John’s Pizzeria Ristorante & Lounge

Delivery took 1 hour and 30 minutes, and the place I’m staying is only 2 miles away from the restaurant! By the time we got the food, it was cold and soggy. The cheese on the pizza was hard and it looked like a day old pizza left out for too long! I’m very disappointed, I wish I could get a refund. Didn’t even eat half of it because the quality was so poor. I can get better pizza in California where I’m from (and the pizza there isn’t very good). Too bad this place doesn’t live up to the Chicago standards.

Well, gave John’s another shot. Tried the chicken parmesean. I have never before seen a restaurant take pre-​grilled chicken breast, then try to bread it and fry it. It’s a twice cooked thin chicken breast. Totally dry and chewy. It makes me wonder how long the pre-​grilled chicken is sitting around before they decide to recook it and throw it in sauce. It’s so lazy and unprofessional. Why mess up such a simple dish? Disappointment at high prices.

John’s pizza is hit or miss somethimes awesome next time not so much im 56 yrs old and have been going here since 16 and it has changed dramatically. waitresses need a little better organization and not be asked several times to bring this or that.

Garbage. $ 18 for what turned out to be a small veggie pizza that barely fed 2. It was bland and sad looking. $ 30 worth of food that was average at best and pathetically small portions. We won’t be back.

4−5star pizza, but mostly nonexistent service. Not that we were treated poorly or anything, but employees were fighting/​yelling in the restaurant and we were checked on once throughout the entire meal, and after about 10 minutes of thumb twiddling we finally got our bill. The pizza was great, relatively cheap, and came out fairly quick so we will probably go back, but I can see what other reviews are saying regarding the service. Seems like they could use some help in that area…

Pizza is amazing customer service is horrible. from the women too the men are just so RUDE!

I’ve eaten at John’s for over thirty years. So i didn’t give it much thought (writing them up on Unilocal). Last Tuesday was ‘fat Tuesday’ so I ordered from John’s, again.
It was really good, but it’s always been really good and I didn’t think much of it. However, I ordered the thick crust and it was too much for me. Lent started the next day and pizza was ‘off the menu,’ so I asked my young tenants if they liked thick crust pepperoni pizza. They jumped at the chance…
My tenants are young (early 20’s) yuppies from Michigan. Anyway, the next day they told me they couldn’t believe how good that pizza was and they asked where I got it.
Can’t beat old-​fashioned Chicago establishments like John’s. There are commercials all day and night for Domino’s, papa John’s, Lil Caesars, etc. .that’s dog food compared to John’s pizza on the corner of Charleston and Western.

As a long time customer, and someone who works in the industry, I hate to write this review. I understand not everything always comes out perfect 100% of the time and that sometimes you have to do damage control for poor quality. But it’s how you deal with those situations that makes or breaks whether or not you keep a customer. I’ve been to restaurants that have completely messed up an order, but because they handled it so well I keep coming back.
This is not one of those places.
They literally do not care whether or not you get good service. I ordered delivery there tonight and received it over 20 mins late (after already waiting an hour). I don’t know if they just got a new delivery driver or if they were just really busy but when I took a look at the pizza I could tell immediately it was going to be a problem.
The grease had completely run through the paper cover and when I opened it the cheese looked hard and was all pushed to one side, most likely because of lack of care in delivering. Even then I gave it a chance, but when I bit into it the cheese tasted stale and hard. I couldn’t even finish my slice. So I did what any other customer would have done, I called.
The woman on the phone was nice enough, she told me I could either get a new pizza delivered to me, but it would be another hour wait, or I could be credited for my next order. Since it was already late I didn’t want to wait for another pizza, especially if there was a chance this one could be late too. I had to feed a 6 year old who I had promised pizza night all week to and it would be past his bed time when the next pizza arrived (I explained this to this to them as well).
I told the woman I’d rather be credited, and after she came back on the phone from speaking with the manager I was told I would only be given $ 5. Now, I’m not a petty person but $ 5 for a pizza isn’t crap. That’s not even a third of what it would have cost to send the small pizza I ordered. I told her that wasn’t even a decent set of options considering the situation and she told me those were the only two choice I get.
I get it, she doesn’t make the rules, but if you have a person who regularly orders from you and they receive crap service the least you can do is refund them their damn money. It felt like they were just throwing it in my face. The manager didn’t even bother to get on the phone to try to smooth things out (you know the things that managers are supposed to do). I won’t be ordering from them again. Dantes is right down the street and I’d rather pay a little more for better service.

My favorite neighborhood pizza place! Awesome, huge, cheesy thin-​crust pizzas. Nothing fancy here. Also have super-​thick milkshakes. Cash only on delivery.

Overall the pizza is pretty good! Came in and dined for dinner last night, Sunday. The parking lot was pretty packed, originally thought this place would reflect that. It was pretty empty and I found it to be a little unsettling. With that said, we were greeted by a busboy who told us to seat ourselves. We sat in the front and apparently there was an additional lounge through the front and down the hall. I had my boyfriend check it out and to our surprise the lounge was pretty empty as well.
There seemed to be only one waitress working at the time which makes sense, considering it was pretty empty. By the time my boyfriend and I ordered an appetizer and pizza, 2 other guests came in and seated themselves through the lounge. I wondered how this would work, managing 3 tables on opposite ends… Later found out, not so well, shocking.
Anyways, we got our drinks and appetizer pretty fast (cheesy garlic bread) and it was great can’t complain about that! My boyfriend and I were pretty hungry, he was hungover from the night prior, so we sped through our drinks and appetizer. This is where things kind of went sour for me.
Again, there were other staff there and I understand that the busboy clears out tables but what I don’t get is him standing around and acting like we didn’t need anything (even after waving him down). We didn’t really have a chance to get a refill on our drinks until the actual pizza came out. Seriously?
We ordered the double dough, hard to tell the difference between that and thin crust, I wondered what their thin crust would be like in comparison. It was pretty crispy, and again overall pretty good! The pizza definitely helped get over the service.
Unfortunately while eating our pizza I had to witness an even greater example of how weak the service was! A man clearly came in, sat himself, and was VERY VISIBLE; not to be confused with the invisible man! He wasn’t greeted by the busboy who was staring at the wall the entire time… Our waitress even overlooked him a couple times. He sat at a table across from us for at least 10 – 15 minutes before he got up and made it very clear that he wasn’t invisible (I’m serious). I personally would’ve handled it differently! But again, with the additional table (making 4) I couldn’t possibly understand how the staff managed that! Anyways, the man got up and put his order in. Busboy finally walks over a glass of water. This made dining in very uncomfortable and awkward.
Overall I wouldn’t recommend dining in. And based on the other reviews I wouldn’t recommend delivery… Several pickups came through while we were dining. Looks like the reviews/​warnings were right all along.
2 Stars for the pizza.
–3 for the service.
Yes the pizza is great! And they know it, that shouldn’t stop them from fine tuning their service — it’s important! They should really get their shit together considering the many pizza options within the area… Piece, Roots, Dante’s, Bacci’s, heck even Pizza Hut!!!

This pizza was so good… Until my friend and I both found a strand of human hair in our slices. Gross. We had just finally sat down to eat after running around all day, to find this.
We called the place back to simply make them aware of the situation, and the lady who answered was very apologetic and nice enough to get the manager for us. As I explained what had just happened to us, the manager was really quick to cut me off, stating that he knows it was a strand of hair from the brush they use to clean the ovens. No.
We offered to save the hair and send it back with the pizza that was left over so he can see that someone is slipping, and the manager was quick to respond asking us if we were sure it wasn’t our own hair. Really? After we told him we were very sure, his response was «well, if that’s what you want to believe.»
Really? I have worked in retail management long enough to know that you do NOT treat the customer in that manner. We were not looking for anything free or any kind of refund. We just wanted to make them aware of the situation so this won’t happen to anyone else. But after the way he treated us, I’m sorry to say that this may very likely happen to you.
Order somewhere else.

We had the Roman gourmet pizza (tomato, onion, sausage, oregano, garlic I believe) and it was flavorful and amazing. The medium serves 1 – 2 and was about $ 20. This place is a great value. A bunch of people picked up pizzas while we were inside in the dining area. That’s how you know the food is good! The inside is basic, but when the pizza is this good, who cares? Our server, Eileen, was friendly and polite. We enjoyed chatting with her. Great experience!

This place was recommended to me because it’s a neighborhood institution and a Chicago institution. I went for lunch only to find out that it was close. I had heard so many good things that I made the trip again for dinner. To my surprise, the place was far from packed, and almost empty. Service and food were great. The place has a 70s vibe, but it seems to be not as popular as it once was, as the décor and menu haven’t kept up with the trends.

We ordered so much food, and they were so kind and accommodating! And Con Air was playing. It was great. The food was tasty. Ideal experience!!!

Johns WAS one of my favorite pzza joints but as time progressed the delivery service has rolled down into the sewer. The pizza quality itself has seemed to have declined also. The last few deliveries have been either so long its cold as hell or peices of pizza were missing. This last time tonight was the final straw. I knew when he called me and wouldnt respond back that I was in for some entertainment. Sure enough, when I opened the pizza a few peices were flipped on top of others and half of it was spilling off the cardboard and some of it looked missing. Johns should go back to hiring illegals that barely speak english rather than fat bro’s, at least illegals understand the fundamental laws of physics.

There’s «horse hair» in the pizza’s from the broom they clean the oven with?!
…uhhh
The first time ever. We’ve been ordering from john’s for a while and this is the first time this has happened. My first slice, I pulled a hair out of my mouth (it’s short, curly, and blonde or gray)…i’m starving so i let it slide. Half way through the pizza I found another strand (same profile).
We call back to let them know of our wonderful discovery. The man (who, from what i gathered, was the owner) was not only condescending but rude as all else. He said he’d switch it out but considering how late it was and how i did not want to have a fresh pizza sitting in my fridge, i asked for a credit. He was quick to cut me off and told me he needed to get the pizza that we partially ate to do that. Totally understand.
The delivery guy came shortly after the phone call to pick up the pizza. We even showed him the hair. We had ordered an extra large pizza, he said he’d only give us credit for a large.

I have never given a restaurant a bad review before. Having worked in the industry for years, I am very sympathetic to how difficult is is to please everyone. I understand the concept of getting what you pay for, and try to set my expectations accordingly. I wouldn’t rip on Little Ceasar’s for having crappy pizza because, hey, it’s five bucks. What do you expect. OK.
Having said that, John’s Pizza was absolutely awful. Tonight we ordered a large pizza with mushrooms, onions and basil. Everything about this pizza was sub-​standard. The sauce was flavorless. The cheese was flavorless. The basil (which was charged as a regular topping) was dried basil flakes, like you would find on the shelf at a grocery, sprinkled over top. I guess fresh basil is an unreasonable thing to have on hand at an «Italian» restaurant like John’s. For shame.
Three years ago, I ate the worst sandwich of my life. I will never forget it. Flavorless beef, congealed neon-​yellow «cheez» and soggy yet stale bread. Guess where I got that sandwich? Yup, John’s. If I had known that my BF was ordering from John’s tonight, I would have STOPPED him. I would have DONE something. Alas, I only knew he was «trying someplace new.»
I have to add, though, the pizza was cooked properly and the delivery was promp. I have to assume the cooks and delivery guy are all competent. If only they were given some acceptable ingredients to work with, they could probably deliver a decent pie. When you are cooking crap ingredients, though, no matter how well you cook them it is still just crap in the end. Blech.

Great pizza and super quick delivery. Wings are a bit on the greasy side so I would stick with the Za. One thing I will say is the sizes are a bit small, large feeds only 2 – 3 adults. Actually, I had three kids who devoured the large. They did throw in a free liter of RC which is pretty cool of them.

Usually just order delivery or pick up. For a large end up paying around 30 bucks with tip and delivery included which is pretty good! I usually get the works or johns special and it’s always good! Thin crust, kinda light, usually greasy (what pizza isn’t) and perfect for an unhealthy cheat day. When delivered it comes in a paper bag instead of a box but don’t think that makes much of a difference! If you look at the picture I ripped the bag like an animal n my boyfriend and I ate the entire thing… No regrets!

(3.5 Stars)
I ordered the thin crust godzilla and added jalapenos. (I do realize that it is a little racial-​profiling-​ish since I’m Asian, but whatever.)

The thin crust pizza was definitely above average. Crispy crust, warm-​gooey cheese, good selection of toppings, a little greasy but not overwhelming. I just moved to the area a month ago, and I am sure it will be a nice little local carryout spot.
I would not order anything but the pizza here… Well I wouldn’t expect anything much from the rest of the menu. (i.e. Nachos at a pizza place? No thanks.) Like the last pick in a pick-​up basketball game… but I digress.
Also, I did find it weird that the carryout pizza did not come in a box, but just a cardboard disk wrapped in a white paper bag? Weird. This may not seem like a big deal, but the dude in me just wants to throw the leftover pizza box in the fridge for later. But I had to go into soccer mom mode and find some plastic wrap to preserve the leftovers.
I’ll probably be ordering here again when football season rolls around.