Back at Lou's

Our group was provided with a gift card to Lou Malnati's to facilitate this review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Thanks for the great
experience, Jason!

When I told my kids that I was going back to Chicago to eat at Lou Malnati's without them they were super disappointed. A lot of times when we visit my aunt and uncle we will get Lou's pizza, and you may remember that on our trip in February A voted Lou's as having the best pizza crust. Lou's is a great environment for families, especially if you have kids. They had a lot of seating space, including an outside patio where we hung out until they opened. Yes, we literally sat on the front steps waiting for the restaurant to open - we were tired and hungry!

We ended up sitting upstairs and had this fabulous waiter, Jason. I will continue to insist that he receive a raise or a promotion. Jason was incredibly patient with our crazy orders, and if he is any indicator of other servers, you will be well taken care of. We had a group of 8, each with her own likes/dislikes, dietary needs, and personalities, but he handled it like a pro. We started with a trio of dips, and followed that with the Lou's salad. If you've ever been to Lou Malnati's you probably know that their house dressing is so good that you'll want to take a bath in it, but for the newbies, make sure you try the Lou's dressing. Jason actually brought us a plate full of their dressings. I hear that they were all excellent, but since I was busy bathing in their special recipe, I didn't get a chance to try them all. Blogger fail. Sorry!

Most of us ended up ordering some version of the personal pizza. Mine was sausage, a classic, and a favorite. A couple people split the "Lou," which is what we typically get when we eat with my family, and Donna, of donnahup.com asked about gluten-free options, so Jason recommended the sausage crust. Her pizza literally sat on a giant piece of sausage instead of pizza dough. My husband for sure would have been in heaven. It looked amazing. As it was, it was all I could do to make a valiant effort at finishing my own pizza, in all its cheesy goodness.

As we all sat and complained that we'd never be able to eat another bite, Jason surprised us with dessert! Obviously when you are given a dessert, you have to try it, whether you're ready to unbutton your pants at the table or not, so we dug in. It was a delicious chocolate chip cookie bottom covered in ice cream and cool whip. So here's the interesting part. I think it must have been magic dessert with supernatural healing powers. Don't laugh, I'm serious. For some reason, after eating my share of the cookie I suddenly felt much better, and probably could have eaten at least half a bag of Garrett's popcorn or a Chicago dog.

So there you go, folks. If you want real deal pizza (not the tourist version), salad dressing you should buy by the gallon, and cookie desserts with magic healing powers, Lou Malnati's is the place for you. I know that I for one will be back when I visit the city again in July, and have no doubts that the kids will be asking to come back if we get to return to the IGI Chicago Style meet next winter!


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