The Pizza House in East Lansing. A little slice of Chicago in Mid-Michigan
The quest for the perfect pizza took me to East Lansing after getting several recommendations for the Pizza House in Hannah Plaza. My family was in town and we spent the day in Frankenmuth. As we were leaving, we debated on whether or not to go in to Detroit for dinner and gambling. That was eventually shot down and my dad said he just wanted pizza. Since the Pizza House has been so highly recommended, I thought that was a safe bet. If you remember my review of Pisanello’s Pizza (review HERE) in Mt. Pleasant, you’ll recall that everyone in my family likes a different type of pie, so pizzaria’s can be a challenge.
I had a little bit of trouble finding Pizza House at first. We put the address in the GPS and it brought us the right area, but as the GPS was saying “Arriving at Pizza House on right” I couldn’t see any signs for it. We were at Hannah Plaza, so I assumed it was in there. I turned into the parking lot and J saw the sign for it. The building is nothing special. Just your typical strip mall pizza joint….or is it?
The inside is really nice with lots of TV’s and lots of space. Our party of five was shown to a booth in the back of the dining room. There were TV’s in all four corners and three of the four were turned to the NASCAR race which I wanted to watch, so I picked a seat where I could see.
So many people claim “Chicago-Style Deep Dish” but many of those fail to deliver a true Chicago-Style. Pizza House is not one of those that fail. Deep dish is deep dish, but a true Chicago-Style is the stuffed pizza. Chicago is the only place in the world that you can find a pizza like this. A stuffed pizza is a really deep dish but what makes it unique is the construction. The toppings are layered upside down with the meat first followed by cheese, another thinner crust, and finally the sauce. I knew J and my dad didn’t like the stuffed pizzas after eating with both of them on separate occasions at Giordano’s in Chicago, but my mom and aunt had never had one and they wanted to try. I didn’t argue. We ended up ordering a sausage and pepperoni stuffed pizza and then a half cheese, half sausage thin crust.
The stuffed crust does take a while to cook, so we had some time to enjoy each others company before dinner. It’s not like we had just spent the whole day in the car or anything. After about a half hour, the waitress brought out our two pies. The stuffed crust was done perfectly. There was a lot of cheese underneath the layer of sauce and picking it out of the pan was tough to do with one hand. I bit in and it brought me right back to Chicago. Pizza House nailed it as far as I’m concerned. I set my first piece down then loaded it with Parmesan and crushed red pepper like I normally do. After a few more bites, I looked at what was left on my plate and got worried. Did they put mushrooms on our pizza? Turns out it was the sausage, but the sausage looked a lot like mushrooms. I dissected one on my plate to be sure. I couldn’t just suck it up and eat it for some reason. I ended up eating two slices and my mom and aunt ate one and a half. I have one left in fridge for dinner tonight. The crust was surprisingly crisp for a thick crust. It was loaded with a sweet sauce and a lot of cheese. A great, authentic Chicago-Style pizza.
My dad and J got the thin crust pizza and they had vastly different opinions of it. First, the set up. Both like thin crust pizza. For J, the thinner and crispier the better. My dad is pretty picky, but any thin crust will do. They each got half of a medium. One side with just cheese. The other side with cheese and sausage. My dad, really liked it. It was a little greasy and a little chewy, but he said it was really good. Quite a compliment coming from him. J, didn’t like it at all. It was a little greasy and a little chewy. By the time J got to her last piece, she couldn’t figure out why she was still eating it, so she gave me part of it. I actually liked it. It would have been better had the crust been crisper, but the grease actually tasted good to me. It reminded me a lot of cheap pizzas we used to get from shady, fly by night delivery places when I was growing up.
The overall consensus was four really liked it and one not so much. Neither pie was still that incredible pizza I just can’t live without, but Pizza House really is a taste of Chicago. They’re open until 4:00 AM serving in house and delivering to cater to the campus crowd. Now, if they’d just put a Chicago-style Italian Beef on the menu……
Mid-Michigan Dining 
Glad you finally got there. I love that place. The calzones are pretty amazing, too.
Sometime when you’re back in that neighborhood, check out Sansu. Best sushi in town, and they are really creative with some of the rolls they create.
Sushi’s not my thing. I don’t really do Asian food at all and J’s allergic to seafood.
[…] this is what I think of. To the untrained taste buds, Giordano’s is no different from The Pizza House in East Lansing or Ann Arbor, but in reality, there’s a difference. Oh, not much, but just […]
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