Lou Malnati's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Niles Township

January 3, 2023:. Credit Card Company says it credited my account for the $4.13, in an automatic Tip on October 10, 2022.

I paid $3.50 at the door.

I may still have another problem on my NYE purchase.

Wait-and-see.

January 2, 2023:. No solution yet, but when I last ordered for a delivery Erin told me they can't add on top before the order is approved by credit card business. They can only add tip on after credit card approved purchase. Therefore, it should be removed because it looks like that happened. Maybe not cause no matter what they are going to collect the tip if charged, approved or not. Still waiting for Mastercard's answer.

December 10, 2022:. Yesterday I was at the CPL, BELMONT-LINCOLN, and pulled up a summary of account and noticed an adjustment for $4.13. I am hoping this is from Malinati's. About October 9, 2022 (still have the receipt) I tipped driver $3.50 in quarters. Zizzy or Ziggy supposedly the manager charged me with an automated tip of approximately $4.09.

I phoned and he promised to reverse the charge but didn't.

Called card company and disputed the double tip.

Waiting two months to resolve the overbilling as it pertains to paying a tip in cash as well an automated.

Say farewell. Malinatis has lost a customer.

I buy Freschetta frozen pizza now.

Remember frozen pizza is processed food and may contribute to dementia.

I buy two at a time and that isn't enough. I buy it at Mariano's. Jewell at Southport doesn't sell it. Delicious thin crust topping Margherita.

This was not the first time the free-wheeling staff pulled off a scam (in the past). September 20, 2022: Delivery order with Viry. Aaron was the driver. I ordered the meat ball sandwich with side of fruit (water melon and grapes) for $11.99, and a thin crust small pizza for $11.38. Delivery is $4.00. Tipping on the food at 15% or 20% is okay. I was off 50 cents and was told to take it easy.

At least the overly salty meatball sandwich is consistent. I save the thin crust small pizza and 1/4 of the meatball sandwich for another day by freezing them.

I hate doing this, ordering out, but the day was difficult. September 4, 2022: Delivery order 1 hour. Meatball sandwich spicy with side order of fruit (want more) and hard to finish it $11.99;. Small pizza $11.39; Tiramisu $8.99:. Delivery $4.00 and 12.36% tip, $43.85. ($22 a day).

Tiramisu over priced and Malinatis brand.

Tomorrow I'll eat pizza, fruit, and Tiramisu, if I don't go shopping for food.

Where where the storms?

Better than my other...

There is nothing more I can add to some of these great reviews! I have only dined at this original location, but it's probably safe to say that they are all great.

First, always get the buttered crust deep dish. Don't worry about the calories on this one - make up for it by running a few miles the next day. It is well worth the calories!

The sauce is always sweet (on the pizzas they use it on - more about this later), the mozzarella cheese is fresh and they even have low calorie cheese to make up for that buttered crust. I love their sauteed spinach with onions, garlic and olive oil add-on. I just love the smell of the olive oil on a pizza...that's how you know it will be very good.

I was only disappointed by one pizza - "The Lou." Really, it's not good. Seriously...no pizza sauce? There were slices AND chunks of tomato, some spinach, very small mushrooms, mostly cheddar cheese, with very little romano and mozzarella cheeses.

Other than that one pizza, the rest of their pizza menu is awesome. They have sandwiches and pasta, but I just never got around to trying them. I keep my rating at excellent because their pizza is just that good. I'm just going to pretend like I never had "The Lou."

This place is always busy, staff is busy, and it takes a while to make a fresh pie, so enjoy a drink and an app while waiting and you will be rewarded with one of the best deep dish pizzas ever!

Big Tip #1: Make a reservation and call in your pizza order (pre-order) and when you arrive, you will cut ahead of everyone waiting there and your pizza will be served within 15 minutes!

Big Tip #2: Arrive before 6PM and after 9PM and the place is almost empty, no waiting and plenty of parking. This place is crazy busy between 6-9PM so good luck.

Big Tip #3: If you arrive at their peak hours, don't even bother looking for parking in their lot. The bank across the street allows you to park in their lot for free. Order a beer and enjoy all the Chicago baseball and football...

I want to be as respectful as possible so anyone who views this review understands my issues with this restaurant.

Issue #1: Wait times. We were told our pizzas (2) would be ready within 30-35 minutes. We waited 55 minutes before we were given our pizzas, and with no updates throughout, something which I will get to later.

Issue #2: The food quality. When we finally did recieve our pizzas, they were undercooked, and lacked any flavor. The crusts were non-existent, and the sauce was extremely minimal and lacked any flavor as well. We had to resort to using loads of ranch and other extra seasonings that we were given. Even the ranch was horrid, I'm genuinely as to how a restaurant could have such poor quality food let alone the sauces.

Issue #3: The service. The waitress that we had had some attitude. In addition to that, she never checked on us during the wait, didn't give us the chance to ask for more water, etc. At one point we had to ask another server to find her because we wanted an update on our food, and then after a few minutes she finally came, updated us telling us we were getting our pizzas in the next "3-4 minutes" (when in reality they ended up coming over 15 minutes later), and then we had to ask her for more water.

All in all, my group (5) had a terrible experience at this establishment. I understand every now and then seeing an issue with food quality, or maybe the server was extremely busy, etc. But this was an almost systematic failiure in every point of our experience. The service was subpar, the food was terrible, and the wait was horrendous. We ended up tipping our busser because he was the only one serving us. Shoutout to that man, he made the experience slightly less terrible. We will not be...