Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Right off the plane, my gf and I decided to hit up Lou's for our first encounter with Chicago deep dish... and unfortunately, it was a total letdown.

We ordered the Malnati Salad and Spinach Bread to start off with. The salad was full of bold flavors that hit the taste buds, flavor after flavor... truly amazing and something unlike I've had before. The balance of sweet, salty and that acidity from the vinegar was PERFECT. The spinach bread was pretty good, but nothing spectacular here.

Onto the pizza: pepperoni and mushroom deep dish, butter crust. I'm not sure if it was an off day, but we felt totally skimped on toppings and cheese. We both agreed that all we tasted was a flat, under-seasoned tomatoey base; it literally tasted like the sauce was straight from a can, untouched. The crust was golden, but was pretty bland in its crispy state. It tasted absolutely nothing like how I expected it to taste.

I REALLY wanted to love this place. After reading review after review in planning our trip, needless to say... Lou's didn't live up to the hype.

Even though we went to a small bit of effort to pre-order for a group of 20+ people and made clear what time we would arrive, our orders were not even close to being ready upon arrival. However the manager on duty, Mike, did apologize and accept blame and made good with free desserts for one-and-all. Under the circumstances that was fair and appreciated.

What can I say....I love Lou Malnati's and living in Arizona I come back to Chicago and have to eat here. The new Gold Coast location is roomy, comfortable and provides outdoor seating (not when I was there in winter) via an area that can be opened by a garage door of glass.   The menu is the same at every location. I'd have given them 5 stars but the staff was a little slow to respond and check in. When arriving we had two children (one is 3 yr and one is 18 mo) but they only gave us one children's coloring placement/crayons.  No one appeared at the table after we were seated so I had to hunt down the hostess for another set.   The food is simply amazing. We had deep dish pepperoni/sausage and a thin crust cheese.   It was delicious and worth the trip!