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All pizzas are not made equal.

Some are sadistically worse than the others.

Longing for a break from our usual Idli, Vada, Dosa, Pongal, Bisi-Bele Bath Indian fare, we headed to Uno Chicago Grill the other day to try, what else, one of their hallmark deep-dish pizzas

According to the folks at Wiki, deep dish pizzas do:

not include thin crusts or delicate toppings, but rather it is made with a heavy, thick crust and large amounts of cheese, sauce and ingredients.

The pizza begins with a thick layer of dough made with olive oil and cornmeal laid into a deep round pan and pulled up by the sides, then parbaked before the toppings are added to give it greater spring; the pan is oiled heavily in order to create a fried effect on the outside of the crust. The crust is covered with cheese (generally sliced mozzarella) and meats, usually in a solid layer or patty, just above the crust. Italian sausage (a Chicago staple), as well as vegetables such as onions, mushrooms and bell peppers are also used. A sauce, usually uncooked, made from shredded or puréed tomatoes is added.

When we eat pizza, we almost always go for the thin-crust in an effort to reduce cheese consumption. Plus, most of the chains like Domino’s, Pizza Hut or Papa John use really crappy cheese. So, our logic is the less cheese the better.

But at Uno we were in an adventurous, game-for-anything’ mood and so we picked the Farmer’s Market Pie deep dish veggie pizza.

The Farmer’s Market Pie comes with caramelized onions, spinach, sun-dried and plum tomatoes, eggplant, pesto, feta, mozzarella and grated Romano.

We also ordered some house salads and fries but for some inexplicable reason skipped the booze although Uno offers several varieties of beer, wine and all the standard cocktails.

As we were wolfing down the salad in our perennially famished state, our Farmer’s Market Pie deep dish veggie pizza arrived on a pan with the cautionary advice from our elderly waitress Helen to watch out for the hot pan.

Quickly putting aside the salad, we fell upon the Farmer’s Market Pie veggie pizza with gusto.

The first bite, and our feeling was like, hmmmm, this pizza is good.

Real good.

About three times the thickness of a thin-crust, the Uno deep-dish crust tastes slightly buttery and packs a wonderful flavor that has you hankering for another bite and another…..

The cheese is of superior quality (than what yours truly is used to at other chain stores). A thick whitish layer of Mozzarella is nicely married to the top of the crust. On top of the cheese, you have caramelized onion and eggplant cooked to a blackish brown hue, spinach and small juicy tomatoes pieces.Yummy!

The onions, eggplant, tomato and spinach were well-cooked and bonded firmly to the cheese/crust layer. No chance of them getting dislodged.

One could easily get addicted to the Uno deep-dish veggie pizza.

After gorging on the salad, fries and dessert, we couldn’t finish the pizza and the thoughtful waitress offered us a box without our having to ask for it.

Boy, several hours after we returned home, the pizza still tasted good (unheated). Now, that is something you can never, ever say about pizza from Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John and many other small pizza places.

Disgustingly Bad Fries
When we go to a non-Indian place to eat, we start craving French Fries.

It’s kind of a Pavlovian response.

So, not surprisingly we ordered French Fries at Uno too.

Bad move. Continue reading »