Finding the Best Chicago Pizza in San Francisco | Hacker News Reader

Finding the Best Chicago Pizza in San Francisco

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30 pointsprabodh38 comments

I find it interesting that Patxi's rated better than Zachary's, since Patxi's is a spinoff. I've eaten at both and I think they're pretty much the same, tho I've never had them side by side. If you're in the bay area, both are worth the trip.

Chicago style pizza (both kinds) is overrated. You want to impress us, find an italian beef in San Francisco that stacks up to Johnnie's or Mr. Beef.

Meanwhile: so much of pizza quality is in how it's cooked --- you absolutely need ridiculous heat to turn out a decent crust --- I can't imagine how anything shipped cross-country could ever hope to rate.

Is temperature really an issue for deep dish? I know for a thin crust pizza you need to get above 750 or so to even be in the game, but I always thought a deep dish pizza was cooked at a lower temp to keep the top from carbonizing before the interior had cooked.

Dammit. Investigating.

Finding the Best Chicago Pizza in Chicago: Go to Pequod's.

Probably get downvoted for this, but as a longtime resident of Chicago who literally lives on the same block as Giordano's, why anyone would look for Chicago-style pizza anywhere, including Chicago, is beyond me.

As good as San Francisco's baking culture is, surely there's NY-style (real! :)) pizza to be had?

NY isn't real either.

The best pizza I've ever had was at pizzeria bianco in Phoenix. The dude went to Naples Italy for a few years to learn to make pizza. Homeboy doesn't even use a mixer for the dough, he does it with his hands.

Totally worth the 2-3 hour wait to get in.

I have eaten at Pizaria Bianco after seeing it written up as the best thin crust in the country. I've also eaten Little Star and Patxi's somewhat regularly. Bianco serves a great pizza, though, I didn't think it was good enough for the 90 minute wait. I will try again when next in Phoenix. As an earlier comment suggested, experiments need to be repeatable.

Great Lakes has a lot of hype but I like Spacca Napoli personally.

As good as San Francisco's baking culture is, surely there's NY-style (real! :)) pizza to be had?

There isn't. Also, you won't find a good bagel anywhere in the bay area. I spent most of last summer looking.

Damn, really? I've been craving a good bagel shop since I moved out here.

If you're looking for a place where you can grab half a dozen bagels on Saturday morning, you're out of luck. Your best bet is to try out some of the smaller cafe's near where you live and hope they toast bagels okay[1].

There's "The Bagel Bakery" up in SOMA that has almost decent bagels. But its way too out of the way to get a few bagels for the weekend.

1. For me, this was Nervous Dog Coffee down in Bernal Heights (30th-ish and Mission). Take a look on yelp for cafe's. Ignore the ratings, since they'll be based on the coffee they serve, not bagels.

+1 for the Bagel Bakery. Our office is next door, and it's a struggle not to get lunch there every single day.

There was, for a short while, an almost-NY-syle bagel (and definitely the best in the bay) at Roland's. However, he had landlord disputes, and then another dispute with his business partner at the next place he went to. Haven't heard anything since, but if he does manage to have a drama-free business open up again, go.

"There isn't."

"Why New York City's Iconic Pizza Is So Tough to Replicate" - http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/16-05/ps_piz...

Tommaso's Restaurant - http://www.tommasos.com/

As good as San Francisco's baking culture is, surely there's NY-style (real! :)) pizza to be had?

Is this where I'm supposed to jump in and name some place in a town you've never heard of in Italy as having the actual best pizza in the world? (Unfortunately it doesn't have a sign and it's down an alleyway, you'll never find it, and the owner won't serve you if you don't speak correctly-accented Italian and have a large enough moustache. And it's only open twice a year and they don't take reservations.)

edit: Seriously though, if you're in San Francisco and looking for a good thin-crust pizza, the first thing you need to do is get on the BART. Then go to Cheeseboard in Berkeley. Try to do it on a day when they have a particularly delicious pizza, eg one of the ones with potato or anything with pine nuts. It's not "authentically" anything, it's just tasty.

It looks like there's a lot of bias in the data as well. Notice, of the 5 pizza places, that the top 3 are SF based when the test is suppose to be Chicago style pizza... (the other question to SF'ers... do you really know what snow is! =P ) I'm thinking the testers leaned towards a more SF style diet and the pizzas reflect that preference.

This bias was probably due more to a decrease in quality because of freezing & reheating. The result could be completely different if all pizzas were freshly made.

If you are in the bay area then Patxi's will be better than anything sent from Chicago because the Chicago pizza had to be frozen for shipping. If you want to understand why a "real" Chicago pizza does not rate out here then the next time you are arriving home at O'Hare buy one of those frozen ones for sale in the concourse, pop it in the oven when you get home and then go get a fresh one while you wait for it to bake; you will quickly notice the difference.

Yes, we know what snow is...it is that stuff you go visit up in Tahoe and ski or snowboard on, not that brown semi-frozen slush that slopped over the top of my boot as I stepped off the curb or kept me wondering which side of the street I had parked on when I saw it start to fall from the sky while living in Chicago :)

If only tahoe snow fell in chicago, that would be so nice... =P

An easy solution would be to overnight all the pizza's in the freezer... but I assert that there will still be regional taste differences.

I've visited the bay area quite a bit, when my folks lived out there; lou malnati's deep dish is still the best by far.

I do notice that the food selection in the bay area is a lot leaner and healthier, hence that was my point in the bias. The midwestern diet is much heavier, with a bit due to seasonal patterns. Need some of that extra padding to stay warm.. the high for tomorrow is 31F in chicago, while the low right now in Mountain View is 51F....

I grew up in Chicago and I don't like "Chicago-style" pizza either. I put that in quotes because no one called it that in Chicago, everyone always referred to it as deep dish.

Exactly. We called it deep dish and saved it for when friends came to town. Meanwhile we all ate cracker-thin pub-cut slightly-burnt-on-top pizzas at home on our own.

Oh and a shout out to Vito and Nick's on 86th and Pulaski. Best pizza I've ever had in the city.

Yes, the cracker-thin, pub-cut pizzas. I never liked the pieces in the middle that had no crust to grab a hold of, so I was always battling for one of the edge pieces.

IMO the best piece is the tiny little triangle left in the "corners" with just a tiny bit of sauce and cheese on it.

I can't in good conscious agree: the Art of Pizza, with My Pi[e?] as an honorable mention.

I'll have to give Art of Pizza another try - was too bread-y last time I ordered. Love My Pi. Too bad the one on Clark closed. Really good for thin crust btw.

I clicked through to the comments to post the exact same thing. You can't go wrong with the thong.

I lived in Chicago for 22 years and had my fair share of deep dish growing up, Lou's in particular because we had one not more than five minutes away.

This is total blasphemy as a Chicago native, but I think Paxti's is the best deep dish I've ever had.

Although this test should be taken with a grain of salt, there is no comparison between Lou's fresh out of their oven and the shipped, frozen variety.

As a self-titled pizza connoisseur you really can't compare different types of pizzas with one another. i think this article showed us a pretty good taste test. i've tried both zachary's and little star in the area (though i live in la). i'll have to give patxi's a try. i've also been to chicago and tried lou's, uno's and gino's. Lou's is my favorite.

I love all pizza though, the italian styles from naples to sicilian to the U.S. branches from wood fired california style to thin crust new york to chicago deep dish. they all have a fair place in my book and i have a favorite for each category but to compare one against another is a little awkward.

awesome read!

I live in SF, followed this link to make sure that Patxi's is indeed the best Chicago style Pizza in the city. Lo and behold, it is. I'm not surprised, because their pizza really is the best I've seen outside of Chicago.

Interesting; I've always preferred Little Star (in SF). I guess I just have an attachment to their cornmeal crust, I think it holds up better than the ones from the other places. (Although, I might just be down-rating Zachary's a bit harshly from the unpleasantness of the restaurant(s) themselves.)

However, overall, I would rate Lou's my favorite. I'd heard about the "frozen-shipping" method, good to know it doesn't end up with the best results before I try it.

A very short guide to Chicago Pizza in Seattle: For many years there has been Wallingford Street Pizza... similar to Giordanos: cheap ingredients, incredibly cheesy, somewhat classic. Now there's Kylie's Pizza, a more natural cornmeal-laden crust and fresh ingredients style, more analogous to Edwardo's in Chicago. Very impressive.

First, Chicago pizza is not pizza it some sort of Midwestern casserole.

That said, if you haven't had pizza from Burt's out in Morton Grove you're not allowed to enter the judging. Outside of that, my favorites are Pequod's, The Art of Pizza (on Ashland) and Nancy's (specifically from the one just north of Diversey on Broadway)

Science calls for repeatable results... I would be happy to volunteer for your future studies.

How about a sample of the comments? It'd be nice to know why Paxti's got the highest rating instead of just seeing some numbers.

Chicago pizza is indeed the best, with a shout-out to Bill's Pub, Il Forno, and Gino's East, but setting aside all the sports-team-style posturing, it's all about trying a boatload of different places till you find your favorite.

For inspiration, read http://slice.seriouseats.com/tags/California or whatever state you happen to live in, eh.

Wow lots of downvoting from people who don't like Chicago pizza...

Fuck yeah Patxi's!

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