Cottage Inn Pizza Lincoln Park — Restaurant in Lincoln Park

(If you're trying to see my review, go to the second paragraph. The first is an introduction.) It was a cold, chilly Thursday night in the month of October. It was that time of the day where the sun rests and let the gorgeous stars take over and shine the night away. And during that exchange, there lived a man who was having a little dilemma, and that man, was me. My stomach ached with hunger, my taste buds screamed for flavor. The more I unanswered their request, the more it became a burden and the stronger it got. Each message my body gave to me felt as though I was given puzzle pieces and had to put them together. Minutes later, I found the true solution, I realized that I was in the mood for pizza, and my body will not stop until I get it. Therefore, it was time to embark on a quest and scavenge for a delicious pizza once again, but instead, I changed things up a bit. Normally, I would go to Little Caesars, but the thought of going to the same place every time bothered me. So, I imagined, "why not go to a place I have ever gone before?" And thanks to my good old pal Google, and advice from other friends, I decided to go Cottage Inn Pizza.

As soon as I put one foot in the door, the feeling of sadness, or other negative emotions I once had immediately shifted to a happy, warm, welcome, proud feeling. I was greeted with the most beautiful smiles that could shatter the darkness away in any one's soul. I was surrounded with a happy, warm atmosphere that made me feel like I was at home. Talking to the staff made me feel like I knew them for years. Best of all, one of them even asked how my day was. Even though it may seem quite simple, but for some reason it warmed my frozen heart. It opened a cage deep inside in which I store all my troubles and stress. In all of my time of going to restaurants, fast food, or other places, I have never had anyone actually took the time to stop and talk to me while they were on the job. I always feel that even though employees greet you friendly, it always felt like a business way and never a more true welcome. But on this fateful night, It showed me that the staff care, not just for the money, but to see the happy satisfactory customers.

Walking out of that place made me feel like a changed man. Each movement I made as I headed home were steps of pride, happiness, joy, and peace. And once I ate my pizza... It was sooo good. I could taste all the flavors: the spicy pepperoni, the gooey cheese, the tasty sauce, the crunchy crust, and many others. The pizza actually savored in my mouth. My taste buds were going wild, and indeed, my stomach was satisfied. Thank you, I will return for more...

We order from here fairly often with normally really good service. But tonight was horrible. Our food was "promised" to be delivered at 7:54pm after ordering at 7:19. We didn't receive it until 8:44. It was luke warm at best. It's a Friday night so I expect some delays but that's a bit much. Then the driver reeked of weed and you could tell he was high. It's legal, no big deal and I have nothing against it. But while driving? While working? While dealing with the public in their homes and their items? He parked in the middle of the road beside a parked vehicle when he could've went right to the curb behind or in front of the vehicle and not blocked the road. I was 10 feet to the side of my front door when my husband opened it and the odor was STRONG and lingered in that area for several minutes after the driver left and the door was shut. The box the salad came in retained the smell too so I got that out of the house. And on top of that a part of our order was missing. We called the restaurant at 8:45 and was told it would be sent right out... It's now 10:50pm, over 3 hours and 30 mins past the initial order time. We still haven't received our missing part of our $80 order and the calzones were raw in the middle.

Update about a month later... I decided to give them another shot. Their customer service gave me a few rewards points so I figured I'd use them since I was still out the money from my initial order. I regretted it. First they called right after my order was sent through. They were out of lettuce so I could've get the salad that I was using points for. Ok, it is what it is. The rest of my food came, luckily it all arrived, and only about 20 mins past the promised time so that was great. The bread sticks were burnt. The calzone was just raw, I had to pull out half the dough from the piece I was eating just so I could eat something. $40 wasted again. The crew there needs some better training on how to cook the food. I use to order there every other weekend because my family loved it so much. But it slowly started to get bad and now it's...

Edit: gave them another try due to them having new management. Ordered 3 times so far. Food was good and no mistakes were made. The 2nd of the 3 times, delivery took a little long, but food was still hot and in the app it showed a lot of the items were out of stock. Which is an improvement as before I would order and either get a call that the item was unavailable or was the case twice before that the item would just show up without an ingredient in it. 3 good experiences doesn't seem like much but it's a massive improvement from literally every order having some mistake.

Old review: Favorite pizza shop that had unfortunately went down hill. I probably eat pizza once a week. Used to only get it from Cottage Inn. Took a hard turn for the worse. Everyone makes mistakes now and then, we're all human. However I kept ordering for months from Cottage Inn and every order had a problem. From missing ingredients, to almost 2 hour deliveries and ice cold pizza, to pizza dough that hadn't risen at all. Prior to this 2 to 3 months period of constant mistakes, they had never had an issue. The first mistake they made was forgetting pork on my Cuban Sandwich. I called and the manager was kind and gave me a credit. So in their credit, they WILL own up to their mistakes and try to make it right. Customer service has never been a problem, but serving the customer seems to be. I personally don't want to call and have an order corrected every time I order. I think most of us order pizza when we're already spent from the day and just want something simple. I hope they get better because in my opinion they have the best pizza around when they make it right. This review is just a quick overview of the many isssues and I felt compelled to write it because tonight I was going to give them another chance, but thought it wasn't worth the hassle and likely disappointment. Haven't ordered in probably 3 or 4 months. So dear reader, take that for...