The 5 Best Thin-Crust Pizza Places in Chicago

Although Chicago's deep dish is as magical and legendary as it is sauce-drenched and cheesy, Chicago's thin-crust pizza scene deserves its shine, too. With a chewy, almost-crisp crust, an inventive approach to toppings, and a decidedly different slice design than how we do things back east in New York, Chi-Town's thin-crust pies really have their own thing going for them.

Are they sometimes cut into little, bite-sized squares instead of the triangular slices you may be accustomed to? Yep. Do the toppings sprawl out almost to the edge of the pie? Yeah, you'll see that too. Oh, and did we mention that the toppings can include anything from whipped ricotta and Berkshire sopressata to eggs and sausage?

Here are the five best places in Chicago to grab a thin-crust pizza. This might just be the only time when that infamous saying "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" rings true.

Don't miss deep-dish, dive bars, and more in the rest of the MUNCHIES Guide to Chicago.

Coalfire: Coal-fired pizza is a beautiful, beautiful thing and (as the name suggests), that's exactly what Coalfire specializes in. Pies come out crispy, charred, and bubbly, and there's a wide variety of delicious toppings to choose from. It's hard to pick, but some pizzas clearly stand out like the 'Nduja, which comes with Berkshire sausage, 'nduja-infused whipped ricotta, mozzarella, cherry bomb peppers, and basil; and the Sopressata & Broccolini, which comes topped with mozzarella, chili oil, mint, Berkshire sopressata, stracciatella, and extra virgin olive oil is also delicious.

Piece: Chicago might be the deep dish capital of the known universe, but sometimes it's nice to find a pie that doesn't look like it just slid out of a lasagna pan. Piece serves up crispy New Haven–style pies alongside award-winning, house-brewed beers. And if you really can't separate yourself from a Chicago mindset, you can in fact get a pizza topped with Hot Doug's Atomic Sausage.

Barnaby's of Northbrook: Open for over four decades, Barnaby's makes crispy-thin, cornmeal-crusted pies topped with house-made sauce. There's also a full menu of competitively priced entrees and sandwiches, but the fresh ingredients and the daily-made dough make the pizza hard to pass up.

Armand's Pizzeria: With a number of locations around the city and surrounding 'burbs, Armand's offers thin-crust pizza with a nice crunch, thanks to plenty of butter and cornmeal. But, if you absolutely cannot embrace the beauty that is thin crust pizza, you can always go double dough.

Vito & Nick's Pizzeria: Deep-dish be damned—one square-cut, sausage-covered piece of this "tavern-style" pizza convinced Frank Pinello, owner of Williamsburg's Best Pizza and host of The Pizza Show, that Chicago's thin crust is the way to go. There's a reason this Ashburn joint has been a hit for over nine decades, and it's not just because Guy Fieri approved.

Check out the rest of the MUNCHIES Guide to Chicago right here, and don't miss the Chicago episode of our series The Pizza Show.