For our family, Lou Malnati's has become part of a tradition. Every time we return home from a long road trip, we celebrate by ordering a pizza. This year, after six weeks on the road and 14 national parks, our welcome-home meal was exactly what it always is: an extra-crispy thin-crust pizza with cheese and vegetables. And honestly, it hit the spot. There is something comforting about coming home, unpacking the car, and sitting down with a familiar pizza after weeks of restaurant meals, road snacks, and vacation food. The thin crust was crispy, flavorful, and exactly what we were craving. Over the years, however, I do feel that Lou Malnati's quality has slipped somewhat, particularly when it comes to the deep-dish pizza that made them famous. We rarely order the deep dish anymore because it simply is not what it used to be. The thin crust, on the other hand, continues to be the better choice for us. Ordered extra crispy, it delivers a satisfying crunch and remains a solid Chicago-style thin pizza. Is it the best pizza in Chicago? Probably not. Is it part of our family's road-trip tradition and a comforting welcome-home meal after weeks away? Absolutely. Sometimes a pizza is more than a pizza. Sometimes it is the final mile marker of a great adventure and the first taste of being home again. read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - Extra Crispy Thin Crust - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

I ordered carryout from this location for the first time last night, and I can honestly say in all my years as a native Chicagolander, I've never been served a pizza (deep-dish or otherwise) that looked like this. Half the sauce was missing from the edge - this was not the result of how we transported the pizza, because the other deep dish pizza didn't look like this at all. Someone genuinely thought that this was acceptable to serve to a customer, and that maybe we wouldn't notice? Either way, I was really bummed out. I live outside of the state now, but every year, I come back home for the holidays and look forward to eating some deep dish so much. This was truly such a disappointment :( Not sure if I'll ever be ordering from Lou's again - I have noticed the quality has gone down in recent years, but I was willing to give them another shot. Guess I'll be ordering from Gino's or Giordano's next time. read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - Deep dish Lou's special w/ half the sauce missing! - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

Ordered a thin crust and a deep dish pizza. Recd two thin crust. Had a friend here from out of town who loves deep dish so this was a huge disappointment. How can they mess up an order on a week night? Update: They did a credit for one pizza. read more

What a huge disappointment. We've been ordering pizza from this restaurant since they opened, probably close to 20 years ago. We ordered a most cheapest three on a medium salad tonight. They were shocked to see that the cost was $67. I still placed the order only to have received a pizza missing the ingredients. We paid for the Chicago style pizza (that includes extra cheese) and then added two ingredients. Look at the picture below. Where is the cheese? Pound per pound, this Pizza you used to deliver twice it is not what we received today. We paid your increased prices, yet you delivered inferior product. If you're going to increase your prices, deliver the product that reflects that. After 20 years of loyalty, they're way too many other good pizza restaurants in the neighborhood. Let us know when you get back to quality for the price. The idea that you could order a pizza to go for $67 is ridiculous. read more

A good pizza with plenty of toppings. Thin crust, regular and deep dish all tasty. Not a dine in, only take out with delivery

Solid deep dish chicago style pizza. Better get the butter crust for $.99 extra! Always on time and ready for pickup. Dough to sauce/topping ratio is ideal. read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - Spinach garlic basil mushroom Deep Dish Create Your Own - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

We almost exclusively get deep dish pizzas from Lou's but recently decided to try their thin crust. First off, let me say we were a bit shocked by the size to price ratio of a small thin crust pizza. I think you probably get a better value with a large deep dish, however, we wanted to try something new and thought it would be better to go small first. The small veggie? Rather boring to be honest. Nothing wrong with it, just not something we would order again as we crave more flavor. The small limited time Mike's Hot Honey pizza? DELICIOUS! If we had any inkling of how good that pizza would be we would have gotten a large right out of the gate. It really impressed us. And one of the things we love most about Lou Malnati's is their crust. It's not that cardboard looking crud some pizza places give you. We eat every bite of the crust because it's absolutely amazing. Will definitely be ordering again soon before that Mike's Hot Honey is gone. read more

Pizza was delicious. Grub hub who they used to deliver it left it sitting on my front porch in 19 degrees without ringing the doorbell or calling. I won't order from Lou's again. Not because the pizza was bad. But I'm not paying 53.00 for a cold pizza. read more

The Chicago Classic is hard to beat. Best deep dish pizza around, but if you've never tried the Malnati's Salad, you are missing out. Tip: order this with the dressing on the side (for carry-out). read more

Used to be great but quality has gone downhill. Barely any ingredients on it now also the deep dish is almost a thin pizza now. Barely any cheese on it also. Time to find a new deep dish pizza place. read more

New pizza in all of Chicago. Not my favorite location and wait times are long, so, plan ahead. But their deep dish pizza and butter crust is the best pizza I hav ever eaten. read more

Fortunately for me I live in the Chicago area. The best area in the world for pizza. Also fortunate that all of the best Chicago pizza places are in an easy driving distance to my home. So I am pizza spoiled! I have a top 5 pizza favorites. Lou's is between my first and second choice out of them all. Their deep dish pizza is top notch! The sauce has chunks of tomato's in it. The sausage is plentiful and of great quality and the crust? Well, if you order the butter crust you are going to be well pleased! I usually order garlic on the pie as well and oh yes, its fresh. I always order the pizza well done so it is more crispy. If you want to enjoy one of the best pizzas in, not only Chicago, but the entire world then this is the place to go! read more

Wanted to try the deep dish as i heard it was amazing. i thought it was the dine in but that was ok. When i walked in there were 2 young girls. One with short blonde hair and the other with long black hair. Both were beyond helpful with the blonde one coming from the counter to help me find a salad and the black haired girl telling me about deals, specific items she likes/recommends. I placed my order but was suprised it was going to take 40 MINUTES for a pizza!!! Definitely glad i waited because the hype was beyond worth it including the service! Thank you Lou Malnati's read more

Simply the best deep dish around! Combine they with their amazing salads and you've got the perfect Friday night dinner. Join the rewards program if you are a regular! read more

Oh my goodness. I just went to order a pizza and accidentally hit the wrong pizza to redeem for my rewards. I haven't checked out yet, so my order is not yet submitted, but it won't let me go back and order the one I want to order so I called the store to let them know that I wanted to order a different pizza than the one that's in my cart and could I just order on the phone with them or should I complete the order online but just let them know to be sure to look at the notes to make my pizza correctly. They said they could not switch the crust of my pizza because I had already put it in my cart. I have until June 12 to order that pizza but I can't change the type of crust I get. I explained to them that I want to order a pizza that is equivalent in redemption points in other words if I hadn't pressed the wrong button and I clicked the pizza that I wanna order now it would cost me the exact same thing, so couldn't I just complete my order and he walked to the kitchen and tell them what pizza I want. He said no. For five minutes, I tried to explain to him how logical it would be to make the customer happy and since I have not even placed my order yet, and I am asking him to swap two things that cost the exact same amount of money/in this case exact same amount of points that I earned because I eat here all the time wouldn't it make the most sense to make the customer happy.. His reply. Yeah we can't do that. The system won't let us. Unless they're robots back there making the pizzas. I am pretty sure they can do it. This is not the first time we've had issues with this Lou Malnati's location. And we live closer to three other pizza places. If it weren't for my child with special needs who also has celiac and loves their gluten-free pizza than I would have stopped going there a long time ago I do believe this was the final straw. read more

I've grown up in the Chicagoland area my whole life and grew up with this pizza! It's getting 2 stars because it's good pizza, but what really disappoints me is their service. We placed an order over the phone and was told it would be ready in a while. Get to the pizzeria when they stated the pizza would be ready and they had no idea and our order number didn't match any of their order numbers (and yes we ordered from the right location) so they ended up losing the ticket for it. So we replaced the order and waited in the parking lot for a another pizza. When it was time to get the pizza, we called back to check in on the status of the order, and again THEY "lost" the ticket. Their organization needs to be addressed as well as their ordering system. They need to have better management of their orders and not loose them or give out order numbers and not actually have that order number in their system. I called management to address the issue and i wasn't the only one who had this issue. I believe management needs to address the issue with the team and come up with a better solution especially for being a Friday night. Traveling home for the weekend from TN, so getting to eat their pizza is a treat, and am very disappointed that I will not get to have any this time around. read more

The pizza has been hit or miss lately. Inconsistent. Last few we ordered the dough on the bottom was way too thick, like 3/4 inch plus which blew the cheese to crust ratio. read more

i've loved malnati's sausage pizza for decades, it's always been my favorite. i bought one yesterday 19$, and i'm sorry to say that it's just plain tasteless. where's the seasoning in the sausage???? read more

just had our Friday night pizza and we wanted to try something different... picked up a med. pizza and an individual garden salad with tax it was $33 the garden salad for 8.95 was fresh, had a nice amount of tomatoes cucumbers, red onions and a nice mix of ice berg and romaine lettuce and it came with two small sides of dressing and croutons.. that's where the good part stops the 12 inch pizza was a little under cooked on top had very little sauce and the crust tasted like a piece of hard cardboard. The pizza was not worth the $23.50 price I believe the special 1 topping pizza for $8.95 at Dominos would have been better... read more

The pizza is alright but the last two times I've opted for pickup, the app says my order is ready yet I sit for over ten minutes waiting to be noticed while other cars come and go around me. read more

Ordered 2hrs in advance and still not ready. Bad business for Carol Stream. Waited for another 30 minutes

ordered 2 pizzas for delivery. delivery person couldn't locate my house and I had to go outside to find him, then when I got the pizzas inside they had clearly tipped over while in transport. plus they didn't give me a receip, so I had no way of getting reward points. went online to complain to customer service and it took the over a month to get back to me. now it's been over 2 months and still no resolution. they outsource all of their customer service. I'm done with Lou's and deleting the app. there are too many great pizza places in the area. nobody needs to be treated like this, especially when you spend over $75 and receive tipped over pizzas read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - a pizza in a box - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

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I received my extra large pizza with extra cheese. There was no extra cheese and the ends were over cooked and the middle was soggy.

Long time Lou customers and what garbage pizza we had tonight. If I wanted a can of uncooked tomato's with no gli or thrown on toasted bread I could have done that myself. It was supposed to have peperoni as well but maybe had 7 slices. The picture will speak for itself. Once again, a garbage service industry. Do me a favor people, if you want to work in the food industry be prepared to actually work as it's called work, not pay time. read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - Canned tomatoes with no flavor. - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

I live out of town. Any chance to come to Chicago and enjoy Lou's is a treat. Never a bad meal. There's always the debate between Lou's, Giordanos and Gino's East. I've had them all. Like Lou's the best. Wish they had meatball or ground beef topping. You can't go wrong. Come hungry. It's a lot of food read more

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I called in my order when they first opened at 4pm. Forty minutes later it was ready as promised. Lou Malnati's is my most favorite deep dish pizza. I can also recommend their thin crust pizza. We ordered both pizzas with 'easy on the sauce' and the pizza's turned out perfect read more

What a disappointing experience. Pizza arrived cold; sides were meh at best. Checked reviews and it's clear we just threw money down the toilet for what used to be a regular go-to. So many choices for pizza; unfortunately this location is a let down. Didn't even hold on to anything as leftovers, which used to be blasphemous. Meh. read more

Every time we order delivery from here everything is always perfect, hot and on time. And if they do mess up (which was only once in the years we have been coming here) they have the best accountability I've ever seen. A really great team of managers who are more than willing to take the hit for their own mistake and OFFERING it, none the less. It's insane to me how awesome they are here. I've never seen customer service so good, seriously! And to top it off their pizza is the best, duh. We will continue to order again & again. read more

Meh! Service was good but the pizza was terrible nothing what I remember a Chicago deep dish pizza being like. Tried the wings and they came out ice cold got sick after taking one bite. read more

I order from this location often but today that has no concern of clue with what I wanted and the delivery proves. Everything was wrong and they don't care. I am very dissatisfied and disappointed in Lou Malnati's in having this kind of service. You lost a great customer as well as future customers with my daughters. This ain't the first time this has happened at this location but the previous manager handled it. Today is more like who gives a shit. read more

The Malnati's got their start at Pizzeria Uno which, at the time, was the defacto standard for great Chicago Pizza. I grew up in the downtown Chicago area eating Uno's, Due's, Dino's, Gino's and Gino's East Pizza (in the 60's and 70's before they were all ruined) and in the 80's I was a Pizza snob that thought of Lou Malnati's as suburban "Chicago Style Pizza Wanna Be" Guess they showed me. When friends and family come to town and they want real Chicago Styled Pizza, we get Lou Malnati's. The places of my youth are gone, or are a caricature of their former selves. Franchising, tourism and fame has ruined them (some are still 4 * pizza's, but...) Lou Malnati's has expanded without destroying themselves. Their Buttercrust Sausage Pizza is edible artistry. Thank goodness they are still around and haven't compromised themselves. This particular shop is carry out only... so the review is for the Pizza only (carry out shop is fine) .. keeps it simple that way read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - Sausage pizza with the buttercrust - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

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So, we have ordered from Lou's for years. Never have been able to accrue ANY points for the dough program...even from the summer parties where we order anywhere from5 to 12 pizzas! Placed the order, asked for garlic dressing and balsamic dressing. Ordered a family size salad so it was suppose to come with the dressing... which of these (see photo) is the garlic? NONE! Thanks for the memories Lou, but I think I am done here. read more

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - Four plain old Italian (supposedly balsamic) dressing. - Pizza Near Me - Carol Stream, Illinois

Well, I used to order the deep dish pizza quite often from this location. Great deep dish in my opinion, solid. They also have an excellent Malnati's house salad, and the chicken wings are pretty good too. That said, I'm not a big fan of the original owners selling out to a conglomerate investment firm. Not at all. The consistent quality is still there, but their pricing has increased way too much since that acquisition in 2021. I've received good service overall, and to note that this store is take-out only. I'd recommend the deep dish pizza, but only if you can justify the price. read more

Curbside service is HORRIBLE--currently looking for a new regular pizza place after multiple bad customer service experiences.

Crust was good. Definitely do well done so it's crispy. The crust needed some salt which is not something I have ever posted before. It also needed more sauce. read more

I wish that it were possible to assign two ratings. I have been purchasing pizza from this Carol Stream Lou Malnati's for as long as I can remember. I am not a frequent buyer but it is the only place that I order from. It is my favorite and clearly for me a 5 star! Today I called to place my usual order and the person on the phone was very helpful and pleasant. I gave her my order for a 12 inch thin crust with a couple of add ons and delivery. The price was in excess of $30. I was absolutely stunned. That is double the price I paid when I started buying there and substantially more than recent orders. Because I have always had a great experience with their deliveries, I tend to be generous with a tip for the delivery person. So, in total, nearly $40 for a 12 inch pizza. I cancelled the order and sadly will not be able to order there again. read more

The. Best. Deep. Dish. Pizza. Period. We've been going to this location for years. More than 10 years actually. Never disappoints. And tonight was no different. But I decided to write a long overdue review tonight because of their customer service and not so much about their pies. Don't get me wrong, their customer service is always a slice above the rest. (See what I did there?). The folks on the phone are always courteous, the folks behind the counter fast and nice. But when I stopped by to pick up tonight's dinner I forgot about the extra side of sauce that we ordered, and Lou's forgot to pack it with the order. The Mrs gave them a call and asked if they could deliver it. The person on the phone said they would get it over as soon as they could but it may be a while. Totally understandable. I just figured I would have to settle for having that awesome red sauce for my leftovers. Then, in what felt like minutes, the doorbell rang and there was the red sauce! The same dude my wife placed the phone order with, who explained how the rewards program works, and who I had a brief convo with when I picked up, ran the sauce over. How freaking awesome was that?? I've been to several of their locations over the years, sit in, and take out. But I'm pretty damn happy that the one I go to regularly has such awesome workers! Now go order some Lou's. Right now, do it! read more

Love this place. We bikes for our pizzas to go! So glad we did! Staff is super friendly and pizza of course is the best!

I placed an order online through a 3rd party app. I probably should have placed the order directly but for whatever reason I didn't. An hour and a half later I called to check the status of my order and the girl tells me it will be another hour and 30 min. She said that when you place an order online right now they add another hour to the delivery time? I am so confused. I realize this is a trying time but how was I supposed to know this before I placed the order? Could they put this information on their website or somewhere we would be notified about it? When I place an order I don't automatically assume my order will be delivered in 3 hours........ totally bizarre. read more

Very good pizza and great service. Small location but very good for take-out. Look for coupons.