Chicago: Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Neo

My sister has lived in Chicago for 40 years and they always brag about Lou Malnati's. I do not know that location. But if you like NY style pizza, it will taste like Bisquick with ketshup. When it cools you can use it as a parking lot barrier.

Anyone who lives in Chicago toes the party line.

Hi NeoPatrick,

If you are a fan of Chicago deep dish, Lou's is a great choice. The menu also offers thin crust pizza, appetizers, homemade soups, salads, pasta, sandwiches, and desserts. The food is nothing fancy but has been consistently good anytime we have visited. Enjoy Chicago!!! It is one of my favorite cities!!!

Lou's has thin crust pizza also, and their deep dish isn't as thick and bready as some others. I think there is cornmeal in the crust. It's good pizza, I'd recommend it as an easy & tasty option for your meal after Million Dollar Quartet.

Aduchamp, I cannot agree with you more in your description of Chicago deep dish, so I guess I'm really not sure what kind of recommendation I'm asking for here. I love a thin crust place called Pizzeria Via Stato, but I've already been vetoed on anything that isn't "Chicago style deep dish".

Weird. My previous post didn't post until I came back here just now. Meanwhile two more responses. Isabella, I'm thrilled that they also have thin crust. This just seems like a good bet as I don't see us running around in the horrible weather this weekend -- and it's apparently almost next door to the theatre -- one parking spot for two events!

I ate at Lou Malnati's about 5 years ago and it was just okay. If your friend likes deep dish then maybe he will like this pizza but I didn't think that it was anything special. I live in Buffalo and from my experience, we have better pizza at a number of pizzerias here. (Little known fact, ask anyone from Buffalo)

Neo

Did you agree to deep dish? Maybe you can order something else?

you know I travel all over the world and always manage to eat the "local" cuisine. Some is fantastic. Some is God awful. Why should Chicago be any different? But Isabella has said I can get thin crust. How bad can it be? Hey, I've had some inedible pizza in NYC too, you know. And besides, I chose Gibson's for Saturday night, I may not even be hungry by Sunday anyway!

If you get thin crust and the other guy gets the deep dish, I would suggest at least trying a piece of his deep dish. Like I stated previously, it's not a real bready deep dish. The crust is butter crust, it's sort of a cross between thin & deep, it's a bit unique. Gibson's is good, you'll enjoy the atmosphere there! Have fun in Chicago, we are suppose to get 6-12 inches of snow here tomorrow and really cold on Saturday, so you'll get the full experience.

>>But if you like NY style pizza, it will taste like Bisquick with ketshup. When it cools you can use it as a parking lot barrier. <<

BINGO! Boy is that funny.

Patrick, I think the pizza tastes like a whole lotta dough with sweet sauce. One piece must have 800 calories. You're gonna need your stretch waist pants after going to Gibsons and then Lous. But thats how we do in Chicago!

BTW, we have about 2" on the ground out here by Ohare so far, with 8" more predicted. United has already cancelled 30% of their flights today so I hope you are already here.

No, I'm scheduled to arrive tomorrow at 1:25 PM.

Put this weekend in the "what on earth was I thinking?" category. It files in the same category right before my one month long trip to NYC beginning next week. There's supposed to be a reason some of us live in South Florida -- and I guess I somehow forgot what that reason is.

NP, consider yourself an intrepid explorer. That sounds better than "what on earth was I thinking?", doesn't it? You might even get to see the snow here while it's still white.

Honestly, though, you'll have to keep checking as many flights are being canceled, even as I am typing this.

Lou Malnati's certainly isn't my favorite. For one thing, a big patty of sausage isn't my preference. Quite frankly, I don't care that much for deep-dish either (although some stuffed pizzas around town aren't too bad), prefer thin crust.

Since you are sampling one of Chicago's greatest contributions to world cuisine (said tongue-in-cheek, of course)- and since you'll be over by DePaul - you two might want to try another: hot dogs. You might want to check out the menu at this one (if only on the internet on MenuPages): Chicago's Dog House. It's 3 blocks straight down N. Lincoln Ave. (passing the Biograph Theatre), then just to the west on Fullerton.

Are you seeing anything else while you are in town?

Funny. I finally hit Chowhound for Chicago and seemed to find a pretty overwhelming majority of RAVES for Lou Malnati! It also had a strong majority favoring Gibson's over Chicago Chop House -- so glad I already booked that.

No, that's the only show. Funny thing. This trip happened because a friend of mine had business meetings this afternoon and tomorrow in Chicago, had a hotel for the weekend and said, "come on up". I got really cheap flights (duh, who in their right mind would be going to Chicago from Florida this time of year?) When the weather started getting bad yesterday he headed on up to Chicago last night. But today they canceled all the meeting for today and tomorrow, but he has the prepaid hotel room -- so I'm still going -- IF I can get there. Oddly the flight I'm taking tomorrow was on time today! I guess that's a good sign? Who knows.

Just depends on a person's taste.

Just a run-down for others who will be viewing this thread: Metromix is the Chicago Tribune's entertainment website. The SunTimes connects to CenterstageChicago. The Chicago Reader also has their list, as well as Time Out Chicago.

Malnati doesn't place in Yelp's top 10 pizza places (came in at 11th) but is higher up on the above ones.

GQ named tiny little Great Lake pizza the best in the nation. (Thin crust.) So, of course, the stampede begins.

If you want to do any further research, I think that Lthforum might be one you want to consult as well. However, I think that the proximity of the place is the deciding factor.

Although I was joking about our cuisine's claim to fame, my recommendation for Chicago's Dog House was sincere. Even though there is much hype about the spot, it's not a Hot Doug's experience, though.

Re: the steaks. I didn't respond on your other thread because, although I've been to all of the ones mentioned (as well as some others not indicated) in the past, I really don't go out for steaks often enough to comment on them.

I have to admit I had a really great steak at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab about a couple of months ago. If I was picking a Lettuce Entertain You Enterprise restaurant, I'd go with Joe's over Wildfire.

And a very, very nice lunch at Capital Grille maybe six months (?) back.

Hope everything goes well for you tomorrow, NP.

Yes. The Chowhound comments about Gibson's seem to say while the steaks are great, others may be better, but most seemed to say for the "quintessential" Chicago bar and steak experience, Gibson's is hard to beat.

And while no one will ever agree on who has the best pizza (since tastes clearly vary so much on that score) you're right that the idea that we will already be right next door to Lou Malnati's which IS often spouted as one of the best -- that just seems too logical a choice to go guessing and running around in the snow, wind, and cold to experiement with others.

Malnati doesn't place in Yelp's top 10 pizza places (

That is the first positive thing about Malnati's I have read.

True story: I was leaving my workplace one evening (at the top of the Magnificent Mile) when this group of German tourists (who spoke very, very little English - except one fellow who spoke almost OK broken English) wanted to find a steakhouse. I attempted to explain where Gibson's was but it wasn't working.

So I just walked them to it. (It was only about 1.5 blocks from where they had stopped me.) They wanted to buy me dinner as thanks but I declined, of course.

Anyway, it was pretty funny in retrospect because they also wanted to know where to go to get a drink. I kept pointing up at the Signature Lounge (96th floor of the John Hancock Centre) right across the street. They finally got what I was saying after some minutes, but you should have seen their faces before the light dawned!

Amen, Auduchamp. I'm not fond of a lot of rating lists, but Yelp is one of the worst. For fun I looked at their best Chicago Steakhouses and as far as I went -- pages -- Gibson's never even appeared, but places like Lone Star and the delightful Vietnamese restaurant Le Colonial did. Do they even know what a steakhouse is?

One of the best meals we've enjoyed ever, anywhere on the planet, was at Frontera Grill. And, we're not really fans of that sort of cuisine. Honestly, we were wandering by (it was around the corner from our hotel), had heard of it, knew they didn't take reservations, but the aromas were incredible and a table was available! I was thrilled, of course, when Rick Bayless won Top Chef Masters!

We also really like Ditka's (have even "run into" Mike there a few times). The food is excellent (love the chopped salad). Great place for brunch. To my observation, Mr. Ditka is doing a fine job of running the sort of restaurant he likes to patronize.

But, we never waste a dining opportunity of things like pizza - because who wants to find better pizza than you can get at home?

I could not agree more about Yelp. It is appropriately named since ARF was taken. The one for NYC has mysterious choices.

djkbooks, Frontera Grill has sort of fond (and not so fond) memories for me. That's the place where Lee and I were having lunch a year ago October when he suddenly was passing out. EMS came and he ended up spending the night in Northwestern Hospital. The manager of Frontera Grill couldn't have been nicer despite all the chaos we caused with the paremedics, the guerney, etc. He comped our meal and drinks which we had just finished, and even sent me a nice note later hoping everything was fine. I've since realized that day was kind of "the beginning of the end" as it's when they told me at Northwestern that he was starting to "shut down" and the passing out was essentially his Alzheimers interferring with the brain telling the body to stay awake. But yes, I loved that place, even better than its more expensive sister adjacent called Topolobampo.

We had a Ditka's here in Naples and it closed. General consensus was it was mediocre. I never went.

Ok, I will chime in here...
I do love Lou's deep dish and have probably tried every pizza place in Chicago and lived to tell. My favorite place would be unrealistic for you to get to. That said, I'd try Lou's. I am not a fan of the sausage either. It's just a personal taste thing.

I am so with exiled here...You must try a Chicago style dog when you are here.

Since Frontera was mentioned...I also love that place! Everytime I eat there I am left to dream about it until the next visit. Make reservations!

You know Great Lakes was just ok. If you want that Naples style pizza in Chicago go with Spacca Napoli.

Oh heck get some steak too while you are here. Gibson's is a great idea.

Now you need to figure out how to eat so much food!!

This is not in defense of Yelp, in particular, but this applies to every one of these websites I've mentioned. They can all be fairly easily manipulated, IMHO.

I never look at a single website if I'm reseaching restaurants, always three (and possibly more). That's why I mentioned all of those above, although there are many more I could include. To be honest, I have heard and read some criticisms of Chowhound as well as the others.

And it's even a very good thing to check the city's health department to see information on the restaurant's past health violations/closures. You'd be surprised at some of the restaurants who've had problems - one is even just mentioned above, just recently too.

What I do is look for are *patterns* in the reviews - slow service, lost reservations, food issues, etc. Not that I'm going to read 100+ reviews of the same restaurant on the same site.

That being said, NP, I couldn't believe that Gibson's wasn't mentioned on the Yelp website under Chicago steakhouses (highest rated). I did a quick check and do see it's the #13th highest-rated steakhouse in Chicagoland (that includes suburban restaurants), based on 289 reviews (as of now).

I do wish, though, that they (and other websites) didn't include all the restaurants in the Chicagoland area (including the 'burbs) in these searches. (That's why you get places such as the LongHorn Steakhouse in Norridge on a Chicago list.)

IMHO, should definitely be separated into Chicago and suburbs on the initial search. Advanced searches can be started from there.

I hope that your trip here (if you get here) is an enjoyable one, despite the weather.

Having been to Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, and Uno's in Chicago, my hands down favorite is Giordano's, and my favorite location is on Rush Street. However, there are lots of other locations! The spinach stuffed is incredible, but I also love their thin crust pizza.

http://www.giordanos.com/

Sandy

sandypaws, is that the place where you write on the walls?
Our pizza at Malnati's last night was good -- nothing great. But certainly better than some of the descriptions here, and despite being deep dish, the crust really wasn't that thick or doughy. My friend really likes deep dish and he mentioned a place on Rush where you write on the walls that was "much better".

Gino's East is where you write on the walls. The original is right by the Hancock

I've had deep dish at Lou Malnatti's, Giordano's (where they do stuffed crust style deep dish), and Gino's East. I don't think you can go wrong at any of them if you like this style of pizza, though I preferred Gino's East slightly (this last has a yellowish crust that's heavier on cornmeal). It is a heavier and more filling pizza than New York style, though. Consider the option of paying a little extra for a butter-crust deep dish if you go to Lou M's.

Sorry I didn't get to read this until today. I have homes in Chicago suburbs and Florida. We were in Chicago this weekend and had Lou's pizza (deep dish). And last week, there was a Chicago reunion party in Florida where they had Lou's pizza shipped in (along with Vienna hot dogs and Eli's cheesecake). Hope you enjoyed your dinner at Gibson's. Next time your are in town, try Quartino's (owned by Gibson group) near the Dana Hotel.