We were in Chicago recently visiting a friend for a week, and we made it our mission to try as many Chicago style deep dish pizza restaurants as we could! And we found out there’s more than just deep dish, like tavern style.
Well, as you may have guessed, Chicago deep dish pizza is very filling. Truthfully, we only got to three pizzerias. One was Moretti’s Chicago.
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Moretti’s Restaurante & Pizzeria
On our last day, we found Moretti’s near our airport hotel, located at 9519 W Higgins Rd, Rosemont, IL 60018. According to their website, they have the best thin crust and deep dish pizza in Chicago. If I had a pizzeria in Chicago, I’d probably say the same thing on my website.
As of this writing, it looks like they have 12 locations around the Chicago area. Another thing – we went on a Monday, but they have a deal on Tuesdays where it appears all pizzas are half price. Soooo, maybe you should probably go on a Tuesday your first time?
Owner Mark Hoffmann was quoted as saying, “Moretti’s is our family business, and we go above and beyond to deliver an energetic, high quality dining experience not only in our restaurant but for takeout, delivery to local homes and businesses, catering and private events in our restaurant. Let our family serve yours!”
The inside was reminiscent of an old sports bar with hightop tables throughout, a patio seating area, and TVs everywhere. The TVs weren’t specifically showing sports, though, and each screen seemed to be showing something different, which was nice for a change. We even spotted one showing cat videos! Nice touch.
Moretti’s Chicago Menu
The menu had so much more than just pizza. We could’ve assumed, but when our hearts were set on a Moretti’s Chicago pizza pie, it was hard to even consider trying something else on the menu. For your information, they had appetizers, sandwiches, soups, and salads – all the staples of a non-pizzeria. And a very extensive adult beverage selection.
Here’s a glimpse of their standard Pizza section of the menu:
Notice they don’t just have deep dish, they also offer thin crust, stuffed cheese crust, and gluten free choices, as well, which are definitely far from Chicago’s signature style. If we were ever to come back we’d probably try one of those other options. But not today! Our mission was clear and focused.
We were also tempted with the flight of dipping sauces, but we thought that might dilute the original flavors we were looking for.
Moretti’s Appetizers
Our waitress informed us that the pizza was going to take around 35-45 minutes to prepare and bake so since we were hungry, we started considering a lite appetizer to whet our appetites. We were used to this from our experience with other Chicago style pizza places.
After a long debate, which I’m sure the waitress didn’t care for, she finally convinced us to try the Spinach and Artichoke dip with tortilla chips.
And we’re glad we did!
We absolutely devoured these chips in this dip as we were waiting for our pizza. It was astoundingly delicious and we both agreed it might be one of the better spinach dips we had ever eaten. If only this was a chips & dip review, we’d highly recommend this appetizer for anyone going to Moretti’s.
The only downside to it, was that the dish did not include too many chips. We quickly ran out and were left with a lot of leftover dip. If we weren’t traveling, we would’ve totally brought it home with us. But alas.
Moretti’s Pesto Pizza
After an equally long debate, we settled on the Moretti’s Chicago 10 inch deep dish specialty pizza called Pepperoni and Hot Honey. We had narrowed it down to either this one or the Classic. Since we had two other classic Chicago styles, we opted against another.
When the pie first arrived, we noticed a green tint to it and asked the waitress about it.
She actually didn’t know either, so went and asked someone who’d probably worked there longer.
Much to our chagrin, she returned and told us it was pesto. Our beloved Moretti’s Chicago style deep dish pizza had a pesto sauce base instead of the classic red tomato sauce. Oops.
Have you ever had pesto on pizza before? We hadn’t. Good thing we like adventure! And maybe we should write a future blog post about how to make homemade pesto pizza.
Anyways, we started scarfing down our pizza. The cheese and the pepperonis were incredible, and the hints of hot honey made the bites spicy enough to still enjoy. We didn’t need to add any red pepper flakes as they had already been added.
In our opinions, the sauce was not too great. And we normally love pesto! We’ve been to Genoa, we love everything basil-related. We love penne pasta with pesto. But using pesto as your pizza sauce base? We are not fans.
Looking back at the menu section above, we should’ve built our own with the classic sauce.
Our Moretti’s Review
This was not the best Chicago style pizza we’ve ever had. The appetizer was delicious, though! Sadly, our chosen pizza had a pesto sauce base, so we didn’t get the classic thick tomato flavor we were expecting.
We admit it was our own fault, though, because we went off a tomato icon next to the menu item and didn’t read the description clearly where the first word said pesto. On another page of the menu, we learned the tomato icon just means that it’s a fan favorite. Whatever that means.
Here’s another part of the menu:
We assume someone from Moretti’s Chicago will read this: please change the tomato icon to something else like an “M” or your logo. And please add the word ‘pesto’ to the title of this particular specialty pizza.
Pros:
Great service, great atmosphere, delicious appetizer
Cons
Not enough chips with dip, menu was confusing about specialty pizza’s “sauce”
So if one of our readers end up giving Moretti’s a try, we recommend just going with the Classic!
And by the way, if any of you have any fun or unique pizzerias that you’d like us to review on any of our travels, please contact us and let us know! Don’t let our Moretti’s Pizza Review deter you from honest yet generous reviews of other places.
We’re going somewhere new at least a few times a year and are always looking for tasty treats on our journeys. Thanks! We recently stopped by Big Lou’s in San Antonio, TX.
