Old Chicago

My experience at Old Chicago was over the lunch hour — I arrived around 11:30.
We were seated promptly on the patio. The patio here is clean but lacks charm (considering Old Chicago is in the middle of apt complexes/​office buildings along Mineral Point). Also, there were bees hovering around our table during the whole meal.
Our server was very friendly and helpful, but totally strapped. He appeared to be the only person taking orders and tending to about five different tables during lunch. An additional waitress appeared around 12:15, but our guy had been literally running around waiting his tables up until that point.
As a result, service was a bit slow. It took a while to get silverware/​napkins/​refills.
I had the spinach, sun-​dried tomato, and mushroom lunch calzone with a garden salad. The salad was phoned in — iceberg lettuce, a few cucumber slices, almonds slivers, and a single cherry tomato. The calzone was not completely cooked, leaving a damp slimy bit of dough on the inside… was the dough straight from the freezer? The first few bites were entirely this undercooked dough and melty cheese. There was not very much of the advertised filling and when there was, it was bland.
Service was a 3, food a 2.

One last whirl at Old Chicago before they tear it down and put up a Culvers. We had a $ 25 gift card to use, so time was running out. In we went!
The place is clean and organized. Happy hours here are nice — plenty of beer to choose from, and the outdoor patio is great on a nice day. I’ve had salads here before, and they’ve always been good.
This time the family settled in for a typical dinner out. My son and I ordered the angus steak sandwich while my wife got a italian sausage calzone. The little guy got the chicken tender kids meal, which was fine. The calzone lacked «pop». It tasted okay, but didn’t have the dynamic flavor you want from a pizza-​based item. The steak sandwiches weren’t great. We ordered them without the pepper-​stuff, but they either whiffed on that or it had something else peppery in it. The meat was very dry, only to be enhanced by the dry bun. The food came out pretty quick, so I can’t believe it sat under a warming lamp for too long.
In all, the food was underwhelming. Seeing the next table’s deep dish pizza, we had orderer’s remorse. That feeling was solidified 20 minutes later as I doubled over in pain every 3 minutes. All is well now, but I’m not looking to head back.

As I’m sure others have pointed out, their pizza is not Chicago style deep dish, but rather standard midwestern schlock served in a pan you would find at Lou Malnati’s. Stick to Uno’s if that’s what you are looking for.
Me, I get the calzones, as they are large and unruly to eat. The Chicago fire is my favorite of the three, and in a brazen display of American excess, it is served with ranch dressing. A person of normal eating habits should not be able to finish it in one sitting, and it is just as good eaten at 3am from a standing position, illuminated by only the light from your refrigerator’s open door

Food: 3
Service: 4
Uniqueness: 3
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I’ve started adding sub ratings to my reviews because I specifically noticed how service can really make an experience better.
I’ve lived in Madison off and on for 10 years and I just started making Old Chicago one of my regular places. If you’re looking for a really unique dining experience, this isn’t going to fit the bill. This is a place for a decent slice of pizza with people are amongst the friendliest staff I’ve ever had the privilege of being served by.
The food is solid but is a bit on the expensive side but the staff are just awesome. You get the feeling that if you became a regular the staff would invite you to join their bowling league.
Go there to catch a game and grab a brew. You won’t regret it.

It is my second time to dine in here. We came as a big group of 9. Our server worked hard on us but he was still nice and polite. Back to our foods, I was quite impressed by thier wings. Many of us liked 3-​alarms chicken wings. Personally I think wings here is much better than the another popular brand of wings in term of size and flavorful. Too bad, this location is far from downtown. Otherwise I would visit more often. We had 3 pans of pizza: Hawaiian, Chicago and double deckeroni. The last one was recommended by our server. He did a great job. We all loved it the most. It’s much better when u order it in thin style. I would say Hawaiian here is the worst I have had so far. I am a fan of Hawaiian but definitely not from this place. The flavor was mediocre. Mehh! In short, I definitely come back for wings for sure.

We had a deep dish pizza and it was awesome! My daughter had the Mac n cheese with bacon and I loved it and so did she. My other daughter had a specialty pizza and ate it all. Super fast service and great waiter!

Old Chicago has reinvented itself over the last few months, and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. The pizza dough for their Chicago thick is delicious, soft on the inside, crunchy on the edges. The atmosphere is great at the bar and they have a vast selection of beers. If you are looking for some family time, the restaurant has great sitting with TV’s everywhere so that you can watch you favorite sporting events without all the noise.

A group of friends and I come here for the weekly trivia night, and it’s fine. The food is average, the service is somewhat below average on average, maybe due to the popularity of the event. We’ve had outstanding service (we love you Kenna!), and outright rude service (some young guy). The trivia announcer is somewhat hard to hear, something about his voice more than the volume. After every question, it’s a round of «what? What did he say? Did you hear him?» They have a beer tour program, which is kind of cool, or would be if it had ever yet been properly processed, in my case. I’ve been dealing with their promotions department for weeks via email attempting to get the credit due on my card. Somehow they had the entire wrong number associated with my name. So yeah, love my friends, they like this place, so I’ll keep coming, but I’d rather go to almost any other trivia night in town. They do have a great and extensive beer selection, always something new and interesting on tap.

This is the kind of place that you just get lucky to find. Their food is delicious, and affordable, it seems to me that people there like working there because they always seem happy and friendly.

You could definitely do worse than Old Chicago. It won’t be the best thing you’ve ever eaten, but it won’t be the worse either.
The Buffalo Chicken Rolls are pretty good. I wish they were cooked more on the inside — the bread was a little raw. But the flavor is good and they are filling! The Peppered Bacon Chicken Alfredo is also pretty tasty. I found it to be kind of dry, as it seemed the sauce was spread on the pizza pretty unevenly. But in the bites with enough sauce, the ‘za was quite delicious. The fresh basil adds a nice freshness to the pie. For dessert, you can’t go wrong with The Big Cookie. It’s a chocolate chip cookie baked in a deep-​dish pizza pan and served with vanilla ice cream. I mean, really? It’s delicious of course and I want to eat it for every meal.
So like I said, don’t be expecting 5-​star service here. But they do have a nice selection of beer and food, so it’s worth checking out.

It’s a fine spot for some chain quality Chicago style food. Having said that, the service was lacking. Although our waitress was nice, she was for the most part nowhere to be found. I suspect that it’s an understaffing issue and not the serving staff’s fault. If you’ve got a few hours to kill and aren’t in a rush, it’s just fine.

Came here tonight with my boyfriend and 2 out of our 4 kids. The waitress was really nice. The wait time wasn’t bad. I had the grilled chicken Caesar salad and it was really good. The others had a pizza with sausage, pepperoni, peppers, etc on it. Both kids (2&3) each ate a ½ slice and the boyfriend ate 3. So I’m assuming they all enjoyed it! I would love to come back on a cheat meal day and really try some of their other stuff out. Only negative is the prices are a tad high.

Finally got to go there after years of not being there…
I was pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere… warm and inviting and clean!!!
The food was delicious!
Michelle was attentive and very nice! Thanks Michelle!!!

Old Chicago is the furthest thing from good.
For starters, a group and I dined here on a slow Thursday before going to the movies. I order a very simple appetizer. Tomatoes and Mozzarella Caperes (not sure of the name). Anyway, all there is to it was tomatoes slices, with mozz cheese slices on top topped with spinach and balsamic vinegar. How can you mess up something so simple? I know! You served all of the ingredients very unfresh to diners. My tomatoes seemed to have been a day old as well as the spinach. Because of that, I wasn’t sure if I should finish eating the cheese from fear of getting sick. It wasn’t a good meal at all. Extremely disappointing.
For my meal, I was craving a sandwich. I order a turkey and bacon club — minus the bacon because I do not eat pork. The sandwich was OK but the bread was so hard it cut my gums every time I bit into it. The bread is toasted but they let mines toast far too long. At least the fries were better. I think the sandwich ending up being $ 10 and it wasn’t worth half of that price.
Old Chicago is far too expensive of a restaurant to serve bland food. How they are still open is beyond me. I won’t be returning. This was my third trip here and none of them were good.

Old Chicago has the best loyalty program around. I love the World Beer Tour!
As a member of the World Beer Tour, I’m always getting free money put on my card. It’s not the weak 20% off or buy one get one free deals– they literally add $ 6 to your card for random events. For my birthday, I got a free large medium pizza — a $ 17 value!
The food is good. I’m honestly not a huge pizza fan or critic, but I think it’s a decent pizza. They have a huge selection of beer. An excellent happy hour. Etc.
This is a great place to be a regular at!

I honestly don’t get how this place has been open for so long.
I never heard good things but being stuck waiting for a bus got me here. A friend and I enter were greeted 15 mins later. No one was there.
I order a soda and a sandwich. Friend orders a beer and wings.
Soda did not taste right– the server said yeah the bag has to be changed. It took 10 more minutes, but finally it tasted right. The beer was not very cold.
But the food was awful. It just seemed microwaved and that too poorly. I did not even finish my sandwich.
The server was nice, thats the only positive I can say.

I was here today for drinks to watch the game and this place doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t disappoint however because my expectations aren’t that high for it. The service is usually really good but it’s a bar and serves standard bar fare. They have the standard wings and fried appetizers that are usually pretty good. They also have a great selection of beer, at least I think so based on my limited knowledge of beer.
This place has a regular Happy Hour as well as a late night Happy Hour! I believe the appetizers during Happy Hour are half off with drinks being a few dollars off. Another nice thing about this place is that they are always changing the menu. Today I had fries with bacon, cheese, and sour cream that wasn’t half bad; it also wasn’t on the menu a few months ago when I was here last. It’s nice to go somewhere and try something new not knowing if it’s going to be on the menu when you come back again.
I dig Old Chicago. It’s a chill place to watch a game, grab a drink and hang with friends.

Stopped here at 9 on a Friday night with some friends. We chose to grab a booth by the bar as the bar was full. Only table we could find was dirty. 5 minutes later someone comes by to clean it and take our drink order. Finally we got our drinks almost 10 minutes later. Our waiter was stretched thin that evening.
We eventually ordered food, that came out pretty fast. I just had the happy hour $ 5 chicken tenders and $ 3 garlic cheesy bread, the food was good. My friend has a BBQ Cheddar burger, he said it was ok. His lady had the Classic Calzone which was huge and she said it was very good.
What got us was the fact that we wouldn’t see or hear our waiter for 20 minutes at a time. When we wanted to leave it took forever to get our checks, then it took forever for him to bring us our change for the bill. I did join the world beer tour and plan on finishing it. I like the atmosphere, however some of the food on the menu seemed incredibly overpriced.
Maybe Old Chicago just needs a change in management to make this a truly exceptional chain restaurant.

Barely a two-​star experience last night… it started when we asked for a table in the bar — party of 6. We were «seated» in a half-​booth that could fit 4 people at best. Our server looked confused when we asked if we could get a larger table — she actually suggested that two of us stand near the booth (chairs weren’t allowed due to fire codes).
So, we asked to be moved to the nearly empty dining room, and were taken to a corner booth that — wait for it — could fit 4 people at best. We asked if we could put two tables together, as the dining room was literally empty (there were two other couples eating in the dining room). We got a half-​hearted response: «Um, I guess we could do that?»
Once seated, things got worse. New server was pushing for orders as soon as we sat down. «Are you ready to order food?» We asked for a minute to browse through the sticky menus (they were literally grimy and sticky), but managed to order appetizers, which arrived in less than 3 minutes (we didn’t have our drinks yet). How that’s even possible is beyond me.
Sicilian rolls were greasy, not very crispy, and tasted heavily processed.
Round of drinks arrived; we ordered food. One of the folks at our table wanted to order the chili; when he asked, our server said, «I think we’re out of it, but I’ll check.» She left without taking the remaining orders.
She returned with a bowl of what was passed off as chili… I’m told it was more of a southwestern-​style chicken soup. He asked if that was the chili and was told that it definitely was the chili. She mentioned something about a recent menu change and how many items had changed, including the chili. Hmmm.
I finally got to order an entrée; we ordered another round of drinks.
Food arrived and it was disappointing once again. Greasy, overly processed, and just «not good.» I felt smarmy after the meal.
Glasses and empty bottles were never cleared from the table during the entire meal. We left at 8:00pm; five of us commented about how poor the experience was (once again) — one thought it was «ok» (he’s a huge fan of the place).
I’m done with OC.

I hadn’t read too many great reviews about this place on Unilocal!but a friend suggested I try this place before I left Wisconsin so I decided to give them a try. Despite hearing fairly good reviews about the pizza I planned to get Ians the next day (my last Saturday in Madison) so I decided to go with a cheeseburger instead. We arrived and were waited on in a timely fashion. I placed my order for a Chicago burger with American cheese (see pic) and my friend ordered the appetizer sampler (see pic) thinking it would be a regular sized sampler.
My burger arrived in about 20 minutes. It was cooked he way I asked, medium-​rare. The burger itself was pretty decent, but nothing memorable. It was fairly dry but not really ridiculously so. Instead of fries I got a side salad which was ok, although you’d think tomatoes were in short supply in the world since I only got one 1 tiny cherry tomato in my salad. I also didn’t like the lack of cheese in my salad but lots of places don’t offer that so no big deal.
My friends appetizer turned out to be HUGE, about what 4 or 5 people would snack on while waiting for their dinner. I tried a couple of hot wings, a bbq wing and cheese stick of of the tray. The wings were meaty but not particularly hot (as in hot/​cold hot) and the hot wings weren’t particularly spicy either, rather bland. The bbq wings had a decent amount of sauce but the hot wings were definitely not sauced enough. The cheese stick was good and hot and how a cheese stick should taste. All in all the sampler tasted about like the burger, pretty decent but pretty forgettable.
So I guess my bottom line is this place is alright, I’d go hear again if a friend suggested it but I’d never come back here on my own initiative. They do have a really nice patio out back and their beer list looked really strong so that’d probably be the main thing for me to ever want to try if I were to come back. Oh that and the pizza of course. And just a note, the service was fine and the restaurant seemed pretty nice, as well as clean, it’s just the food was not particularly great, just average. This place reminds me alot of TGIF’s, of which I’m not a fan of…
Although I didn’t taste the pizza it looked pretty decent from the people sitting around me and it’s possible, although unlikely from the reviews on Unilocal!,that the pizza may be the item to order here. It’s highly unlikely I however will ever find out.