Chooch’s Pizzeria

Cute little spot downtown Elgin. The look of the restaurant reminds me of some places you’d find yourself at downtown Chicago. I love it here. Customer service is great. They have a full bar and lots of wine to craft beers to choose from. The gelato here is good. The pizzas are amazing and fresh.

My first time here. Ordered the Italiano focaccia sandwich. It was awesome. Finishing up with Oreo gelato. I’ll be back!
Been back a couple times. Friday fish fry is great! Don’t forget to sub the fries with tarot tots! Num num!
Also the Friday night bartender makes an awesome Cosmo… if you are in to that sort of thing!
Chooch’s I love you but…
March 9 2016– stopped in for dinner. Only one group at a table. Soon the place filled up. Had pizza, a couple of drinks. Pizza was awesome! Service was terrible. Only one waitress for the entire dining room. She did the best she could but the place was packed. My advice… If you walk in and they are busy, walk out or be prepared to wait for everything… even a refill on soda. We went to the bar to get a soda refill and were told to wait. Very damaging to the customer experience. I will think again about coming her when they are busy!

The pizza is very good and the staff is very friendly and attentive. My two bud lights were a little outside of there freshness date and I could tell right away but it wasnt the end of the world. I really like this place.

Our family of four, including two little boys, had a great dinner here recently. I’ll keep this simple and to the point; the pizza was delicious (thin crust with sausage and bacon), the burgers/​sandwiches were very, very good (Bacon Lovers Burger and Chicken Artichoke Focaccia), the service was great. We’ll be back!

Based on other reviews I came here for a pizza fix. I hesitate to say perfect… but for my taste it was. Sausage mushroom thin crust… as good as it gets and as I remember pizzas being made (okay so I’m old!). Again based on reviews I ordered one of the tap specialty beers — Emmet’s something pale Ale. That was good; very. I’ll be bringing my Mother in to get some like a good German daughter. Nice owner; very attentive. The only thing I didn’t like — and I know it’s a personal preference — I hate being handed a box for the leftovers. Please do it for me? Thank you =)

Second visit, probably our last. We arrived at 8 PM on a weekday. We were sat and given menus. Our server returned shortly and asked if we were ready to order, to which we replied thar we’d need a couple of additional minutes. We were then told that we had 13 minutes to decide unless we wanted pizza. I guess the open til 9 actually ment thart. Better ways to convey that. Our entres basically looked and tasted like they were hastily made. Thank God we finished and left before 9. One more thing, whoever was constantly whistling in the kitchen the whole time we there, please stop this. It’s really annoying.

3.5 stars.
The staff is great: friendly, prompt. The environment and décor are great (the sign graphics are pretty awful though; could stand to hire a real professional for that). And I applaud the restaurant for being part of the revitalization of downtown Elgin. Additionally, there is a good selection of beers. I would go back for these reasons.
But the food just isn’t special. The dough nuggets, which other reviews raved about, were underwhelming. Too chewy.
We had a pan pizza. Lots of dough on the bottom crust, no high edge, and not enough cheese. It’s sort of the way they try to make pan pizza in California: you take a thin crust, and then just add a bunch of dough to the bottom, without changing anything else. I make better pan pizza at home, and I’m shit for cooking.
We also tried a focaccia sandwich. The bread was dry, but the innards of the thing were pretty good. Decent chicken actually. Still, nothing to write home about, and they should pile it on more. I also agree with an earlier review that said the portions are weird. The standard sandwich plate is a sandwich and a small dish of coleslaw. Fries should just come with that, but instead you pay $ 1.00 extra and the fries replace the coleslaw. I don’t really care that much about price, but it’s still unusual.
I really want to like the restaurant, because the people seem nice. But I can’t imagine this place lasting much longer. They were half-​empty during Thursday primetime. I’m actually surprised they’ve made it three years — the place has that slightly awkward, empty feel of just having opened. Perhaps their patio is a big enough draw in the warm months that they can make it through the winter.

The mozzarella sticks are unreal! This is the best pizza in the area. Also happens to be a good place to watch a Blackhawk game.

So here’s the deal. I went for pizza and wine, which is one of my favorite meals.
I ordered the fries mushrooms app, a thin crust margherita pizza and a glass of the house red wine.
The mushrooms are standard frozen pre battered veggies and as expected.
I was highly disappointed, with both the pizza and wine.
The pizza had some sad under ripe thin slices of tomato on a crust that was neither thin or thick, instead it had the worst characteristics of both — chewy, tough, doughy and flavorless.
The wine was a red blend and was barely drinkeable.
On the plus, the patio was gorgeous and a great place to hangout.
Subpar pizza and poor wine selection ruined this for me.
Choochs does have a wide selection of beers, but I didn’t try any.
There are much better places nearby for pizza, like Nicks and Village Pizza on Randall.

Great food and owners! The focaccia sandwiches are amazing!

Visited Chooch’s last night and got there around 6. Place was fairly crowded but I found a table. Little did I know that they scheduled a presentation from the Elgin Historical Society and the place would end up packed. They really should have put up a notice about the event.
While waiting for my family to arrive I had to wait approximately 15 minutes for my server to visit the table to get my beer order. After I ordered it the rest of my family sat down. In another 15 minutes a gentleman who may have been the bartender delivered my beer (hint — when you order a craft beer bring a beer glass along).
After another 15 minutes (I’m not exaggerating about these wait times) our server came and took our orders.
The three of us ordered ravioli and a caprese salad. While waiting for our food my family members also had to wait for a server to take their drink order.
The food came out and was fairly good. I then ordered another beer and more Cokes for my wife and daughter. They eventually did get their soft drinks but by the time I finished my meal my beer still hadn’t arrived.
During the entire experience the presentation from the Historical Society was going on which prevented us from having any sort of discussion because of the volume. In addition a woman came out of nowhere and asked if we would share our table with a stranger. I’m not sure if she worked at Chooch’s or not. We respectfully declined because we were eating out as a family and were trying to have a discussion.
I was getting frustrated so my wife just told me to go grab a seat at the Dog Paws pub next door. She would close out the bill and join me there.
I guess my beer finally did get to the table but there was no one there to drink it. So I paid for a drink that I didn’t receive. Hope someone there enjoyed it.
It was clear that the restaurant scheduled this event without taking into consideration the extra help they would need. As I mentioned before it would have also been nice if they would have posted a notice on the door that this event was taking place so folks like us could decide if it was the proper time for us to visit.
I have never received such poor service at a restaurant where a manager didn’t eventually walk over to apologize and explain what the issues were. The only person we spoke with was the young woman taking our orders who explained that she wasn’t normally a server. I do have to say she was polite.
I guess Chooch’s is participating a pub crawl tonight. I hope they have the staff to cover it. I’m certainly not going to be there.

Based on our first visit, this is another good option in downtown Elgin with the added bonus of being across from the river-​walk. If it’s nice outside, sit out on their patio along the river side. Pizza & sandwiches & salads along with the usual appetizers. Not a huge beer list but good amount of choices so there is something for everyone if they’d like to enjoy a brewski.
The service was very friendly and although the patio was a hoppin’ busy when we were there our server did a good job of keeping upbeat with a smile on her face. While it may not have been as attentive as we would have liked, it was still good considering how busy they were on a Friday night.
We ordered the dough nuggets to start & while they were good, they were cut a bit smaller than we have had anywhere else and there was barely only 2 small handfuls of them in the basket brought to our table — a bit on the skimpy side for the $ 6 price tag they were charging for a bit of fried pizza dough and a little cup of marinara. We also had the thin crust meat-lover’s pizza and the toppings were plentiful but not overwhelming, a good amount of cheese and the crust was nice & crispy. The sauce was okay, nothing amazing but certainly not bad either.
I’m sure we’ll be back to give their sandwiches a try as we’ve heard good things from our friends on Unilocal about them.

Came in for a slice during Friday afternoon. Friendly staff, clean and open seating, and big, cheap freshly prepared slices ($ 3.25 for a 1-​topping slice during the weekday afternoons). I realize you can only get full pies after 3 and on weekends, but I was pretty happy with the experience and I’d certainly want to come back again.

Delicious pizza and a fine selection/​range of other dishes. Paired with a cool, classy and comfortable ambiance. Always a great time eating here!

Good food, decent prices, friendly owner, and an awesome patio… what more could you want? Their appetizers are above-​average to excellent. Dough nuggets are about the most sinfully good thing you can find south of the Wisconsin border. The deep-​dish pizza is massively under-​rated. It’s not that oily cheese-​fueled thing called «Chicago style,» but it’s perfect for people who don’t live in fear of carbs and want an alternative to thin crust that marries homemade bread with pizza toppings. Their focaccia sandwiches are, according to my wife, incredible. This is the restaurant TGIFridays goes to bed dreaming it could be. And the owner is incredibly nice, to boot.
Go here. Spend your money. If it isn’t everything I described, then come back and try again. The greatest thing about this place is that no one is trying to whitewash their feelings with a disingenuous smile and twenty-​three «pieces of flair.» It’s dining how it should be… sharing time with those you are close to, want to be closer to, or just passing through your life. And the food is really good, too. So that helps.

Great food, outside patio was awesome. Waiter needed a bit more knowledge of the beer offered. Clean establishment, menu well rounded. A definite must and we will be coming back.
We did not have pizza but we all did have amazing sandwiches. Caprese focaccia. out of this world! Chicken parm satisfied my pickiest eater. Fried Ravioli was a hit. Great place to eat before one of the outdoor concerts at GVC.

Love the pizza! Great thin crust. Very fresh and homemade. The owners are always there and are very friendly. We have been there for lunch and dinner. We come here about once or twice a week. Outdoor area is kool too. Keep up the good work!

Great pizza, came out quickly, hot and fresh. The service, however, is why I lowered my rating. Absolutely awful! The waitress only addressed us to take our order, this being after I flagged her down. We were served by someone else, and I had to go to the bar to ask for another drink (just a water.) Then without a word to us or the other table she was serving, she left for the day. I sat with my infant son and toddler daughter waiting for someone to give us our bill and a takeout box. Had to approach the bar two more times before we were able to leave.
I will never dine-​in again. But the food was so good I would definitely consider take-​out.

Great meal! I had the chicken artichoke on focaccia and the bread was delicious. The kids split a pizza that they loved and my stepdad was thrilled about the BBQ pizza. We’ll be back again when it’s warmer and the outdoor patio is ready.

After reading all the great reviews about the pizza we just had to try it…
Got a cheese, sausage, and green pepper pizza and it was just alright. Would never order the pizza again much better options in the area.
BUT what we did order which were fabulous were the deep fried dough nuggets! They really were amazing and because of them, and them being made homemade we will be coming back to this place for a 2^nd try we just won’t be ordering the pizza.