Roots Handmade Pizza

Roots Handmade Pizza
1924 West Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60622‎

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(773) 645-4949

Roots seemed like a nice comfortable place to enjoy a pizza...  The atmosphere just seemed like a nice causal place with TV's and the type of place you might see adult sports teams come to celebrate their latest victory with pizza and beer.


Speaking of beer, Roots makes and bottles their own root beer!    I had to try some since the likelihood me making it back to this city kinda slim...

For bottled root beer, admittedly  I don't have much to compare it to other than IBC or Henry Weinhards.   Comparing this to IBC it doesn't go down as smoothly, but it's overall taste is more appealing.    Give and take some I guess.    It was good for a one time try, but at $3 a bottle I don't think I'd go for it again.

For our pizza selection today, we opted for the Taco Pizza.   Now we've had some pretty poor experiences with Mexican food the father away from California that we were.  So we didn't have high hopes, but I did read somewhere on-line that the Taco Pizza was one of their specialties   

Their menu describes the pizza as: A Quad-Cities Original:  a taco-seasoned house made crumbled sausage with Quad Cities Mozzarella blend and cheddar cheese.  Topped with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and taco-seasoned chips.  Here's the picture of what we received:

Honestly, I thought this was kinda cheesy looking.   But hey, if it's one of their specialities I'll roll with it.    The Doritios style chips kinda mostly fall off when taking bites of the pizza, but they did add a nice crunch.  I would say nothing really stood out individually about this pizza, but all the toppings worked together really well and and tasted delicious.   From their website and menu I could tell that Roots takes pride in their pizza crust... and it was good...  The sausage on the pizza was seasoned really well..  I wasn't sure how "taco seasoned sausage" would taste as I've only had taco seasoned beef and turkey.  Since sausage seems to be the topping of choice for pizza in Chicago I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Overall - the pizza was really good..  It doesn't hit the favorite mark in my book, nevertheless it is a really good tasting pizza.

Top Notch Beefburgers

Top Notch Beefburgers
2116 West 95th Street Chicago, IL 60643‎

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(773) 445-7218

Ok, we didn't eat pizza at every meal while in Chicago.   Although I probably could have!   Now we visit a place that I heard the burgers here pretty good....    better than good, I heard they were Top Notch.

For our burger experience, I opted for a patty melt..  Not just any patty melt, I went big.   I really wanted to taste the quality beef.    I went with a 3/4lb beef patty melt...

Sorry for the poor photo, I think we were kinda hungry (which is why I ordered the 3/4lb version) and just snapped a quick photo before diving in...

Bad photography aside, this patty melt was delicious.  The rye bread it was served had a distinct buttery taste to it - just like it was buttered for the grill.   The beef was really tasty and cooked well-done  which normally makes it a little bit dry.   However, they must have pulled it off as soon as the pink disappeared because it didn't taste like a well done or overcooked burger.  It was juicy and flavorful.  Grilled onions on top of the patty gave a nice depth to the flavor and the cheddar cheese oozed out the sides.  They served sliced pickles on the side, but I threw them into the mix as well and enjoyed every bite of this burger.

I also had a banana milkshake.  It was very thick, but not too think that it couldn't be slurped up through a straw.  They used fresh bananas that tasted ripe and delicious.   Sometimes from other places I order a banana shake and either the banana flavor is a syrup or the banana's they use aren't ripe enough and don't produce enough flavor.  This one was perfect..

Overall - I highly recommend Top Notch Beefburgers for their Top Notch food..

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

439 North Wells Street

Chicago, IL 60654

(312) 828-9800

Next up on our Chicago pizza excursions is Lou Malnati's....  They claim to have the best pizza in Chicago... Actually  I think all the places we went to make that claim....   I guess each person has their own favorite, just as do I...

Our pizza on this day was "Lou's Special" which is what seems to be a Chicago pizza staple... It's a deep dish sausage pizza pie heavy on the mozzarella and tomato sauce.

The sausage that they use on their pie is shaped into a large round patty and is one of the layers on the pizza. Overall, the pizza just good, but not great.    I really liked the sauce and the tomatoes.   They had some really good Italian seasonings that otherwise would have made the pizza kinda tasteless.  For some reason the cheese on this pizza caught my attention.  It was really good!  The disappointing party of the pizza, which in the end made the pie just "alright" in my book, was the sausage patty.  There really was no flavor to it.  I'd almost have to compare it to a mild breakfast sausage..   I'd be happier with the same pizza with just the cheese and tomatoes.   That's how good the sauce and cheese were... By themselves, it would have been a winner..

Although the pizza was a disappointment in my book, dessert caught my attention.   A chocolate chip pizza...   Normally chocolate doesn't grab my attention, but in pizza form?   This I had to see...

The menu describes the pizza as a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie prepared in a deep dish pizza pan, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream.  Let me tell you... The cookie was warm and delicious.   It was nice and soft...  The ice cream was obviously high quality vanilla bean ice cream.  This wasn't your typical Thrifty or cheaper ice cream.  Something about the creamy goodness that made this ice cream and warm cookie probably the best part of our meal here.

Max's Take Out

Max's Take Out
20 East Adams Street  Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 553-0170




Spending a week in Chicago and eating only pizza sounds like a dream come true...  However, there are times when you need to cleanse your palate so that you can fully appreciate the next pizza pie...    So we stopped in at Max's Take Out for some Chicago style Italian Beef...

I came here for the Italian Burger...    A double cheeseburger with sliced mozzarella and then topped with Max's famous Italian seasoned roast beef, marinara sauce and your choice of sweet or hot peppers.  Here's how it came out:

Visually, this burger looked like a monster.  Who would have piled all that roast beef on top of two beef patties?      I'm glad Max did....

After taking the picture and smashed the burger down a bit to make it fit into my mouth and took a bite....   My immediate response was......  a smile....   This was good....  I could taste the homemade marinara sauce and all the italian seasonings working together to make a masterpiece.  Beyond the marinara sauce I was compelete in awe of the roast beef that just made the entire sandwich.  I'm sure this beef was marinated for a long time before seeing the grill.   It was very thin and tender and bursting with flavor.    The hot peppers weren't really all that hot..   I prefer spicy to sweet, so that why I opted for them...  I'd say they didn't add or take away from the overall experience...

You might think I forgot to mention the beef patties?    Well, to be honest, they were kinda forgotten in the burger..   The cook didn't forget them, it's just the two beef patties didn't really offer much flavor or addition to the burger....       Next time I eat here, I'd probably order what my wife ordered:

Just their standard Italian beef sandwich..    No need for the extra filler of the beef patties since they didn't really add much to the sandwich except calories and a fuller stomach..

Two forks up for Max's Take Out....   I'd definitely recommend the beef here!

Pequod's Pizza

Pequod's Pizza
2207 North Clybourn Avenue  Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 327-1512


I'm just gonna come right out and say it without any fanfare or further description.    Pequod's Pizza was by far the best pizza that we had while we were in Chicago area.

The menu self proclaims that they have "the best pizza in the universe."   I'd pretty much agree!   I still think my hometown favorite, Vincenzo's Pizza, is still my favorite all time, but Pequod's has a pie that even challenges that.  

We ordered a simple deep dish sausage with extra cheese and extra sauce.

First off, doesn't that picture look delicious?   Obviously not a pick up and fold pizza, definitely need a knife and fork..    Although it may be hard to see, let me tell you about the crust...   They cook their pan pizzas in a cast iron pan that has been seasoned for years.   The crust is caramelized and has a nice crispy darkened edge.  A tasty buttery crispy bottom, but yet the dough itself was chewy throughout.   Just perfect....

I'm sure it's hard to tell from the photos, but the cheese was abundant!  When you tell them extra cheese and extra sauce, there's no mistake on whether they forgot to add more cheese and sauce..   The cheese was perfectly melted and stringy just like pizza should be right out of the oven...

Now, there are two things that made this our favorite pizza...  #1 - the crust..  I already raved about the crust.....   #2 - the sausage.    To keep our reviews fair, we tried to order the same type of pizza at each pizza joint (deep dish sausage and cheese)..   This sausage was by far the most flavorful pork that I've had on any pizza.  I don't know much about how they make it, but when you bite in to it there is just an explosion of flavor in your mouth.  Not spicy hot, but it has distinct spices they dance on your tastebuds.   A good mix of Italian seasonings that just work together perfectly.  

I can't say enough about how delicious this pizza was and I would recommend it to anyone who is in the area....