Tara G.
Yelp
What can I say about Windy City pizza? I'd looked forward to trying this pizza for a couple of weeks. I'm a member of a local foodie group and was noting how much I missed a good deep dish, authentic Chicago style pizza. I'd had some of the best in Chicago like Giordano's and Gino's East. I watched some reviews on YouTube for Windy City. I saw that they have two locations, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, and we sat in hours of traffic, driving 2.5 hours away to get to the Virginia Beach location to give Windy City a try.
The location looks clean, trendy...there is a pool table, video arcade games (I think I even spotted a pinball machine). There is a photo opportunity heading towards the bathroom with the Blue's Brothers (some 11 years prior, I got a photo with the same set up of the Blues Brothers in a Chicago airport). Very cool. I was excited!
Seating was quick. We had called our pizza order in from the road, knowing that it would take about 45 minutes to make, and told them we'd be there for dine in. This was my husband's idea, and quite brilliant, because deep dish pizza's do take a while to make, and we were pressed for time. We were there on a Monday and not during a lunch or dinner rush. I think there was one gal who was serving everyone, so service was not good to say the least, but I'm forgiving because I know a lot of businesses are struggling to find employees these days. She didn't have a lot of tables, but the problem was, when she wasn't busy, she didn't utilize that time wisely by checking on her tables. She instead just stood around at the front of the restaurant, looking out the window, checking her phone, etc.
Back to our arrival, we told her that we'd called our pizza in and she seated us in a booth towards the back and got our drink orders. When our drinks came out, I told her that we'd also like to put in for an order of cheesesticks. Our pizza came out in about 15 minutes from the time we'd arrived. It looked legit, but as soon as I bit into it, it was pure disappointment. For those that say (or think) that this is Chicago style pizza, I have to thoroughly disagree. Ugh. The sauce was not flavorful, not nearly enough cheese, not deep enough...I could go on and on, but you get the point. No, just no. When we were finishing up on the pizza, I requested our check. I'd given up on our appetizer of cheesesticks, that should have been done long before we'd been done eating. When I asked for the check, the waitress said, "Do you want your cheesesticks in a 'to go' box?" Normally, if my appetizer hasn't came by the end of my meal, I would request they take it from my check and forget about it. But I was feeling gracious and instead just said, "Sure". I'm glad, because the cheesesticks, even heated up in the microwave the next day, were actually quite good.
Maybe their sandwiches, salads or wings are worth stopping for, but deep dish pizza is not. I'll hold out for the real thing when it comes to Chicago style pizza. This is more like Uno's. I say, "No go".