Tommy Chicago's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Mendota Heights

Usually this place is amazing. Usually the food arrives at a reasonable time and still hot. This was not one of those times. I understand tonight was the day before Christmas Eve, so people are probably eating out. I understand that everywhere is understaffed. I called 55 minutes after placing my order to ask about the status of my delivery. The lady must have seen my phone number because she asked me "are you calling about your delivery?" before I could ask about it myself. I answered yes, and she said "The driver will be leaving soon." I simply replied "Oh..." Mind you, this was 55 minutes after I ordered my pizza, and they were only just now leaving the store with it. The women must have sensed my disappointment with her statement as she said "It hasn't even been an hour yet!" Lady, it shouldn't take over an hour to receive a pizza. If you think one hour isn't a long period of time to wait for a pizza, you should raise the bar of your goals. Ultimately, I waited an hour and a half for my pizza to arrive, and they ended up forgetting the marinara sauce that comes with the garlic cheese bread I ordered with it. I used to order from here all the time. I used to spend the extra money on this good quality pizza....

This is my favorite place for deep dish pizza. It has been consistent in my three years eating here. It contends with Cosetta's and Mario's in taste and quality (although they are different pizzas), beats Pie Shoppe (both of them locations) in Deep dish category. It also kicks Green Mill in the guts. Their Pizza is best because of how the crust is made, which is like sweet soft bread that does not crack or crumble. It does evenly expand, meaning they know how to knead the dough. They definitely use additional ingredients, as it taste malty and sweet (which pairs well with the honey). The pizzas I have tried are not salty at all, the sauce is perfectly reduced and it does seem to be reduced to the point of being pasty, which is great. Have yet to try anything other than their Deep dishes, but its hard considering flavor and price.

My only irrelevant peeve is the lack of herbs in their pizzas, no fennel, basil, oregano...

Have only visited during lunch buffet, pizza was very good. Salad bar is non-existent, but I'm not there to eat salad so it didn't affect me much. Did notice other customers annoyed at the lack of options for the salad. I've been here twice; once when it was slow and the other when every table was seated. When it was busy I felt like the pizzas were coming out every 5 minutes, as opposed to the slow day when there was a noticeable lag between pies. To me that makes sense, why send out 3 pizzas for 2 tables? A full restaurant should definitely require more pizza, but I can see the issues of previous reviews where the pizza was slow to come out and they let the old stuff just sit there when clearly everyone is waiting for the fresh pizza. Service was great both times, $8.95 for the buffet + drink is a good deal, they have some pretty regular coupons at $2 off for the buffet which make it...