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| - This restaurant has definitely gotten better since the last time I reviewed it!!! If you want pizza in a sit-down restaurant, this is definitely a great place to go. Heck, I think it's probably one of the best restaurants in the whole downtown Champaign area. Everything on the menu is authentic.... they use 00 Caputo flour which is the best kind to use for pizza. Everything is as if you'd find it in Italy --- the gelato is shipped in from Italy (via Chicago twice a week)... the olive oils they use are shipped in and even the tomatoes are San Marzano's!!! The owner is super friendly and is great with the kids. Rather than the traditional crayons and coloring pages, he gives them little balls of dough to occupy them while the pizzas are cooked (and they've greatly improved on this area --- we had our pizzas within 8 minutes of ordering!!!). Once the kids were done creating -- he cooked them!!!!! That was the icing on the cake.... my kids' faces lit up when he brought them their handmade dough creations!! Even after inhaling their pizza (my 5yr old ate 4 slices in a matter of minutes), he was eating his bread!!! And my 3yr old even inhaled 2 slices and still ate her bread!!! Awesome. As for us, my hubby and I ordered an Italian salad which was so flavorful --- the lettuce was great, the peppers were great and so were the tomatoes!!! The dressing only enhanced everything else!! YES! We also ordered the Cantalupo (?) --- it was tomato sauce, mozzarella, hot italian sausage and spicy olive oil --- it was fantastic!!! The crust and toppings came together beautifully!!! And they even opened up a gelato bar --- which was heaven in frozen-form. My son got the raspberry gelato which was so bright and fresh! The chocolate gelato was my favorite by far!!! My husband loved his salted caramel --- I thought that was too rich, but my husband said that there is no such thing as too much caramel.
And for those who are complaining that they don't do carry-out.....you need to eat this type of pizza right out of the oven for optimal taste amd quality. Eat a few slices here and take the rest home - you'll agree it won't taste the same as it did right out of the oven. If you want pizza in a box, there's Papa John's or Little Caesars.....if you want great pizza in a box, find Dragon Fire. So there you have it folks --- amazing, authentic pizza in a sit-down restaurant....in Champaign!?!! Who would've thought??
We spoke with the owner as we were about to leave and he told us that he's competing in Las Vegas at the World Pizza Championships (!!!!) with their signature pizza (the Pistachio -- I'll have to try that next time!!) -- going up against Mario Batali and all the NYC pizzerias and other top places from around the country..... I'll be rooting for Pizzeria Antica!!!!
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