Old Chicago

Get food… just huge plates! Whould not be a good place to take a picky kid. Mostly for adults there is a pool table and a bar

Hosted a surprise birthday party for my parents at Old Chicago and it went off without a hitch. Cassie was wonderful in communication during the whole process of planning the event and was great at organizing it when we got there. Isa, our waitress, was amazing!!! She was very attentive to all of my guests and always made sure to check in with me to see if we needed anything. The food was awesome at usual and I would recommend anyone itching for a pizza or needing to have an intimate party to check this place out. They were fantastic!

We wanted to give 3.5 stars, so are erring on the lower end of that rating. We went here for dinner with three of Mike’s close friends from high school and their spouses and we had a really great time. We all shared the mango wings and jalapeño pretzel as an appetizer, and got different entrees. I had the pesto Mac and cheese, which was pretty tasty. Mike, his best friend, and the best friend’s wife shared a Chicago-​style pizza that was also pretty good. We were initially seated in a booth that wasn’t large enough for our party and also wasn’t convenient for our nursing mother in the group, but the seating host was very upbeat and accommodating and helped us find a larger table while we were mid-​dinner, which we greatly appreciated. For dessert, we shared one of the big chocolate chip cookies a la mode, which was outstanding! Definitely the best part of the meal. The waitress also split our checks at the end and let us all use the Unilocal check-​in deal without any complaints or hesitations. We would’ve given Old Chicago 4 stars for the kind staff and decent food, but docked it 0.5−1 stars because Mike ordered an Old Fashioned, which tasted like watered down whiskey with muddled cherries and oranges. The mark of a good bartender and a bar is how they make their old fashioned and it should include simple syrup, the whiskey should be apparent, not diluted, and there shouldn’t be any fruit, only the oil spritz from an orange peel.

We have made the mistake of eating here twice. The atmosphere and service were great — but the food left us feeling awful. We love Chicago style pizza. But this place leaves much to be desired. If you like pizza with a side of stomach ache — go here.

I’ve been coming to Old Chicago for several years now. I’ve had very few bad experiences, and the time it was bad, it was forgivable.
Upon entry you are greeted by a pleasant hostess (or manager), and presented with a choice of either dining or bar. Bar side is seat yourself, while dining is seat allocated.
A brief history of how, and why, I changed from dining to bar: usually, my family and I would sit on dining. However, most of the better servers would be on bar side. Some would be on dining, but not often. I’ve come here and watched many «graduate» from dining to bar, and here’s why. Typically, we use a table, due to our daughter using a wheelchair, or a booth in the back. It can be loud at times because of a college game, or other sports. They’re pretty accommodating. It’s a far more enjoyable experience on the bar side.
NOTE: The staff is tentative to special needs, and will work with you. They have a banquet room, if you needed to have a quiet place to go. They have booster seats, will remove chairs and adjust the seating to your needs. This has been consistent with our many outings here.
Most of the «newbies», or those in training, are placed on dining. They may get your order and/​or drink wrong. It happens. No one is perfect. The «veteran» servers are placed on the bar side. They’re the ones that tend to the regulars, get your order and/​or drinks right, etc. You can request a specific server, which we have at times. The managers are always present and pleasant; and they will work to get your order right if there’s a problem.
The establishment is tavern style, with alcohol paraphernalia, and the infamous «Hall of Foam» wall and plaques.
Lunch specials run 11 am to 3 pm. You can order from the menu, or use their Rush Street special (which is great if you’re short on time, and good value).
Dinner is good, selection-​wise. The menu has changed quite a bit over the years, including the pizza menu. Typically, I create pizza recipes that are unusual. Involving no sauce, or mixing sauces, then going nuts on toppings. Currently, they offer a ale crust which is excellent. It’s light, crispy, and foldable. Similar to NY-​style but not quiet there. The thick crust is not Chicago style, it’s just a thick crust –savory, flavorful. Alternatively, there is a thin crust; which is crispy and light. The ale crust is great for those who do not like chewy /​tough crust. It’s also CP kid tested, and approved (my family anyways).
The new boneless wings are pretty good. I prefer to pair them with a hefeweizen (Hacker-​Pschorr, or other light ale), and blue cheese. They still have a nice selection of traditional wings: buffalo, firehouse, etc. as well as dry rub wings.
Sandwiches are the typical sort, with some twists on classics. There are also calzones to enjoy. I recommend the craft beer burger, with extra sautéed onions; cooked to your liking.
The beer selection is pretty vast, albeit, not as many imports they used to have before corporate made them downsize the beer list. On tap is the usual domestic brews, and a few imports, while putting Michigan craft beers on tap as well. They also have a rotating list for both bottle and tap.
To recap, tl;dr… the atmosphere is great, the staff is great, the good is pretty great. If you’ve had a prior bad experience, try out the bar side, and inform a manager. Throw some credits in the jukebox, and enjoy yourself/​company.
If you find yourself coming back, join the OC Rewards program — it’s free.

The wait staff was friendly, the wait time for the food was too long for how busy it was, the food that we ordered was not worth the value we paid for it it was basically a turkey sandwich that i could had made myself

I have no clue why most of the other reviews are so bad. Friends asked us to meet them here for lunch on Game Day… after reading the reviews, I really didn’t want to go… but I am happy we did.
Our table ordered the following:
Italian Pizza with extra meat… Chicago Fire Calzone… and a personal veggie pizza. We ALL loved the food. It came out quick and piping HOT. Our server was Jenny and she was great… she checked on us very often… asked if we wanted desert and then brought To-​go boxes without us even having to ask. We stayed almost over an hour visiting even after we paid, yet she continued to be attentive.
All in all… very good experience.

Sit in the bar area for great service and specials! Happy hour goes til 6 Mon-​Thurs, and we hit it up often. Great $ 5 meals like nachos or soft pretzels. And the beer selection is great. The food always come out fast and the waiters are very nice.

Below average food and service. Old chicago may be named. 5his as the food is multiple day old food from chicago. Unimpressive and marginal at best.

Recently went back to Old Shitcago after forgetting how horrible it was two years ago, the last time I went. Old Shitcago should not be in business. The fact that they ARE is a modern miracle.
They are nothing more than an exercise in ripping people off. For example, the five dollar Mediterranean salad claims to come with all sorts of wonderful ingredients, but it’s nothing more than a giant bed of crappy iceberg lettuce with a very MINOR dusting of said ingredients. The unripe pink tomatoes are diced so finally you can barely see them. There are at most a half a dozen tiny little black olive slices. Anything they can do to rip you off by putting mostly the cheapest ingredients, and as few of the expensive ones that they can get away with.
The «meatball» in the spaghetti was 99% bread. I’m not joking. The crappy personal pan pizza was dripping with grease, and the dough had the consistency of a wet rawhide. The pepperoni was good, but only because they couldn’t figure out a way to make it from some animal other than pig. Oh wait, maybe they did and I just don’t want to know.
The artichoke dip is nothing more than whipped cream cheese with two or three tiny pieces of artichoke placed on top. The vegetables that came with the artichoke dip had the sogginess of a breadstick dipped in warm bath water.
This place is the restaurant equivalent of a credit card company: some New York bean counter sits in a dimly lit office figuring out everything they CAN to rip you off. I will NEVER go to this crap restaurant EVER again. At least not for two years when I forget that I already wrote this.

I had a great time with my co-​workers when I was there on business, but I am not a fan of the food. I had the spaghetti pie, and it was very bland. The staff was very friendly though.

Very disappointed. The first time I went ordered lasagna, it was literally frozen in the middle (yes they warm up frozen entres), asked them to warm it, they didn’t apologize or try to make it right. Went again to meet up with friends, the pizza was very bland. Great location though.

Just ordered and received a Chicago style pizza with ricotta and meatballs. I’ve had better pizza from the frozen section of a speedway.

I like this place!
The beer is great — wide variety, different options for the microbrew and macrobrew fans, solid prices overall.
The atmosphere is inviting and it can get pretty busy on a Friday or Saturday evening, so prepare to wait a little while. It feels like you’re in a pizza place inside, and not a steakhouse or something akin to it.
I’ve had the pizza here and it’s pretty good. Not the greatest by far, but it is tasty and better than pizza I have had at other places. The salads are good, too, and so is their pasta. I got chicken fettucine alfredo, a personal favorite of mine, and it was above average. That was satisfying.
The prices are pretty standard for what you see at restaurants nowadays. The service is on point and the presentation is clean. It can get loud around dinner time, but it’s not annoyingly loud. It’s a good spot to drink some brews and hang out with good pals.

We needed to get out for a casual meal Friday 11÷15÷13 and chose Old Chicago… not bad!
A brief wait then we were seated. The place was busy and had a good energy level.
The drinks we good (Strawberry Mojito and Rasberry Marguerita)
Apps were fried pickles and mozzarella sticks.good.
Pizza was my custom choice with thick crust/​canadian bacon and pepperoni. it was good. Chicken Caesar also good.
Everything was presented well and while not extraordinary it was just what we needed. casual, good, afforable.
What I do want to praise is the particularly good service we received. from the hosts but especially Mia our server… she was really above and beyond and took wonderful care of us… she was just great.
We will be back.

They have great beer, the pizza sauce is not good. I have no respect for a place that doesn’t even pump warm water to the bathrooms for patrons to wash their hands.

Right when we came in they informed us that we still had 10 minutes to order from the regular menu if we wanted so it was nice that they allowed us the option rather than forcing us to use the late night menu. The service was prompt and definitely courteous. Our waiter actually seemed to enjoy his job and that made it that much nice for us which alot of servers seems to lack. He also made sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed without constantly hovering. the food was damn good and i will gladly return in the future.
We had a chicken spinach something pizza which was great as long as you enjoy sundried tomatoes. it also had some cherry tomatoes on top that either those or the spinach was marinated in some type of vinagrette and just made it pop with flavor. it was great. i had the chicago 7 calzone which was great. and we also tried the fried mac an cheese. perfect amount there to not fill you up but still a good portion for two to share and they were just damn good.
check it out, Unilocal it up

We came here hoping for a surprise find.
The service was excellent, and the price was not outrageous.
However, this is not Chicago-​style pizza… that is hypocrisy.
It seemed prefabricated.
Andy M.‘s review of the pizza is spot on.

Went there for a few beers and authentic Chicago pizza. I was 1 for 2. The draft beer selection was great, but the pizza was nothing close to Chicago style. This is pizza based on something that visually it looks like Chicago style. In reality the dough is thick and dry, not buttery. There was little sauce and the cheese was average. Think Red Barron.
The atmosphere was just ok, a bit strange but the bar area was much better than the dinning room. My bar tender was working the day shift on a Saturday afternoon and made it clear to a few of us at the bar that she couldn’t wait to get off work at 4 and she doesn’t understand why she doesn’t get scheduled to work at night. But hey welcome!

There really isn’t that interesting a story to how I ended up in Chicago (or how I ended up back in East Lansing, that was for my younger brother’s graduation from Michigan State Law). It’s pretty much the way that most people from the Detroit area end up there. I went to Michigan State and was convinced by dozens (of the thousands) of Chicago area kids who went there that Chicago was the promised land. A mecca of jobs, single women, and excitement.
So I’m sure there are many people in East Lansing who would be homesick for Chicago after spreading its gospel so much. A place that served real Chicago style pizza would go over like gangbusters. This, however, is not that place. It is good pizza but it’s just a really thick butter crusted (and tasty) Detroit style. The sauce, for goodness sakes, is still under the cheese.
They would not stand for this pizza in real old Chicago.
On the plus side, they do have a beer menu that would rival an actual Chicago beer snob bar. For a national chain, having 110 different beers is quite impressive. And they have more craft beers and imports than a college campus should really be able to appreciate. Though the #1 beer on the Beer World Tour of this chain is, not surprisingly, Budweiser.
While not exactly upscale, it definitely seems to serve its purpose well. It’s slightly more family and large group oriented than a bar or restaurant in East Lansing proper. And even though it’s a chain, it has enough personality at this location to stand alone.
And personality is good. Apparently there’s one of these in Elk Grove Village, Illinois just outside the Chicago city limits. I don’t know how that one stays in business claiming to serve Chicago style pizza and serving what it does. Then again, like I said, how the thousands of Chicago based Michigan State students don’t burn this one to the ground (well, they don’t riot as much as they did when I was there) for false advertising is also beyond me.