Lou Malnati's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Oak Park

I brought my husband to Chicago to meet my family and one place that came highly recommended was Lou Malnati’s…so we took him. Me and my niece are not fans of deep dish but he wanted to try it so I ordered a large classic deep dish for him but we asked that half be the normal classic and the other half be pepperoni and I also ordered a medium thin crust for me and my niece to split. My husband was so excited that he saved his appetite and hadn’t eaten since 7am 🤣 we arrived at 6pm and ordered right away. The waitress took our order without writing a single thing down and after 45-50 min of a wait, the pizzas came out. One was perfect (medium thin crust with sausage) and the other was half veggie and half pep….I never asked for veggie…and the kids at the table would not have eaten veggie pizza so I asked if we’d be discounted to have to wait for them to fix our order for another 45 min. We were told yes. We were so hungry and I felt bad eating in front of those who were waiting so we all 5 ended up splitting our tiny medium thin crust and had like 2 squares each…after another 45 min, the deep dish finally came out and while she was serving it, I requested two cookie pizza desserts which our waitress informed us that she was going to make sure both were on the house for all of our troubles. It wasn’t until after she walked away that I realized our order was wrong AGAIN. Instead of half sausage half pep, she brought us half sausage AND pep and half cheese only…I don’t know how she could have gotten that one wrong because after I requested it, my husband repeated the order verbatim. I can only chalk it up to she didn’t write anything down again. So I asked for the manager and she informed me that it was actually a system error and she gave us the pizza free. We would have been satisfied had we not received our ticket and realized that despite being promised free dessert, we were charged full price for the thin crust PLUS both desserts. At this point I had no fight left in me so we paid the ticket and left. I will say, we handled this situation professionally as well and did not treat the staff poorly, in fact we reiterated over and over how we were not trying to be rude but maybe the staff needs to be writing things down. The least they could have done was give us the desserts plus the deep dish free. Needless to say, my husband and I will not be returning and next time will go with what my first option would have been...

Ordered a half-and-half pizza which supposed to have been chicken green peppers. The other half was cheese. They charged $43 and some change a friend of mine picked up the pizza got it back and the pizza was not right I call back. To speak with a manager which the order taker was playing games being rude, very unprofessional, despicable, and foolish. She hung up the phone three times I called back press other digits. Got a manager by the name of Britney, which was equally unprofessional disrespectful racist no customer service skills. Just a horrible person to talk to also a liar, I I asked her about my pizza. She started laughing continue to laugh and I asked Britney is there another manager there that I can speak with because I really wants to know what’s funny she told me that there’s no other managers there. I asked her where she’s racist because was funny and you all took my money and messed up my order she said I’m going to take that as a threat and I’m going to call the Oakpark police I told her if the phone calls are being recorded and she’s making a false claim. I am going to press charges on her. I asked to speak to another manager by the name of Oscar Gabriel answered the phone and transferred me to Britney again she gets on the phone and tells me I called the police already. They’re on the way so I said OK we can meet the police together because I’m going to press charges on you. Once they listen to the recorded calls and find out you’re lying. She hung up and she continue to hang up as I continue to call. I call the police myself to make a complaint on the restaurants for being racist, despicable unprofessional, very rude and just childish. Do not need to be working with the public. I don’t want to eat this pizza. I will not eat this pizza. My children would not eat this pizza because if they’re that racist they could have did anything to the pizza spit on it drug it on the floor or anything I’ve been calling to speak with a manager they keep playing on the phone and hanging up so I’m going to keep calling until I get someone and I’m contacting my attorney because if they’re that racist they should not be...

Overall bad vibes for a Thursday evening. I thought it would be a nice patio pizza date for my toddler and I. The first turn off is that the bar tender wouldn’t make my drink the way I asked for it to be made which I was really not pleased with. Monica my server was nice but I could tell she was a bit disturbed by the bartender’s response to how I wanted my drink made when she came back to my table. She also brought another server with her to explain this ridiculous explanation to me but it still wasn’t adding up. I felt ostracized over a simple request which made me feel super uncomfortable. We only ordered pizza we did not order any appetizers because I honestly wanted to get up and leave after feeling like I was being confronted by two servers at the same time, plus they made it seem like a really big deal which was a total turn off. The pizza also was not fresh. We ordered a medium thin crust that honestly tasted like it had been reheated. The crust was very hard and not buttery and flaky like we’re used to. Oak park is known to be racist but tonight I felt both racially profiled and gender profiled. Had my race and gender been the exact opposite I probably would have gotten what I asked for. One thing for sure and two for certain I will NEVER be back to this Malnati’s at Oak Park again! The only reason why I am loyal to Malnati’s in the first place is because I worked for the Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute at Northwestern Medicine in which I have personally met some of the Malnati Family. I’ve also attended several sponsored events by them and I personally know that this location is a poor reflection of their legacy, family and brand overall. From the bugs flying over our pizza at the patio seating area to the pizza not being fresh and the rude bartender I will never be back nor will I recommend any of my out of state friends and colleagues that come to Illinois to go to this particular location. I will refer them downtown where I...