I am absolutely flabbergasted that this bistro is rated so high. I pulled in and found that parking was extremely tight but was able to pull into a spot as another left. I saw many people were waiting for seats and was glad that I was doing a to go order. It was a mix of families as well as many college students as its only 100 yards or so from the university.
I walked in through the back door and navigated to the front of the restaurant where I sat at the bar and placed a to go order for a pepperoni Chicago style deep dish pizza, about $19 for a 10". The gal informed me it would take about 45 to 50 minutes so that I could leave and come back or just hang out.
Once I got back, parking was nearly impossible. I had to drive around for a good 15 minutes and parked about 1/4 mile away in another parking lot running in so I wouldnt get towed. Since this is a university area, all parking (even neighborhood), are private or blocked off. Once I went in the gal was just as nice and gave me my pizza which smelled pretty darn good.
Once I got back to my hotel I opened the box and saw the grease laced pizza calling out to me "eat me, eat me!". Oh shit, I was about to make love to this pizza, I thought. I love chicago style pizza and its rare to find a good one outside of Chicago (Tonys Little Italy in Placentia CA is an exception). I grabbed a slice by the base making sure to cradle the back as it began to sink a bit from the weight of this meaty monstrosity. I could feel the warmth as it got close to my lips and wrapped my mouth around it. William H effing Macy was that thing salty. I focused on what was in my mouth and felt some grease leaking out as I hesitantly swallowed it.
Enough with the suggestive descriptions. But I was shocked! This thing was so damn salty I couldnt believe it! I took another bite and again, this was bad. I grabbed the utensils placing the slice down and did some science biting into the bread. The bread was soft but I dont care for bread too much so moved on. The cheese and sauce, a bit salty but not what I had tasted before. It was then that I took a bit of some pepperoni (which there is a lot of) and holy crap I had to close my eyes as it was nearly unbearable. I repeated the process finding the exact same thing.
The pepperoni was overly salty. combined with the sauce and cheese made for combination that could stop hearts. I ended up throwing over half of it away and not even saving it as I had expected too as it was probably the WORST Chicago style deep dish I have ever had. The only saving grace was the service as that was excellent.