird cracker crust that seems to have infected the midwestern "pizza" experience. I found it years ago at Gigio's. And, I must say, all of the other people that I've introduced to this pie joint have been thrilled as well. The pizza is just delicious. There's really nothing more I can say!
Just a note...no one I know has ever suffered from eating at Gigio's in any way, tummy-wise.
My husband and I went here today, on my quest to find the best NY style pizza in Chicago. The place is disgusting looking, extremely dirty and the staff don't seem to give a f***. We placed our order and waited....
...the pizza was phenomenal. I really felt like I was in a Brooklyn pizza joint (which I LOVE and miss)! We got garlic bread, which was quite good too. My husband noticed something that looked like a dead tiny bug or burnt sesame seed on the plate of our garlic bread, but told me it was nothing and not to worry.
I find out hours later that it was indeed a dead bug. He didn't want to tell me because he didn't want me to get upset or sick over it. Well, as I type this he has been in and out of the bathroom extremely sick. The only thing we ate today that was out of the ordinary was Gigio's, hours earlier. I can only assume he got quite sick from our meal there.
I'd love to give this place 4 stars because the food was great, but the fact that there was a dead bug in our food and now my husband is extremely stomach ill, I have to write this review. It makes you wonder how filthy the kitchen is, to have a bug show up in the cooked food :/ Thank god it wasn't a cockroach. If you order delivery from this place a lot I highly suggest you go inside and take a look around so you can see where your food is coming from. You may rethink those 5 star reviews.
I have a shocking, shameful confession. Though I've lived Chicagoland my entire life, the best pizza I've ever had has been in Boston and Staten Island. Oh, I tried to deny it, but I knew the truth in my heart: I love East Coast style pizza. So after reading the reviews of Gigio's saying that this was the best thin crust pizza people had had outside of New York I gleefully placed an order. People, this isn't even the best thin crust pizza I've had in Chicago.
On this plus side, it's pretty reasonably priced and arrived well under the stated 45 minute delivery time. And it's not bad, it's just by no means great. There's something off in the spices that I can't put my finger on, but I don't like it. It's also super cheesy and greasy, yet somehow still fairly bland and flavorless.
Not impressed. My quest for New York style pizza in Chicago continues. But my order did come with a free liter of RC. I didn't even realize they still made RC.
Best Pizza in town. I used to get pickup til I saw a hot blonde girl that was a delivery driver!!! i started then getting my pizzas delivered hoping she would show up at my door, which she has many times. She was very polite and cute, and very fast deliveries, when I get a man it would take like 20 mins longer. Sometimes the people on the phones are very rude, just like the cashier when I went inside.
One in particular I saw all the time yelling and screaming when I went there was a fat lady with black hair, she is very loud and annoying. The pizza is great but the people inside are not. So if you order I suggest u get it delivered and ask for that hot blonde however i havent seen her there lately:(
You failed me fellow yelpers! My boyfriend insisted that we ordered from Gigio's today but I wanted to check the reviews before trying. Seeing that they got good reviews, I thought i'd give it a try.
I ordered for pickup since I don't live too far away, the woman on the phone was nice and quick. 20 minutes later I am on my way to pick up my pizza. I pull up right in front and take one look at the place and was already turned off. There were bums sitting in front of the place and some loud crying 20 year old guy being obnoxious. His friends were trying to tell him to keep it down but I think the whole neighborhood could hear him. I get inside and see the people who work there and here is the scenario that came to mind while they were making my pizza:
One guy sneezes and wipes his nose with his arm then grabs the cheese and throws it on. The next guy sticks his hand in his pants, scratches himself a little and throws a little sausage on the food. The third guy tilts his head down, wipes his dandruff onto the pizza and calls it parmasan cheese. (if anyone has seen Waiting, you would get the reference)
So i get the pizza and was surprise to be handed a liter of RC. (not my drink of choice but can't complain about anything free) Maybe I should have read the menu a little more to understand that when you order a certain size, you get a free RC. Cool beans.
Get it home, open it up and just see a big puddle of greese. Ew. I had to take MANY paper towels and pat off some of that greese. Even after doing that, i still had to wipe the dripping greese off my face. As for the taste of the pizza...it really wasn't anything special. Plain and just whatever. A lot of people like it, so I'm going to assume that I just got a bad pizza. I'll consider trying it again for the price but we shall see.
Gigio's, I'm leaving you for Ian's Pizza. Their pizza is more consistent, plus the quality and the service better. Oh, and they haven't yet brought me the wrong pizza on multiple occassions as you have.
The last couple months we've ordered delivery from here the pizza has not been anywhere near as good… Read more »
I have been getting pizza here since 1982. it is hands down the best thin crust pizza in the city. it is a little scary for those that aren't comfortable in downtown uptown but it is well worth it. and there is always delivery! pizza by the slice is the bomb, too!
If you have the option to pick up or have it delivered, definitely opt for delivery. This was my first time ordering from this place and I went to pick it up--big mistake. This place is in the freakin' hood! There were quite a few unsavory characters lingering outside the place. I don't think I have ever seen bars on a door of a pizza joint!
Anyway...whenever I try a new pizza place, my benchmarks are Cafe Luigi for thin crust and Gino's East for deep dish. Gigio's is thin crust and it's good. Greasy, hell yes. After trying Gigio's I think Cafe Luigi is still the best. I like the chewiness of Luigi's crust and their sauce has more flavor. I wanted to salt Gigio's pizza and there was a stronger oregano flavor to it vs. Cafe Luigi. Gigio's mozzarella sticks are really good, too. Must be the seasoning in the breading. And how old school is this...I got a free liter of RC with my order! I haven't had RC since 8th grade. Love it! I will definitely order from here again...but delivery!! I don't like taking my own life in my hands to go pick up a stupid pizza.
Being from St. Louis, I'm fond of a thin slice of pizza. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good deep dish, but thin is what I grew up eating and frankly, it's hard to find a good thin slice in this wonderful town.
Thank GOD I work near this place, because I'm certain they wouldn't deliver to the Ukrainian Village. My co-workers and boss get Gigio's every once in awhile and I damn near jump up and down when I see it. It's big, sloppy pizza and it's delicious. I can't figure out WHY it's so great, though. Finally! I don't have to go to Santullo's and deal with less-than-enthused stoned hipster bike-riding employees!
Disclaimer: I have never been inside!
My date bought pizza from here (takeout). And it was goooooooooood.
For a minute (and just a minute) I was at a storefront pizzaria in Manhattan, sunny early summer... sigh... Then he told me where he got it.
I choked, coughed, and maybe there was an unladylike gag or two...
I mean, I am adventurous, I like to eat, but Uptown can be scary. Wha? That's why you got takeout? Because you were afraid of getting shot? Oh, You were afraid I was going to get shot. Makes logical, perfect sense. I too want mozzarella with no bullet casings. My shoes only give me so many super-powers- Matrix-ing away from a bullet? Nope. Not even for pizza.
So Yelpsters, Don't go: Call in, have it delivered and watch a movie with your date- good pizza- especially if you want a break from the sodden mess they call Chicago deep-dish, right?
If you want the greasiest thin crust pizza in Chicago, this is the place to go.
Lots and lots of cheese is piled on top of each pizza. It's going to give your jaw quite a work out. Once you order your slice (which is what I always do), they pop it into the rotating oven and let it warm up. I always get mine to go. They put your slice in a double paper bag. If they didn't, your car, backpack, hand...whatever is carrying it will be drenched with grease.
The restaurant sitting area attracts and interesting crowd from the street (read: the drunks and the homeless). But, they never bothered me and I feel that without them, the experience would not be the same.
Gigio Pizza makes pregnant wives happy. Get some for yours today.
Crack den/mob front with decent slices. I joke, only based on street appearance. Given the fact… Read more »
The bad news (for wife and I ) is that it is on the way to our daughters school. The good news is that the pizza if freaking delicious. My wife can eat pizza in her sleep,, it seems like. It is so hard not to stop in there for a slice at least once or twice a week. Thank goodness we both hit the gym a few times a week. If you are reading this ... stop, get up , and go get a slice! I can tell you one thing though, you will be hooked.
$
Bare minimum, keep it simple here. Pizza, Chicago foods, cheese fries, mozzarella sticks, italian beef....mmmmmm
Yes, this place is the bomb diggity like all ya'll said. I went yesterday for some slices of their special sausage pizza. NY style pizza. Mmm Thin crust and yummy so fresh. The price was perfect and you are in and out with your order!! Enjoy the pizza and go out afterwards for cocktails nearby!
Living in Lincoln Park and therefore usually broke, I discovered Gigio's Pizzeria when I went to register for school. The pizza is cheap and amazing, perfect for someone like me, who likes a big greasy slice that tastes fantastic. For cheese it's $2.60 and sausage or pepperoni a little more than that. Sodas are 80 cents and the appetizers are also super cheap... my boyfriend and I had cheese sticks, garlic bread, and two enormous slices of pizza for $12, which would have been the cost of one entree at many other pizza places.
The part of town is pretty sketchy, and I got hit up three times for dough by the same woman (the first time IN the pizza place, which I found a little odd, but hey, it's Chicago.) There seemed to be a lot of crackheads around, but it is always worth the long bus ride north for me. The Broadway bus will take you straight there (get off at Wilson) or you can get off the Howard red line stop.
Oh- and if you're super hungry, no need to fret- the pizza, in my experience, has always been made very quickly.
I hate that I have to give this place 5 stars. It's a dump of a building, near the worst part of Uptown, and the workers are rude as all hell. HOWEVER, they undoubtedly have THE BEST pizza. We've tried...oh how we have tried...to find better "New York Style" pizza, but we just can't. If you can get past the broken-down decor and snippy attitudes, Gigio's pizza is truly the best in
Chicago.
Do I give GIgio's a good review for being the best pizza in a square mile or a bad review for being relatively lackluster when compared to the princes of pie scattered about our fair city?
I'm a kind soul, so we will do the former.
If you've got three bucks in your pocket, you've got a slice as big as your head, which is nice when you've spent the majority of your hard earned on the necessities (beer).
Gigio specializes in New York style, fold-it-over-gobble-it-down-while-the-grease-rain- out-the-back kind of pizza that can really hit the spot when you're drunk/poor. The cheese is the star of the pizza here, being the stretchy mozz cartoon characters always chowed down on when we were kids. The sauce is disproportionately low, bearing only a suggestion of seasoning. The crust is not without it's charms, but it's typically shiny bright orange with grease by the time you make it there.
You can do worse for pizza, and if you're getting it in uptown you surely will. If you're in the neighborhood and you've got a hankerin for thin crust grease, Gigio's is the place to be.
This place gets accolades from my pizza-eating friends so I'm writing a review. My former coworker from New York said it was the closest thing to NY style he has found in the city. One time we stopped there in the company car so he could get some lunch to go, and the smell when I was driving back...omg did it smell good. He ordered garlic on his pizza. It was a rainy, cold day and the cheese and garlic and breadiness smell...I just reveled in it.
So you know how I try to be a vegan? I've been thinking about Gigios pizza since that day when he ordered it, probably about 5 months ago. I don't think about it everyday, but frequently, maybe once a week?
Today I was in the neighborhood with one of my favorite people in the world. I swear I didn't even look at the place, and he said something like, "oooh, pizza place." After running our errands, and several diversionary tactics to preserve my vegan-ness, including trying to walk a different route back to the car that didn't pass the pizza place, his desire prevailed and I ended up in there. He somehow knew what I was going through and said, "I'll order cheese" (rather than his usual sausage). I more than willingly took a few bites of the pizza. He was so excited to eat the slice he almost burned his mouth. I watched him rapidly shift the bite in his mouth so he wouldn't get burned. This is the power of Gigio's pizza, some people risk injury in all of the excitement.
The restaurant is pretty dirty but really I didn't care. The crust quality makes up for the appearance. If I were to suggest any improvement maybe a sweeter sauce but I am old enough to know I have strange taste, so 5 stars, for at least meeting high expectations.
Vile. Imagine spicy vomit on soggy cardboard, and that describes the two slices my pal and I bought today.
Gigio's must have had a bad day, judging from the many positive reviews.
By the time we were done, bulemia made sense to me.
Yeah, it's good. Most dependable in the 'hood, I think, and they deliver late. Their crust is always in good order, and the cheese and toppings never usually disappoint. The offer to slice in squares or slices, which is good if you are serving at a party.
I wish they had Jalapenos though.
Judge them on their product, not the store front, which looks a tad decrepit.
I ordered. I waited. It arrived hot. I ate almost the entire thing. My life was complete.
Ok, so it was Sunday night and of course I hate to grocery shop (or cook, but that is another story), and again I was perplexed on what to order. I searched Yelp (of course, duh) and found Gigio's. Rave reviews. Pizza. Perfect.
I put in my little order, and it arrived about 45 minutes later. (under the quoted time, apparently lots of peeps crave pizza on boring Sunday nights).
And I opened the box to a beautiful pie. A Gigio's special topped with mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, sausage and green peppers. Lovely. Just lovely...just what I needed to cap off the weekend and serve as my final bout of calorie-laden, carb-infested food. Definitely could've used a bit more cheese (of course, this is true even when a pizza is PILED with cheese, so hey), and a little more sauce (not much on there), but overall a grade A pizza pie that made me smile.
The icing on this already stellar cake. A huge, cold bottle of Diet Rite Zero. The evening: a complete and utter success.
Highly recommended.
Do you like cheese? I like cheese. I mean I REALLY like cheese. Especially melty cheese. If I could only eat cheese the rest of my life I'd be perfectly ok with that.
I decided to pretend I wasn't on a diet and order a pizza from someplace I haven't tried before. Thanks to Yelp I settled on Gigio's. I ordered half cheese and half mushroom and onion.
My pizza arrived promptly and when the delivery guy handed me the box I was pretty sure they screwed up my order. There is no way that a small pizza could be this heavy. It felt like there was a rock in there and I figured they must have given me stuffed on accident. When I opened it I realized that the order was in fact correct. They just put about 2 lbs of cheese on it. OH HOLY HEAVEN, GIVE MAMA THE CHEESE!
I sat down and enjoyed my cheesy goodness. The crisp on the bottom, chewy on top crust was good too but who cares about the crust when we have all this glorious cheese!
Yeah I'd order from them again...
and again...
and again...
...but next time I'd skip the toppings because the flavor of the cheese comes out much more when there is nothing distracting you from it.
OMG!! Best Pizza ever. This place has been around longer than I have been alive. I remember when I was a little girl my mother would take me to Gigio's after shopping at Woolworth's and Goldblats. As a teenager parting at the Rivera night club, my cousin and I would grab a slice of sausage pizza before getting our groove on. I was quite surprise when I drove through the neighborhood that this place was still here. I introduced their famous sausage pizza to my husband. It's still phenomenal! This pizza has no substance and you must use the paper plate that it comes on. The grease is so lovely it runs down your hands. Please remember this is not a everyday thing, it a treat every once and a while.
Update based on bad delivery recently. Inedible. Did not even resemble pizza. One piece actually had neither cheese nor sauce on it. Boooooo-urns.
Update based on grabbing a slice in the middle of the night between bars. Awesome slices and great… Read more »
If i were possible to give some place infinity stars Gigio's would get them from me.
Gigio's is as close to crack (and possibly crack heads) as this nice girl from the UP can get. I've been going here for about 6 years and have never had a bad experience....I think that's saying a lot considering the looks of the place- Its dirty, dingy, in a shitty neighborhood, and usually full of "undesirables" but i'm telling you- ITS TOTALLY WORTH IT
everything there is good- from a slice, to the mozzarella sticks (with the weirdest dipping sauce ever...but it works)
My old roomie amy and I used to get spinach, garlic, and pineapple and we did it with out any judgments for our admittedly odd taste. (she also loves gigio's- in fact when I texted her last tuesday to tell her I was there with my friend jason she called me a dirty whore...the nerve!)
to sum up- just go there - especially if you are a new yorker who misses real pizza. It might not be certified organic or have a crappy brewery attached (you know who you are!!) - its just good pizza...the way it should be.
My first sober NY style pizza (Cafe Bacci next to my apartment is the other) in Chicago.
Not bad. $2.50 for a cheese slice.
But the biggest thing of all? Prices include tax. That's right.
What a disappointment.
So much hype, so little substance.... Not entirely inedible, but the sauce was pretty much unseasoned tomato paste, crust was floppy, soggy and pretty much flavorless. What was the cherry on top, you ask? CANNED MUSHROOMS... really, need I say more?
Fresh spinach and then canned mushrooms.... what the heck is that?? Canned mushrooms - blech. Gross.
Robey's and Art of Pizza, I'm so sorry . I'm out $25 and filled with both guilt about my betrayal and less than mediocre pizza. In the future, you will continue to get my money. Places like this are so why I am so wary of trying out new pizza places.
Not good, my friends. Not good at all. I actually threw out pizza. Me. I placed still-warm "fresh" pizza into the garbage. I guess crazy things happen every day, but this - people, this is crazy.
I worry for the taste buds of the favorable reviewers of this place.
Great pizza! Plenty of cheese, almost too much... So much grease, there needs to be a new word for it. I ordered a medium extra sausage. Long story short, there really shouldn't be a reason to order an "extra" of any topping. The sauce is a bit bland, but I liked the crust, soft enough to hold shape, but not crunchy or crispy at all.
It'll stay at four stars, but I have to make note of the extremely unpleasant sounding woman I've talked to both times I ordered delivery. No biggie though, I can stand those 30 seconds as long as I get my Gigio's fix.
I love Chicago style pizza, but I'm not always in the mood for so much thick dough and cheese. On… Read more »
Gigio's is my favorite thin crust pizza in Chicago by far. The crust is thin and crispy yet still floppy. They load on the toppings. I think the sauce is one of the best I've tried, and I eat a lot of pizza so I should know. I used to stop in there whenever I saw a show at the Aragon or Riviera nearby, and now I live within their delivery area and we order from there at least once every two weeks.
Their pasta is also good. We tried their ravioli the last time we ordered from there just to try something different, and we were not disappointed. I look forward to trying more from their menu.
As someone said in a previous review. Their interior is a little dingy. I might not suggest you bring the family in for pie, but a slice is great and the delivery is pretty quick and always good.
If this is NY style pizza, I love it. To have the option of either the large triangles (wedges) or the squares was nice. Crust was good and they listen when you say light sauce. The pepperoni and Italian sausage (1/2 and 1/2) was perfect. The service on the phone is in need of improvement. The woman answering the phone is a bit short. Ms. Thang is not in NYC so no need to be short.
I haven't been there for a few years but have been going there for decades , since before they moved a few doors over. I see the neighborhood is much improved but when I would go here it was iffy at best , so the pizza better be damned good. It is my favorite pizza in the Chicago area , the best tasting sausage specifically. The dining room (if you can call it that) is kinda scuzzy , so order out. If you are lucky enough to be in the area , they deliver. Otherwise , call ahead , have someone keep the car running , run in , get the pizza , and haul ass home and enjoy one of Chicago's finest.
........
Took the kid there for the first time in years , still skeevey , still my favorite pizza. I recall begging the guy taking orders to deliver to me while I was just outside the delivery area , and they came. Pizza worthy of begging folks , I cannot sing it's praises enough.
Probably my favorite pizza place. I love their cheese pizza. The cheese is just so chewy and pretty much grease. I just want a simple thin crust cheese pizza and I got what I wanted.
I live quite close to them so their delivery service is superb for me.
Whenever it's football season, this is the place I would get my pizza for Sunday games.
Monday & Tuesday Specials
Neighborhood: Uptown
Pauly's Slice Special.
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Neighborhood: Uptown
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: Edgewater
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: Edgewater
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: Edgewater
Category: Pizza
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