Nero's Pizza and Pub

I love their thin crust pizza! The atmosphere is definitely lacking. This isn't really a place you'd want to bring your family, unless there's room away from the bar. It's definitely a "local" joint. But if you're just ordering pizza to go, we usually get thin crust with pepperoni and/or the BLT pizza. Both are quite yummy!

In the far Northwestern suburbs of Chicago, Algonquin is a sleepy burg, with its share of housing divisions and strip malls. In one such mall, on Algonquin Road, you'll find Nero's Pizza and Pub , a full menu restaurant and bar, open from 11AM daily.

On the Monday nite following Superbowl, we expected to find the joint deserted, but the bar was busy with the local regulars, and the restaurant had several tables taken as well.

Our waitress was friendly and helpful.

My guest went with an Italian Beef/Sausage combo (2nd foto below), accompanied by fries and slaw.   It was excellent.   I went with the thin crust pizza, sausage and pepperoni, also excellent.   There was a slight char on the crust, which didn't put me off.

The tomato sauce was a bit sweeter than East Side Joey's, down the road,  but nice nevertheless.

While I would say I preferred Joey's toppings,  either pie is worth going to if you are in the NW burbs.

Pizza always sounds like a good idea to me, and when the craving grabs hold, it usually doesn't let go until I satisfy it.  This time, when I heard the pizza call, the hubs and I decided to give Nero's a try.  Seeing as I was already  in pajamas (at 5 in the afternoon, thank you very much), my hungrier half decided he could swing by and pick up a carryout order on his way home from work.

For about $31, we got a large (18") 1 topping thin crust pizza, a huge order of fries and an order of chicken wings (hey, don't judge; we like a lot of leftovers).  Everything was ready to go in 20 mins, and it was all piping hot when we opened it all up.  

I thought it was sort of weird that the chicken wings came naked, with the wing sauce on the side, but it made for a crispier chicken wing that was much appreciated.  The sauce was standard wing sauce, although it did have a nice spiciness and vinegar kick to it, which was much appreciated.

The fries were nice & hot, a good mixture of soggy and crispy ones to accommodate varying tastes in french fry crispness (this is a good thing in our house, since I tend to pick out all the mushy ones and eat them first, while the husband prefers the crunch of a crispy fry.).  This order of fries definitely kept the peace in the house.

The pizza was decent.  While it's not a "choir of angels" good type pizza, it wasn't greasy, the toppings were ample, and it was well cooked (crust was crispy without being overcooked).  The squares are huge, so unless you're a 13 year old boy or a linebacker, I'd start loading up your plate modestly and go back for seconds.

While I don't have much experience with the restaurant's patrons, I will have to say that I feel like we got a decent meal (or 5) at a price that's good enough to keep Nero's on the short list of local pizza places that we will go back to again.