Food / Drink The Official Pizza Review Thread

Shawn1112

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Unfortunately they've gone waaayyy downhill in the last 5 years. Basically grew up in that place. No where near the same. Even the veteran wait staff will admit its different.
No shit, did you live over there, if so when and where? My aunt owned the Blind Duck (bar 2 blocks west on same side of street.). My first job was delivering prescriptions for Keeler Pharmacy a block west.
Did you know Papo Pazos, used to cook pizzas in that front window back in the early 90’s.
 

Spivitz

The Throttle is ur friend
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Shawn1112 Shawn1112
BS ISF BS ISF

On point

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Sprayin

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I was downtown yesterday wrapping up some last minute plans for the wedding, and figured I'd check a box off on one of the pizzas that gets really great reviews by "critics" - Labriola Chicago. Place is always jam packed full when I've looked in the past, so I figured it was going to be good. They told us an hour for a seat, but there were tons of open spots at the bar so we sat down.

Ordered some garlic knots as an appetizer, and a small deep dish cheese for the entree. The garlic knots were flame. They were like a crossaint mixed with a garlic knot. Absolutely top notch. Then the pizza came.

Pizza is supposed to be the Burt Katz style pizza - more of an airy crust, caramelized cheese on the crust, and a thicker sauce, served still in the pan. While it definitely had all the right elements, it was just done poorly. The crust was overly fluffy. It was almost soft it was so fluffy. It kind of had a similar consistency to a cake, which is just kind of weird on a pizza. To back that up, it was kind of sweet, which is not something a crust on a pizza should ever be. The sauce was clumpy, so it wouldn't really cover the whole slice, but rather just be in patches over the top and wanted to slide off the slice the whole time. The cheese was solid, but that's hard to screw up.

I was really disappointed in this pizza. I can't imagine anyone having this and think that it represents a good Chicago style deep dish. It wasn't a bad pizza, but it definitely is towards the bottom of my deep dish list. I put Lou Malnati's over it, and you all know how I feel about Lou's.

Score: 6.9/10

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Shawn1112

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I was downtown yesterday wrapping up some last minute plans for the wedding, and figured I'd check a box off on one of the pizzas that gets really great reviews by "critics" - Labriola Chicago. Place is always jam packed full when I've looked in the past, so I figured it was going to be good. They told us an hour for a seat, but there were tons of open spots at the bar so we sat down.

Ordered some garlic knots as an appetizer, and a small deep dish cheese for the entree. The garlic knots were flame. They were like a crossaint mixed with a garlic knot. Absolutely top notch. Then the pizza came.

Pizza is supposed to be the Burt Katz style pizza - more of an airy crust, caramelized cheese on the crust, and a thicker sauce, served still in the pan. While it definitely had all the right elements, it was just done poorly. The crust was overly fluffy. It was almost soft it was so fluffy. It kind of had a similar consistency to a cake, which is just kind of weird on a pizza. To back that up, it was kind of sweet, which is not something a crust on a pizza should ever be. The sauce was clumpy, so it wouldn't really cover the whole slice, but rather just be in patches over the top and wanted to slide off the slice the whole time. The cheese was solid, but that's hard to screw up.

I was really disappointed in this pizza. I can't imagine anyone having this and think that it represents a good Chicago style deep dish. It wasn't a bad pizza, but it definitely is towards the bottom of my deep dish list. I put Lou Malnati's over it, and you all know how I feel about Lou's.

Score: 6.9/10

View attachment 99799
Just looking at it would make me take a hard pass
 

bmoore04

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Anyone know of any good places further west? I have been to lil pops in Naperville its ok for NY style pizza. Mostly get Aurelios or Addantes in Wheaton (Sometimes ill drive to GH to get Josephs) . Full disclosure I like thicker doughier type pizzas. I will add Fiamme to my to try list next time I head towards Naperville.
 

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Anyone know of any good places further west? I have been to lil pops in Naperville its ok for NY style pizza. Mostly get Aurelios or Addantes in Wheaton (Sometimes ill drive to GH to get Josephs) . Full disclosure I like thicker doughier type pizzas. I will add Fiamme to my to try list next time I head towards Naperville.

Have you tried Macianos?
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
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Elgin
Since you're coming in to Joesph's (on Bloomingdale Road I presume), at Army Trail, Generoso is also good.

Further west... Charlie Fox's in Geneva (there is also a Batavia take out and a St. Charles restaurant). But in Winfield, it's a straight shot west down 38. This is the place I delivered for, for years.
 
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Sprayin

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Down in Maui for my honeymoon and I see a place advertising for "deep dish pizza" so naturally I had to have it. It's been voted the best pizza in town or whatever (they all say this bullshit), so I had to test that too. Name of the place is Lahaina Pizza Co in Lahaina, HI.

Pizza comes out served in the pan still (definitely gets points here). You can definitely tell places that read how to make deep dish on the internet somewhere but don't actually understand it.

They had most of the correct elements. It was similar to the Burt Katz style deep dish, where is has the caramelized crust on it. It had chunks of tomatoes on top. The crust was definitely the best part of the pizza. It had the right thickness, right consistency, and was buttered the way it should be. They lost it on both the cheese and the sauce.

The cheese was just low quality cheese. I can somewhat forgive this because of where we are at. They don't exactly have access to top notch Wisconsin cheese. There just wasn't all that much cheese on the pizza in general though. More would make a big difference here.

The sauce was by far the worst part of the pizza. For starters, it was under the cheese and not placed on top where it belongs (seriously what the fuck.) There was barely any sauce on the pizza too. They put these roasted tomatoes on top of the cheese and they totally get lost on the pizza. The sauce mixed in with the tomatoes is what makes the taste. Such a miss on that.

The Pizza has potential of they had any idea what they were doing in the kitchen. For Hawaii, it's solid, and nice to see something other than thin crust NY bullshit.

Score: 6.0/10

Putting sauce on top alone would probably bump this up a full point.

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Thirdgen89GTA

Aka "That Focus RS Guy"
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No pics. Had a family party last week and the restaurant of choice was Papa Passeros.

Damned good pizza.

 
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Pro Stock John

LS is the best engine
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We tried Pizzaboy in Edison Park today, I was pretty pleased. My kids got a pepperoni thin crust, I first tried that. Was like a NY style very hot cheese pizza with Chicago crust if that makes sense.

For me I had 2 slices of already made Detroit Pizza. I really loved it, the crunch, the caramelized crust, so good. The slices I got were called the Don so they look a little fancy in this pic. I'll definitely go again, and now that I know they have slices I might go again this week lol.

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