Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

The pizza at Lou Malnati's is perfect comfort food. I had the Malnatis Chicago Classic with butter crust. It was good! I ordered a medium, but honestly a personal pan would have been enough. The medium was pretty large, but made for good leftovers the following day!

There is a back story. 30 years ago, I came to Chicago to visit a friend. I picked up a frozen pizza to take back home with me. When I arrived at our apartment, I put it into the 400 degree oven just like I was I instructed. My newly married husband was so excited to see me that he distracted me from the pizza. It had only been in the oven for 10 minutes when the fire alarm went off. I quickly opened the oven door and the entire top was charred. I vowed to one day make it back for the real deal. On special occasions, we would have a frozen pizza delivered to our apartment, so I was excited to see if there is a difference between frozen and fresh. Very happy that I can check this off of the bucket list. The frozen is good, but it tastes better fresh out of the oven.

I stopped by for a sweet treat to end a girls' day out. Here's how it went down:

Despite being quoted a long wait, we were pleasantly surprised to be seated within minutes of arriving. That's always a good start! We decided to indulge in the chocolate chip pizza skillet, and it was pretty tasty, that definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.

Our server, Felix, deserves a special shout-out. He was super personable and made our whole dining experience a blast. They really added to the fun vibe of the evening.

I came to Lou Malnati's right when it opened and there was already people gradually getting seated. The staff made sure we knew that the pizzas would take around 25 minutes to make when we ordered. So, I ordered the stuffed spinach bread to eat while waiting for the pizza and it was the best spinach bread I ever had, definitely recommend this appetizer!!!
In terms of the deep dish pizza, I never had deep dish pizza before so I had no expectations but the pizza was really fresh and had a lot of cheese, tomato sauce and toppings. However the crust was a little hard.

Overall, a great experience but the wait time for the pizza might be a little long. So be ready for the wait!

Service: As soon as we walked in, we felt welcomed. Simone and Michelle are perfect for their jobs at the front. Friendly and warm, no matter how busy it was

Our party of 2 was able to be seated right away. We truly got lucky, because without a reservation, wait times get lengthy.

Food: Sooooo good. We got the caesar salad and Buffa-Lou wings to start. 0 complaints. I thought I was going to have to complain just a little because they didn't have blue cheese, only ranch. BUT, our waitress, Lexi, suggested the gorgonzola dipping sauce, and it was phenomenal. Thick and chunky, just like blue cheese, with a great taste. 10/10. The salad was delicious too. I dont think ive ever had tomatoes on a Caesar, but it worked. And the croutons were so soft.

The pizza!!! The moment we've all been waiting for....was ruined when a different lady came and say the pizza down, and just started putting slices on our plates. No greeting, no opportunity for a photo or epic cheese pull. It happened sooo quickly, and we were a little disappointed that experience got taken. But, overall it was still delicious. The Small is definitely enough for two, especially after appetizers.

Glad we chose this location!! It had better ratings than the busier one on Michigan Ave, and I see why.

This is an absolute must in Chicago! The food is soooo good! We had 5 people and ordered one large pizza, along with the spinach stuffed bread and it was more than enough food. Service was excellent and the atmosphere was casual and fun. The inside is huge and plenty of seating available. Highly recommend! My fav deep dish pizza in the city!

When visiting Chicago, a visit to a deep dish pizza joint is a must, and this is a great option!! It is very conveniently located, about a 10 to 15 minute easy walk from the intersection of Lake/Michigan Ave. There is another Lou Malnati's on the way but I think it's more of a take-out (instead of a sit-down). The restaurant was not very big and it was already crowded by the time we got there (around 5pm). But if you opt for the bar (which we did), you could usually avoid the wait. The service was pretty good, they were very prompt even with the crowd.

We ordered Chicago Classic and The Lou, two of their iconic choices. Both were excellent as expected. As travelers, we got the personal size pizza, as we didn't want to carry the leftovers with us. In addition, we got a minestrone soup and a Caesar salad with chicken. Even with the personal size, we could barely finish the food! Good thing we took a nice stroll back via the Riverwalk area.

Overall, we were very satisfied with the experience: the casual ambience, the speedy and friendly staff, the price, and most of all, the food! We'll be back the next time we visit Chicago!

We ate lunch here for the deep dish pizza. It was great how the restaurant reached out ahead to get our pizza orders. The deep dish sausage, pepper, olive was delicious. Thick tomato pieces and cheese, crust is like a dessert.

A great place to try Chicagos iconic deep dish pizza. I shared a medium deep sausage pizza with my mom and it was more than enough. It takes about 30 minutes for them to make the deep dish pizza. To avoid this wait, call them ~20 min before you arrive. You can order salads and the other dishes once you're seated.

We came in at 2pm on Saturday and the restaurant was at ~25% capacity. It's seems like it was recently renovated. Clean and well decorated with baseball memorabilia. Waiters were quick and efficient too!

sausage pizza: Buttery cornmeal crust, thin sausage patty spread across the entire pizza, a generous amount of cheese, and chunky tomato sauce. Crust was perfectly crisp, not dry and not soggy from all the sauce. You'll definitely need to fork and knife this pizza. Great crust to filling ratio! But next time, I'd ask for extra sauce. I like a soggier pizza :)

Flavor-wise, it's good considering this place is a chain. But not mind blowing. A solid first taste of Chicagos famous dish.

I had heard a lot of mixed reviews when it came to the chicago style deep dish. Lou Malnati's completely changed that opinion. Their classic deep dish is as good as it gets. Their deep dish is not about overwhelming with the cheese but finding the perfect balance between a crunchy savoury crust, the marinara sauce and a healthy amount of delectable sausage.

The calamari was crispy and pretty fresh plus the bloody mary was okay at best. Both of those would be a solid 3.5/5 but the pie was a 6/5 for sure! Must try for all