Papa Del’s Pizza

This is among some of the best pizza I have ever had, and I have had Lou Malnati’s, Gino’s East, Giordano’s, and other Chicago classics.
Going with a group, or during lunch time, the bill is actually surprisingly cheap. The place gets extremely crowded on weekends. I have seen waits greater than 4 hours. It is definitely better to go on a weeknight.
The lunch slices are not as fresh as ordering an entire dinner pizza, and the service has been highly variable.

This is the place to go to in Chambana for deep dish pizza, hands down. Make sure you are prepared to wait because perfection takes time. Their thin crust is decent, but not up to the same standard as their deep dish. Looking forward to visiting their new location when it opens!

Meh. I’ve experienced better.
This place is way too overhyped, especially by students, which is surprising since a lot of students here seem to be from the Chicagoland area (myself included) and we should know better pizza…
The service here could be friendlier, and the pizza could be MUCH better. The cheese and crust were dry, yet the top was drowning in half dry marinara sauce.
This place is empty save weekend nights, and it is easy to tell why.

While I think Papa Del’s takes ridiculously long to prepare its pizza, there’s definitely no equivalent Chicago pizza in this county. The deep dish reminds me of home and is massive enough that my Georgian friend was initially scared to try it. Spinach deep dish is my favorite.

Even though it takes about 50 minutes for the pizza to cook, they sell it by the slice during lunch time so you can get it right away. 1 piece is plenty to get me full and is under $ 3. (Between 3 – 4 they sell the leftover slices at half price, until they run out)
Papa Dels is my favorite pizza place on campus!

Best pizza in Chicago! We devoured our sausage and pepperoni pizza tonight. Yum! Wish we had these in LA!

This place is awesome. Real food. Don’t go if you are in hurry, but the wait is worth it. The staff seemed to know the menu and all its options. I would choose this over any pizza place in C-​U!

Got the medium stuffed pizza. Too much for two people. Good sauce. Good cheese. Could have been hotter. We waited over an hour. It was good but a little doughy.
Z’s pizza in CA stuffs with tomatoes and scored higher.

My parents remember this place fondly from their days as poor graduate students at UIUC and 30+ years later, we had the opportunity to visit Papa Del’s in Champaign on a visit to the campus. Although it’s moved from their old location, it brought back lots of memories for my parents and we all very much enjoyed our lunch.
Papa Del’s was relatively empty at 2pm on a Monday afternoon, but I can imagine it gets crazy during the school year, particularly on a weekend night. The prices were cheaper than I might have expected (based on visiting some deep dish places in downtown Chicago), and the beer was definitely well-​priced. I can see why it attracted students of UIUC way back in the day and continues to do so now.
We ordered a medium deep dish with Pepperoni, Mushroom, and Extra Cheese. It was the perfect pizza for 3 people, although I ate half the pizza by myself, and could have kept going had we not had dinner plans about 3 hours later. We got the Blue Moon on draft, but they also had Sam Adams as well as a few other drafts.
Service was efficient, professional, and courteous, and ambiance was what you’d expect from a college-​town pizzeria. No more, no less.
Overall, it was great to enjoy lunch at Papa Del’s not only for nostalgic reasons, but also for the quality of the pizza. I’m certainly no deep-​dish pizza expert, but this place really hit the spot for us!

The last time I was here was around 20 years ago when a friend and I flew down in his little plane from Saint Paul to Urbana so he could do some lecturing at the UofI. On the way out of town we picked up a Papa D’s pizza to go. The box went under the co-​pilot seat (me!) and we flew home. Heated up in back in St. Paul it was wondrous.
Flash-​forward to 2015. My sweetie and I are driving back from DC and have made Urbana the last stop before the last slog to Saint Paul. After 2 weeks of fish in Iceland (wonderful!), I was ready for some more ‘Merican food. The night before it was BBQ. What’s more American that pizza? I remembered Papa D’s and off we went.
We got a medium, thin crust, with peperoni peppers, olives, and Italian sausage. And (it IS a college town!) a pitcher of Sam Adams. It was every bit as good as I remembered. The left overs were a treat at breakfast.
Next time in Urbana, it’s a must-​stop place.

Okay! First. Go to the pictures side of this thing and look at the pies. I mean, we’re talking about crawling into a mounds of cheese, here, piled inside a fluffy, yet crunchy, yet bready, but firm crust, cradling us in a sauce that cannot (and I’ve tried! Numerous times!) be replicated, with toppings that are big enough to knock down a running dog! Who… in their right mind… could say no?
And why would you??! It’s amazing! It defies words! It’s a $ 27 pizza and worth every penny!
But, as much as the pizza is a healthy 20 out of 5 stars (no joke!), there are some wicked negatives that come along with Papa Del’s Pizza.
They are definitely unflinching when it comes to «their rules». And they’ll tell ya about it, too! But, most of them that I’ve been privy to over the years have definitely fallen by the wayside in order to keep competitive with rival pizzerias. For example, for the longest time they swore up and down that they would never deliver. Any request for delivery was met with a rather harsh admonishment abt their restaurant being farrrrrr tooooo bussssy. Don’t get me wrong, they are that! And it shows, too. Their brick and mortar on Green is ALWAYS packed! It’s far too congested, and far too loud of an environment for me to consider an enjoyable experience. We just grab our pizza and head back home!
I digress (take-​out is wonderful, usually). But, since, they’ve changed their stance on delivery. Franchising was another example. That one still stands, though, some people consider the newer location (At The Crossing) to be one. It’s more of an extension of the actual restaurant for those who live on the southside of town. That location has no in-​restaurant dining, so be sure to come ready with plans to head somewhere else!
There was a time they guaranteed they’d never ship their product, too, but that’s also changed! And for the better! Pack a bunch of pies into a to-​go carton, a few bags of dry ice, and it’s pizza time from your freezer to your stove! Brilliant! If you’re local, grab a few frozen pies while you’re out getting your to-​go order, and you’ll have pizza for that 2AM craving! :D
Parking can be an issue at both joints. While The Crossing is new (and there’s ample parking available), it might not be right next to the door (‘specially with all the new food places out there)! The Green St location suffers from a different problem! It’s like the parking you’d find at a county fair! Potholes about hip deep filled with rain water, usually. =P Just be careful and watch where you’re going. People have been known to lose their car in some of those puppies. It’s all pan-​sexual baby goats, and children with their wardrobes down there!

Holy mackerel ! This was soooooo freaking good! Delicious! No… DELI-​FREAKING-​LICIOUS!!! I was a deep dish virgin and I am so happy to have lost it to Papa Del’s !!! We also had an awesome server who put up with my thousands of questions cause I am new to deep dish and their menu! Marissa you were stellar! I hope we get you on our soon-​to-​happen next visit. Great food for a great prize!

Toppings do not taste fresh. Crust is very dry and way too thick. The pizza overall tastes bland.

I don’t give a lot of two star reviews, and I find rant reviews frustrating. For that reason, I’ll try to give my thought out reason for the two star review. In short, it was for the experience. The food was actually pretty good. I’m from the Chicago area, and I think this place does a comparable job with Chicago style deep dish pizza, a few hours south of the real deal.
So the story is, I was coming here with 16 people. If you were going with fewer, I think you’d be fine. I think.
We called ahead. We were told we couldn’t make a reservation unless we put in an order on the phone. We didn’t do that, and when we got there the back dining room (not the front area because of a basketball game) was empty. The basketball game could be why the place was out of sorts with their service. Anyway, the staff at the front seemed to be aware of our phone call and, though seemingly difficult, they were able to put together some tables for us. The waiter was nice enough and took our drink orders and understood when we explained how many of us would be on separate checks (needing to get reimbursements) at the end of the meal.
Since some people ordered the deep dish pizza that knowingly takes a long time to cook, we got cheesy garlic bread at my table to share, and it was so good. A pair in our group also ordered some and never got it. When they asked and the waiter said he would put it in, we were already nearly done with ours and pizza was coming shortly. They canceled that. For the entrée, I got the lasagna because it was the Thursday special. It was a very generous portion that came with bread and salad. Though a good deal, the lasagna flavor wasn’t anything to write home about, in fact, a bit too salty in my mind. The ricotta inside had nice herbs. Now, the pizza, is another story. I’ll share a picture I took of the everything but the kitchen sink pizza a friend got. I was impressed. The issue was the timing. The four of us eating on my end of the table were nearly done before some in the middle and on the other end got their food.
I know we were a large group, but the timing was very off. Several groups (a couple and a group of 3, I think) came in, ate, and left in the time we waited for our food. The waiter and kitchen seemed to need extra help. Another group of people we knew came in about a half hour after us and were told the place was out of deep dish. They only had one more lasagna. With 16 people, we cleared the Papa Del’s kitchen. If you’re going to try your luck with Papa Del’s, I say get it for take out or go with a smaller group.

I don’t like deep dish pizza and if given the option I will always go for a New York slice. Inb4 «you’re not a real Chicagoan.» Well, that’s true… Anyway, Papa Del’s has really grown on me. I think it might just be good enough to make me a weekend-​convert.

Came here for lunch based on other positive Unilocal reviews with great expectations. Left with those expectations being met.
My wife and I split a delicious salad, garlic bread with cheese and some marinara for dipping. What I LOVED was I we could order the deep dish pizza (which takes 45 minutes for a whole pie) by the slice. Two pieces of pepperoni coming right up!!! The pizza was, of course, fabulous and hit the spot.
I saw on a couple other reviews negative comments about the staff being disorganized. Our waitress was on her game and handled multiple diners flawlessly! I told her it was out first time dining there and she made her recommendations with confidence. The rest of the staff seemed excellent as well.
I can see why this is a top pizza place in Champaign/​Urbana

This place was packed as we went there for lunch during the Big Ten Wrestling tournament. We waited about ten mintues for a table, so not that bad!
We ordered garlic bread, water, a beer, and two slices for him and one for me. Our waitress, then disappeared and I watched our water and beer sit at the bar for about ten minutes. Then the waitress brought waters to another table that sat down after us.
Our water and beer were finally brought to our table and about a minute later so were our slices of pizza. The pizza was good, but not excellent… and lukewarm. It wasn’t even hot. We both ordered sausage. The slices were pretty large, and the amount of sausage and cheese was plentiful. As we were finishing, she brought out our garlic bread.
Our waitress never asked if we wanted refills or anything. I asked for the tab, it was $ 11.50, I put down a $ 20 and she came back took it and said «Do you need change?»… I was a bit taken aback because of her lack of good, even mediocre service. I simply said yes I’ll need change. All in all, it was just OK. Not sure if I’d go back, even if they weren’t as busy. I’ve had much better pizzas, not to mention hot.

From the beginning the experience here at Papa Del’s, could maximally receive 4 stars, if the food was amazing.
The staff seems to be extremely disorganized. I understand that it is busy but no one approached us to seat us, so we had to do so ourselves and after seating us no one took our order. We had to approach a waitress standing off to the side just staring off into space. Overall this staff seems really disinterested. The pizza is pretty decent. Probably the closest you’ll get to real Chicago style deep dish. However, the service really brought this one down.

The first deep dish pizza I’ve ever tried was at a place called Giodorno’s. I bring this up since that seems to be a Unilocal highlight of this establishment. I found Giodorno’s pizza quite average… And I have to agree, the deep dish pizza here is of average quality as well. For neophytes, know that ordering deep dish pizza can take 40 – 60 minutes to prepare. The service was amiable enough though.

It’s nice to know that there is a good deep dish place this far away from Chicago.
To be honest with you, I prefer thinner pizza, but my roommates insisted on trying Papa Del’s one boring Sunday evening.
We ordered a cheese and sausage which was delivered in about an hour.
The dough is the correct consistency and there was not too much nor too little of it, which is usually an issue at many not-​as-​well-​known deep-​dish pizzerias. The cheese tasted great, and there was not 16 tons of it piled on, which can sometimes ruin the pie. Also of good quantity (and quality) was the sauce. It was flavorful and the pizza was not swimming in it, which is all too frequent a problem in the world of crappy deep-​dish.
The sausage itself was pretty tasty. I’m not sure if it was fresh or not, we probably should have asked. Back home, fresh toppings are deciding factors for my family, since we can be pizza Nazis. Either way, I just wish there was more of it on the pizza. There was probably only 1 – 2 little balls per slice, which in my opinion could have been more plentiful.
I will definitely order Papa Del’s again and recommend it to anyone who enjoys deep dish.