de Carlucci’s Pizzeria & Mexican Grill

First & last time ordering at this place. It took them almost an hour and a half to deliver a cheeseburger & 3 tacos, & it’s only 5 minutes away. Then when I called to cancel the order the guy said the delivery man couldn’t get inside my building. I told him my building didn’t have a lock so there should be no problem getting in. When the delivery man came (halfway) to my door, he checked with the person I talked to on the phone if I paid already, & when he found out I did, he said: «here mam» then ran back down the stairs. Worst service ever, & bland food. Waste of money.

I chose this «Pizzeria & Mexican Grill» when it was returned in my search results for a burger. I was pleasantly surprised to find it offers great pub fare as well. The first clue was when I ordered the burger and it stated, «Made to order» where I could chose my preference for level of doneness. The meat is very flavorful and they use a bakery-​quality bun instead of your run-​of-​the-​mill hamburger bun. The fries are tremendously well seasoned with some concoction that reminds me of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt but isn’t at all gritty. And the coleslaw tastes freshly made rather than out of a foodservice jumbo canister. This is a real find for a neighborhood pub burger.

Ordered food online at around 1am for a pick up, got a confirmation email saying it’ll be ready in 10 – 30 mins. Arrived at the restaurant & no one was there. The lights were off and when I called no one picked up. Contacted Eat 24, and they had no idea why this was happening. So disappointed

Best spot in the area open late. Wide range of options on the menu. Great guys working there. Very cozy. Do yourself a favor and make this your number one late night option.

have been to the actual location multiple times with many things worth complaining about, first time ordering a pizza for delivery and The pizza came totally messed up all the slices were toppled over each other.

I only gave it a star because I wanted to make sure people didn’t think I just forgot to put some on there. I called here for the first time today to try a new pizza place. There was a coupon for 6 free wings that I must «mention when ordering.» Just to make sure I asked if it was OK that I didn’t have access to a printer and that «mentioning» it was suffice. The guy told me that coupon needs to be printed and refused to allow it. Let me give you some advice. Coupons are meant to draw new customers and keep old ones with something new. I order pizza once a week. That is a lot of business to lose out on because you won’t allow somebody that doesn’t have a printer to use a coupon. Get your priorities straight. Is running a successful business about great customer service and good food? Or is it about the extra $ 5.95 you must be so desperate to get for a six pack of wings? Sorry to say I will never know if your food is actually any good.

We spent last weekend finishing our move from our house in town to a rental house where we’ll be staying for the year it’ll take to renovate our house. The first night at the rental, completely filthy, exhausted, and unable to find anything, we decided to try De Carlucci’s. I’ve been driving by them on my way to work for ages and always wondered about it, and now we’ll be staying just around the corner, so our hopes were high. My husband ordered the Margherita pizza, and I ordered a classic burger served on garlic bread. I requested no tomatoes or ketchup, as I’m allergic to tomatoes, and added fries and cole slaw. We made one last run to our house to pick up a load of stuff and stopped on the way back to pick up our order. Everything looked great! My husband was crazy about his pizza, and we were both crazy about the fries, which somehow seemed to taste great even after they’d gone a bit cold. My husband went for the cole slaw and really liked that, too. My burger was really good, but it was on a regular bun, not garlic bread, as I’d ordered. I was disappointed but, by the time we discovered it, we were just too damned tired to make another trip to correct it, so we let it go. I was also sort of surprised that there was absolutely nothing on the burger. While I did order it without tomatoes or ketchup, I’ve never had a burger that was completely plain. This is where the garlic bread would’ve really helped! But, even completely plain, the burger was still really delicious. This mistake made for kind of an unfortunate introduction to the restaurant, but the food we did get was really good, and I’m sure we’ll give them a try again at some point. But we’ll check the order before we leave the restaurant!

Good thin pizza, not spectacular but good. They seem to always have a 2 for 1 special.

I have been coming to this restaurant for the last two years. Both Charlie and Oscar are amazing people. They always make the food right and on time. Now for the food they make the most amazing chicken parmigiana. The sauce is just right and the chicken portion is huge. Not many places give you huge portions. Their Italian beef is the best I have ever had, they beat hubs and portillos any day. Now their main meal the pizza, is one of the best I have ever had. I’m from jersey so I’m really picky when it comes to my pizza. Their thin crust is one of the best, it’s not too thick and not too thin. You guys really need to try this place out!!!

Their stuffed pizza tastes like vomit. Smells like it too. Worst pizza we ever tasted. Their sauce tastes like they just threw raw tomatoes on a bunch of dough. We could barely taste the veggies and the crust was runny and way too raw. I hope we don’t get sick in the morning and we cannot get the aftertaste of puke out of our mouths! Their tiramisu is just ok, but the bread part is frozen and we felt like we were eating frozen bread. Never gonna go here again!!!

Completely ridiculous
The customer service is atrocious. First the delivery driver called me saying he was outside. I walk outside and he is not there. He then calls me back saying that he can’t find my place. I attempt to give him directions for 10 minutes while he is constantly yelling at me saying he can’t find the place. I live in a corner and told him numerous times which intersection it was. He never made it; when the restaurant called me they at first refused to give me a refund and said they would send anther order with another driver. The first driver was already late and was extremely rude so I wasn’t keen on repeating this experience. If I could give them one star I would. We will see if they actually issue a refund. Avoid at all costs, disappointing, frustrating and terrible customer service.

A WASP walks into a pizzeria and Mexican grill, normally this would be the set-​up for a joke, but my dinner and dinner experience wasn’t funny at all.
I blame the spotty cellular coverage for not being able to consult Unilocal first! This will be my first and only check in here.
June 30^th, 2014, a derecho came through Chicagoland and I was really hungry from stop and go traffic, I wanted something to eat before heading over to Planet Fitness. Previous posters have pointed out there have been a zillion or so other restaurants in this space, I honestly thought this was the restaurant before, not much changes between owners.
I walked in, ordered the spaghetti and meatballs for here, and grabbed a can of Coke, my tab came out to $ 7.57, $ 6 for the dinner and I’m guessing $ 1 for a .50 cent can of Coke?
There were the two guys working here, and myself, USA was on TV, WWF, I’m not a big fan but I’ll watch it for background noise. As I am waiting what seems like an eternity, the TV switches over to Telemundo and some soap opera.
A few minutes later, the other guy, the cook?!? has my order ready for carry out, its raining cats and dogs outside, Pink and purple lightning is dropping out of the sky so much it really reminded me of watching Paul Oakenfold play at the Pure nightclub in Las Vegas. I wanted this for here, no apology from the cook, so I moved to a table and proceeded to start eating there.
Now I would think maybe someone would have noticed the customer eating dinner and might have asked, would you like to watch something else than Telemundo? My Spanish is limited to Cheech and Chong movies and sleeping through a Spanish for Law Enforcement class.
Nope. I was left with Telemundo.
As for my dinner, the spaghetti and meatballs, spaghetti a long, thin, cylindrical pasta, this wasn’t spaghetti, it was mostaccioli and meatballs, two of them, and with just a plastic fork, pretty hard to cut into. The sauce was probably store bought, along with the garlic bread from the Sam’s Club down the road.
All in all, a very unremarkable dinner for the money, and there lies the reason for one star. zero customer service in the restaurant, and not much real bang for the buck.
I think what I pay for a chicken wrap at Chicken Works and Salad Company on Irving Park for about a dollar more, a chicken that is cooked in front of you, all natural ingredients, televisions that aren’t on for the pleasure of the employees, and then compare it to my experience last night at de Carlucci’s Pizzeria, and its not a place I want to patronize in the future.

Really? This place is a ton better than the negative reviews it’s gotten. I only order the pizza so that’s what I’ll comment on. The thin crust is great. Fresh ingredients and fast delivery. What else do you need from a pizza joint? I’ve never been treated badly by their staff and they’ve always been friendly so I don’t get the rude treatment comments. Anyways, it’s a good place. Pizza is better than most in the area. Try it and decide for yourself. I’ve never had a bad experience here. Don’t be a sheep

Idk what all the negative reviews are about — maybe i was a one-​off positive experience lol.
We ordered a super-​thin crust pizza with some veggies… it was surprisingly good! The crust was thin and crispy… we should have gotten a plain cheese thin crust… bcos the veggies made the very center of the pizza (bottom part) more bready and less crispy than the rest of the pizza.
The timing was great… and we ordered on an odd day… it was like 1AM and nothing else was open. So yeah… i thought it was great. A lot better then Domino’s or Pizza Hut… not on par with Jimmy’s or something but still good option for late night munchies.

Ew. Ordered the deluxe gyro sandwich and spaghetti + meatballs and both were not good at all. The gyro meat was obviously frozen not made fresh. The delivery driver forgot our drinks as well. I called the place literally 3 min after getting my order and they told me that they would bring the drink in 15 min tops. 40 minutes later we still didn’t have a drink so we had to call to get the drink credited back to my credit card. Told me it would be 3 – 5 business days for me to get my money back. Bad food + bad service = never ordering from here again !!!

Horrible this place is nasty! I love my pizza. And this place needs to be closed forever!!! La rosa is where you need to go! I got a groupon on here and the owner said he is not taking groupon no more. Really? So why do you it on there? I wonder why they are closed!

This place is not as horrible as the other reviewers imply. I ordered a pizza and cheese sticks to be delivered, they estimated 45 minutes and were at my place in a quick 25 minutes. The food was hot, and tasted pretty good. It is NY style pizza, so if you are expecting a Chicago pizza, then go elsewhere, otherwise I think you’ll enjoy this place.
It isn’t the best pizza ever, of course, but it isn’t bad, it’s actually pretty tasty.

There’s been a gazillion different eateries in this spot so it would be nice to finally have a good one that stays. But I’m not sure this is the one.
The owner is from the east coast and he makes his pizza NY style. So if that’s your thing maybe you should give this place a try. But this is Chicago and I’m just not into that. However my kids do enjoy the pizza here and I admit it is WAYYY better than the McPizza places (Lil Caeser, Jets, etc.).

Got my order wrong and then was RUDE As hell when told that order was wrong. And I quote, «this is Chicago man… Soo what you want me to do??» … My question is… Is it my fault that you got the order wrong? I think I gave you my money so it would be awesome if I can simply have what I asked for… Really easy. Smh… Never again

Not bad! Had a stellar Groupon deal for a 16″ pizza and 2 sodas. Ordered a pepperoni, was ready in 15 minutes. The pizza was thin and crispy, with edge-​to-​edge cheese coverage and just the right amount of sauce and pepperoni. It was a bit salty, but being from the east coast, that’s more of what I equate with NY style anyway.
Service was friendly and fast. We took our pizza to go without seeing the inside, though, and I’m glad we did. It was very dark and oddly decorated, but I get the idea the majority of their business is takeout and/​or folks not there for the ambiance.
We’d go again with a Groupon, coupon or special, but not sure about paying full price. What we had would normally be around $ 22, and I reserve that sort of money for some delicious deep dish in the form of Lou’s or Pequod’s!

I ordered an Italian beef from them and thought it was a decent sandwich, that was pretty well made. The delivery driver mentioned their loyalty club so I signed up, since it didn’t seem like a bad idea, since it was a 20% discount on any order over 20 bucks. A few days later, I ended up ordering the same thing again, times two for an Italian beef brunch with my sister and on top of it got the potato skins, gave my loyalty number and then took my credit card info, but got no total before he hung up.
I don’t know what happened, but the beef wasn’t as good, with not a lot of flavor in the meat of the gravy. The skins were pretty plain, and even with bacon and cheese weren’t very good. I kept my loyalty card because I’m on the fence, but I’m not sure if I’ll be calling them again soon.

Yeaaahhhhhhhh… …NOOOOOOOOOOO!
I’ve been holding off reviewing (de) Carlucci’s because of my first experience with the place. That was only about a week or so after they re-​opened, and it wasn’t a positive experience. But I’m willing to spot that opening a restaurant is a tough business, and it’s possible that with only a week under their belt that they might not have everything buttoned down at that point. I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to going to Carlucci’s again. Since I live nearby I decided that I had to give the neighborhood pizza place a second shake; maybe they’d turned things around in the interim.
Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much. This is not good pizza. A better description would be, «Would you like some pizza with your salt?» This pizza is so ridiculously over salted that your blood pressure goes up just walking in the door. It’s not inedible, but it’s not a particularly enjoyable experience eating it, either.
The décor has also gone far downhill since its days as Caputo’s. It’s bare walls and a (mostly empty) pop refrigerator, that’s it. Go in there during the day, and it’s dead quiet. You’ll be the only person in there, no TV, no radio, just you and the wind from the compressor on the cooler. It also doesn’t smell particularly appetizing walking in. I’m really not sure how they pulled that one off; one normally gets pleasantly blown over walking into a pizza place by the smells of *pizza*. Carlucci’s smells like hospital disinfectant. I guess that’s good because it means they’re cleaning things, but it’s not exactly an appetizing smell, either. No aroma of sauce, no heady smells of dough baking, just… disinfectant. Yuck.
Carlucci’s is also not a particularly good value for your money, either. Restaurants can get by with substandard food if they pile it on, but such is not the case here. I ordered a 16″ *thin* pepperoni, and the total was over $ 17. For $ 3 more down the road you can have the royal badass of deep dish pizzas at Pequod’s. For $ 3 less you can have much better tasting (even though it’s a chain!) Jet’s pizza over on Dempster. And I’d dare say that the Pequod’s has ¼ the salt and 80X the flavor!
So when the taste is struggling to reach «just OK», the pizza is drowning in salt, the place’s aroma isn’t all that pleasant, and it’s overpriced to boot then there really isn’t a single redeeming feature to recommend this place. I guess if you don’t have a car and are within walking distance and are deficient in electrolytes then it’d be passable, but otherwise stay far, far away. It’s just not good.

I love cold pizza — the day after I order it, not the moment the delivery driver hands it to me. I waited 85 minutes for my pizza to be delivered. The delivery driver did apologize, but didn’t offer an explanation. After heating it back up in the oven, the pizza was great: thin, crispy, with just the right balance of sauce, cheese and carefully placed toppings.
If you like a deal (foodler, Unilocal deal, etc.) and don’t mind having to reheat your pizza before enjoying it, this is a good choice.