Old Chicago

My cousins and I got together in Champaign for a family weekend because it’s the halfway point. We had 7 kids to feed so pizza is always a best bet. With a large party of 12, they got us seated immediately. The waitress was working hard. Our food came out kind of staggered and they apologized profusely. It hadn’t even bothered us as it wasn’t extreme. The manager came over and told us she was taking some off our bill for the trouble. I was impressed with this kind of service. It seems like only the squeaky wheel gets the grease anymore and that’s not really my style. They felt they had messed up and took care of it. I applaud character, and that’s character, in my opinion. I’ve come to have pretty low expectations on customer service, and this was a refreshing outlier. Also, the kids loved the dough to play with!

Excellent service! My boyfriend and I went because he was really craving deep dish pizza. He ended up ordering «Chicago thick» and when it came out, it was not deep dish. The deep dish is called «ultimate crust” — this was a confusion on his part so he decided to eat the pizza he ordered regardless. Our server could sense that he was disappointed and brought out a free deep dish pizza to go with our check. We have never had someone care so much about our experience! I wish I knew her name to give her more credit. We will definitely visit again!

Love the pizza here, great beer selection, and you can’t go wrong with the Chi-​town trio as an appetizer. We have been to this location several times and have never been disappointed but today we had great service by Jason and just thought it deserved a shout out. :)

Excellent deep dish pizza, some of the best I’ve ever had. I recommend getting pretzel bites as an appetizer – delicious.
Reasonably priced and conveniently next to the mall in Champaign. The waitress was excellent as well.
*However, I ordered wings from as an appetizer, and they were clearly from a frozen bag. Tasted cheap.

Pretty much a total disappointment. The buffalo wings are clearly frozen from a bag. The food, while plenty to choose from, leaves me unsatisfied on every visit. There isn’t a single item here I can’t have somewhere else in town and have it better.
I’ve tried 3 different times, that’s it. No more.
Good beer selection…

Honestly the top 3 worst food I’ve had. My family enjoys calzones and strombolis, but not running, soggy ones. These were terrible. Made fries soggy, and my daughter couldn’t even chew through her chicken sandwich. She said it was like attempting to eat chicken if it were jerky. Wife complained to awful rude female manager, who said it’s brown on top so it’s cook. Wow really. Lol. Then she grabs the food out of my wifes hands. Smh. And now we are stuck with a ci. Saves coupon we spent money on.

This place has really went down hill. We have had a couple terrible experiences here. Food is barely average and serve is up to par. I contact corporate about or last bad experience and I never received any reply back from anyone corporate or store level. Don’t waste you time or money!

I gave this place a second chance and the service was much better and the food was pretty dang good. Had a personal chicken artichoke pizza. I would get it again. Must have been there on an off night at first.

Love this place! Amazing deep dish pizza! The appetizers are great also. Highly reccomend. Has a fun atmosphere and great service! Highly reccomend this place.

This place is your average ‘olé diner. Nothing too amazing and nothing too horrible. They seem to focus on their pizza selection, but I had a club sandwich which was pretty good. I also even tried their big cookie dessert which was alright as well. Service was quite amiable but nothing stands out about this place in the very end.

Seriously lacking as a beer bar. Go downtown Champaign to the Blind Pig, Piglet, or several other places. Crane Ally or Black Dog in Urbana.
Seriously lacking as a pizza spot as well. Go to Papa Del’s for Chicago pizza. The rest of the menu is typical for any chain. Which has that sterile and boring chain vibe that makes me want to shoot myself. Ugh, two stars cause they try to have a decent beer list, and a cheep lunch buffet that is slightly better than Cicis.

Restaurant review:
AYCE Chicago style pizza in Champaign, I couldn’t pass up the chance to eat the pizza lunch buffet during the weekday. I quickly hopped into my car and jetted to this location for my lunch hour. I was surprised to find that there was plenty of seating in the restaurant. Staff was super friendly and I was off to the races to eat pizza. Now the «Rush Street» pizza bar is 8.49 Monday to Friday 11AM to 1:30 PM. They give you a choice of salad or the two soups (tomato bliss or chicken green chili soup). I was took the tomato bliss, very rich tomato soup. I wish they had some cheese to go with it. I proceeded to gorge on the pizza selection and the calzone. My impression is that they don’t have any deep dish pizzas which is unfortunate when you think chicago style pizza the deep dish is the cornerstone. Lots of other pizza selection from meat lover to veggies to hawaian. The calzones were prepared well. The pizza is super hot so let it cool down just a little bit before diving in. Overall the pizza is comparable to other restaurant quality pizza and a bit better than the chains (papa johns and pizza hut). They are not kidding when they tell you that this is for the rush hour lunch crowd. Before I finished my soup, the check was on the table in case I had to pay and run. Service was friendly. Also and FYI you can request pizza for the buffet. So all and all the pizza is relatively good quality, but missing a deep dish would have pushed it over the top. Finally the chocolate chip cookie is a bit too small and just a odd way to end the meal. You get just a small one…
Pro: AYCE lunch pizza buffet, better than papa john or pizza hut, super fast service
Cons: No deep dish pizza, if it is not busy you may have a very limited selection. There was 4 pizza types and the calzones and breadsticks
Hidden gem:
AYCE Lunch pizza buffet. For the pizza lovers

The pizza is always good, but when management allows them to reuse coasters to the point of them being moldy on the table, it makes you wonder how clean the kitchen is.

I got what I expected when I went to this restaurant… above average deep dish Chicago style pizza. I really liked the atmosphere of the sports bar/​pizza joint. This would be a great place to go to watch the game. All in all the food is good, but slightly overpriced in my opinion.

This place touts itself as a beer bar but the selection was substandard for any serious beer aficionado. I opted instead for an Arnold Palmer. My BBQ Bacon Cheddar burger was decent but the fries were off. They tasted like they had been waiting around for awhile. My buddy liked his thin crust pizza. I doubt I’ll return to this place. In Champaign-​Urbana, there are much better burgers (Farren’s) and much better beer bars (Crane Alley, Seven Saints, Radio Maria). Old Chicago just doesn’t cut it.

An alright restaurant — friendly and quick staff in a spacious setting but the food isn’t anything special. In this trip I tried 4 different items.
Chicago 7 pizza: Good thing about this pizza is that it was loaded with toppings (Green peppers, Italian sausage, red onions, Pepperoni, mushrooms, etc.) — but the sauce was a bit too sour and it could have used additional cheese. The crust itself was tasteless and too hard to chew — not really what you’d find in any of the great Chicago pizza restaurants.
Classic wings — Light and crispy but really lacking in flavor and meat juciness. The dish itself is too dependent on the sauce to have any flavor.
Molten chocolate cake — Not really a lava cake but the fudge was nice and rich and went well with the ice cream.
The big cookie — Wasn’t great, wasn’t bad — the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough was a bit on the dry side and ice cream is almost mandatory otherwise the dish is too plain.
Overall, the prices aren’t bad and the portion sizes are good but the execution of the food could be improved.

Stay far far away from this place. Lackluster food and staff moves so slowly and are all quite rude. Likely will be out of business when their lease is up.

If zero stars were available I’d give this «joint» zero.
The wait staff is well trained and actually competent; the bad news is that they can only serve what the kitchen prepares.
Our orders:
Appetizer for 2 — artichoke & spinach dip. Served in a round smallish soup type bowl, this awful tasting, white looking glop that looked to have been slopped in the bowl with a large kitchen spoon should have been a clue as to what was to follow. We didn’t eat any of it nor we’re we offered a refund on this unbelievably bad dish.
Main course — «Tuscan» pizza, deep dish (what the hell. It’s supposed to be a «Chicago» place, no?) We were lead to believe that, among other things, the pizza would be served with sautéed spinach and chicken breast. What was delivered arrived with approx 5 to 6 leaves if spinach in the center and some rock hard «chicken» bites that I’d bet dollars to donuts was what’s known as «chunked and formed.»
Later that night I had, shall we say, terrible gastric distress.
SO NOT VISIT THIS PLACE!

Meh. Old Chicago changed their pizza menu and it’s definitely not as good. Their new «Tavern style» pizza is basically a less-​good version of their NY-​style pizza (which they no longer sell). Both mine and my friend’s pizzas were really salty. Wasn’t impressed.
One of my biggest food-​service pet peeves is staff who don’t know what they’re talking about. I understand that just because you work somewhere doesn’t mean you have all the answers – but if you don’t know something, you shouldn’t just LIE to the customer. I asked our waitress if the Specialty pizzas were included in the half-​off deal for Tuesday nights. She said yes. We got our bill – which she checked before giving to us – and I paid. Of course, after we left I realized that our bill was about $ 5 too high. Because the 50% hadn’t been taken off my pizza. Because specialty pizzas aren’t included in the half off deal. Won’t be back to Old Chicago – not a fan of how they’ve changed their pizza, and the mistake on the bill was enough to keep me from returning.

I went here last night because of the Unilocal check in offer, and me wanting to try a new restaurant.
It was okay, decent or I think I’m more incline to say so so.
The service is good, and our waitress was so kind that although she said she can’t use the Unilocal offer on all checks (because they were split checks), she did so.
The food is so so for me. First we had the trio sampler appetizer, the cicilian pepperoni roll is quite good, and the itallian nachos taste more like crab rangoon minus the crab stick, but that two was the best one for me.
The pizza, taste okay, but I didn’t eat the deep dish one, so I couldn’t judge on the pizza. Lastly we got the captain’s catch which was also taste so so, really didn’t leave much impression on me