Rosati’s Pizza

We had the dough nuggets and a deep dish pizza. Both were delicious. Staff was friendly.

Pizza was pretty good, considering it was delivered.
Sauce is well-​balanced and not sweet (a huge plus!).
Cheese seemed to be of high quality.
The thicker crust was not to my personal preference (the in-​between of the thin and deepdish). I did like the thin crust.
I’d definitely order again.

Popcorn as an appetizer? Definitely! I stop in to this location more frequently since the Old Chicago nearby stopped serving the only dish I liked and subsequently closed down — I like to think my hex worked.
Huge portions of spaghetti come with my favorite dish, the chicken parm. Excellent garlic bread flanks two chicken breasts, with marinara that is on the sweet side (which I prefer).
The only reason they don’t get 5 stars is that the service can be a little slow for drink refills. I’ve occasionally had to stop eating for a few minutes until I could wash some of the food down after a drink refill. The slower things are, the more likely it seems to happen.

This place is awesome! The staff is friendly and helpful.
The food is great. I can’t get enough of the Italian Beefs
and hotdogs. Honestly, I haven’t had a hotdog as good
since I was last in Chicago.

I love the atmosphere in the dining room family friendly and you get popcorn on every visit-​yum! They have so may cool dining room specials and my favorite is $ 2.00 glass of wine on Fridays. There menu is also really diverse the Harvest salad is especially amazing!!!

I know it’s a pizza place — but I have to say, I’ve never actually eaten pizza there. For me, this is where I go when I have a craving for a Chicago-​style hot dog and can’t make a run down I-​90 to Portillo’s. They use yummy Vienna Beef dogs (of course), topped with the usual condiments. (Cute side note: they make mention of ketchup on the menu — that it doesn’t belong on a Chicago dog, but they’ll do it if they have to.)
The place is not fancy — a few booths, red checkered tablecloths. The service is friendly, but not overbearing. (Food, refills, and check arrived exactly when they should.) I’ll be back. And one day, I hope to check out their location in Tucson!

We tried the Chicago style pizza and hot buffalo wings. Both were good, but neither was particularly noteworthy. The pizza had a very thick and somewhat doughy crust and a good amount of cheese and toppings. The sauce is a little on the bland side and the two pizzas I ordered both failed to travel particularly well even though it wasn’t a terribly long drive home. The first small pizza was sausage and pepperoni and it was probably the better of the two. The sausage was somewhat on the bland side with very little in the way of savory or spicy flavor. That being said, the texture of the sausage was really good and the amount on the pizza was generous. The pepperoni was also pretty good, but not being on top of the pie during cooking means it doesn’t brown up nicely and it gets a little lost. The other small pizza was veggie and it was also good, but somewhat on the bland side. The veggies give up a fair bit of liquid during cooking so this pizza did not hold together structurally as well as the other. The cheese on both was abundant but not exciting and lacked some of the amazing pull that comes on the very best pizzas.
The wings were cooked nicely, although maybe one more minute in the fryer wouldn’t have hurt. These wing are breaded then fried which makes them slightly heavier than non-​breaded wings. The hot buffalo sauce was good, but again, nothing special.
Rosati’s was good pizza and I would be curious to try their thin crust options, but there are much better options in Madison and incomparably better options in Chicago. I also thought it was a little silly to be charged $ 0.53 for a side of hot giardinaire on a $ 48 order of two small pizzas and wings. Not the end of the world by any means, but still a little lackluster.

As a transplant from Chicago, one of the most difficult adjustments to Madison life has been the lack of quality pizza. It boggles my mind that we are in such a vast wasteland when it comes to pizza! And to find a dine in pizza place with decent offering is even more difficult. I grew up on thin crust Chicago style. Rosati ’ s has the best I’ve come across in my search for a taste of home. They use cheese that tastes like cheese., and Chicago style Italian sausage. I do recommend ordering the thin «double crust» as the standard is too thin and cracker — like.
Atmosphere is okay. I wish I didn’t have to listen to continuous Frank Sinatra every time for the entire duration of the meal.
Customer service was minimal. I’m not one to expect the server to carry on long conversation. But when they ask how we’re enjoying the meal, it would be nice if they, at least, pretended as if they were listening /​cared.
Value is about what I expect for a dine in pizza. Sixteen inch double crust sausage and bacon (we always get more than necessary to have leftovers.) Was about $ 21.
Definitely a favorite when our stomachs are missing home. (I would give 3.5 stars of Unilocal allowed.)

Being a recovering former Flatlander I was well familiar with Rosati’s before I moved to Madison. Having gone to several of them around Chicago I’ve found there to be a lot of variation from individual restaurant in the chain. I just wanted to make that clear so I identified that it was this specific Rosati’s I was talking about.
Anyhow! I’ve ordered pizza from them a half a dozen times in a couple of years and have dined in once. They are my Go-​To for «as-​near-​to-​real-​Chicago-​style-​as-​I-​can-​get» pizza in Madison and they do it well. The crust is perfectly crisped, the cheese thick as it should be, and the toppings generous. They have a well seasoned sausage that I just love. I will note that when I order from them I *do* ask for less sauce on top as they have occasionally gone wild with it (and sauce gone wild just is nothing anyone should have to deal with).
Anyhow — I’ve had other things from them as well and I have to say their pasta has not wowed me but it is pretty good. Their biggest weakness seems to be their sauce; It just needs more flavor or at least a stronger flavor.
For the bread lover you’ll want to hit up the Nuggets but don’t do it alone. If you think these are a side order for one person you will find yourself awash in a tide of deliciously fried, lightly sauced goodness that your heart may not recover from.
The service when I had dined in was good; I didn’t go long without a refill and they checked in often enough that we knew they were watching but not so often that it was obnoxious. There was a little delay before we ordered but that can happen when it gets busy so I am not about to begrudge them that.
Their Chicago-​style really is the closest to downtown Chicago I’ve had since I’ve been up here and that alone will keep me coming back indefinitely… or at least until Gino’s or Giordano’s crawl their way up I-​90.

Ordered for delivery to work today with a group of folks. I can’t speak on the topic of their pizzas, but as for my portion of the order…
First, the price quoted for a personal pizza over the phone was higher than stated on the menu on the website. As well, my portion of the order was charged a separate delivery charge from the main order — though it was all delivered together.
Second, the garlic bread was burnt, tough, and gross. Even if you were willing to handle the texture and crumbling bread, you could taste burnt garlic, not just burnt bread. We threw it away.
Third, the personal pan pizza (cheese with pineapple). I’ve had better pizza at various fastfood chains that don’t claim to be «authentic Chicago pizza». The sauce especially — yuck. As stated in other reviews, extremely greasy and messy.
If you want good pizza in Madison, go to Ian’s.

Good food. Good service. I like spicy Italian beef on garlic bread and their stuffed pizza (buttery crust). 4 stars.

This pizza is good to get if you have a big group and you don’t want to spend too much money on a more high end pizza.
The pizza has a thin crust, but the crust isn’t delicious, which is disappointing, since I love the crusts of pizzas. The flavors are mediocre, and I’ve never ordered this pizza myself before.

The best pizza in Madison.
Don’t listen to the other reviews.
Everybody knows rosatis is the best.
Pizza, sandwiches we have had it all and its all excellent food.

I received a coupon in the mail for a free pizza and they wouldn’t honor it. I’d be more upset if they were better than second rate.

BLEH! Do not … NOT … order anything but pizza for delivery, and have tons of napkins or paper towels available to sop up the grease on that. We ordered baked lasagna dinner and ribs with fries dinner tonight. Fries were sloppy floppy sticky starch sticks I wouldn’t give my pups (and they love their fries!). I had about 3 bites of the overly bbq’d undercooked ribs before I stopped because I didn’t want to become ill. Cooked ribs should not be gray. Apparently the lasagna was ok, he ate that.
Last time for this place.

I ordered from Rosati’s for the first time in a couple years and the pizza is still just fine (this time I went for The Veggie) but what I really wanted were good breadsticks. I’d never tried theirs, but figured since they had decent crust, a decent breadstick would follow. Unfortunately, logic failed me in this department.
The price of the breadsticks on the menu were cheap ($ 2.99), and the quality followed suit. I’m convinced that they are not made in-​house, as they were extremely bland and had that spongy, white-​bread quality you’d find in a plastic-​wrapped package you’d pick up in the grocery store. Another menu item, Nuggets, are billed as pieces of crispy pizza dough tossed in garlic butter sauce. Those go for $ 6.49, and should have tipped me off that the breadsticks were probably not the best choice.
The upside in the long run is that I’ll have consumed less bread, but giving me SyscoStix (my own name that I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find is a real product) instead of just cutting up some pizza dough was a star-​dropping move. What else can’t they be bothered to make?

This place was pretty good. Perhaps the better pizza outside of downtown. We ordered a gyro pizza on the thin crust which was really quite good. They make a yummy pizza.
On the downside, the ceaser salad was a few torn pieces of romaine, shred of parmesan, and a vinegar based ceaser dressing. Not good. No effort to actually make it a dish worth eating. For comparison Lou Malnatis makes an excellent ceaser salad. Also, free breadsticks with the pizza for the monday special were alright. Better than the salad but not worth buying if they ain’t free although the marinara sauce tasted pretty good. A simple tomatoey marinara.
So I would come again but avoid the side dishes and stick to the main events.

I’ve ate here a few times and have always enjoyed my lunches. Last time I went I had ordered the Italian Beef Sandwich. Boy was that puppy good! I ordered the Au Jus sauce on the side and it was an absolutely delectable combination.
I’ve also had the Chicago Dog’s here and they are fantastic as well. I enjoy this place since it’s close to home and work!

Life’s too short to eat mediocre pizza. That pretty much sums up my feelings about Rosati’s. Stranded on the west side and in need of lunch, the WaunaQueen and I decided to give Rosati’s a shot. She ordered a slice of the pepperoni, I opted the Cheef sandwich, Italian Beef with covered with melted mozzarella cheese.
Both offerings were exceptionally mediocre. The crust reminded me of what you get with a frozen pizza, dense, overly chewy and flavorless. The sauce had that overcooked, right out of a can flavor. The greasy cheese and pepperoni followed the exceedingly mediocre theme to a T. To make matters worse, my wife’s slice came out warm at best, so she had to have the kitchen put it in the oven to warm it up.
The Italian Beef sandwich had little going for it in the flavor department, whether it be the spongy bread, the melted slab of chewy mozzarella cheese or the watery ju that accompanied the sandwich. I appreciated the generous serving of beef, but man oh man, I’d trade less beef for more flavor. The crinkle-​cut fries came out warm and limp.
Service at the front counter was pleasant and efficient. The person at the counter cheerfully greeted us as we entered the restaurant and granted our request for a side of feta cheese to go with my daughter slice of cheese pizza. With a variety of lunch specials, you do not need to spend a fortune on your lunch here.
The dining room could serve as a set for Goodfellas, with the Italian music wafting over the speakers, the red and white checked (plastic) tablecloths, elevated private booths and a minimal amount of sunlight filtering in though a small window. The two big screens TVs detracted from the ambiance, but I did appreciate being able check the score of the World Cup match taking place that day.
If you are looking for cheap and filling, this is your place. If you are looking for delicious, keep driving past this strip mall outpost.

Rosati’s is my favorite pizza in the Madison area. There’s something magical about the sauce, cheese, and their italian sausage (we roll simple in my household)… Very few pizzas give me that satisfying «hunger quenching» feeling that Rosati’s gives me. Unfortunately, that leads to the problem of not knowing when to stop! But that’s my problem, not theirs…
I’ve carried out for lunch as well as ate in with the family. I’ve never been disappointed! The kids love it. I love it. My extended family loves it. It’s awesome. The grab-​and-​go lunch options are nice too (I work nearby).