Uno's Chicago Grill Deep Dish Pizza

[DKM]

BTB,

Having a Uno Chicago Grill just 15 minutes from where I live and that we eat at a few times a year, plus last years trip to Chicago I can very much vouch they are not the same pizza at all.  Still I enjoy the U.C.G. pizza when we go there. 

I also wouldn't use the term "formerly great" in relation to the original Uno's.  It was as good as both the Malanti's and Gino's East we ate at.

[BTB]

Yes, Peter, .125 has been my target TF for deep dish pizzas, altho the calculation tool later shows something like .126 after entering all the ingredients, but the difference is completely insignificant. 

I just noticed an important difference in the cheese that the recipe in the first posting above calls for with the Uno's Chicago Grill Deep Dish pizza recipe (i.e., "sliced" cheese, which is the norm for Chicago Style deep dish pizza, like at original Uno's) and that shown on the "video" clip that Ed linked us to at FoxNY, which used shredded cheese for the Uno's Chicago Grill Deep Dish pizza.  This is what my friends and I had found frustrating so many times at Uno's Chicago Grill and that is their inconsistency and failure to replicate real Chicago Style Deep Dish pizza. 
 
The ONLY Chicago Deep Dish pizzeria (among the original "classics" that is) that uses shredded cheese that I recall is Giordano's (which is just a variant of deep dish), but that's because of the "stuffed" nature of their special pizza style, of which I am a fan.  So the question to ask the Boston owned Uno's Chicago Grill folks is . . . . which way is it?  Shredded or sliced?  Was your video on FoxNY the way you make it across the nation. . . or . . . do they do it the "right" way that is done at the original Uno's and put in SLICES of cheese instead?   
 
Those familiar with the Food Wars TV program (or similar) as mentioned earlier will recall that original Uno's (as most Chicago Style Deep Dish pizzerias) always uses sliced cheeses.  So does the Uno's Chicago Grill "shredded cheese" technique as represented in the FoxNY video represent the Company's approved pizza preparation methodology  . . . or not?  I don't suggest anyone hold their breath for an answer.
 
                                                                           --BTB             

[BTB]

DKM, sometimes something close to what you like is a good thing, and that I have down here in Tampa with a pretty popular deep dish pizza place, but it's fairly different from that I've experience in Chicago when I lived there.  Original Uno's has been reported to be running hot and cold, meaning sometimes great and sometimes the opposite. 
 
I think I had only been to original Uno's once last summer and found it then to be a little disappointing, but I was happy you found it good for your trip there.  When I was there last summer, I didn't have my camera with me (unusual for me, I know), but here's a picture of a piece of their great tasting pizza that I had the year before.
 
                                                                                     --BTB         
 

[DKM]

Original Uno's has been reported to be running hot and cold, meaning sometimes great and sometimes the opposite. 
 

That typically means there is an difference between cooks.

Nice picture.  I've posted this link before, but its just as quick to post it again.  Here are our 3 stops in Chicago last summer.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zde27XeKyc" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zde27XeKyc</a>

[DKM]

The original Uno's and Due's to this day serve basically only pizzas and none of the other "stuff."

From my Blog about the trip

A quick history lesson: Pizzeria Uno is where Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza got started. Despite having the same corporate owners it is not the same pizza served at Uno Chicago Grill, the casual dining restaurant that evolved out of the Uno franchises.

Pizzeria Uno looks like a bar that just happens to serve deep dish pizza. It has a very limited menu and very limited seating.

[Pizzamaster]

I am a little confused by the critical comments like the yeast and such. If the executive chef from the company itself is making the dough then it can't be 'wrong'

[DKM]

I am a little confused by the critical comments like the yeast and such. If the executive chef from the company itself is making the dough then it can't be 'wrong'

For one they don't always give the actual recipes and second if it is the actual recipe it is for the chain store not the original still used in Chicago.