Novel Pizza Cafe — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Got a 16in half hot pepperoni with ricotta and half longaniza on Saturday. The guy that took my order said it would be an hour but we’d get a call when the pizza was ready. After an hour and no call we went to check on it. The pizza was ready. The same guy that took our order said there was no phone number for the order and when the woman next to him said we could add it for next time she saw that you already had our number. We then checked the pizza before leaving and noticed the ricotta was missing and the box was messed up. We were given a new box and the cheese was added to the pizza. The pizza had clearly been sitting a long time though because it wasn’t hot at all and were disappointed upon tasting it. The pizza was cooked unevenly, half under cooked and the other half was burned. What makes the whole thing worse is that we tried the same pizza the week before and it was so good that we wanted it again. For our first experience the pizza was fresh, hot, perfectly cooked. The crust was so crispy.. like perfectly crispy! We were ready to make this our new go to spot, but the inconsistency is alarming.. and if this was our first experience we would NEVER go back. We understand that places have off days, but there were a lot of things off with this experience. Also, this time our pizza had basil and the first time it didn’t. Was this a mistake or was it missing the first time? Because the pizza was amazing the first time, we wanted to bring this to your attention and hope that other customers don’t have inconsistent experiences in the future.

Update as of 3/22

I sent a DM on instagram two days later saying the info above. No response and there’s no phone number or email listed anywhere. I went back to the store today in hopes of talking to someone about my experience. Spoke to the man at the register and he looked up the DM but “couldn’t see the messages” so he read them off of my phone and said that their social media is “kinda all over the place” but didn’t apologize or even seem to care. He literally asked what we wanted him to do. We asked for a refund and he said that the manager would be out momentarily.

When the manager came out we told him about our experience and he said there must’ve been a miscommunication. He offered a partial refund and said that if he had been given a bad pizza he would’ve taken it back. We told him that we were headed to the north side from the restaurant and didn’t have time to come back, this is why we were looking for a way to contact them in the moment but there was no phone number.

We then asked for a full refund and the manager asked if we had the receipt after saying he wouldn’t be able to find it with our phone number. He was able to find the order with our phone number and gave us a full refund.

Honestly this situation could’ve been rectified with better customer service, but this final interaction cemented our decision to never come back. We had a great first experience and wanted bring an issue with inconsistency to their attention, but none of the employees...

Stopped in on my walk not knowing what to expect after smelling delicious pizza from down the street. I had moved to the neighborhood back in May and somehow had never made my way inside before, but the moment just seemed right. I really knew nothing about the place before coming in so I decided to order a slice of pepperoni to-go, my usual test slice for a new place. When I tell you I was blown away when I opened my box to discover an ENTIRE QUARTER of a sm/med sized tavern style pie in there instead of just a “slice” it honestly feels like an understatement. It really felt special and was kind of a magical moment tbh. My late father really loved trying new pizza and I could tell this was exactly the kind of thing he would have loved. I burnt the roof of my mouth eating my pie out front on the little table they have set up and it was totally worth it.

The pizza itself was delicious, very hot and fresh with a good flavor to the sauce, the cheese had a good bite to it so you could tell it was good quality, and the pepperoni on top was nice and crispy with just the right amount of oil. My only caveat would be that the crust on the bottom could be a little crispier, but that’s just my preference. I know that with tavern style sometimes a softer crackery crust is what they are going for, and it definitely had a good bready/cracker flavor. Overall one of the better tavern style pies I’ve had.

Lastly I just want to say I thought the atmosphere and vibe was lovely. It really felt like a special little place someone had poured their heart into making. Being situated right across from Harrison Park is so lovely and made for the perfect view while I was eating out front, along with the sights and sounds of Pilsen on a temperate October evening. The inside is super cute and kind of feels like you stepped back in time to an old school pizza joint from the 80s/90s. The staff was also very kind and made me feel very welcome as a first time guest. I give the overall experience a 5/5 for sure, if you’re walking around Harrison park and craving some pizza you can’t...

Ugh this is a tough one. 3 star feels too generous, 2 feels almost too harsh, but you can't give half stars.

This was a "curveball" pick for my time In Chicago. Came across it on it and seemed like people loved it. Visually looked good online.

Service was decent. No issues and about what you would expect from counter service pizza joint. Smile and friendly when taking the order.

Same for ambience, no wow factor. Basically exactly what you would expect the corner pizza spot to look like. Slightly old school almost dated. Basic. But really mo complaints. It serves its purpose.

Now the pizza. That's where it all gets squabbly. Visually it looks great, solid photo pizza. But where here to eat the food not just take pictures.

I got half with ricotta and I tried that side first, and I noticed a grainy mouth feel. I thought that was the ricotta so I tried the other side. To my surprise same thing. This grainy mouth feel. When you look close you can see tons of dry herbs on top which it's what I credit for the mouth feel. They don't break down or anything so when over done it just absorbs the grease but adds a weird texture. Was like sandy feeling.

Then the crust. With the thin tavern style I was looking for the thing crispy crust. And while it was thin and crispy maybe it's the hydration level of the dough but it is crispy but almost gives stale wafer over crispy pizza crust.

Between the crust and the graininess it was hard to enjoy. I think just seasoning the sauce and eliminating the dry herbs on top would make a huge difference even with the crust texture but together it's not a great combination.

People clearly like this place. They were steady the whole 50-60 mins we were there. I mean it's only like 6 tables so not hard to look busy but people were grabbing slices and leaving. For what I was looking for and expecting it missed it almost all Around on...