Let me start the review off by saying that Louie's is what it is and that is what I love about it. A low key, dark place with good food. The service is hit or miss but generally speaking the staff have their heart in the right place. People who go here and expect a server to fall all over them is going to the wrong place. There are idiosyncrasies that exist that you kind of have to learn (no draft beer, cash or Amex etc.). Depending on the disposition of the staff you may or may not be informed of these types of things. Having said all of that, the pizza still is one of my favorites in Dallas. As other reviewers have said thin, crisp and just darn good. Take out is nice but fresh from the oven in person is the way to go. Both the greek and caesar salads are worth ordering. I know other people who have ordered steak and other items off of the menu but I have always ordered pizza. My only other thing to add is that it is not particurarly child friendly. I don't blame them for being less than accomodating but having been going here for 10+ years I do get a little annoyed when I bring my kids in EARLY on a WEEKNIGHT. As noted it is what it is so you have been warned. It is a bummer that they don't open until 5pm, especially on weekends when you might want to grab a pizza for lunch. I love this place and while it has its rough edges it maintains them in a charming, take it or leave it way that I respect. read more

We like Louie's pizza and wanted to support them during the Covid situation, so we ordered a pizza to pick up. The whole experience was poor. The guy on the phone was rude. The people at the bar, when I picked up the pizza seemed "put out". I gave the guy that took my money a big tip. He seemed unappreciative. And the "large" pizza that I ordered and paid for turned out to be a "medium" when I got it out of the box. A wholly unsatisfying experience. We won't do that again. read more

I've been going to Louie's for the better part of 20 years. I was a regular when it catered to the journalist crowd, and I continue to be a regular (although not as frequent) now that it caters to the "in" Dallas crowd. I was there when he transitioned from accepting all forms of payment to the present cash and AMEX only. You get the point. On my most recent visit, I thought to myself "why haven't I reviewed Louie's yet?" Because it's harder than you think. Despite being a regular for a long time now, I was torn between rating it a 2, 3 or 4. It seems odd that I would consider giving it a 2 when I keep going back, right? But I do, and the best explanation I can give you is that there are times when service rocks, the food is outta sight, and everything clicks. Then there are times when service is horrid, the food subpar, and I leave asking why I came in the first place. Such is the life of a Louie's regular. But I will continue to go back, because the times the ribeye is made just right, or when the pasta aglio olio oozes butter and garlic, or when the greek salad achieves perfection, there is no better dive bar food. It's the inconsistency that now makes me split my time between Cock and Bull (another dive bar with really good food) and Louie's. On my most recent visit, I ordered something I used to get a long time ago, but haven't in a while - the pork souvlaki. And while the taste was still really good, the portion size shrunk in half (but the price went up). On the other hand, he has really improved the wine list, and the Malbec I ordered was smooth and flavorful. Service was also spot on. Contrast that with my visit just prior, when the spaghetti was over oiled, the wine was subpar (the new wine list wasn't in place yet) and the service left something to be desired. Thus my conflict on what I rate it. I gave it a three as an overall average score on my last several visits. My last visit alone would have garnered a 4. The one prior, a two. read more

My brother Alex E from Austin says it's comparable to Campisi's. I find it to be much better. There are two camps when it comes to pizza, fans of thin crust and fans of thick crust. This place is for the thin crusters. It's also a place for strong drinks and good Cesar salads. Last time I was there a fellow gave his buddy the guns and shouted across the bar, "see you at the Ritz Carlton" and was serious. read more

Pizza is BOMB here. The most delicious pizza in Dallas. All other items on the menu are just as good too. The atmosphere is chill and very homey. The people are really nice. The bartenders are super friendly. The waitresses are masters at what they are doing. The hostesses will get you seated in a very timely manner although wait can get kinda long on the weekends. read more

The pizza is delicious and the martinis are a must, don't ask why, just drink them when you go. Wait staff is not so friendly and the prices are a little steep (not too unreasonable). Overall its worth it to go if you like thin crust pizza and martinis. read more

Ok, I've come around. While it didn't wow me at first impression, I realized over time that I was craving another hit. We order the italian sausage with jalapeno here as well, and Louie's rendition delivers a real punch. read more

So this is how it went through. 1. My boyfriend and I got there Thursday night at 5:05PM starving for some pizza. My friends and I (a group of 6) have tried to eat there before unsucessfully because everytime we have been is full and the wait time is ridiculous. We atempted this time because we thought it would be empty and quick, and It was empty indeeed. 2. 5:10PM, a waitress tells us what would we like to drink before even showing us the menus and I quickly said" diet cokes, but we would like the menus, we are starving". She said "honey the kitchen opens at 5:30 so you still have some time". Ok so we decide to wait. 3. 5:23pm, I tell the waitress, "we are ready when you are", and she said the kitchen is not open yet, so you still have some time, the pizzas won't come up until 6". What?????? , What??????, 3o minutes for a pizza????? 1 hour of wait, unbearable. 4. My boyfriend already aggravated due to his starvation and the fact that he works at the airport late told me to just go to other place quick so I told the rude and not nice waitress to just charge the 2 glasses of cokes. 5. She says 6 dollars. SIX WHAT??? for 2 glasses of diet cokes?? Is not a lemonade dude? 6. We paid the six dollars and we were out the door ASAP. 7. We ended up going to Greenville Ave, the best ever!!! I shouldn't have cheated not ever. Considering that we eat out a lot and that we go to a lot of restaurants in the downtown/Greenville/Henderson Area, because that's where we live, this is one of the worst services ever. Even if people say the pizza is good, service sucks. They won't ever see me again. On the other side we went to Greenville Ave Pizza and the people there wouldn't stop asking about how the pizza was and if we needed something else, a total 360 change. Learn from them Louies. read more

Came for the Food - Won't be Back Because of the Wait Staff I'd been to Louie's once before, and remembered the great pepperoni pizza. We came in on a slow Wednesday evening around 8 p.m. this time, with a few empty dirty tables around. We decided to separate two square-top tables that had been pushed together, so we didn't take up too much room. We were pounced on immediately and barked at by a young girl who apparently worked there. I have never been so insulted by wait staff before in my life. "Those tables are pushed together for a reason, I mean, I can ask the girl that normally works this section, but I guess I'll go clean off that dirty one over there if you need a table." Yeah, I guess you should. She ended up not being our server, this one was actually pleasant and helpful - after telling us, "don't move the table," I guess they're really particular about their tables. The original girl that addressed us in the beginning could be found sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant with her nose in her phone. The rest of the night was pretty good; the pizza was great. I'm not sure if Louie's takes the attitude of the staff as a badge of honor, but I might suggest they make a fundamental change in how they run their restaurant - as evidenced by the other reviews citing this problem. No one ended up sitting at the two tables pushed together. read more

Best pizza I've had in a long time. Perfect thin crust and lots of toppings, cooked just right. Our group ordered three different pizzas and all three were excellent! Good drinks. Friday night there was a line to get seated. About a 20 - 30 minute wait. Well worth it. Parking could be a hassle, but I've never not found a spot. read more

Came here for a bite after realizing we were starved and needed to ameliorate that situation stat. We both had sandwiches, which was probably not our best move - as the pictures of the pizza are epic enough that I have to return to try it. The sandwiches were good enough, and the drinks were strong enough for the price. I ended up buying because of their cash or amex only policy, which is kind of strange but hey, whatever. I have cash, I have amex, so I'm not ever going to walk away from Louie's empty handed! The place is kind of dimly lit inside and feels like it got stuck in the early 80s, but I kind of like that vibe anyway. Great close spot to grab some night food without all the douchiness of the other available bar/restaurant options within a two block radius. read more

Apparently you come for the pizza. I wouldn't. I live down the street and have always seen this place. So we decided to try. We waited five minutes for a hostess to acknowledge us. Then, closer to ten minutes before a waitress came by. We ordered the bread and butter, thinking it would come out quick since I was hungry enough to eat my husbands arm off. Never showed up. The waitress was so busy, after she dropped our pizza by, about 25 minutes after ordering, she never came back to check in us. My husband had to drink my coke because she never refilled them. As I sit here and type, unsatisfied with the half cheese half onion, black olive, and green pepper pizza we devoured out of starvation, she's still not been by. And at $1.00 a topping, those toppings were skimpy. Never again. The menu, service, and loud ambience ( if you can call it that) is lacking. Now I'll go find somewhere to have dessert that will hopefully leave me feeling satisfied and not like I waited 25 minutes for a Totino's frozen pizza. The pic is of my husband's burnt crust bits, btw. read more

Louie's - Burnt crust bits from the supposedly amazing pizza - Dive Bars Near Me - Dallas, Texas

Louie's is a great first date place. Good food, fun atmosphere and within walking distance from bars that you can get your date hammered at. Im knocking it down a star because Im the guy who always forgets its cash only and ends up having to run across the street to the ATM next door to The Slip Inn. Start with a greek salad to share and the split a thin crust pizza. My favorite is the pepperoni, black olive, and mushroom---its awesome! They have great beer selections and also TV's to check out your favorite games! read more

1st visit was on a Sat night. Hole in the wall place w/ a fun vibe. Pizza was good - nothing to write home about. Beer was cold & drinks were strong. Service was awful.....our waitress was rude & never checked on us unless we waived out hands to get her attention & then she would snap "I really busy, I'll get to you in a minute". We had a party of over 6 so she added 20% to our check - it was written on the menu. Normally this would be fine, but our ck was over $300 so she got $60 for giving awful, rude service. Not sure if we will go back or not. read more

So disappointed! I have eaten at Louie's a few times and its been ok. Tonight was bad though :(. I arrived at 7:30 and put in a to go order for 1 large pizza... That's it. I also asked if I could have a water to go. The bartender (younger guy long hair) told me no way on the water to go because its not allowed. As far as the pizza goes it took 1 hour for that pizza. The guy sitting next to me and the couple sitting next to him ordered at the same time. Both got their pizzas a good 20 minutes before me. Once I finally got the pizza and tasted it I was less than impressed. For some reason the sauce tasted like burnt ketchup. Sad :( read more

Alrighty, first of all I am rating the pizza not the service or obience, since I got takeout. I've been in search of a good pizza place for some time now. I was told by multiple people that I HAD to try Louie's. Last Friday I decided I'd give it a shot, and was a bit disappointed. It's pretty expensive, not very filling, and overhyped. It was $20 bucks for a large with 3 toppings, and I almost ate the whole pizza before I even got home. Yea, I was hungry, don't judge me! I'm very critical on pizza being from Chicago and all, and will continue my search for the best pizza place in Dallas. If anybody knows of a good Chicago style za, please let me know! read more

I used to think that nothing was as bad in Dallas as Campisis' pizza, but now I find that another establishment has apparently copied the 'Egyptian' pizza product. Pretty funny, given that Egyptians know about s much about Pizza as Finns do about BBQ. The same terrible, flat, crackerlike crust with cheese melted over it (virtually free of marinara) and no flavor at all. Even the peperoni seemed like circular cut outs from a papa john box. And for this I had to wait 35 minutes? Talk about the emperor having no clothes! read more

I gotta say this place rubs my jubblies the right way!!! The first time we came to Louie's we walked in the door and saw the sign that said "AMX or CASH Only" So we turned around and went to an ATM, pulled out some cash and grabbed a table. This was about 5:30 ishhhh on a Monday night.... The waitress was prompt, friendly, helpful and on point. We had the LARGE thin crust pizza with Greek olives, feta and their MADE IN HOUSE, Italian sausage.... Dear GOD. Lets put it this way the pizza was so good that my fiance wanted to come here on VALENTINES DAY for our dinner.... Which we did! We also ordered The Don.... A scrumptious patty melt.... No description, just scrumptious..... All in all this place rocks. get there EARLY if you would like fast service and a table. If you have an AMX card, good for you. You can use it here. If not, bring CASH... unless you want to wash dishes. Four thumbs up!!!!! read more

This place is awesome! Its tucked away on a quiet corner on an otherwise busy street. Pizza is SO good. Very cheesy! Laid back atmosphere. If you want a fun place to go with your friends for pizza and beer, look no further! read more

Food is good but it takes forever to get to your table, service is horrible. Not the place to come to if you're in a hurry or if you want knowledgable waitstaff. read more

Great hole-in-the-wall bordering the bustling area of Knox/Henderson and the seedier parts East of 75. The only thing I have ever had to eat at Louie's is the pizza. The crust is thin and delicious. It is a fun little dive but gets really crowded because the word is out about this low-key joint. Service can be abrupt and rude and sometimes slow (we watched them kick a group of drunk smartass SMU kids out because they were arguing with the staff about the size of their party, so try and be friendly with the waitstaff). Generally, I enjoy hanging out here, drinking bottled beer and eating some pizza with groups of friends. It can get pretty smoky, so keep that in mind. read more

* Food - Good thin crust pizza. Nice size, but a little pricey. Service - Friendly. * Atmosphere - Laid back. True dive bar ambience * That something extra - The portion size of a small salad easily feeds 2-3 people. Did it make my "faves" list - Nah, it won't be in the "must" return rotation read more

I wanted to visit for a long time but when I finally did, I was hugely disappointed. The food was horrible and way over priced. I would not recommend it. read more

Came here once, need to go again! We grabbed a pepperoni and garlic pizza. Damn, awesome. Happy to see it on DDD, hope they don't change a thing. read more

Ok, had a lot of anticipation going in here seeing as it was featured on Triple D. Yes, it is a dive, but that was good. Service not bad, a bit slow though. Food good but not anything exceptional. Pizza - Campisis is better. Burger - could have flipped one in the back yard better. Calzone - good, not great. Atmosphere - fun, loud, Cowboys game on. Overall, would go back for a beer and bar food, but really think it is no more than that - would never recommend a trip for dinner as we did this evening. read more

Definitely the best pizza in Dallas. If you like thin crust Chicago style pizza, you will love this place. The owner is from Chicago and knows how to make pizza. The ingredients are so fresh and their Greek salad is amazing too. You get tons of feta cheese! My favorite pizza is the sausage and feta cheese. Yes, I am obsessed with feta! ;) If you go here, you should know that they only take American Express or cash. read more

First, they are charging me $1 for water. The waitress said because it's st Patricks day.???? I don't care...that is ridiculous for a paying customer to be charged for a water with their meal. Second, if you order a pizza half one topping, half another, you pay the same price for each topping as if it's the whole pizza. I don't know why this place is nickel and diming customers, it's not that great. read more

What a pleasant surprise this place happened to be! We went with a group of friends on a Saturday night. All of us only went by there during the day and assumed it was an old gas station or closed business. Louie's just has a really cool vibe. Like the neighborhood bar you want to just idle in for hours on a lazy Saturday. It is a bonus that the food is amazing and the pours are heavy! ER can't wait to come back when it gets cooler and hang out with a fire in the fireplace! read more

Got there when it opened (5:30) and took the server some time to get out drinks let alone say hello. My friend got a burger and that was delicious! I had the club and it was like any other club I've had. Then we got another server and I wasn't even done and she asked me if I wanted to box my 1 piece of sandwich up and I said, no thank you, I'm going to finish it. I felt like I was being rushed out. In all, the food was ok and the servers weren't friendly. Not sure why they were chosen for triple d's but to each their own! read more

The pizza is solid, but this place is not giving anything away. Menu items outside of the pizza, including the booze, carry a lofty price tag for nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary and/or spectacular. read more

This place blows! Food is great, but service sucks and they know it! If you want to have a horrible night, and be waited on by miserable people, than this is place for you. Giving one star for the food! read more

Beautiful Thin crust Pizza with loaded down ingredients that are the best! One Pizza can easily feed two with a Salad

Love it! For five years now Greek salad plus pepperoni and sausage pizza and cold beers=my perfect date night with hubby! We have done this numerous times and always finish the large pizza with no problem even though we say we will quit when we are full. I seriously thought all the other food items on the menu were a joke until I saw this place on the Food Network on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, so last time I ordered a Reuben to change things up and the corned beef was so thick and tough I had to send it back (which I never do) and get a pizza as Plan B. My mom had a patty melt and it was not even grilled. Stick with the Pizza and salad and you can't go wrong!!!! read more

My brother used to live next to this place. I would say their pizza is comparable to Campizi's. Now that Ive said that I'll have to review it too. The bartenders all seemed really pleasant, im pretty sure "Louie" is there a lot of the time as well. I like that It's kind of hard to pinpoit the specific type of "crowd" this place draws... so im not going to try to, but I can say there was a nice absence of assholes. Id give it five stars just for the building and the cocktail sign it has outside, and the neighborhood it's in reminds me of some of my favorite places in Austin. read more

First and last time coming here! The waitress...oh boy! If this were my establishment she would be FIRED! To me, it seemed like she didn't want to be here. She wasn't friendly AT ALL! She seated us and brought water. Honey ordered a beer which came quickly. I ordered a Mai Tai and 20 min later I had to ask for it. She said she forgot. Well don't even bother making it! I don't want it anymore. We've been waiting for our pizza for 40 min now. They said about 45 min, so I'm ok with that. What I am not ok with, is that she never came back to check on us. We never got straws for our water. She's made her rounds to other tables asking if they're ok, but not over here. Your employees can either make or break it... my first impression of this place is - GARBAGE. This is nothing like the Louie's in Waukegan, IL. It's stuffy...unfriendly, stuck-up and I'm never coming here again. read more

Absolutely eggsellent thin crust pizza (a top 5 in dallas) and decent Greek salad. Go for the sauteed onions on the pizza...Downside: The bottled and canned beers are too expensive... read more

The hubby and I wanted a place we could go in lulu's and Birkenstocks for good pizza. We typically go to Olivella's but wanted a change. Louie's was a wonderful option. A dive bar with excellent food! We had Cesar salad, crab claws and built our own pizza and it was all great. To top it all off the server was nice and on top of it. It's a great, unpretentious joint in East Dallas. Only downside is lack of parking. read more

Best pizza I've ever had hands down!! All the other food I've had on the menu is great as well! Love the dive atmosphere too!

if you're looking for a dive: this is it! i have to say, the pizza (coming from my very hard standards as a New Yorker) is really not so great, but if you were born and raised in Dallas you should have no trouble. The reason why they get 4 stars: 1) amazing cosmos - very strong, all the right ingredients 2) the best caesar salad ever! not recommended for dates tho - there's a lot of garlic read more

Excellent food and service. I read about it in D Magazine and it was definitely up to par with what was said. A great style of pizza and very much a dive place. read more