Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co.

Ken and I went to Chicago a couple weeks ago for my friend’s wedding, to meet each others’ friends, and to spend time with his sister and her family. Our flight was delayed a bit on Friday night and we ended up arriving around 9pm (originally, I made reservations at L2O but cancelled them so I could meet Ken’s friends at one of Ken’s favorite restaurants, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co., which was actually a good move since we would’ve missed our 8:30 reservation). We checked into our hotel room and literally dropped off our bags before we were hailing a cab to head to the restaurant:

We started off with the Mediterranean bread that is covered with Parmesan, black pepper, and spices:

You dip the bread in more of the topping and it has a similar texture to a soft pita. Along with the Mediterranean bread, we also ordered a gigantic salad:

The salad comes with two dressings that are actually supposed to be paired together (one is sour cream garlic and the other is a very tangy sweet and sour poppyseed).

Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. specializes in pizza pot pie – a personal-sized “pizza” that has the sauce and toppings placed in a bowl and covered then baked with the crust covering the bowl. The sauce options are basic – tomato sauce (with sausage or without), mushrooms, you can order more sausage if you want, and it’s covered with either a whole wheat crust or a white crust. I ordered the whole wheat with sausage tomato sauce mushroom, and more sausage (obviously):

They bring the bowls to your table and actually remove the crusts tableside as well:

Ken really hyped up the pizza and said it was the best pizza EVER. I thought the sauce and cheese were good but the crust was definitely too flaky for my tastes. I told Ken that the next time we return to Chicago, we’re going to a pizza place that I like (Pequod’s)…luckily, I had a great time meeting his friends and we played a very intense game of Apples to Apples after dinner (I won a game!)