Lou Malnati's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Brookfield

We went to our first sit down dining experience at the Brookfield Lou Malnati’s on Saturday May 1, 2021. We love their pizza; we’ve been picking up baked and frozen ones at the location on Port Washington Rd usually 1-2x a month through the pandemic. We’ve gone to various Chicago locations for many years. We went to the Brookfield one specifically because we had people visiting for the first time in a long time and we wanted to ‘show off’ my Chicago-area born husband’s favorite Chicago pizza.

It was a Saturday. Because of our visitors’ schedule, we got to the restaurant at about 4:30pm. We actually thought it was closed, as there were almost zero vehicles in the lot. Our group of 5 got seated - in kind of a crummy spot considering how few people were there - but acceptable as it meant groups were spaced out.

We ordered appetizers, one pasta dish and a extra large Chicago classic. To get to the point, the appetizer plate was completely cold (came with cheese curds, fried mushrooms, zucchini, mozzarella sticks, etc). The pasta Chicken Louie - a fettuccine alfredo type - was good. The pizza, which was the entire reason for our trip there, was not good at all. It tasted as if it had been sitting at least 30 minutes before we got it. Undercooked. Cold and runny, and kind of flavorless, is all I can think to explain it. The crust had zero taste to it. Not how I’d usually describe Lou Malnati’s pizza. When we pick up a baked one at their other local location and bring it home, it’s much warmer when we serve it. The take home AND the frozen ones from Port Washington Rd taste spot-on with ones we’ve had in Chicago. Not so much at this restaurant.

It was kind of embarrassing taking people out to a place that was really out of their way, telling them the “trip would be worth it” for what we got. I get waitstaff are busy and places are busy and COVID and all that. But when we got there, there appeared to be very few picking up pizzas, and we were some of the only patrons in the restaurant. The amount of waitstaff seemed normal. If they needed more staff, management needs to schedule more. We didn’t complain there; I didn’t think they could do anything about it and didn’t want to make anyone feel weird.

By the time we left, the place was PACKED. I don’t think there was a table or booth was empty. Very few people had masks. I get it, because people were eating. But the social distance thing was not...

My siblings and I met up with a cousin and his wife who were visiting from out of town who wanted to get deep dish pizza. Sounded good to all and Lou's was reserved for 5pm the evening after Christmas Day....party of eight. Lou's accommodated us by putting us in a back part of the restaurant which had larger tables. It was perfect! Finding the restaurant was easy, it's right off the southwest corner of Moreland Avenue and Blue mound Road in the corner of the parking lot for Brookfield Square. We walked in and the decore was warm and welcoming. We walked through the main dining area to find our relatives and the main restaurant was quite busy. We found the corner table and each couple picked out pizza of choice. My husband and I choose spinach and veggies deep dish large It was meatless which I like but my husband said he would have liked a meat ingredient tossed in! Everyone was talking and our group also had baskets of cheesy garlic bread as well. The time went by quickly and by the time our pizza arrived the back room was getting full too. The four big pizzas were brought in and placed on a side table...there was no way all that pizza would fit on our table! Our server placed a slice of on a plate and asked that couple, "Who would like to be served first?" She was friendly and efficient plus she handled the serving of each slice with ease. It was a great time during a busy season but I do love spinach pan pizza! The pizza was delicious, no complaints! Plenty of cheese, a nice crust and we had half our pizza left but it was a lot of food! We had the leftovers for the next day...all the better! Since Uno's Pizzaria on Bluemound closed, I think Lou's will do well and the location within one of the busiest intersections in Brookfield. We came in off Hwy 94 and pulled into the mall lot before the inspection and went in by US Bank on Moreland. If you like deep dish pies Lou's is a good choice and they have other options...thin crust, appetizers, other dishes and desserts. Beverages at our table were simple... water, tea, soda and beer. We all agreed it was a good choice to...

Thank you Lou Malnati’s for the worst night that I remember. We went to have dinner for Valentine’s with my husband and my 4 years old son. We had a reservation at 5:45, we got there early, they took the order straight away because we knew what we wanted and told us that the pizza would take 40 min which is the usual (we have been there many times). At 6:45 my son was so hungry and we started to wonder where our pizza was. Our server saw us looking at the kitchen with our son expecting the pizza in any minute, but nobody said anything. At 7 pm (hour and 15 min after we ordered) a guy, I guess the manager came to the table, apologized and said that the order was never sent to the kitchen, the server forgot, and they didn't have our food after 1 hour and 15 min waiting. It wasn’t even a delay, there was actually no dinner for us. We had to get up and leave, my son was crying, everybody was looking at us. It was heavily snowing outside (was Valentine’s night). My husband went to get the car, and I waited at the reception with my crying toddler that was sad because he saw us angry, and he was so hungry, and nobody from the staff came to say anything or offer anything other than the 3 beers that we had while we waited for almost hour and a half. We left and had to drive in the snow to another place to get a quick pizza to take home and feed my son almost at 8pm. I understand mistakes happen, but they could have handled it better, like give us a better compensation, especially having a toddler and with the weather conditions. They really ruined our night. I loved Lou Malnati’s, but after last night I will never be back. Very disappointing experience.

Update: After the owner answered this review and offered me to call the store and speak to a manager to get a voucher I did. She took my name and phone number and told me she would call me back.. she never did. What a joke...