Chicago's Original — Restaurant in Allen

Yeah, so I was debating whether to post this review...I really like the idea of this being a small mom and pop pizza shop where quality seems to matter. I got a deep dish and thin crust, deep dish pepperoni was decent; and thin crust was pretty good, especially the following day-- warmed up in a toaster oven on the pizza setting. The first con is the price-- much higher than most of the pizza places around, and the difference didn't seem to reflect on the quality or craftsmanship of the pizza, but that's ok, I made the decision to try them out. I actually decided to try them based on a Nextdoor rec, and overall the pizza is alright, even at the higher markup than their local competitors. I really wanted to like them. But here's the thing. The older gentleman who rang me up when I picked up the order (there's no option to pay online via credit card and get it brought to the car-- you have to pay either cash or CC at the store) wasn't wearing a mask. There was a child sitting to the left of the pickup area working on homework-- not wearing a mask. And the woman who finished preparing my order and brought it up to the older man to hand over to me WAS wearing a mask, but only as a chin guard. I understand it gets hot in the store. But if I can stand to wear a mask through a 5 hour arduous surgery, I would expect the people who handle what goes into their customers' mouths could do the same. And then there's the law...So, after much personal debate, I feel that people need to know the reality of the situation here. The food is OK. And I really did want to like this new pizza shop, but there's a clear disregard for public safety, and I feel like I would be doing a disservice to others if I kept quiet about this.

EDIT: Your response shows your character and business ethic, and reiterates your unwillingness to follow sanitary measures.

My primary message here is PLEASE PUT ON A MASK!

You stated, "Public Safety [is] a big priority here." Clearly not. You stated I "did not seek all and true facts." I guess I didn't realize that the "older man" has a regular habit of forgetting to put on a mask whenever he goes into customer areas. My mistake. The health department should be aware of this, I'm glad to report if you won't. Covid is an airborne virus--that's correct! Good job, at least you get this! That means you're not allowed to make exceptions for your staff regularly "forgetting" to put on PPE when ringing up customers, or for family members in public places without a mask. But you still proudly admit to these violations! On the menu you have online there is NO option to have the order delivered to the car. So you're again admitting liability by stating "there is even a sign on OUR COUNTER that states "Wait in your car if your order is not ready." The sign is INSIDE, so customers WON'T SEE IT UNTIL THEY PICK UP THE ORDER IN PERSON. Use common sense, don't blame the customer. I'm a person trying to survive this pandemic just like your business, so please don't get me sick. You not wearing a mask while ringing me up is YOU attacking ME, not the other way around. You need to use my original review to make proactive changes, not make excuses and lash out in anger--for the sake of anyone who goes into your establishment in the future.

And no one said you're conning anyone, I don't know where you're getting this. The 'con' is the 'down side' as in, "pro and con," get it? By the way, your deep dish is the only pizza I tossed the following day as it did not heat up well and congealed. But I'm not badmouthing you. I said your pizza was decent. The issue is SAFETY. You have no defense in that regard. Particularly after your reply, others need to be aware of the danger you present by being so cavalier, especially now by defending your position on proudly maintaining a mask-free food service business. Hence the reduction to 1 start after your concerning response.

You're right, here in Texas pizza is not anything like yours. Our businesses follow regulations and wear PPE. Your response is scary, but at least you...

I echo W K (Another Reviewer) sentiments. I am from Chicago and often travel there to get deep dish pizza from places like Lou Malnati's and Giordano's. This, Chicago Original deep dish pizza is not even close to what you find in Chicago. The pizza simply did not taste good at all. We also ordered the thin crust hoping it too would be like Chicago and it fell short. You pick up a slice of the thin crust and the cheese and toppings just fell of the crust, this happened for 50% of the pizza slices. The cheese and crust on the thin crust was very hard as well. My kid has braces and he simply could not eat the pizza. We paid over $60 for a Ex-large thin crust and medium deep dish pizza. Sadly we had to dispose of more than half of it. Not worth the cost at all. We felt let down and cheated out of our hard earned money. The closes Chicago deep pizza place I have found in Texas thus far is The Taste of Chicago located in Addison TX. The thin crust is much better as well. Hope this review helps someone save their money and not experience such...

I've been looking for a good Chicago deep dish pizza since moving to the DFW. My go-to is normally Rosati's, but I find their crust to be meh, so I decided to try this place following a recommendation. Firstly, this pizza has the best crust I've had of any of the deep dish offerings down here. The crust was buttered nicely and crunchy yet soft. The cheese was fantastic, and the toppings were excellent. However, the sauce was very off-putting. I am going to assume I went on an off night because considering the rest of the pizza was excellent, I can't imagine what went wrong with the sauce other than I was just unlucky. It was a bitter, unappetizing sauce that vaugely smells like traditional pasta sauce (not pizza sauce). However, as I assume this was an off night, I will be coming back here to try it again and will update my review to reflect my experience. I do this because, as previously stated, the rest of the pizza was excellent, so I assume the sauce must normally be...