Slice of Chicago Pizza Tours

My first trip to Chicago and found a Groupon for this tour. My mom and went on it together. It was a great way to start our sight-​seeing. The guide was great and the food was delicious. We got a slice at three places, we all were offered seconds because our group was so small (6 people). Learned a lot about pizza. This a fun thing to do for newcomers to Chi-​town.

We were in town for last years Riot Fest and were looking for a cool thing to kill time. The deep dish tour did its purpose perfectly, we loved the pizza at uno and giordanos and ora served its purpose of sitting down and having a nice talk. This tour was not the best ever but a fun way to spend time. Especially if you can get a good deal on groupon.

I recently visited Chicago for a long weekend. We had all the major tourist stops already planned and figured a fun pizza tour would be an interesting addition. The tour met at Pizzaria Uno and had 2 stops after that; we were to get a tasting at each stop. The guide was friendly and sociable and he made an effort to get to know the people on his tour, but the amount of information we got and the tastings were disappointing. At Pizzaria Uno, after an introduction they passed around tastings. The sizes started pretty large and gradually got smaller and smaller as they came out from the restaurant, you could tell they had run out. I happened to be the last person to get a plate and what I got didn’t even resemble a slice. It came out in 3 pieces… maybe a piece of crust with sauce and 2 bits with cheese. I don’t even know how they salvaged that. Apparently the restaurant misheard the guide when he ordered the number of slices. What is funny to me is… this is the whole point of the activity. It’s a pizza tour, wouldn’t you make sure you have enough for everyone to have a proper taste and maybe even order a few more in case? The second stop was bizarre because we went to a restaurant where we were the only patrons except for a table of 2 in the front. Here we got to sit down and order drinks if we wanted to and taste their pizza while we learned a bit more. I was excited for the last stop, Giordano’s because I had heard about it. The pizza was great but we had to stand outside and eat the pizza on styrafoam plates which is hard to do with cheese melting everywhere. It would have been much better if they could have let us sit down like we did at the deserted stop. In the end, it was something different to do and we got to taste the pizzas somewhat. I absolutely would not pay full price so definitely get a groupon if you are up for it.

My daughter and I really enjoyed this tour. Our guide, Gabriel (Gabe) was very knowledgeable and friendly. It’s like spending 3 hours with a good friend who happens to know a TON about Chicago pizza/​deep dish. The walk was not hard even for a chubby person like myself. My daughter who actually does not like pizza (I dragged her cause I DO love pizza) — she really enjoyed the tour as well. The information was great and Gabe was the icing on the information cake.
I agree with some of the other reviews that say that the pizza slices were on the small side but they did have extra slices that were offered up if you wanted. Our group had about 12 people in it.
I would recommend. I would go again with my son.

(dated ¹¹⁄₁₁):
visiting the city w/​friends; got a groupon/​living social sort of deal — why not eat some pizza while you’re in chi town right?
booked a late afternoon tour, meeting at 5pm or so. whether we were waiting for other ducklings to show up or the tour guide ran a little late, we were OUTSIDE the original Uno for a good while, on a pretty chilly day.
then we went in, thinking: «good, we got to sit down and eat!!». nope, they were too busy to serve us. we just had a quick glance of the restaurant and a very brief history, then we went back outside w/​takeout pizzas… eating standing up on the outside and sidewalk. bleh.
next stop we got to sit down, but Pizza Ora appeared to have little fame/​history, or clientele. maybe once famous? but presently the place was practically empty, and one would wonder why we were here.
we toured the streets a little before and after that, getting a bit of history of this and that place — not necessarily related to pizzas, but it’s cool.
final stop was Pizzeria Regina… um, don’t we have that in Boston as well? this the original store (if i remember correctly)?? alright alright… but we weren’t even allowed in, coz it was dinner time, and the place was packed! so we had another takeout pizza on the sidewalk, on an increasingly chilly night.
so we ate the pizza that was fast turning cold, then we voted the «best» out of the three, and the tour was complete.
was it fun? i can’t say it was entirely, but it’s an experience. for the price that we paid… a-​ok.

I am a fan of the Deep Dish Pizza tour. I bought a groupon last December and finally used it in August.
My boyfriend and I are Chicagoans who love deep dish. I was worried we would go to places we’ve been before but was happy they had more variety in stock.
Our tour guide was Gabriel; a very friendly and enthusiastic pizza lover. He told some great historical stories about deep dish that were new to me (some I knew of but I’m from Chicago).
He even have us some great places to try unique thin crust pizza. I would definitely recommend the tour for both locals and tourists.
The last stop on the tour was Giodarnos-​a place I’ve had a million times before. While Gabriel went inside to get our pizza, a homeless man joined our group.
When the guide returned, he started telling a story but the homeless man started to talk over him. Gabriel was nothing but respectful to the man and told him that we needed some space to finish the tour.
Since I am a local, I am used to situations like this. But I can’t stand it when people are mean and angry to the homeless. Gabriel treated the man politely and respectfully. I was very happy with his professionalism.
Overall, this was a fun and interesting tour I’d recommend to pizza lovers.

Spending a few hours with Chicago Pizza Tours was a good way to get a lot of information about pizza history in Chicago. It’s nice because you don’t have to wait in line at the typically crowded pizza joints, but the tour was definitely lacking.
I tasted some amazing pizza, and learned about the history of pizza, the pizza industry, and Chicago business in just a few hours. Our tour guide was super friendly, and very knowledgeable about the Chicago pizza business. But the price, length of time, and amount of pizza was disappointing.
The tour was about three hours long, but we only got three small slices of pizza. The tour also went longer than expected — we sat for an hour at the second stop. But at the first and third stops, we had to stand on the sidewalk and try to eat the slices of deep dish pizza while balancing styrofoam plates.
At the end, we were still hungry since we had anticipated the tour being a little shorter, and getting regular sized slices, so we went back to one of the places mentioned on the tour to get a regular slice. The tour would have been better with a fourth stop at least. More pizza, same amount of history.

informative and kinda fun. we had groupons otherwise $ 44/​person is ridiculous. The guide knew his shit and was full of energy. if anything got boring to you it sure as heck wasnt cuz of him. if you get a good price it is definitely worth it for out of towners or people who need a quick lesson

Like others, we had Groupons. Had I paid the full $ 45 this tour, I would have thought it was a huge rip off. Our tour guide was extremely friendly, but the tour itself needs improvement. Most people don’t want to stand outside for 35 minutes in the same spot and it was easy to space out. They should have more pizza for patrons; at each of 3 stops there was 1 pizza to split among 15 people on the tour. They should fix this– people come here to eat pizza and we went out to lunch afterwards! However, I’m happy to know my favorite of the 3 places we stopped at.

I went on this tour on a cloudy Friday afternoon. We went to Pizzeria Uno, Pizzeria Ora, and Gioradano’s. Each of the pizza places was excellent. The guide was very friendly and gave us a lot of information about the history of Chicago pizza. I like how the tour was spaced out. We stood at Uno’s at the start of the tour, but when we got to Ora, we were able to sit down. Very reasonably priced beer was available for purchase at Ora and water was available as well. We then had a longer walk when we walked by Gino’s East on the way towards Gioradano’s. Gioradano’s had just closed their outdoor seating, but they allowed us to use it for this tour so we could sit down.
This tour is very highly recommended, a great way to get pizza at some of the best Chicago pizza places without the long waits.

Very informative pizza tour, my only complaint is that it was a bit too long in between stops, I came ready to eat! Gabriel was our tour guide and had an obvious love for pizza and Chicago, was a good time and I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone.

This tour is okay. I love pizza and my city and like any opportunity to learn more about both. But, like most others, I had a groupon and would have been disappointed if I’d paid full price.
The good: Our guide was friendly and VERY knowledgeable on the history of Chicago pizza, and I learned a lot about the major players in the industry. I also enjoyed the pizza and felt that it was enough food for lunch.
Room for improvement: If anything, I felt like there was a bit too much history. I saw non-​Chicagoans in particular losing interest when hearing long detailed stories about the individuals involved in Chicago pizza. There were only 3 stops on the tour — I think adding a fourth stop would help keep up the attendees’ attention spans. Also, it seems to me that the 2^nd stop on the tour was added for convenience only. While it was nice to sit down for a bit (the other stops you stand outside), this spot is not a famous or memorable pizza parlor. That was disappointing considering that there are many other more popular pizza spots in the vicinity.

We had half-​price Groupons, which was a good price. I would have been disappointed if we paid full price.

I also had a Groupon for this. So only paid half, $ 22 instead of the usual 45.
For starters the only pizza you get to sample is cheese. When our very friendly, outgoing tour guide told us this I thought she was joking.
You also only eat at 3 different locations, and you only actually enter one. So you end up eating your pizza on the sidewalk. I was hoping beforehand you’d get a peak at the kitchen. Who would have thought by the end I’d be praying for a glance of a waiting lobby.
Also the sample size is about half a normal piece, and with only 3 stops by the end you’ve really only consumed a slice and a half. I was actually still hungry when the tour was finished.
Its not all bad though, our tour guide was very upbeat. She had some nice stories and information about pizza in general and specifically in Chicago.
The pizza itself, although small sample sizes, was fantastic.
I’d say the experience was worth the 20 bucks I paid, but I’d have serious reservations about paying the full price.

The tour was a lot of fun. Gabriel, our tour guide, was a fellow pizza aficionado & very knowledgeable about the history of Chicago style pizza. (He’s also really cute.) On the downside, the portions were disappointingly small. I paid $ 22 for the Groupon, which seems like a fair price for what we got. The regular price for the tour is $ 45, and I would have been disappointed had I paid that much.

At $ 40 drastically overpriced. We had groupon discounts at $ 20 but had to change dates once, and they charged a $ 10 service charge making it $ 30. Still really overpriced. If you can believe this, all we got at each place was barely ½ slice, maybe only ¼. So the whole $ 20-​$ 40 went for 1 to 1 ½ slices of pizza. Parking was another $ 28.
The tour was a walking tour to three places, Uno, Oro, & Giordano’s. Uno is great & Giordano’s is OK, but everybody local has been to both. Oro was a nice surprise and the reason I’m giving the tour 1 instead of zero stars.
The guide Will was OK, friendly and moderately knowledgeable.
Short version: worth maybe $ 5 for the single slice + $ 5 for the tour = $ 10. That’s if you’re from out of town and if you don’t have to pay for parking. For locals, just say no & save your money. Wish I had.

This was a fun afternoon even though the tour did not meet high expectations.
I love pizza, all kinds, any kind really. I’ve loved sampling different pizzas over the years. This tour seemed like a amazing way to sample multiple different deep dish places. Lou Malanti’s is my favorite, but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t experience all that Chicago has to offer.
Starting with the good. Our tour guide Will was fun and knowledgeable. Making small talk with strange tourist from Kentucky must be hard, but Will did an awesome job making sure everyone was enjoying themselves using his own brand self depreciating humor.
And now for the not so good. This tour only goes to 3 different pizzerias (though you do walk past and learn about others) thus only three pieces of pizza. We’re also not talking about regular slices either, these were sampler pieces think about maybe half the size of a regular slice. For the price (which was around $ 20 from group-​on rather than the standard $ 40) I’m not sure your getting a good deal here. This could be the only time I’ve ever ate deep dish and still been hungry afterward.
Also at 2 of the three places your eating pizza on the sidewalk. Sort of strange, but all the pizzeria’s are really busy so not completely surprising. Another big disappointment was that at each place we were only offered a slice of cheese. I’ve already touched on the slice size, but we kept hearing about all these quality toppings you can get everywhere and only getting cheese the entire time. I can’t imagine what the logistics would be of having a few different toppings but sort of expected a little more than three large cheese pizzas for the group.
Overall this was fun tour, but keep your expectations in check as you won’t be running around the city indulging in your wildest pizza dreams like I had hoped. Ok deal for what we paid for on group on but probably not much more.

My boyfriend and I bought group-​ons for a tour with them.
1. We felt that the pizza was good but there could have been more of it.
2. We really liked our tour guide Gabe.
3. We felt that the tour needed more material about pizza, history, Chicago, restaurants, etc. We weren’t convinced our tour guide had a lot to work with and they needed to fill time. For example: a «clever» story about the Marina Towers and pizza seemed more like a planned attempt at filling time than information about pizza and Chicago.
4. We enjoyed the cameradie among the people on the tour and thought Gabe did a nice job of encouraging interaction.
Overall do we think it is worth the full price ($ 40)? Nope.
Do we feel it was worth the group-​on price ($ 20 ea.)? Not really. Not enough material both pizza and information wise.

Like thousands of others, I too purchased my tickets through Groupon and I’m regretting the decision. I wish I could get a refund. I knew I was in for a long day when the forecast was high 80’s but I did my best to enjoy the experience. Of course you can’t blame the tour for the weather, but its a walking tour… I’ll explain. We didn’t even get a chance to go into 2 of the 3 restaurants. By the end of the tour I would have given anything for a chance to go inside and cool off for 10 minutes (or even purchase a drink). The pizza was very good, but I don’t think you could piece together a full slice from the «bites» I was offered at each place. This tour isn’t ready for prime time.

This tour was a fantastic taste of the different pizzerias in Chicago and quite informative.
We met our hosts at the starting location this afternoon and were instantly met with warm smiles and a greeting. We had four people in our tour group which made for a wonderfully personal tour and we were able to ask plenty of questions. Our main guide Lauren was very informed and had great information and stories that weren’t the cliché bus tour kind of facts. It was great to get to meet the general managers of several of the pizzerias and not have to fight through the bustling crowds to get your food. Kevin and Lauren share a passion for both pizza and the city of Chicago. We went on this tour early in our trip and learned of dozens of little places to see during the rest of our stay.
The best way I can describe this is getting the inside look inside of Chicago pizza and culture from a local couple who quickly make you feel welcome and at ease as you experience the sights, sounds, and tastes of Chicago.