My second trip stopping at Papa Dels while traveling through Champaign. First time.I ordered stuffed spinach which definitely is 5 stars. This time ordered large pan pizza with the works. Excellent, only reservation is that the l leftovers do not reheat as well the next day. Place was clean and staff friendly and efficient. read more

FYI- This pizzeria DOES NOT DO APPPLE PAY You can use your credit card. Maya (May-Yah) was really nice and kind as our waitress. She sat us by the window which was a nice view of outside. We all ordered the tortilla soup and it was ok. It was more like a puréed soup with some shredded chicken. This place is huge and spacious and a lot of seating with a lot of tv screens which aren't as loud as other pizzerias. One an actually have a nice conversation. The moment came for the thin crust pizza and it was phenomenal omg the big size sausages are to die for. read more

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Circle of life kind of situation, we were doing our own college drop off and had to go here out of nostalgia. It's a whole different and much more modern place now. It's a HUGE venue inside. I think overall, it was really good. Maybe not quite as amazing I remember from back in the day. But overall, we had some great company and good food. The waitress we had seemed to be having mood issues and that certainly didn't help. But again, overall nice time. read more

I had two extremes for their pizza, the thinnest, and the thickest... and I enjoyed both! Stumbled upon this spot when I was in the area, and I am happy I went! Coming in here, it was not too busy inside and we were seated right away. We started with some wings initially, and were then intrigued by the "Fried Garlic Butter Donuts". The wings were good, though everyone really enjoyed these fried donuts! Essentially fried dough, we were recommended to get this with the Nacho Cheese sauce, and oh man... this was a good way to start the meal! For the main course, we got the All American Thin Pizza w/ Bacon, and the Super Stuffed Pizza. The 2nd pizza is a Deep Dish pizza with extra cheese inside! Note that this pizza takes about an hour to prepare, but the wait is well worth it! Both pizzas were delicious in completely different ways. The thin pizza had a good crisp and just the right amount of cheese, sauce and flavor! The Super Stuff Pizza was very cheesy and I definitely needed a knife a fork to cut and eat it. It was VERY filling and every though we were a large group, we still took food home! Overall, if you are craving pizza in Champaign, this is one of the places to check out! Depending on your preference, I'm sure you will find the type of pizza that you like! read more

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Love the pizza but not too fond of the service. The pizza is great, which is why we keep coming back. Unfortunately, the customer service and overall process leave a lot to be desired. On a previous order, our pizza was made incorrectly. We were told it would be remade or compensated on our next visit. When we tried to redeem that offer, we were told there were no notes on our account. Different employees gave different explanations as to why, which only added to the confusion. I was eventually put on the phone with the general manager, Andrea, who was on vacation. Rather than simply resolving the issue, I was told she would need to search through past transactions once she returned to the office. She also explained that the proper procedure would have been for us to either send a photo or return the pizza--both of which seem unreasonable when wait times are already close to an hour. The value of the pizza wasn't the issue. The frustrating part was the amount of time and effort required to address a mistake that should have been easily corrected. Great food, but the systems and customer service need improvement. read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Medium pepperoni pan pizza - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

After some trial and error, we have hit on the optimal pizza order: stuffed pizza with mushroom, spinach, and garlic. Plus extra pizza sauce on the side. The stuffed pizzas are generally chewier than the pan pizzas, which get dry on the bottom. The spinach in particular brings moisture that finds its way into the dough, however the flavor can be too vegetal without the garlic to cut through it. The mushrooms, of course, bring a meaty flavor and texture without getting too heavy. The final challenge is the crust around the edge of the pan, which is a mouthful of dry bread. This is where the extra pizza sauce comes in: dip that crust! read more

I haven't been here since I was in college and it was just as good as I remember! I'm a deep dish pizza person and this hit the spot. Service was excellent as well! read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Review for SLICES not whole pizza order : We were in a time crunch so we chose the slice route , also this way everyone could get what they wanted . I personally chose the mushroom slice. Pretty solid slice for 4.50. Well worth it in my opinion . Perfect crust. Perfect ratio of shrooms and cheese . Now the sides on the other hand . The motz sticks were laughable for 7 dollars. I was expecting some mega sized ones as 6 only came with an order. Pretty disappointing to see 6 puny ones arrive and they basically tasted like aldi brand . The wings were a big disappointment as you get 12 wings for 20'dollars ?? We proceeded in buying 24 as we had 4 large gentlemen in our group ... for 40 dollars , was very very underwhelming as a couple even appeared to be undercooked . Now the bright side was our server was excellent she was fast and attentive as we arrived at 1130 on a Saturday. The beer list was extensive although the prices could have been a little friendlier. I would come back in again for a slice and a beer but nothing else read more

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Really good deep dish! Good service! Really liked the old Coca Cola bottling building rehab. Good job! read more

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1st time here and it was great! This was the small seep dish and my husband and I couldn't finish it! It does take some time....be patient! read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Have been here four times as my son Is a student at U of I. And I am leaving this review based on all four visits. The food actually very good. Some of the best artichoke dip I have ever had. That being said, it took 42 minutes to get an appetizer on a Sunday afternoon. Waited over 2 hours for pizza 3 out of the four times. Service was attentive, but the server had 11 tables of 3 or more people, so she was a bit overwhelmed, but kept her cool I blame management here as this is a staffing issue. Went to pay for our bill as server was handing 9 other tables and asked bartender if I could have a manager help me. He said "pay your server, manager is busy". Don't think we will be back.. Very sad as I will be missing that artichoke dip., read more

We love the pizza. Great sauce with deep dish crust that is not soggy or too heavy. It's a great sit-down atmosphere, but sometimes there's a long wait and it's difficult to get a straight answer from the host stand about wait times. They stop serving food at the bar a long time before table service ends, which is unfortunate if you're a single. read more

Food was great but the service was quite poor - had ordered a pizza before we left home, and it arrived on time. Had wanted to order appetizers, but waiter never came back to check on us. read more

Called for delivery to local hotel as I am out of towner. Person on phone was not the friendliest. The delivery driver was super friendly. I tired this place because other said it was "amazing" pumping up my expectations for a Chicago deep dish pizza. The pizza was good but not amazing. I think mainly ALOT of sauce. Fried doughnuts are nothing special either. I would however still eat here again as the pizza is much better than typical chain restaurant. Good filling experience. read more

I called to see how long it would take to get spaghetti of i came in to order it since i wanted to get something quick a we were on our way home from my girlfriends surgery. I was told 10 minutes. cool I get there 5 minutes later and when I ordered i was told maybe 15-20 minutes. ehh, ok I can deal with that. it took 45 minutes to get 3 orders off spaghetti. i was never acknowledged or updated while waiting. I asked for the manager before leaving and was told that the manager was cooking. which apparently meant I could not speak to them. I then get home and realize that I didn't even receive all of my food. I also assumed that a "meat sauce" would involve some meat and more sauce than just enough to color the noodles! this was the absolute worst first impression I've ever gotten at any restaurant! read more

Great food and service! We wanted pizza and wings and all sorts of food here! Our server mentioned slices available instead of a whole pie (which takes time to make) and we were sold. Instant pizza and wings in short order piping hot! Cmon. Great deal. We had beers pizza slices wings and alll that for a lil over 100$ for 4 bros. Worth the stop! read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Wings! - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

The pizza is amazing. I love their sausage the best. For lunch, they sell slices until 3pm and you really only need one slice to fill you up. After 3pm they sell 1/2 priced slices until they run out which usually doesn't last too long If you plan on ordering a deep dish pizza then you need to plan on an hour for it to cook. I usually just order take out read more

Been here a couple dozen times and have always had an amazing experience. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago so I had no shortage of deep dish pizza, but Papa Del's is my favorite. Don't go here if you are pressed on time! The pizza does take awhile to come out but it is so worth it! read more

The best pizza in Champaign! The deep dish is my favorite. Always a must when visiting, they never disappoint

I've loved this place since the mid seventies but your incredibly poor staffing has done me in. When I'm home, I always walk in and seay hello and tell them I'm there for a slice and a beer snd they tell me anywhere in the bar. No different today because I'm a solitary woman I always sit at a bar table and not with all the men st the bar. I did that today and was ignored. Then a guy walked over and reprimanded me and told me I was supposed to wait be seated or that I should sit at the bar. Really? I'll never be back. Now you're just a fond memory. read more

Papa Del's Pizza - I try to stop in for a slice is sausage and a PBR every time I'm home. - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Good place but a long wait for a pizza, but worth it. It's best to call ahead and save an hour or even more. Papa Del's is the best place in Champaign for pizza. Forget about the greasy crumbly crap. The pizza here is good shit, and there's vegan choices too. Came here after hearing good things about it. It was lunch and it wasn't busy, so we got seats at the bar and placed an order. The pizzas are by the slice or whole. It's about $9 for a whole pizza. We got one with the vegan cheese, and if there wasn't so much of a charge to add on anything we would have gotten more toppings. It takes about 50 minute to cook a pizza. Know that before going, and you may want to call ahead to save on the wait. As for the pizza, it was good. The vegan cheese was meaty like real cheese, and didn't have an odd flavor like many of these can have. Has a fun casual atmosphere. It has a bar so you can drink while waiting for a pizza. There's lots of TVs showing movies and sports. read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Pizza With The Vegan Cheese - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Service here continues to be awful. Came in town from Atlanta and wanted to get some Pizza before leaving. Called at 7:28 on a Sunday and asked what time they closed. They said 9p. Pulled up st 8:06 and no one greeted us. Finally a lady came out and said we are closed. I said they said 9. She said yes we closed early read more

I really don't understand how this place only gets 3 stars! Tried for the first time last night. Service was strong, and the food was incredible! We started with the Arancini (they were out of stuffed mushrooms) and they were delicious! We tried the thin crust because we didn't feel like waiting an hour for the deep dish (pretty standard for deep dish from scratch). We got our standard toppings: pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, with giardiniera on half for me. The amount of cheese for a this crust was outstanding! Although the crust was thin, they PILED on the toppings, especially the cheese! One of the best pizzas I've ever had! I can only imagine the bad reviews are from people that had it delivered to a hotel, and maybe the pizza wasn't as hot. Definitely recommend you dine in! read more

A few things went wrong with my visit. To start off my friends burger looked like it was alive, it did not look good at all. And my girlfriend got the half and half meat and cheese ravioli (pictured below) was drowning in water almost, she ended up throwing up after only eating 2 pieces. And i got the lasagna, it was very dry and poorly seasoned tasted like it was frozen and not fresh. Our waitress was nice but didn't seem very professional seemed like she kinda just wanted to get out of there. It was a good looking establishment, it looked pretty clean, definitely if I were to come back I would wait for my pizza and see if that's good at least but definitely a poor first impression 4/10 DO BETTER. read more

Papa Del's Pizza - meat and cheese ravioli - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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Why can't you give 0 stars? The customer service in this place is second to none. It's like dating your sister, horrible and awkward. Bellied up to the bar for a beer and pizza after being told by the host it would be 2 hours for a table. The host seemed surprised I would want to wait and wasn't really certain how to handle my straight face, so he dug through some note pads and found a piece of paper to put my name on. He also suggested I order ahead so it would be ready when my table was ready. I did that, and 4 1/2 hours later my pizza was ready. Wanted to eat at the bar and was told that was not an option. Funny thing, about half the tables were unoccupied, but the complaint desk was not. While I was ordering my pizza, another customer was going ballistic that he had been waiting since 2:30 for his (it was now 5:30). Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results. I keep hoping Papa Del's will provide the experience I had in college 40 years ago, but no such luck. Now I go in just to remind myself what a shit show their service is and ponder how they can still possibly be in business. read more

My husband and I have been eating at Papa Del's for 50 years. We ate there for our first date and it has never lost its great taste. Our brother and sister-in-law meet us at Papa Del's when they drive from Texas to Chicago and they say they look so forward to sharing a pizza every time read more

Some of the best pizza on earth. Locally owned and run. Whenever I am not here locally I miss the pizza here and nowhere compares reallistically! read more

We heard great things about this restaurant, but were pretty disappointed at the food. The breadsticks were hard and lacked any flavor, the Italian salad was nothing more than a bag of lettuce from the grocery store with some oily dressing on it, and the pepperoni deep dish was pretty flavorless too. The red sauce on both the pizza and served as a dipping sauce with the breadsticks was very bland. I wouldn't pay more than $30 for the quality of food we ate, and we paid more than twice that. Maybe we came on an off day, but I wouldn't come here again. read more

If I could give this place zero stars I would. Absolutely terrible customer service and no accountability. Came in after being told we would be seated in 40 mins, but waited over an hour for help. In the hour we waited we were told numerous times that they would not serve us food at the bar, while other parties were able to order. No solutions were given, so as a guest I had to ask if placing an order for carry out would expedite the process and was told I need to take everyone's order on my own. After taking everyone's order about 2 hours later still no food. If you want to eat DO NOT COME HERE. To top it off there's mold. read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Moldy Cheese - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Awful service! It wasn't even remotely busy...it took 50 minutes to get two appetizers! Then the server just dropped off the food and disappeared completely. It was just frozen appetizers from the grocery store anyway...total Generation Z staff, lazy, rude...all standing around the hostess stand ignoring customers. Horrible uncomfortable seats, bad acoustics... never before and never again! read more

I took my family to Papa Del's on Friday ar 12:30 for lunch. We were seated right away, but by 1pm, not one server even acknowledged we were there. So, we walked out. read more

Incredible place for pizza, and beer. Have never tried anything else aside from like bread sticks maybe. Their sausage deep dish is one of the best in our great state of Illinois and is competitive to the best in Chicagoland. An absolute favorite place and for me personally always worth the detour on road trips. The ambiance is really nice with the new space and the staff is courteous. No complaints one of the best pizzas in our great state. read more

Plenty of parking and seating inside. Calming ambiance with cool lights, and I could not believe how cheap the pizza was! Great service, and my friend and I waited the 50 min for our deep dish pizza. $25 for 2 appetizers and our pizza with 3 toppings. It was well worth the wait, and they let us dine in even though we came 40 min before closing. Papa Del's has been an establishment since my girlfriend's dad was an undergrad at UIUC, and I must say, they lived up to the legend. read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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I order a pizza from Papa Del they told me 45 mins when I picked it up in 45 mins it was no were near hot when I told them this all he can say is that its a,180 degrees coming out of there warmer i get if it was that coming out the oven but no it wasn't 180 coming out no warmer not happy with there over prices and the manager was rude and they then fell off no were as good as it use to be just confused with the name read more

This was an amazing lunch place. I came here with low expectations, but this place was one of my favorite restaurants. I ordered chicken wings, and toasted ravioli. The toasted ravioli was amazing, I added some Parmesan cheese on top and it was even better. All our food came in under 10 minutes, it was very fast. The inside of the restrusnt is very clean, there are multiple TV's and a cool bar. Overall this place is amazing, I recommend it if you are in the area read more

Papa Del's Pizza - BBQ chicken wings - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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We loved PapaDel's when we went to school in C-U in the 70's, and so when we returned, we wanted to see if the pizza was as good as we remembered! Well, let's just say, once you've had Papa Del's, there is no pizza that's better. The original Sicilian deep dish pizza is cheesy, with a delicious sauce and light crust. Although it's no longer at the original location on campus, we were pleased that they had renovated the old Coca-Cola bottling plant on Neil Street that has plenty of ambiance and nostalgia. We had the pleasure of chatting with the originator of the brand, Robert Monti, who couldn't have been nicer. He takes pride in his business and certainly wants his customers to enjoy their time at PD's. If you want to experience a piece of C-U history, be sure to enjoy a slice of pizza at Papa Del's read more

Papa Del's Pizza - The charming owner of Papa Del's (center) visiting with satisfied customers! - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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I love the super stuffed pizza and have been getting it since I was a kid. The garlic doughnuts are good as well, but a little heavy with pizza lol. Our server was attentive during the wait and checked in frequently. 8/10 read more

Papa Del's Pizza - Garlic Doughnuts - Pizza Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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It hurts to give Del's two stars. It didn't used to be like this. But when I went a few weeks ago, the place was dirty. There was trash just kind of rolling along on the floor, set in motion by the breeze generated from diners walking to and fro. The restrooms were also disgusting. The service was almost non-existent. I got one refill on my water--until we were just about done, and then the server came over three times within five minutes. I was trying to wash down pizza by chewing on ice, man. Tommy don't like that. Finally, the pizza and the garlic bread were bland. This was so sad, because Del's used to have some of the tastiest pizza ever. I live in Chicago, too, so I am used to tasty pizza. Honestly, it wasn't much better than frozen. What the hell happened? What's more, I am not sure if the garlic bread had any garlic butter on it; it tasted more like unbuttered toast. I was so disappointed with the entire experience. We also waited about ten minutes to be seated, even though there were plenty of seats. And when we got seated, we were put alone in this back room that looked like a dungeon. There's was an Illini game on that night, but of course the tv was not working. What the hell happened? Del's was the place to be when I was a student and even for a long time afterwards. I was really looking forward to this. Shame. read more

Food is good, when you get it. In fact it's one of the better pizzas I have had. However, The front and back of house communication is brutal. I've been twice and then first time they forgot to put our pizza in. It took 2 hours Second time they argued on how long it takes. Messed up the order again and didn't put it in I guess and tried to blame on us. Worth it probably for take out but dining in is not a good experience read more

I is ordered my staple- sausage and pepperoni pizza. I think the sausage was hand rolled because they were pretty big. The pizza was delicious. I also tried the sriracha cheese curds and they were good. I like a little more spice with my food so ask for more if you are the same. This being said, the cheese curds did had a little kick (spice kick) to them. I recommend trying thr cheese curds. You will not be disappointed. Overall, the pizza was fantastic! read more