Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

I should preface this review by stating I have tried just about every pizza place in the Chicagoland area.  Okay, maybe that is impossible, but it sure feels that way!  I am so picky that I will only frequent 4-5 different places.  This is absolutely one of them.  Hands down the best pizza I have ever eaten.  I am very picky, so I tend to order my Chicago style pizza "my way", which is an embarrassingly long order of "easy this and extra that", however when they get it right, man is it right!  I am docking this location one star because they do not deliver to my house in downtown Des Plaines (which is only 1.5 miles away). This is by far the closest location to my house (which is in a major area), so I am surprised they do not want to tackle this market.  Typically, I would say this is the companies loss...however in this case, I truly feel it is my loss!

I've visited Chicago several times, and I've had all the pizza that you're supposed to have when visiting here. But Lou Malnalti's stands out by far as the best. The buttery crunchy crust is delicious, and it's not so much dough that the bread is overwhelming. The ingredients are of the highest quality. But it's the sweet taste of the tomatoes and sauce that takes the cake for me. Though this location is a take out, the staff was incredibly helpful and friendly, and they even offered to get my pizza done quicker because I was on a deadline. I'm a NY pizza person by preference, but this pizza is as good as it gets in Chicago, and I will continue to seek it out when I come here.

I love Lou Malnati's pizza but I'll never again pick it up at this location. The salad had a huge piece of wire in it. When I called to let the manager know, he said in his broken english "oh well, accidents happen." No apologies, nothing. Then he said in an angry tone "what do you want, new salad or your money back?" I couldn't believe it. I said had I eaten the wire, it could've killed me and no, I don't want another salad. He kind of laughed it off and repeated his question. Still no apologies. I asked for all of my money back since I'd lost my appetite and couldn't eat the pizza either. He started to argue until I mentioned contacting the Park Ridge health dept. He reluctantly agreed and was rude through the entire conversation. Needless to say, I won't be going back there any time soon. I think the problem comes from lack of good management and quality control. They also need to hire less kids to work there. One of these days, someone will get seriously sick eating there.