I can't believe I haven't already posted a review for Pizzeria Ora--this is long overdue. My husband and I first visited Chicago on business before vacationing there in 2014, and we've returned several times since. Every trip, we make sure to eat at Pizzeria Ora. On our last visit, we were only in town three nights and went twice! Pizzeria Ora is a family-owned restaurant, and we always order the deep-dish pizza. It's incredible--the crust is light and crispy yet holds up perfectly under thick, melted cheese and chunky tomato sauce. The sauce tastes so fresh, like it's been simmering all day on my grandmother's stove. That's the best way I can describe it. What really stands out is how consistently delicious it has been over the years. Since 2014, it's tasted just as amazing every time we return. The restaurant is casual and cozy with a full bar, and the owner is wonderful. During COVID, we worried about the restaurant and were so relieved to find it still thriving when we returned a few years later--still serving the same amazing pizza. Chicago has no shortage of famous pizza spots, but in our opinion, Pizzeria Ora serves Chicago's best pizza. It's become a must-visit for us, and we can't wait to go back. read more

I think this was frozen pizza, at least the crust was, toppings were ok. Make reservations in advance at other restaurants to avoid going to places like this. read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Sausage & mushroom thin crust - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

There's a lot of bad pizza in Chicago, but this is the worst. Undercooked and astonishingly bland, it manages to make eating pizza feel like a chore. A little more time in the oven and some actual seasoning would have been a start. In a city famous for pizza, this is embarrassing. :( read more

While visiting Chicago stopped by here to try some deep dish pizza. The service was great, lots of tables and chill crowd. The pizza was pretty good! This is my first time getting deep dish pizza so I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like but this was pretty tasty. read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Slice of El blanco deep dish - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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The food was really tasty and the staff are really friendly! Decently priced for two people. I got a Caesar salad that was pretty big, and my partner got a 10 inch pizza. The bill was $40 so not bad at all for the city! read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Caesar Salad The Cheese Pizza (10" Small) - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Definitely not a fantastic pizza.......when I get a Chicago-style deep dish, I expect a crunchy crust and everything nice and melty. What I got, however, was a floppy crust that seemed like it was borderline underdone, and the crust tasted more like biscuit dough. The one highlight, however, was the dinner salad.....ingredients were nice and fresh, and was enough to feed both of us. If you want a good salad, this is a good option, but if you want a pizza, there are far better options available to choose from...... read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Deep Sish Supreme.....crust was floppy, and overall an uneventful pizza for $27.95 before tax. - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Hidden gem! Great service and the food was top notch! Make sure to stop here when you are in Chicago! You will not be disappointed!! read more

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I stayed at this hotel that had the pizza place inside, so I used them as room service... This is a thin crust pizza, and it was really good.. The staff was very friendly, and it came in a short time.. I don't know if I would go here just for pizza, but for the convenience and the value it was well worth it. They also have other foods in the restaurant and a full bar. I had a positive experience and if you're staring at the hotel by all means utilize this place. read more

This was a surprising find! We were planning to try one of the famous Chicago deep dish spots but found all of the waits to be long, and our hunger too great. It turns out, this was fortunate. We tried a sausage and pepperoni deep dish, fries, and garlic bread. Service was friendly and fast and the food was solid! The crust on the deep dish was a bit thin and soggy, so I can't quite say it rivaled the notorious chains BUT if you're in a pinch for some deep dish and don't feel like the wait at some of the big guys, this place won't disappoint. Keeping it on the list! read more

I don't know about anything else BUT don't go here for breakfast! Entered at 7:05am. We're the only people in there. Without going into detail about the lousy reception we got, like having to ask for a menu from a half-awake guy (hesitate to call him a waiter), when our order was served, yesterday's potatoes were not even warm, two degrees from being outright fridge cold. Our poached eggs were visibly watery. When we pointed this out to the guy he simply picked up the plate and walked back to the kitchen mumbling something about bringing something back, presumably a replacement order. Who knows. We then said to skip it. We decided to share our other plate of eggs + one pancake. Never any "sorry about that" or better yet, "we'll comp you your coffee." The only good thing I can say is that we learned our lesson ... don't go there. We never will. read more

School field-trip.. reservation the entire experience in this place was extremely satisfying.. After a fieldtrip to the Lion King play 55 students and staff walked to this restaurant not knowing what to expect. It ended up to be perfect we arrived at the place and the food was ready, the students elementary and middle school had their own space apart from the adults and we absolutely loved it.. everyone had a good amount of food and drinks.. we all think the food, and staff were excellent... and all perfectly thought.. thank you.. highly recommend!! read more

The service is not great here. When it's slow, at night, it's okay, but this restaurant handles the "room service" for the Best Western River North hotel in which it is located, and the man taking the orders rushes you through your order and then gets it wrong. Twice. They did not apologize for getting the order wrong, charged us for their mistake (never admitting it actually was their mistake, and then got the replacement order wrong AGAIN. At this point, we paid and ate and moved on, but a simple apology would have done wonders here. And some listening skills. We all have bad days. I get that. This was more about the handling of things than the actual mistakes made. read more

Been coming here for about ten years and this is my favorite gem in the city. Love the nostalgia about Pizzeria Ora! I love that it's in the River North area, connected to the Best Western, and close to everything. I love the food, especially the calamari appetizer and what can I say, I put the pizza here up against anything in Chicago! But above all, the service is great and courteous, nice people, relaxed vibe in a hustling, bustling area, and the ambiance really keeps it easy going and low key. Pizzeria Ora, you're the first pizza place I ever stepped foot in Chicago and will always be my favorite! Always looking forward to coming back! read more

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Stumbled upon this place which actually has its entrance through the lobby of the Best Western hotel. The interior is cozy with a bar and dining area as well as 4 TVs. On the cold Sunday night I showed up, there was almost nobody inside and no wait for seating. I ordered an individual-sized deep dish supreme pizza - onions, mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, and peppers. As is usual, the pizza is made-to-order so expect to wait ~30 minutes or call ahead. I'm from out of town and have been trying all the deep dish I can on this trip, both big name and otherwise, and I'd say this place definitely stacks up. For these individual sizes in particular, you occasionally don't get a good ratio of toppings and sauce. This place nailed it and every bite felt like a perfect mix of crust, toppings, and sauce. The crust itself wasn't as buttery or soft as some other places, but overall I'd definitely come back here for more. The bartender also recommended to me their blanca pizza which he said was somewhat unique to the place and was a customer favorite. Service here was also great, and it was nice making conversation with the bartender about things to do in Chicago, other pizza places to try, etc. Overall, I'd definitely come back. One last note, prices here are very reasonable especially when compared to some of the bigger name places. read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Individual Supreme Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Luckily for my best friend and I, this restaurant was located at the hotel we were staying at. We decided to finally go and try some Chicago pizza! We ordered the personal pizza to share and an appetizer, we were full off of that alone! The pizza was so delicious, the crust was buttery and perfect. The service was quick and perfect, he answered all my questions and was very well informed on the menu. This place deserves more recognition, we were the only table but to be fair it was a random weekday. Try this gem if you're in the area!!!! read more

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Inside the Best Western River North, we were the only ones eating - what a shame as the deep dish was very good! We asked for it well done and added some parmesan cheese, which kicked it up a notch. Our server, Rachid, was really friendly. Give them a try! read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Deep dish sausage, pepperoni and garlic - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

The waiters are really friendly and refilled our cups without even asking. The food was delicious. 10/10

We were visiting Chicago and our hotel had Pizzeria Ora's menu in the guest book that is in every room. I took that as a recommendation from the hotel. Wow, was I wrong! We were trying Chicago pizza for the second time after a bad experience a few nights before. Our individual deep dish pizzas with sausage was, without a doubt, the worst pizza we have ever had. I am from New York City, so I know good pizza. I called up to order and was told it would take an hour for our order to be delivered. We waited over an hour and forty minutes. I called up to ask about my order and was told the driver was a block away. I still had to wait almost twenty minutes. The restaurant was only four blocks from the hotel! Evidently, the driver is given multiple orders and he drives around while the food grows cold. The pizza arrived cold and it was awful. The crust was barely cooked, you could see the raw dough when you separated the pie into slices. It was obvious that they do not make the pies from fresh dough. They use frozen dough. The sauce was bland. The cheese was like plastic, hard and tasteless. We paid almost two dollars for sausage on each pie and got about four tiny crumbs of tasteless meat. My wife ate one slice and said "this is garbage." She put hers back in the box and put it in the trash. I am utterly appalled that I paid over $36.00 for two 6 inch pizzas that were so bad. Absolutely nothing good can be said about our experience. Pizzeria Ora should really be called Pizzeria Horror. After trying Chicago deep dish pizza at two restaurants downtown, I have to believe that this town knows nothing about pizza at all. read more

The food is very good, the service is also good the ambiance is nice, quiet there wasn't any music playing which allowed us to just converse. The pizza takes a bit of time because they make them fresh, be patient people. I checked in and got 10% discount on a medium pizza which is nice since not many restaurants offer you an incentive. They lost a star because my plate of wings was chipped and I almost cut myself as I grabbed the plate to move it closed to me, the chip was hard to see since the plate was white and so was the tabkecloth read more

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I'm going to set a lot of people's nerves awry by claiming that Ora has the best deep dish pizza in Chicago. It's a bold claim with not much else to back it up, besides my jaded, yet inexperienced, tastes. The crust is to die for. It's substantial, yet flaky, and it has a great buttery flavor without being oily. It comes cleanly out of the pan. I try to eat plant-based cuisine, but this place is at least one exception. They don't have vegan pizza here. Once again, in case search results mislead you: no vegan, not vegan. It's a festival of cheese and probably butter and whatever else you choose to put on top of it. We got the Blanco, which I'll preface by saying that I don't like white sauces, but it's an amazing combination with the pesto and tomatoes. In the past, we've had their margherita style deep dish. The marinara is probably the best ever: the tomato flavors stand out. It's very quiet inside. I'm guessing that they do a lot of takeout and delivery here. It's also hard to find. Gone are the awning and signs from years ago. Go to the Lasalle side of the Best Western and look for the bar: that is Pizzeria Ora. Service is friendly and casual. All in all, I enjoy Ora. read more

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One of my nephew's favorite places - we had a big family gathering there last night and it was outstanding! The salad was fresh and crisp, the pizzas some of the best I've ever had (and we ordered both deep dish and tavern) style, the chocolate mousse pie and cheesecake were simply fabulous, and the service impeccable. Can't wait to return and order some other menu items! They all sound so good! read more

Open late for delivery. We ordered a small pan and it's really small. Coupled with a slice of key lime cheesecake was just the right amount of food for 2 tired Deadheads after a night at Wrigley read more

AMAZING deep dish. We don't come to chicago often, but we will def be back for this deep dish pizza!!!

Deep dish was so bomb. Just happened across this place walking away from river walk. I little cool divey chill atmosphere. Good service food hit the spot away from all the pretentious places nearby in river north. read more

The food was good. The service is good. The environment is good and I enjoy a lot. Lots of options to choose from

I came in from Cleveland with 8 of my friends and we were looking for a spot. Was recommended here. walked in with 8 people and they were super attentive and accommodating. Pizza tasted great! read more

I can not say enough great things about this place that would do it justice. Wally the owner is undoubtedly the nicest man in Chicago. He definitely has the best pizza in town and that not being over zealous. It's a full service restaurant that has a great atmosphere, but we choose to sit at the bar for that pub vibe. You can not go wrong entering their doors! read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

10/10 recommend to anyone coming to Chicago to try the pizza. As first time tourists in Chicago, we were excited to eat deep dish pizza for the first time. Our first time was at Giordano's where we were greeted rudely and felt unwelcomed. Not to mention that their pizza was underwhelming that we didn't finish it. We thought maybe Chicago pizza isn't as good as everyone says. Three days later, we decided to give deep dish pizza another try before leaving the city and chose this place because it was next to the hotel we were staying at. We were blown away by the food and service here! We ordered the El Blanco pizza which took ~30 min to come out as expected and when it was brought to our table, the waiter put the slices onto our plates for us. Not only did our pizza come out fresh, it was extremely delicious. The crust was so buttery and flaky. Waiters were so much more friendly here and the atmosphere felt welcoming and easy-going. Overall made a great dining experience for us. This place does the pizza right and changed our minds about deep dish. Would definitely come here again when we revisit Chicago. read more

Great food and service! I had the hot wings and deep dish, would recommend and order again!

This place is attached to the hotel in which I stayed this past weekend. Great stuff! Now, I'm a NY'er so I cant compare this thin crust to any other in Chicago but this stuff is fantastic! I usually get "a couple of slices" back at home, but this town doesn't do that. LOL.. I got a small thin crust with 1/2 cheese and 1/2 garlic. Yummm. The other half of the story is the service. While it was quiet during the time I was there (ok, i rolled in each day at some point for wine/pizza), the owner/manager behind the bar was super helpful, generous and great to chat with around things to do in the city. Def check it out while around River North! Ill def return! read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

We stayed at the attached hotel. The service is amazing. All we had was garlic bread and cheese but it was so good. I had a lemon drop which was on point. Not everyone can make a lemon drop but this bartender could. We are coming back for breakfast in the morning just because the problem were so nice. read more

Love love! Great pizza pie for sure! I ordered a thin crust, extra crispy and it was perfect! Super nice staff, quaint atmosphere. Highly recommend to fix any pizza craving! read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Menu - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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So stayed in hotel ordered from menu for pick up. I had a large thin crust with sausage mushrooms. I also ordered fries and wings. Chicken was no better then then store bought frozen wings. The pizza was just average. Nothing about it was great. I do try pizza quite often and would not recommend if staying in downtown Chicago as there is a handful of better options. Other then that everything was good as far as pickup read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Thanks to my friends, I discovered Pizzeria Ora. I experienced the best of two worlds. Excellent bar with large TV screens to watch my Marquette Golden Eagles and delicious pizza. I heard the deep dish is a must-have but I went regular crust and it lived up to my friend's boast. The cheese was amazing. To top that off, the owner, Walid, did not let me down with an Old Fashion he personally mixed. This was the perfect time to find a perfect place not far from work to meet friends or family, enjoy food that makes Chicago special and catch my favorite sports team. Best of both worlds! Oh, I'll be back soon for the deep dish and cheese cake. Warrior Rob read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - This Pepperoni, with green bell peppers and onions did not last very long. Yum! - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Took my family to the city for pizza. This is the best in town. Had a deep dish and a tavern style ( ultra thin crust). So damn good. Waiter was fun and attentive. Highly recommended. read more

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Absolutely love this place!! Right in downtown Chicago, I couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere to share some good eats and next-level hospitality from the staff with a big group of my friends. I would definitely recommend looking here the next time you need a great dinner experience! read more

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Pizzeria Ora is a hidden gem that everyone needs to check out. Both thin and thick crust pizza is amazing, and don't sleep on the mac n cheese bites... read more

Fantastic spot. Great service, great food, great experience. The crust on the deep dish was unlike any other pizza I've had before. Highly recommend!! read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Sausage, Ground Beef and Extra Cheese Deep Dish. Absolutely amazing! - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Great food and great staff. During pandemic delivery has been great too! Besides pizza had the burger....Cheddar cheese with lettuce tom onion and aioli with the fries. Mmmmmmmmm read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - Awesome dinner once again. Great delivery. Thank you guys!!! - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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The food wasn't bad but since there was only one staff for a Sunday night, service was a bit slow. Ordered a Supreme Deep Dish and it satisfied my pizza craving. It was a bit salty and the taste of tomato overpowered the rest of the pizza. The crust was a bit harder than I personally would like it to be, but it was fine for a deep dish. Overall, it was a fine as a hotel restaurant. read more

Pizzeria Ora - Chicago Style Pizza - The Supreme deep dish (medium) - Pizza Near Me - Chicago, Illinois