Monical's Pizza

I love this pizza...and I'm a Chicagoan.  My mom grew up in one of the shittylittletowns nearby and when visiting family, Monical's became the place to go out to eat.  I normally don't like thin crust, but they just somehow get it right.  Super thin without overloading the toppings to weigh it down.  

Perhaps it's not fair to review Monical's as I've only EVER eaten their pizza, breadsticks and salad, but I love it.  I make trips down here just for the pizza.  Forget family, I want breadsticks & nacho cheese!  I've brought many friends here, all whom are skeptical about the pizza being good and the drive being worth it but they always end up with my leftovers, because I'm just that nice.  

Honestly, the food really isn't anything special.  The breadsticks are pre-cooked and warmed up in the microwave (which is also why they re-heat so poorly).  The salad is your basic iceberg topped with cheese, large tomato wedges and carrots and the sauce on the pizza doesn't have any flavor that makes you say "wow, that sauce was amazing!".....but it's good pizza.  

This actually isn't my preferred location as I find the staff to be....annoying, but it suffices when I'm not paying attention and get off at the wrong exit (this location is right off 57).

Never had a bad experience with the service or anything. Staff is friendly.  My issue is with the pizza, just not my style. This place has a predominantly local following i.e. you only really like this food if you grew up on it. I'm a Chicago transplant so I prefer the deep dish or stuffed style of pizza. Monicals is ultra thin which can be OK if flavorful, but the sauce is lackluster and sparing, the cheese is greasy, and the crust too thin to possess any discernible flavor. It basically reminds me of what a Tombstone pizza would be if ate fresh and never fozen. A telltale sign of the pizza's shortcomings: everyone raves how good it is when topped with french dressing... A truly good pizza would not need such an outlandish addition to give it good flavor.

Very clean and the pizza is REALLY yummy! Some of the best pizza I've ever had in my 30+ years. We were the only ones in the dining room and our server was friendly but slow.  She was a teenager, though.

The dining room was spotless.