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Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find the best pizza in San Diego.  Because all pizza styles are not created equal, we have created four categories of pizza.  One major category is thick crust pizza.  This includes Chicago deep dish, Sicilian, Detroit and several other regional pizza types.  This is our list of San Diego’s Best Thick Crust Pizza.

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Overview

My favorite pizza style is NY-style thin crust.  However, there are certain times I crave thick crust pizza.  Of course, there are many styles of thick crust pizza and I have my own bias.  These rating definitely reflect that bias.

My favorite type of thick crust pizza is now Detroit-style.  I found this type of pizza fairly late in life as it is just now becoming trendy.  One of my favorite pizza places in New York City, Prince Street Pizza, is a newer place that has a Detroit-style pizza.  I even have my own recipe for making Detroit pizza.

I also have learned to like Chicago-style thick crust pizza.  Many fans of NY-style pizza despise Chicago deep dish.  Jon Stewart did a legendary rant on how terrible Chicago pizza is.  Personally, I like Chicago pizza as an infrequent treat.  In my opinion, it can be a solid way to mix things up.  However, I do eat probably ten times more NY-style pizza.

Chicago has two main kinds of thick crust pizza, deep dish, and stuffed crust.  There is also a pan-style pizza but outside of Pizza Hut pan pizza, I am not really familiar with this style.

My favorite is Chicago-style stuffed crust of the kind they serve at Giordano’s (one of the only Chicago places I have actually tried in person).  This is a super-rich style of pizza where a second layer of dough is placed above the toppings.  Check out this article for a good description of the difference between deep dish and stuffed pizza.

I grew up in Philadelphia and the main thick crust style were square Sicilian slices.  Many NY-style thin crust places also serve a Sicilian-style pizza.  Personally, I am not a big fan of this style and our ratings reflect this.

We have tried to visit every place on our top 10 list at least 5 times.  The one exception is Chicago Pizza Company.  You will also notice that several places are on the list twice.  This is because some places have two or more different styles of thick-crust pizza.

In addition, we only have 10 listings for this category.  We are trying to be picky and make this a fairly exclusive list. This is a work in progress, and we will be adding places, eliminating places and reordering the list as we see fit.  In short, this is an ongoing list and we welcome feedback.

San Diego’s Top 10 Thick Crust Pizza Places

1. Square Pizza Co: Detroit style.  They also have my favorite Sicilian-style.
2. Chicago Bros. Pizzeria: Favorite Chicago stuffed pizza and they serve it by the slice.
3. Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria: Stuffed Crust.  The stuffed crust rules but is only available by whole pies that take an hour to cook.
4. Berkeley Pizza: A sophisticated deep-dish pizza.  Adults love it, kids not so much.
5. Napizza: This is a Rome, Italy style pizza cut in squares
6. Square Pizza Co: Sicilian-style.  The Detroit pizza is number one, but Sicilian is also a winner.
7. The Spot: This place actually started in Chicago and relocated to San Diego in the late 1970s.  I think their deep dish may be more of a pan-style.
8. Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria: Deep dish.  Unlike the stuffed crust, the deep dish is usually available by the slice.
9. Sicilian Thing: They also serve a NY-style thin crust, but this is the place to go if you want to try Sicilian.
10. Chicago Pizza Company: This place way out in Santee we need to explore more.  They have both a Chicago deep dish and pan pizza.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome as we will continue to update this list.  Be sure and check out our overview of San Diego’s Best Pizza that includes pizza places that serve different styles such as thick crust, Italian etc.

To see our full guide to San Diego’s best pizza go here.

San Diego’s Best Pizza Overview

Hopefully, you have read my pizza philosophy piece.  If not go here.  That piece is my introduction to how I classify pizza into 4 major styles.  It is essential to understand how we are rating pizza places in our quest to find the best pizza in San Diego.  As I discuss in that article, San […]

If you are into thin crust pizza check out our San Diego’s Top 20 Thin Crust Pizza Places list.

San Diego’s Best NY-Style Pizza

Fun Diego Family is on a quest to find the best pizza in San Diego.  Because all pizza styles are not created equal, we have created four categories of pizza.  Our favorite category is New York-style thin crust.  This article presents our list of San Diego’s Best NY-Style Pizza places. Go To List Our thin […]

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