| Deep dish pizza, swank bar, tasty ingredients equals popular restaurant |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1020
Reviewed: 5/28/2006
Rating: 8.5
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I've been waiting a long time to visit Little Star Pizza. I had heard so much about their famed deep dish pizza, eccentric jukebox, and claims of dethroning Zachary's. With bold statements, I had high expectations and traveling with a group of hungry people. I was showing my cousins and brother around the city and even talked up this pizza place a bit. Little Star isn't open during the afternoon so we headed out for an early 5PM dinner. I was surprised to see we weren't the only folks in line. There must have been 20 people walking through the door at opening??? Is it that good?
Exterior of the restaurant is painted matte black and probably wouldn't know it was a restaurant if it wasn't for the small menu on the window. Inside is a different story, pretty swanky for a pizza joint. Cool artwork on the walls, nice tables, and ambient lighting. We were the 2nd to be seated so I immediately wanted to order since the deep dishes take 25 minutes to make. We ordered spicy chicken wings ($8), large deep dish Classic ($21), and large Pesto Chicken ($21).
With people constantly flowing through the front door, the restaurant was starting to fill up. Noise level wasn't bad but wondering where the music was. I'm a huge fan of indie/alternative stuff and same goes with my brother. My brother played a couple of songs but where's the volume? I was the 2nd table to the right of the jukebox and could not hear any songs. WEAK. What a waste of coinage and my brother says the selection was just sub-par. I won't comment too much on the selection since I'm the loser that didn't even look.
The spicy chicken wings were the 1st to arrive (see picture #4). I'm so used to buffalo wings I kept wondering where the the sauce was. These wings are nothing special. They are baked wings with some seasonings but rate the spiciness on a less than mild heatness. It doesn't mean I didn't like them, I had 4 or so pieces. I think the next time I visit, I'd rather order the Mixed Salads or Garlic Bread that everyone else was ordering.
Pesto Chicken arrived shortly after the chicken wings. Check out pictures #5, 6, 7, and 8.
crust - awesome, thin crust, cracks in some areas when folded. dough fully cooked, had beautiful heat bubbles in the crust. It was a sight to see. I had no idea Little Star Pizza can produce a fine thin crust.
cheese - stringy and plenty to go around. You can see the stringiness in picture #8. I kept pulling and this endless white string of cheese just wouldn't stop.
chicken - white breast meat, had little flavor and on the bland side, i had to toss some parmesan cheese to flavor it a bit.
sauce - pesto, not as oily as I've had at other pizza houses, very mild, I thought it could have used more salt.
The Pesto Chicken was tasty and would order again. I had 1 slice and paced myself for their deep dish specialty.
Ahhh...the classic is finally here. The classic deep dish contains; crust followed by toppings of mushrooms, sausage, bell peppers, and finally topped off with chunky tomato sauce.
crust - it appears to be of a corn meal mixture, firm and passed my deep dish test (take a slice and hold it horizontally, it shouldn't flop over), it looked like a 2 inch high pie. It was a wonderful glog of goodness. For a crust this thick, there was little oil on the bottom. Other deep houses are drowning in oil/butter but not at Little Star.
cheese - there was cheese in there just not as much as the pesto pizza. cheese wasn't a dominant flavor. probably could have used more.
toppings - onions were sweet, bell peppers were there but barely tasted any, sausage was good but could have used a lot more. other than that, everything tasted fresh.
sauce - chunky tomatoes, tangy and sweet with just the right amount of herbs.
Overall I thought the meal was great stuff. Our waitress was perfect and could not ask for anything more. My only real complaint is the lack of credit cards or atm payments. You have to bring cash and with my bill totalling 90 some dollars, I had to borrow some money from my cousins for a meal I was buying. They do have a atm machine inside. Other than that, Little Star Pizza was a hit with the family but with high expectations I think the consensus was 7-8 range with mine being an 8.5.
Here's my deeper dish rankings.
Crust - Zachary's, Patxi's, Little Star Pizza
Sauce - Patxi's, Little Star Pizza, Zachary's
Cheese - Zachary's, Patxi's, Little Star Pizza
Toppings - Zachary's, Patxi's, Little Star Pizza
Decor - Little Star Pizza, Patxi's, Zachary's
Service - Little Star Pizza, Patxi's, Zachary's
Parking - Patxi's, Little Star Pizza, Zachary's
Overall - Zachary's, Patxi's (Palo Alto) just edging out Little Star Pizza
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