Don't frequent for the atmosphere or the food other than the pizza and salad (with house dressing) in my opinion. The thin crust sausage is the best thin crust I've had in the city. Â I'm from Homewood, and growing up we never ordered Aurelio's since my mom makes the best pizza on the planet. Â However, I've gone to the Homewood location a few times for parties, etc., and it has much better ambiance. Â This is a franchise, so all Aurelio's pizza will taste the same since they get the sauce, etc. from the original in Homewood. Â Others that say it's not the same might be having a nostalgic moment from their childhood. Â The house salad has a great mix of toppings like black olives and red peppers, and the house dressing is delicious (especially when they don't watered it down which is the reason I'm giving them 4 stars. Â Hoping they read this because it's so upsetting when they water it down. Â Common' now.)
Review Source:I used to really like the Aurelio's in Tinley Park. Â However, this location is AWFUL! Â We ordered three pizzas: Â one thin; one thick; and one stuffed. Â The sauce was pretty good, but the pizzas with meat were greasy. Â And even worse, the crust was under cooked - almost raw. Â I don't think I've ever thrown out leftover pizza in my life - until today.
Review Source:Stayed in the Holiday Inn that is connected and did not want to venture out after a long day working. Found a coupon on yelp and I decided to try it. Not the best pizza or the best price, but it was very quick and easy. I would like to try the thin crust if  I was to go back again. It was a quick option for those looking to experience Chicago Style pizza and not wait or take a cab to another place.
Review Source:November 14, 2012
Doesn't like it
Edit
STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!!
by Robert Sittloh (1 review)
I live in the city and my first experience with Aurelio's was in Homewood where I play golf a lot and man was I blown away. It's just outstanding down there. This one in the Holiday Inn at 506 W Harrison is no different than a Domino's Pizza. I ordered a gluten free pizza for my girlfriend 2 weeks ago with no cheese, it had extra cheese on it. Then a week ago I ordered another gluten free pizza with no cheese and it came with pepperoni and ham. Both of these pizzas were ordered with onion, spinach and tomatoes, no cheese. This place is a joke. I'm currently waiting on them to deliver right now, it's been and hour and a half and it will be the last time I order from them. Shame on me. Classic example of a good company letting people use their name and not delivering the same product they started with.
This review is for the downtown Aurelio's only. Â It's just not up to snuff. Â I LOVE Aurelio's. Â The suburban locations (particularly the original brick oven in Homewood) are divine. Â But I think the downtown one got the recipe screwed up. Â They use too much cheese and NOT ENOUGH sauce or toppings. Â I don't know what can be done. Â Maybe they need new cooks or just to have the head of the franchise (Joe Aurelio) re-send the recipe. Â It's still good, but don't judge all Aurelio's locations based on this one alone. Â The sauce of Aurelio's is very sweet, and I think, quite perfect.
Review Source:Wow, what a bad place. Got an Italian sandwich which was pretty much the worst thing I have ever eaten. No sauce, no juice, no grease, no cheese. Just very dry meat and soggy bread. If it was soggy from grease that was fine, it wasn't, but I'm betting they microwaved a frozen piece of bread. Bartender acted like me buying a beer while I waited was an annoyance to him. Also got a brownie sundae that was pretty terrible too. Go down the street. Don't be tempted just cause your staying at the holiday inn, lots of great pizza places will deliver to you!
Review Source:Ok, here's the deal: Â I'm not a pizza expert. Â
I like pizza, but it all seems the same to me. Â I prefer New York pizza to Chicago pizza and I like my pizza crust how I like my men...thick enough to grab on to but not too thick that I need a fork. Â (Yeah, that didn't make sense, but at least I didn't say that I like them flexible enough to fold in half and slightly chewy because that's just weird!)
Anyway, I was delightfully surprised by Aurelio's pizza. Â The crust was perfect, the toppings were delicious, and there was just the right amount of spice and flavor on each or our pizzas. Â Also, the mozzarella sticks were top notch...and I truly am an expert on mozzarella sticks.
If you're familiar with Aurelio's unique crust and sauce (I grew up with regular visits to the original in Homewood), then this Harrison St. location will be a suitable fix for your cravings if you're too far away for the original restaurant. Â I like to go for lunch, and often have had wonderful service by Mike, a long time waiter at this location. Â The afternoon buffet is also a fairly decent deal (although, the salad bar isn't really appetizing, sorry folks). Â Also, I can't really give 5 stars for delivery or pick-up orders, which I've experienced to be wrong nearly every time I try. Â Since it is only a couple of train stops away from me, I just go have lunch there with my sister now and then, and we generally have good service, especially when our waiter is Mike.
Review Source:Pizza is good: got the thin crust half cheese half pepperoni. Somewhat greasy, the underside a little undercooked and soft, very heavy on the cheese which is a mozz/cheddar blend. Overall, I would order again but so many other better options out there
The wings were outstanding: standard buffalo wings but crispiness and sauce were just right!
Oh Aurelio's... how I want to give you a decent review.... I'll start out by saying the liunch and dinner food is pretty good...avoid breakfast.
The waitstaff and bartender are sub-par. On one occasion our party of 6 waited over 20min to get drinks due to the bartender having a personal conversation with one of the patrons at the bar.
Perhaps if the food and beverage director at the hotel stepped up and made some improvements I wouldn't cringe so much when we have guests from out of state staying and eating here.
Where to begin?
I was in the area and decided to have lunch at this place. Â I went with the pizza and pasta buffett. Â It. was. HORRIBLE. Â Pizzas were stuck to the mesh on the buffett. It looked days (or more?) old. Â The pasta options looked and smelled inedible. Â All of this plus a pop for roughly $13. Â One of the worst dining experiences I've had in a long, long time. Â What is up with the high ratings?
When you read the menu, there is a pricing bar for the thin crust pizza that has a designated price of up to $22 depending on size. Above this you are encouraged to order the "pizza by number" and they give various number options. There is no mention that if you order the numbered pizzas, that there will be an upcharge for ingredients. It merely states that "additional ingredients" will be charged $2.75 per ingredient. So the menu is misleading -- it makes it appear as though you are to be charged a set fee for any of the numbered pizzas, and then if you add ingredients, you'd pay the upcharge. I was not happy to see the upcharge for sausage and pepperoni as a result of this when my bill arrived. I was using a gift card so wanted to keep the total to a certain amount.
Our server was friendly, but we had to ask when we wanted refills of our drinks.
The pizza here is a little different from the suburban Aurelio's I've been to. It is slightly more cheesy, more salty, and less sweet than the Downers Grove branch, for example. It is still darn good and they do one of the better crusts around. This one was a little "crusty" at the edges of the pizza, making for a large delineation between middle pieces and edge pieces, more so than normal.
There is something tragic, yet warm about Holiday Inns. This Aurelio's is in one. It also means free parking for Aurelio's customers, and I hate fighting for parking in the city. That also means to use the washroom you have to go in the Holiday inn hallway to one. Very 70s feeling indeed. Well this was the "hallway of bad art." All different styles, minimal technique. I couldn't tell whether they were for sale or not. Until I got to the balloon animal painting. The one where they painted a cockroach among multi-colored balloon shapes and animals. Now, I don't mean to nit-pick, but, is it really wise for a hotel chain to hang up a painting that contains a painted cockroach in the hall between a restaurant and the bathroom? Email me if you want the pic. It is really ridiculous. It is also terrible marketing.
I am also a little annoyed when they close off the section of the nice part of the restaurant and make us sit in the less-clean bar part of the restaurant.
I'll probably stick to take-out from Aurelio's from here on out.
No. Just no! I love pizza, if I could eat it everyday and for every meal I would. This was weird pizza. With my friends, we ordered 2 large pizzas for delivery, and I fully anticipated eating half of one. I ate 2 squares, a tiny corner piece, and I was done.
What is up with the sogginess? Ick. And, I ordered spinach and garlic. Why is their ricotta on the pizza? Friends say that taste is normal.
Thankfully, I also ordered a spinach salad to split with everyone. Instead, I ate all of it. It was a decent salad, but $10? I don't think so.
Wouldn't ever order again.
I've lost my patience with Aurelios. Â When your food arrives cold and late....what's the point?
Triple the time window you are promised and call to verify your online order and that you are in fact in the delivery zone indicated on the website.......I've had problems each of the last 3 times I ordered.
I'm a glutard, so I was here for the gluten free pizza. Pretty awesome that it's not too terrible and very close to my hood.
It's really small. I usually get an order of wings and the pizza. I guess otherwise I probably get two. I wouldn't go out of my way to go get this pizza, but if I don't wanna hike it all up to the northside for Chicago's Pizza, it's pretty good in a pinch.
The husband and I thought it would be nice to dine in for lunch (only done carry out before) but I don't think we'll be back. Â The service wasn't very good at all as the server disappeared on us when we wanted to order. Â We waited awhile but since she was still missing, we asked another server to help us look for her! Â Anyways, she finally came and didn't even apologize for the delay. Â
We were looking at their buffet and although some things looked appetizing, the pizzas looked very dried out so we decided to just order off the menu. Â We ordered the cobb salad which was delicious, esp with grilled chicken on top (the creamy garlic dressing just seemed like mayo with garlic but it was still good haha). Â The bbq chicken pizza was just okay to me and not evenly distributed so some slices had almost no bbq sauce or no chicken.
This review gets 2 stars because their fabulous thin crust pizza gets 4 stars, but their other stuff gets zero stars. Â
Stick to pizza Aurelios. Â Your wings had no meat on them but were absolutely doused with bbq sauce, so much so that it made me sick to even try to pick one up. Â And the talapia, gross. Â It was like you put it in a tub of melted butter and then slapped it on the plate. Â
Great pizza though. Â I've had that pizza a dozen or so times since living in Illinois and have never been disappointed. Â But don't go with anything other than a pizza and salad from Aurelio's.
I have been a fan of Aurelio's for a long while and decided to try this location for pizza pick-up after work, since I drive by it on my way home to East Lakeview every day.
I ordered my pizza and asked about the difficultly in getting to their location with the construction on Congress at all. The ditzy girl who answered said she didn't know, and didn't say anything further, so I made my way and found it easy to access anyway.
Once I got there, the girl I'd talked to about the construction was the one who rang up my order, and although she was nice, she was about as energetic as a turtle and had poor Customer Service skills (her name is Juana).
I was early and my pizza wasn't ready, so I walked to the bathroom - and WOW, the hallway was as hot as a sauna! I don't know if it was the sun from the windows but it felt like they had the heat on. Yikes!
When I came back to the bar area to wait, the bartender offered me a glass of water while I waited which I thought was really nice and pro-active.
My pizza came out earlier than expected and I was headed home to enjoy.
Pros:
Aurelios has THE best pizza in the city.
The sauce is the PERFECT sweet sauce
The thin crust is TRUE thin crust, yummy and crunchy
The size of their pizza is well accommodating. I got a medium and it was as big as a large.
I will definitely come back!
One of the better pizza buffets out there. Â
I've been staring at the lunch pizza buffet sign outside the restaurant for years and finally made it in. Â It turned out to be worth the headache of finding a parking meter a couple blocks west. Â It was a clean and comfortable environment that offers one of the best examples of the classic Chicago style thin crust. Â The customers for lunch were a pleasant mix of business meetings, students and tourists. Â The semi-attentive staff moved slowly, but kept the spread fresh.
I would go back.....Nothing mind blowing, but what should I really expect from a pizza buffet in the first floor of a Holiday Inn. Â I need to start eating at places that demand higher expectations.
Vitals:
Pizza Buffet & Water
$15 (includes tax & tip for 1 person)
PS - Parking will cost you if you can't walk there or are not staying at the hotel.
I love this pizza. Perhaps it is just a nostalgia thing, but it certainly seems unique for a thin crust Chicago pizza. Â It has a slightly sweet sauce that you won't find on other pizzas. It's the best when it's properly crisped. Some people might find it a bit greasy and salty - not anything a dab of a napkin can't take care of. Â Take it down with a big glass of RC though, and you'll be reverted right back to family movie nights, sleepovers, and childhood pizza parties.
I don't get a hankering for it very often, but I'm glad there is a location in the City for when I do.
I give other Aurelio's locations 5 stars - this one only 3. Â It's just not as good as the others and I am not sure why! Â I love the thin crust, just plain cheese. Â Their garlic bread is also awesome. Â Takes a long time for delivery and in-house eating is very 1985-Pizza-Hut-esque - dark, dingy, sticky.
I know this one works with the Holiday Inn, but it seems to suffer for that. Â It is not as good as the single locations in other places in Chicago.
For the record let me state, Â I have been staying at the Holiday Inn that this restaurant is located in for three years. My visits have ranged from 2 nights to over a week. It is the hotel choice of my company. So I have been staying and dining here longer then I have been Yelping. This February was my first opportunity to comment.
I do have coworkers that love the breakfast here, they love the convenience of it being in the lobby.
When I said this was a misplaced restaurant, I basically was just stating that I feel it would be better in a strip center or a free standing location. Â If it were, I would travel to experience the pizza, because it would be worth it.
My boyfriend and I continue to get menus from this place on our door. Â We decided to give it a try. Â We ordered the Cheese Ravioli, full size order and figured we could split it. Â Waited 1.5 hours a received a huge tub with 4 ravioli and meat sauce that didn't even cover the bottom of the pan. Â What? Â I cant't believe we paid $21 for 4 ravioli and 4 pieces of garlic bread.
We called the restaurant thinking this must be a mistake. Â Rude guy on the phone says "yeah the ravioli is small". Â "Sorry thats what the order is" Â NEVER EAT HERE! Â WASTE OF MONEY. Â FOOD WAS COLD AND GROSS!
This corner stop pizza joint is tucked in the ground floor of a hotel. pretty unassuming.
The service was amiable (really what I would expect at a pizza place, so good overall).
The price was what i expected.
The pizza was pretty good actually, maybe not Chicago style but I personally don't like Chicago style so it worked out.
I would likley eat here again if I was at the hotel.
Ok, I made good on my promise to give Aurelio's another try, and they did a much better job this time at living up to the Aurelio's standard than they have in the past. I was able to order immediately without being put on hold once, the pizza arrived on time, and the quality of the pizza was much better than it had been on the previous three occasions. The dough, while baked thoroughly throughout and lacking the "floury" and "doughy" taste that had plagued it recently, was a little uneven. About twice as thick on one side as it was on the other. Not a huge problem, but based on my recent negative experiences, everything is under a microscope.
So, Aurelio's keeps their three stars for now, and they will be put back into my pizza-delivery rotation, but it is going to take more than one decent experience to make up for the misses of the past. If I have learned anything about this location from looking at the other reviews, it is that this place is hit or miss. Let's hope they pull a hitting streak together.
Sometimes all you want is a piece (square... not wedge) of thin crust, cheese pizza. It's the stuff that Chicago childhoods are made of. I'm not talking New York, fold in half thin, or awful awful cracker thin from large pizza franchises, or even thin napoli style that you see ever so trendy.
Aurelio's Pizza reminds me of pizza parties that you had the honor of attending in grammar school. The ones that celebrated being on the basketball team, or scoring really well on geeky reading tests taken on a PowerMacintosh.... served with juiceboxes and milk, instead of pop and beer.
Whilst watching a rerun of Full House (no joke), and missing living on the southside, and missing when it was cool to rock overalls, I impulsively ordered a cheese pizza and anti-pasti salad. And, I'm glad I did. The crust is baked with just the right ratio of flour, cornmeal, and Chicago attitude that allows it to hold 4 pounds (give or take....) of cheese, a delicious sauce... and well... enough grease that you have to dab it with a napkin. Most people think that's unnecessary and gross... I think it's "home".
Ask them to "overcook" it just slightly... you won't be disappointed
There's nothing better on a Saturday afternoon than college football, wings, and beer. Â So after a traumatic dental appointment (they're all traumatic), Aurelio's made all my dreams come true.
They put the Michigan game on for me (it took a while to find, so I appreciate their patience), and pointed out that they have a 25 cent wing special when football is on. Â PERFECT! Â
I ordered 6 spicy, and 6 teriyaki, which came with a giant tub of blue cheese (THREE BUCKS!), and a bud, and I was contentment personified. Â
Michigan lost, but at least we had leftover wings and sausage/olive pizza to take home.
I grew up on the original Aurelio's, so of course I love it. Â It's simply the best pizza I have ever tasted and by a wide margin. Â Nothing comes close to this sweet, cheesy, unique slice from the gods. Â
Living in the city, I'd had to wean myself off of it since the nearest location was in the suburbs, and then they went and opened one right here in the city. Â Cha-ching. Â
Everyone I have introduced to Aurelio's has absolutely loved it and craved more of it. Â Some probably liked Aurelio's more than they liked me. Â I bet Aurelio's steals many a heart in that manner. Â
I'd recommend the thin crust pizza. Â If you're in the mood for a sandwich, they also have pretty good Italian Sausage and Italian Beef versions. Â
If you're going to order delivery you should realize that it's the city and you'll never know what you'll get or when it will arrive. Â Food delivery is spotty and inconsistent across the board in this city. Â That is an undeniable fact. Â Luckily, this puppy sprouted up right in my back yard, so I could fall out of bed and land there. Â He shoots, he scores. Â And he beat him like a rented mule.
Like Joe says, Aurelio's IS pizza. Â End of.
Ordered from here last night to a friend's place that lives nearby.
We got 2 thin-crusts:
1) Onions, Mushrooms, Green Peppers
2) Sausage, Mushrooms.
Very simply, this is good pizza. Â Flavors were solid and most notably, the slices were OVERFLOWING with TOPPINGS.
If you live in the area, then you should definitely always order from Aurelios and never order from Taylor Made Pizza ever again!
Last winter, we were trapped at work because of heavy snow. No one wanted to venture out there to grab lunch so my boss decided to order pizza. Domino's said they'd take forever to get here and at the time, we knew of no other pizza place. I drive by this place every morning so I mentioned it. We ordered, waited about 45 minutes and then dove in.
We were super hungry and yet we did not finish the pizza. I don't know how a pizza could taste so bad but it did. We ate for preservation but once it turned our stomachs, we put it down.
We had a pepperoni pizza and a taco pizza (my boss' idea). Their sauce is just too weird (too sweet) but I think we were so taken back by it because we've never had anything like that before. To me, it wasn't at all appetizing but to someone who grew up on that unique taste, maybe it's the best thing out there.
I don't want to give it a one because it was pizza, not cardboard. Just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't mean it wasn't edible. And no, we have never tried it again. We were traumatized during the first experience, we don't want to have a Round 2.
I made my return visit after a very very long hiatus from Aurelio's. It wasn't a bad experience that kept me away it was I just never came back. It is in kind of an out of the way area from the main loop foot traffic so I was pleased that there was not a massive crowd here on a Thursday evening.
The pizza was as good as I remember it to be. It is not my favorite pizza by any means but it is better than most places. They did not skimp on the ingredients and the thin crust was thick enough to support the amount of toppings they put on it. It drives me ABSOLUTELY BATTY when you order a thin crust pizza an the crust is wafer freaking thin making it difficult to eat. Ranting aside, this pizza did the trick.
Our waiter was fine, I was not not wowed with the service but I was not disappointed or turned off by it either. Most likely, we will be back for more when the craving hits.
My boyfriend and I went here tonight because we walked by on the way to going to the post office. Â Big mistake!
I don't understand all of these places in Chicago touting the title of "awards" for thin crust pizza. Â The pizza was awful. Â Way too much cheese which lead to insurmountable amounts of grease. Â The pizza was incredibly soggy due to the excessive amount of cheese.
The service was terrible and it took forever to get our food. Â Not to mention, we never received drink refills. Â
I will stick to thin crust at the small places that don't claim to win awards.
Best thin crust pizza there is.
Get a Super Six - sausage, pepperoni, ham, onion, green paper, and mushroom. Â That's been our favorite thin crust pizza since Joe Aurelio had his first pizza place in Homewood.
Atmosphere is friendly and clean. Â You can call ahead and order pizza for your arrival time. Â And they now have glutten-free pizza.
Went here for lunch for the lunch buffet. A buffet in the city? Yes. Haven't been to one of those in years. The salad bar was nothing to even mention. Just lettuce and fixin's. There was some selections of pasta. I just grabbed a little mostaccoili which was a bit dry. The garlic bread seemed like it was sitting out for days as it was very dry. The pizza was total grease. So needless to say not impressed.
But I won't shoot down this place completely. I'll give the menu a shot sometime and will be back to update my review. Maybe it'll be better than food that's been sitting out for a while on the buffet.
Absolutely the best Pizza in the city and unfortunately not a lot of people realize it. Â I frequented the Homewood location for 12 years. Â I now live further north and there isn't one near me. Â I ended up stumbling into this one across from the Post Office. Â Too bad this isn't in a better location. Â
Pizza is always hot and fresh, the sauce and crust are to die for. Â Kudos to Aurelio's, we need more city locations!
I LOVE THIS PIZZA.
My first job was at Pizza Hut and I smelled like onions for a year straight. Â I witnessed first-hand the disgusting and vile habits that come with preparing a pizza for the public. Â Things you don't want to know. Â Whatever, I still love it.
Their thin crust is delicious. Â When I was working at Pizza Hut, they had this "sweet sauce" that only came on the New Yorker and this limited edition Tuscan-style pizza that they ended up discontinuing. Â This sauce was amazing. Â Aurelio's sauce is of the same caliber.
OMG, and they put a thin layer of cheese under AND OVER the toppings.
Aurelio's rocks me.
Best thin-crust I've had so far. Â The sauce is sweet and the cheese is a blend of some sort. Â Highlights of my meal were the sausage/onion, and the pepperoni/green pepper. Â Good times with the delivery order.
The 'fiesta' sized pizzas are a bit soggy in the middle, but that's a small price to pay for something that tasty.
What's the deal with the large perforated shields on the pizza boxes? Â Are we supposed to collect them, then hand over a bagful for a fat discount?
We ordered Aurelio's last night while watching Kentucky basketball - Go Cats!
Anyway - we got thin crust with cheese, with olives, and with meatballs.
The plain cheese pizza was my least favorite. Â If that was all we had gotten, this place would be getting a 2 star rating. Â It was an odd blend of cheeses that were too sharp for pizza.
The olive pizza was delicious. Â I love black and green olives, and they piled them on. Â Yum.
The meatball pizza was fabulous! Â They used sausage-sized meatballs, but they were so much more tender and tasty than sausage! Â I will definitely order the meatball pizza again, and I highly recommend it.
Delivery was reasonably quick, but not exceptional. Â Price was more than Domino's but not exorbitant.
Let me begin by admitting my partiality. I used to deliver food for this place. The reason I am recommending it is that they have free wi-fi, a great staff, good food, and the most outstanding blues track I have ever heard. They tell me it is a feed off Sirus radio. It is great stuff, a lot of acoustic old masters, the real thing, outstanding.
I used to sit in here with my laptop and catch up on my email before work. I would order a pink lemonade and be off in cyberspace in a jiffy. I would get regularly brought back to earth by the great blues though. If you love blues, come and sit here and order a great classic thin crust pizza and dig on the great music.
Or if you live in the neighborhood, order some of their excellent pizza. Just don't forget: tip a delivery guy like you would a waiter, at least 15%!
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