Lou Malnati’s Lou Malnati’s has several locations. Luckily, one is just a few blocks from our hotel. Good thing we didn’t make a long drive for this one. All four of us thought it stunk!
Starting with the Stuffed Spinach Bread, it looks so damn good, especially when you cut it open and the cheese oozes out. There was no spinach flavor though, just green stuff that looked like pesto mixed into the not-so-great processed cheese. The shell/crust, whatever you want to call it, was hard and crunchy.
Next, the Malnati Salad: romaine, black olives, chopped tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, genoa salami, and gorgonzola cheese. The ingredients were fresh but the dressing was so sugary, even Lon didn’t want it, nor did our friends, and the bowl left half full.
For pizza’s we ordered “The Lou” figuring that the name was a good sign, but it was terrible. It’s made of spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes, with a blend of mozzarella, romano, and cheddar. Part of the problem is that they just use bad cheese, processed junk. The vegetables were not seasoned. The crust, this one has their signature butter crust, tasted no different than the other one, both were flavorfless cardboard.
The sausage pizza had edible chunks of sausage, and the rest was pitiful. Again, bad cheese, the sauce had no flavor, cardboard crust.
The Peanut Butter Pizza was the only thing anyone at our table liked, and how bad can a warm peanut butter cookie with ice cream and caramel be?
What a sad sad way to end our eating trip of Chicago. All four of us, of varying taste preferences unanimously agreed, Lou Malnati’s was absolutely terrible.
Amen.
I agree, Lou Malnati’s is absolutely terrible. I wish the national media would stop giving it so much coverage, because all the tourists go there now, and come away hating deep dish.
That sucks, when things look good and end up tasting bad. At least your other meals were good!
Dr. Food, I’m tortured by how bad it was.
Anonymous, sadly, I played tourist here and left not very impressed with deep dish.
Wonders, yea, so deceiving.
what a bummer! i’m sorry it was disappointing, but i’d be remiss if i didn’t say that the dessert looks amazing. 🙂
I LOVE Lou Malnati’s. I look for excuses to go to Chicago just to eat there. It’s a different kind of pizza than most are used to. I guess its a personal preference thing.
Anonymous, I’m pretty sure no one would’ve loved what we got at Lou Malnati’s but given the number of locations they have, it’s possible that some are better than others. I would never go again though.
I have to say Eddie and I really liked the pizza there. My best friend from high school and her bf were there with us and liked it as well. However, they did tell me that the quality varies by location so it’s possible it might have been that.
Caroline, inconsistency in chains is so disappointing.
sounds pretty bad. no excuse for bad food – but I should talk as I am in the land of chain food restaurants and scary bad restaurants. no wonder I’m doing raw foods LOL!
too bad about the disappointment – must be glad to be back nyc with favorite hot spots!
Taste memory, this was our worst meal in Chicago but I shouldn’t complain since the rest was pretty enjoyable.
Attention, tourists: If you put ketchup on a hot dog, like clams on your pizza or think provel is an acceptible cheese to put on a pizza, or have only had the experience of a chain restaurant like pizza hut, then you need to spend a little more time working on developing your tastebuds for the culinary experience of chicago deep dish pizza. Anyone else from Chicago who hates Lou’s must either be secretly from New York or have an unreasonably lousy sense of taste.
This review is insanely bad. Lou’s quality is consistently excellent across all locations. Sounds like someone let their opinions get away from them. Just look at the photos, they look tasty don’t they.
You must be nuts. Lou’s is AMAZING. I have never, ever had a bad pie from this place. Everything is always fresh as can be. Lou’s is simply the very best Chicago pan pizza anywhere.
I don’t know what kind of pizza you like but I believe Lou’s is fantastic, I am sorry that you had a bad experience. Every time we have gone there it was the best. There are so many great pizza places in Chicago and in my opinion Lou Malnotti’s is at the top. I would say try it again I don’t know what location you went to maybe try another one, although I have been to a couple different ones and they were both just as good. To each his own I guess but everyone I know that has gone there loves it.
I love Lou Malnati’s. Although, there was a period of time that the local Lou Malnati’s seemed to switch their ingredients for inferior ones resulting in a mediocre pizza (which, I think, was actually around the time of this review…). Thankfully since then, they’ve switched back to the superior ingredients that they previously used. Maybe that’s what happened at the location for this review.
i love lou’s
Have to admit, I’m shocked. I’m a very picky New York-style pizza person who’s been spending long weekends and more in Chicago in the last year, and despite my initial horror at the idea of deep dish pizza, Lou Malnati’s blew me away. Way better than Giordano’s. We had the chopped salad last time, and loved it as well as the pizza. We have only gone to the Malnati’s on Lincoln Avenue, but have nothing but praise for it.