Lou Malnati's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Elgin

Lou Malnatis has great pizza. We like to order the Lou and the Classic and we customize them. It is a true comfort food for outlet family. For the deep dish pizzas, we order them well done and uncut and they are always perfect by the time we get them home. We have found that when we order by the app we sometimes have problems getting exactly what we ordered so we prefer to call in the order. Once you have an order you like, you can always reorder as a previous order on the app. Bottom line is we love this Chicago style pizza and recommend it to all.

As of 11/9/22 I changed my rating from 5 to 3 stars based on a recent event. We ordered three small pizzas and a Malnatis salad. We ordered a small, thin crust “The Lou” and customized it with add-ons of onions, garlic and black olives. This pizza only had the add-ons but was missing all the normal toppings for “The Lou”. I wrote back on an email that asked for my review and I sent an email to the support email address listed on the app. I received a reply that I can talk more with management if I want. I would have expected a call back from someone as I did another time they got the order wrong, but nothing yet.

As of 1/4/23 I added a star. We just had a great experience with the pizzas and salad we ordered last night. The pizzas and the salad were great like they used to be when we started ordering from this location. After my last review, a manager finally contacted my wife, apologized for the service and made it up to us with a pizza certificate. When I went inside to pick up last night, there seemed to be more staff and they were...

Lou Malnati's is a classic Chicago pizzeria and 1-800-lou-to-go kept me sane when I lived elsewhere.

However, this location seems to struggle with customer service as shown by my photo. This is a take out only location with a counter and register in front, and the kitchen in the back.

Unfortunately, no one here really pays attention to the counter. On my most recent visit, I rang the bell and waited a minute, then rang again and waited. A girl came and confirmed I had placed an order online and it would be ready in a few minutes.

I sat down, and the girl disappeared back in to the kitchen leaving me alone with my thoughts and the hum of a couple of fridges. I waited 5 minutes, and nothing. I waited a few more, then rang the bell again. And waited. A different girl came out and asked how she could help, I told her I was waiting on an order.

She went in the back, and a couple of minutes later came out with my pizzas.

So apparently my pizza had been sitting on the rack almost from the time I arrived. When the pizza was finished, they boxed and set it in the rack, without bothering to tell me my pizza was done. It is now almost 15 minutes later. A ten minute drive home, and no surprise the pizza was cold.

Good pizza, when it's warm. It probably won't be warm.

Skip Lou's and head across the street to Nick's where they have an army of people who attend to your every take out pizza creation need and never abandon you to the drone of cold fridges. Seriously! Nick's has...

Food is ok. No idea why they are famous tho. Way too expensive as well, even for this high inflation period. We got a crustless pizza and 2 toppings (btw, toppings are $3.65 ea even if only on half) and that was like $50. If we were able to add the other small thincrust pizza (see below) with 1 topping, that would be another $20

Their online ordering aystem is the absolute worst that we have ever used. We put a gift card as payment and it accepted. After 3rd order (we had to use the remaining gift card), the gift card did not cover the balance, so it asked for a credit card. It wouldnt take it. We removed a pizza from the order and removed a topping so the gift card would cover the balance. When we tried to make a new order for the pizza we removed, the gift card still had a balance and again the system would not accept a credit card.

The one thing I am happy with is that the gift card balance is at a point that we will pitch it, so we dont have to subject ouraelves to this place again. And yes, we informed the person that bought it for us to not...