A common theme at many “Malnati’s” restaurants is a lack of parking. For a place that does this amount of volume, they sure have tiny parking lots. Once inside you immediately spot Chicago sports memorabilia and celebrity photos. My favorite piece is the bench made out of baseball bats and bases that you are actually allowed to sit on, and is surprisingly comfortable.
My buddy and I sit down and need to decide on an appetizer. Normally my favorite is the mozzarella garlic bread or a Malnati’s salad but we opt today instead for the sampler platter. The platter contains mozzarella sticks, fried mushrooms, fried zucchini, and fried cheddar cubes. Each item is crisp and deliciously bad for you, but you don’t go here to eat healthy. If you want to feel better, get the salad because it is awesome! It has bacon, tomato, black olives, blue cheese, and a great sweet onion dressing.
Main course is a sausage, pepperoni, and half spinach pizza with butter crust. Make sure you ask for the butter crust, it’s fifty cents more but makes the pizza almost twice as good. The pizza comes out piping hot and it is amazing! The crust is buttery and crisp; the toppings are big and plentiful. Big chunks of tomato instead of traditional smooth pizza sauce and the best tasting sausage around make this a real winner! This pizza truly is a meal; you need a fork and knife to handle all this goodness. If you’ve never eaten here before, shame on you, this is the best pizza in all of Chicago and anywhere else for that matter.
Last order of business is dessert. Dessert for me only today was the chocolate chip cookie pizza. It’s a large chocolate chip cookie served warm in a deep dish pan, and then topped with vanilla ice cream and whip cream. While the whip cream is not homemade it still tastes good and so does the rest of the dessert.
Final bill with tip for us was about $40, not bad for how much food we had. “Lou Malnati’s” sets the standard for Chicago style pizza and should be enjoyed by all. Overall rating **** out of ****.
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