Lou Malnati's Pizzeria (Pizza Review #100)

The Facts:

Pizza: Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

Business Category: Regional Chain (59 locations, mostly near Chicago, IL)

Website: https://www.loumalnatis.com/

Location: 1050 E. Higgins Rd. in Elk Grove Village, IL

Date of Review Visit: May 15, 2019

What I Ordered: Personal Malnati Chicago Classic Pizza (8” deep dish sausage pizza); Coke to drink

Price: $11.99 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: True to its name, the crust on the pizza at Lou Malnati’s is an inch thick Chicago-style butter crust baked in a pan.  They do also offer a thin crust option, but I have no idea why.  I have not yet seen anyone do this style of crust better than Malnati’s does.  Score: 10/10.

Sauce: This pizza features a thick layer of sauce spread over the top.  The sauce has some chunks of tomato, which I don’t like.  However, the most important thing to me about any tomato sauce is that it tastes like tomatoes, and on that metric this sauce passes with flying colors.  Score: 8/10.

Cheese: The cheese seems to be 100% mozzarella, and it appears in high quantity even though I had to look for it under the thick layer of sauce.  Score: 9/10.

Toppings: The sausage is an entire layer, and as you would expect on a Chicago-style pizza it appears in nice fresh chunks.  This is my favorite kind of pizza sausage.  Score: 10/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The sauce and crust dominate the appearance.  The Elk Grove Village location has a dark dining room that is well-decorated with antique light chandeliers and antique-looking chairs.  The service was friendly and excellent, but the pizza took longer to make than it should have considering they weren’t that busy when I came here at 3pm on a Wednesday.  Score: 9/10.

Value: The price is reasonable for pizza of this quality.  Therefore, while this is not cheap pizza, it does offer good value.  Score: 8/10.

Taste: Everything comes together really well.  Maybe this pizza has a little too much sauce with a few too many chunks of tomatoes.  Score: 19/20.

The Final Judgment:

A Chicago classic, Lou Malnati’s ranks right up with Uno’s and LaRosa’s as my favorite pizzas available.  Score: 73/80.

Paesano's Italian Restaurant in Seneca, SC

The Facts:

Pizza: Paesano’s Italian Restaurant

Business Category: Locally-owned

Website: http://www.paesanositalian.com/

Location: 1727 Blue Ridge Blvd. in Seneca, SC (on SR 28 just north of US 123)

Date of Review Visit: April 30, 2019

What I Ordered: Large (14”) sausage pizza; Dr. Pepper to drink

Price: $17.71 (includes drink and tax but not tip)

The Micro:

Crust: The crust on Paesano’s pizza has a crispy texture with medium thickness.  Our pizza had some blackened areas especially underneath, so it may have been slightly overbaked.  Some corn meal adds some nice texture.  Overall, this crust is not quite perfect, but I like it.  Score: 9/10.

Sauce: This pizza is somewhat undersauced, and the sauce is unevenly distributed across the pizza.  Also, the sauce is slightly overspiced, and it comes with a few chunks of tomatoes, which I don’t prefer.  I’ve certainly had better sauce.  Score: 5/10.

Cheese: The cheese seems to be 100% mozzarella, and it appears in decent quantity.  It also has the rather bland 100% mozzarella taste.  Score: 6/10.

Toppings: This pizza features plenty of sausage of the ground-up variety.  The sausage has very few spices, and it tastes more like a fresh pork sausage.  The sausage also has quite a bit of salt.  I didn’t notice the saltiness much at first, but it accumulated on my taste palette the more I ate.  Score: 7/10.

The Macro:

Appearance/Atmosphere/Service: The large amount of ground-up sausage dominates the appearance.  The dimly lit dining room has some nice Italian-like music playing through the speakers.  The metal silverware, real-cloth napkins, and before-dinner garlic knots are all nice touches. The service was friendly and fine.  Score: 10/10.

Value: The quality is OK, and the price is reasonable for a dine-in 14” one-topping pizza.  Therefore, the value is above average.  Score: 7/10.

Taste: The saltiness of the sausage really builds-up on the taste buds, and it keeps this score down.  The crust and cheese are the strengths of the taste.  Score: 14/20.

The Final Judgment:

Open only for dinner, Paesano’s offers a touch of class in rural Seneca, and it is a rather popular dinner option because it offers far more than pizza.  The food itself is satisfactory but not much more.  Score: 58/80.