Rosario's Pizzeria & Catering — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

I went to Rosario's with my father, who was visiting from New York and wanted to try Chicago deep dish pizza. I've had it maybe a half dozen times since moving to the midwest, so I have a decent idea on what makes for a good or bad deep dish, and I wanted to get him something that wasn't from a chain.

We were not disappointed.

This restaurant will be the default place that I direct people to go to check off this "Chicago bucket list" item, or go for any Chicago style Italian food for that matter. This is particularly true if they're flying in, aren't going directly downtown and need a sit down atmosphere versus takeout.

The pizza came out as quickly as a deep dish will allow (30ish minutes) and it tasted excellent. The sauce (on top) had just the right amount of zest and the crust was thick, crunchy and buttery as it should be with this style. We personally went with the Rosario's Special (Sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, onions) which was a good combination. Each slice of this 14" pizza was an individual meal on its own, so keep that in mind when ordering.

The restaurant had a nice atmosphere and was well put together. There was ample dining room for large parties (as well as a bar room if that's more your thing). Crucially for visitors it's only 20-30 minutes from O'Hare, traffic permitting.

Aside from the iconic deep dish, they also offered a variety of other pizza styles such as Chicago thin crust, extra thin, double dough and Sicilian, as well as a hefty list of classic Italian-American entrees. The beer and wine selection appeared to be decent. You got free bread with your meal, which you'll of course regret eating if you go anywhere near a deep dish pizza.

I highly recommend Rosario's, especially if you're wanting to try deep dish but won't be directly downtown. If you don't want to eat deep dish, there are many other offerings for you too. Skip the chains and go here for the real deal.

Side note: Oddly enough, we were directed to Rosario's by a (very kind) local competitor who also served deep dish but didn't have any indoor seating. The owner, who was working the register, wanted us to have a good experience in a sit down atmosphere. He remarked that his own pizza was obviously better (tongue firmly in cheek), but that he wanted us to get a full sit down atmosphere if it was my father's only deep dish experience in the city. He said that Rosario's was run by a kind and well liked local and that we would enjoy the pizza there; he was correct. I can't comment on the competitor's pizza since we didn't eat it, but we also had an excellent experience talking with Dino from Joe's Pizza...

Honestly, overall an uncomfortable experience. The positive things were that the restaurant was beautiful, lovely decor, and the food portions were huge. The food tasted good, not great. Service was not good. Owner and staff hovering around, peeking from around corners, very nervous vibe, employees seemed petrified, and honestly made the experience quite uncomfortable. As nervous and jumpy as the staff was, the actual service was no good. I think everyone was too scared to be able to be comfortable enough to provide adequate service. They got both our orders wrong. There was olive oil at the table, but no one brought us bread or Parmesan. No water. We had to ask for a glass of water, and they only brought one, never refilled our waters. The server asked us many many times if we were ready to order and then asked many many times if we wanted another glass of wine...but never asked if we wanted a glass of water, bread, Parmesan, or water refill. Then the server actually came and asked us if server could take our check right after I signed it and set it down.... is was so odd and tacky. Then after taking the check, that included a 27% tip, no one ever bothered to fill up our empty glass of water. The tip was a mistake, I wish I had given less to reflect the service. It was just an...

I called on a Sunday to see if they sold slices since me and my employees wanted a quick lunch. I was informed they do not sell slices on Sunday, then about 5 minutes later I get a call that they do sell slices which I then asked how many cheese do you have? The gentleman in the front said 6 slices, we ordered 3 and went back to add 1 more the gentleman said they were out. I asked to speak to the manager Manny and he informed me they make a quarter of cheese, pepperoni and sausage as 1 whole pizza. I asked why we were told there was 6 slices then he basically said we are out of cheese it doesn’t matter because we are out of cheese. AFTER they already charged us for the full amount. Manny said for the rest of the day he is not going to make more because he doesn’t want to throw food out, EVEN THOUGH he had customers waiting to buy a product he still stood there and basically said “there’s nothing I can do for you” this was around 12:30/1pm and they are open till 11pm. Manny and I continued back and forth until I said we are basically going in circles this was my first and last time coming here due to the way they conduct business and the way Manny tried to make me look stupid and lied to my face about the pizza. Far better pizza places out there I’d rather spend...