I Tried And Ranked 6 Frozen Deep Dish Pizzas

Frozen pizza is a total staple and a convenient meal to always have on hand. It's the easiest way to get dinner on the table when you're tired, running late, or simply don't have the wherewithal to craft a meal from scratch. There are so many frozen pizza brands to choose from, but there are surprisingly few deep dish frozen pizzas available, at least in my area in San Diego, California. 

You can follow a classic Chicago-style deep dish pizza recipe, but that'll take you over 3 1/2 hours to whip up, not exactly hitting that convenience factor. So I went around to two grocery stores to try virtually every Chicago-style deep dish pizza I could find for a taste test. That resulted in six pizzas from three brands, because I didn't want to include Detroit-style pizza, which has a completely different texture and flavor profile. 

Chicago-style deep dish pizza should have loads of cheese with a flaky deep dish crust. I judged my pizza selection by its depth of flavor, overarching texture, and whether it hit the "deep dish" appearance, to find the best among them (was it actually deep dish or just advertised as such?). Luckily, I'm pretty pleased with my findings.

As someone with years of marketing experience, I have to hand it to Great Value, because I enjoy the packaging of its deep dish 'zas. The large "deep dish" strewn across the packaging is enormous, eye-catching, and a clear differentiator, making it obvious that the product is meant to be separate from your average pizza. However, it should advertise that it uses four cheeses: mozzarella, cheddar, provolone, and Parmesan cheese. This could be a helpful selling point, though it doesn't help with the overall result. 

Four of the six pizzas I had were personal-sized, and the Great Value and Red Baron looked so similar during baking that I had to write a note to myself to tell which was which. Taking them out of the oven, however, was a totally different experience. The Great Value cheese pizza did not have any type of deep dish appearance after baking. Instead, it merely looked like a rising crust pizza with a thick, large, almost bulbous crust. It is so thick and incredibly doughy that it takes away from the overall pleasantness of the pizza. It doesn't help that the tomato sauce is quite sweet, too. This doesn't deliver much in terms of flavor and certainly doesn't hit the deep dish quality I was looking for, making it an easy last-place pick. 

The Great Value Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza doesn't fare much better than its cheese counterpart, because it suffers from most of the same issues. Nothing about it is giving deep dish; even the photo on the box doesn't look deep dish at all. Here, the semi-sweet tomato sauce and slightly spicy pepperoni don't make a very interesting combination; they're mostly mismatched. The pepperoni (made from a pork, chicken, and beef blend) is the saving grace here, though, and makes it considerably more flavorful than the cheese variety. However, I find it's a bit too oily, as you can see the mini pools of grease on the pepperoni pieces.

I wouldn't say this is a bad product, because it tastes fine and will get you fed, but it's just nowhere among the best of the three brands I tried for this taste test. I find there's more crust than anything, and it overwhelms the entire pizza, especially since it's still a bit doughy in the center. I found myself scraping off the sauce, cheese, and pepperoni with my teeth, and leaving the "crust" behind. As it turns out, Great Value pizzas are better off avoided, since they don't offer particularly good quality or value for what you get.

Unlike Great Value, Red Baron clearly advertises its four-cheese medley, which also includes mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, and provolone. Even with the same cheese quad, the Red Baron Four Cheese Deep Dish Personal Frozen Pizza is all-around better than either of Walmart's pizzas. First of all, it is clear that Red Baron delivers slightly more of a deep dish appearance post-baking. 

The exterior crust is a bit thin and crunchy, and it goes above the cheese, whereas the Great Value one had a very thick bottom and border crust — nothing "Chicago" or deep dish about that. The proportion of Red Baron's crust to toppings seems more even as well; I actually ate the crust this time around, as it wasn't overwhelming. Still, it's not especially memorable, flavorful, or flaky enough to rank higher.

The Red Baron brand more effectively hits the deep dish mark, but it's made even better by a considerably tastier tomato sauce. It brings a savory umami depth that pairs nicely with the cheeses' milkiness. While I preferred the complex heat I got from Great Value's pepperoni, everything else in the Red Baron is better. 

Red Baron's Pepperoni Deep Dish Personal Frozen Pizza provides much of the same experience as the cheese variety, but with cutesy little quartered pepperoni pieces. The meat is made with pork, chicken, and beef, adding a rich, savory flavor and a slightly fatty, oily mouthfeel to each bite. There's a fair amount of the meat medley incorporated on the pizza, so you'll get a morsel with every nibble. 

I prefer the slight flavor boost that the pepperoni provides over the cheese pizza, but it's not a major difference. You could happily go with either option. Either way, the crust is considerably more Chicago-style than Great Value's, and that's the biggest reason it gets the higher position. Surprisingly, the final result looks way more appealing than the image on the box. While this is my third-place pick and the best of the four so far, it still doesn't deliver the Chicago-style crust or cheesiness I'm looking for. You might be better off considering the brand's other offerings, like the Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza or Classic Crust pep.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that an actual Chicago-founded pizzeria makes it as my top brand in this ranking. The eatery was founded in 1966 in Chicago and has been slinging pizzas ever since. Gino's East has two Chicago, Illinois locations — one of which is very close to its original store at 162 E Superior St. — as well as a couple of other restaurants. The frozen pizzas, however, are crafted in Wisconsin, but still hold true to the Chicago-style deep dish roots. The Deep Dish Deluxe Cheese Pizza is a sight for sore eyes, with a distinct deep dish appearance. The outer crust rises well above the cheese and sauce. 

Not only that, but the pile of cheese is layered on first, with the sauce spread generously over it. The whole milk mozzarella cheese is phenomenal; it's incredibly creamy and milky, applied in a thick layer with an alluring cheese pull served straight from the oven. The result offers a lot of flavor, despite being such a simple ingredient. The tomato sauce is slightly chunky, so it imparts some mouthfeel, rather than seeming plain and runny. Then, of course, there's the butter-like, flaky crust. The exterior is crisp and rich, while the inner area has a slightly softer, doughy texture. I found myself ripping off the edges to eat and gladly devoured my entire slice — no crumb left behind.

Gino's East Uncured Pepperoni Pizza has everything I liked in the Deluxe Cheese, but with pork and beef pepperoni added in. The pepperoni is slightly thicker than the ones from the two other brands; those were so small, too, that they crisped up during baking. Gino's East uses full slices so they retain their chew, which adds a welcome, but not jarring, contrast to the thick layer of cheese. But that also means I can taste them better: They're rich and fatty with hints of spices. 

There are many types of pizza from around the globe, but Chicago-style is distinct, and Gino's East is a prominent name for the style. If you want to select a deep dish pizza from the convenience of the freezer aisle, Gino's East is the clear winner. Yes, it's frozen, and it's not quite the same as having a piping-hot, freshly made one in the city of Chicago (which I ate probably two decades ago at this point), but it still makes for a memorable frozen pizza experience when you want something different than a thin or rising crust option. This should absolutely get added to the list of frozen pizzas that taste better than takeout.

I went to two stores — Albertsons and Walmart — to locate the six deep dish pizzas. I didn't find many more Chicago-style options in a close enough vicinity to me; the only other was a refrigerated pizza, not frozen. 

I baked all pizzas in the oven according to instructions. I was looking for pizzas that had a balanced flavor, without anything tasting out of place or overwhelming (like a too-sweet tomato sauce). I also wanted pizzas that resembled Chicago-style deep dish pizza with a thick outer crust that lifted higher at the edges. 

I didn't particularly care about the size, as I had a mix of personal and "regular" sized options, so I focused purely on the overall flavor, texture, and closeness to Chicago-deep dish. I found a brand I'd never tried before — Gino's East — and I would buy it again when I want a unique pizza offering.