Old Chicago

This pizzeria/​sports bar is perfectly located in the middle of Franklin street. It was a busy night as a few big games were on, but I expected more. I was with a group of 9 including myself – at 10pm go get $ 2 personal (tiny) pizzas. The staff was stressed and seemed preoccupied with other tables. As a result we weren’t give straws, didn’t receive refills, and were stuck waiting for the check to be picked up for too long. Pizza was ok. I was starving at that point so I ate it… It’s a nice deal they have so I regret not just getting another personal pizza – but then I’d have to wait, again. Regardless of slow yet friendly staff and a bouncing atmosphere, it was nice to see part of the UNC basketball team enjoying their meal… Not sure if I will make it back.

Two stars for two reasons.
1. Not really a Chicago pizza
2. Not really a good pizza
I am from chicago and I was disappointed.
Cannot believe they had the courage to use «Chicago» in their restaurant name.
My co-​workers were disappointed because it was straight up bad pizza.
Picture: the deep dish pizza is not filled with cheese, but filled with dough.
–cheese layer was razor thin, less cheese than the regular pizza
–the bacon was so hard that we all took it out

Boy, were people right when they said the service here is lackadaisical. My friends and I came here to watch a basketball game and this restaurant/​bar was almost fully packed, but it was obviously under-​staffed. One waitress was working an entire section and would rarely come to our table.
The food was decent. The garlic parmesan fries are what stuck out to me the most in regards to appetizers. Old Chicago also offers an amazing deal after 10 PM, where they offer personal-​pan sized pizzas for $ 2 each, with each topping being an additional $.50. However, make sure you have time to spare because it took nearly 40 minutes for our pizzas to come out after being ordered. Thankfully, the game was on so time went somewhat fast, but it really did take extraordinarily long for the food to come out — whether it was the appetizers or the entrees.
I’ll maybe come here again for the after 10PM deal, but honestly don’t think I will if it’s going to take that long for the food to come out again. I would recommend going somewhere else for a sports-​viewing outing.

I have been here a couple of times. The food is average, the service was mediocre. Recently, I ordered chicken wings. The third chicken wing I bit into was very clearly under done. I asked to speak to the manager who said, «You are correct, I checked your chicken and it is not how we usually like to cook our chicken.» He did comp our chicken wings. I am hoping I don’t get food poisoning. Unfortunately, I won’t be coming back.

I have been twice in the same week and had 2 VASTLY different experiences. The first time I came in, was immediately seated at a booth and served quickly. The beer was cold, the pizza was good although a little overpriced in my opinion, and the server was excellent. The second time I went with coworkers, it took 10 minutes to seat us even though there was no line, we requested a booth and were told the booths were unavailable (though at least 10 were empty the entire time we were there) the server (Tanya) forgot about our beers, out of 4 orders of chicken wings 2 orders were a wing short, the server brought the wrong beers on our second round, the Italian nachos sucked and I suspect were cooked in a microwave. I would not go back due to the inconsistencies in service. To their credit the main course food was very good both times and the beer list is extensive.

The service is absolutely awful. There were 8 of us at lunch. Three of us ordered the Sierra Nevada Leon. She brought us the Sierra Nevada IPA which is a completely different type of beer. Since there were so many of us it took about 30 minutes for everybody to get their beer. We told her our beer was wrong and she assured us she would get us the correct one. 15 minutes later (now a total of 45 minutes) we still didn’t have a beer. My friend had to go straight to the bartender who brought them out immediately. Overall, it took about 2 hours to sit, wait on a beer, eat and then get our checks. They were not busy at all that day. It was almost as though the server didn’t care since we had over 8 and the gratuity could be automatically added. I am giving it a 2 because even though she was slack she was very nice and I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt! She was just very slow and slack! If you want to enjoy a nice long lunch this is your place. If you want to be in and out avoid this place!

Was excited to go try Old Chicago today for the first time. I will never go back. It was 5 oclock, there was about 15 people there eating, and there was an employee filling out paperwork at a booth near the hostess table. But she didn’t greet us. After a few minutes, another young lady motioned at us to follow her to a table, so we thought we were making progress. But then SHE left, and after ten minutes, we asked if we could order drinks. A couple different young ladies came by out of nowhere to apologize and say «things were crazy around there», even though there were still not many other customers. Things didn’t get much better from there, they got my order wrong, and then the bill was 63 dollars for a party of three.

Good lord the service here is awful! 45 minutes for a drink. It took 2 ½ hours to get out of here! This place needs some help! Honestly the worst service I’ve seen to date.

It’s really a hit or miss everytime I come. You’ll either get a really awesome server and great food or you’ll just get an «eh» server with mediocre food.
Atmosphere is great. It can be really hectic or super slow depending on the days.
My favorite is a classic cheddar burger, medium.
It’s so juicy and delicious. Can’t go wrong with it. The loaded fries as an appetizer are amazing as well. I’m almost full by the time my burger comes out.

Had the stupid spicy hamburger and that was delicious. Wasn’t really spicy though. They seem to be missing a lot of drinks frequently so don’t come here in the afternoon if you want something alcoholic.

I’ve been here too many times to believe that the service is going to get any better. The waiters and waitresses do try to be friendly, but the service always ends up being thoughtless and slow. Getting simple things like napkins, straws, or a refill on water can be difficult sometimes. More than one time an order has been forgotten.
What keeps me coming back to this place is the $ 2 personal pizza deal that happens every night after 10 PM. The pizza isn’t spectacular or anything, but it’s good, and for $ 2, it’s nothing to complain about. It’s a great place to bring friends for something «light» (read: small) after 10; I definitely wouldn’t come here alone for pizza. As the pizzas have become smaller and made up of a lot more crust rather than pizza recently, this deal is becoming less appealing to me.
I can’t say anything about dinner or lunch here since I’ve only actually been here after 10, but from what I’ve seen, it seems pricy. Overall, Old Chicago is average. I’d continue to come here just because there’s nowhere else on Franklin that has something similar to the $ 2 pizza deal. The service does take away from the experience sometimes; you get what you pay for, I guess.

It’s 10:00 PM, most decent diners are closed, you’re looking for a midnight snack, maybe a beer too while you’re at it, what options do you have? $ 3 pub pizzas at Old Chicago after 10. Nice TVs for ball game viewings. Service can be rather slow at times, but not too bad.

This place is hit or miss. The pizza is fine but the service is never great and in my opinion everything is way too expensive for what it is. They used to have some pretty good lunch specials, not sure if they still do. Great beer selection and its awesome to sit at the outdoor bar when its nice outside. The buffalo chicken rolls are the best thing on the menu by far.

Came here with a friend one night while exploring Chapel Hill. Had a decent crowd at 11 PM, but wasn’t too crowded.
If a venue offers me pizza, I’ll be very temped to try it. Pizza has always been one of my favorite foods and I’ve had all sorts of styles over the years. So of course, I tried one of their thick-​crust pizzas with a beer.
The restaurant has a darker atmosphere that’s appropriate with the night life. It didn’t take too long for our waitress to bring out our drinks and food. While the first slice tasted good, it didn’t quite leave me craving more. By the time I finished my third slice, I felt that the pizza was pretty average (though pizza and beer is always a good combination).
Our waitress recommended that I try the Not Your Father’s Root Beer that I ordered as a root beer float. She really encouraged me to try it, so I gave it a shot. As she brought it out and started preparing the float, she mentioned that the beer is even better with ice, but quickly and firmly said that «it’s too late for that now» so I couldn’t request ice. While I wouldn’t say that she was mean or rude, I did not feel that I was warmly received and felt that I was guided to avoid making selections that would give her extra work. I’ll try the beer with ice next time, but definitely not here.
While I enjoy root beer and I love ice cream, I do not recommend mixing Not Your Father’s Root Beer with vanilla ice cream. The result was sickeningly sweet and definitely was not worth the extra charge for the root beer float. Our waitress mentioned that if I didn’t like the float that I could ask for something else, but when I told her that I wasn’t fond of the float she didn’t offer to replace it.
Ambiance: ⁴⁄₅
Food: ³⁄₅
Service: ²⁄₅ (Though I might just have been unlucky with this waitress. Not coming back to test that theory, though.)
Overall, a good venue if you’re looking for an alright meal. Hopefully you’ll have better service than I did.

It is really a ½ star. The ale crust is terrible! You can get the same crappy crust on any CRAPPY NC pizza or a frozen DiGiorno. If you continue to serve that crust instead of Chicago tavern thin crust (Beaverton, OR location) with toppings UNDER the cheese! you should change the name to OLD NC Pizza and save the Chicagoans the trouble of making the hike to Chapel Hill thinking they will get an authentic chicago pizza. By the way a deep dish is Chicago style, not that awful looking thick crust on your menu!!!

Raised their prices to $ 3 for pub pizzas while decreasing the quality of their pizzas. Costs $ 5 to get in on Halloween even if you’re just eating. Horrible service, didn’t get water until we waited for 20 minutes. Definitely don’t go if you’re looking for quality food and good service.
I paid $ 5 to get in when I didn’t even want to eat.

My family and I are very exigent witht pizza. It can’t taste industrialized, it can’t have frozen toppings, it has to be fresh and yummy.
This chain location is somewhat new to Chapel Hill and I am glad we got to try it.
We came in to order takeaway and sat by the bar to wait until it was ready. My dad and I ordered a pint and watched a basketball game on the TV.
There are plenty of options to choose a drink and they give you a few suggestions of what harmonizes best with your order.
When we got home our pizza was perfectly warm and I had a hard time deciding if I like chicken pesto or spicy chicken better.
Christy, our server at the bar, was awesome and probably the most organized staff member in that location, cannot say the same about the hostess who took our takeaway order.
I will most definitely come back and try other items in the menu. Would be great if they did delivery to Carrboro.

Pizza made me Glad I Ordered a Burger!
55 and I had Lunch
Nice Looking Place, lots of TVs Service was GREAT! Orders came out Fast and Accurate!
Burger was Good! Not 4 Unilocal stars Good! Closer to 3! The Burger is big, not Huge! Pesto was pretty Good!
Fries could have been a lot Better, Only if they get a new plan for cutting and cooking them
Parking Garage on Rosemary is Convenient and Cheap!!! Cheaper than parking on the Street!

We were hangry by the time we got what we ordered so the food tasted extra delicious and the service felt extra irritating.
We took advantage of the 2 for $ 20 deal which came with 1 appetizer and 2 entrees.
For the appetizer, we chose the italian nachos– Emphasis on «italian» here. Replace salsa with marinara sauce, bacon with pepperoni and italian sausage, jalapeño peppers with banana peppers and the mexican cheese mix with mozzarella cheese. Italian nachos were kind of a disappointment… they were very frugal with their cheese and meat toppings but at least the banana peppers did add a surprising zing to the nachos.
Their chicago thick crust pizzas holds and compliments the toppings so well! My boyfriend got the chicago 7. It tasted like a gourmet pepperoni pizza– nothing «out of the park» worthy, but still good. I got the applewood-​spiced bbq chicken pizza. My taste buds were going wild from the combination of flavors in every bite.
Enough about the food. I don’t even know if I can say I was provided with (decent) service.
1. We requested for a booth when we got there and our hostess immediately said there were none available when right before our very eyes were three clean/​open booths back-​to-​back-​to-​back…
2. Also, Our waiter didn’t even come to greet us until 15 minutes after we got seated. After we ordered everything, It took 30 more minutes for our appetizer to come out. It wasn’t even that crowded…
3. It’s a bar so it gets extremely loud. I would here people shouting at random times. It also gets warm and humid inside because they leave the doors open.
It’s the new hip spot on franklin. Their drinks are cheap, food is delicious and portions are generous. However, know that practically all the employees here are college students so don’t expect to have proper service.

I should preface this review with the fact that I received a year’s worth of free pizza from them during their grand opening.
I love the pizza there. Their fresh dough made daily with buttery and soft and amazing. The combination of toppings on their pizzas are to die for. I’ve tried most of their pizzas, except the some of the newly released ones. My favorite is– by far– the Tuscan Chicken with spinach. You should DEFINITELY get it. I haven’t heard anyone dislike it.
Do not go here if you’re looking for a cheap pizza. These are definitely premium pizzas and the price reflects that. I’d say the price does match the quality– and both are high.
#ProTip: Go after 12pm (or 10pm, I can’t remember) for $ 2 personal pizzas.
They have a really fabulous selection of beers on tap, many of them local brews. You could easily spend months trying out their 110 beers on draft.
My BIG drawback is the service. Even though it opened months ago, I still feel like the staff is missing out on some basic training. It can easily take 30 – 45 to get your food. Sometimes the servers a little bit… odd… or just rude. Or make a lot of mistakes. I hope management gets a hold of this situation.