Old Chicago

Old Chicago

1111 Harney St.

Omaha, NE 68102

Average Score: 6,519/10,000

Old Chicago

Overview

Boring Sauce, Boring Crust, Boring Pizza All Around, Nice Outdoor Seating, Messed Up Order Only Slightly Redeemed by Free Boring Soup and Don Henley Hit on the Stereo.

Score 1: 6,804/10,000

Score 2: 6,234/10,000

Average: 6,519/10,000

Old Chicago overview

The Old Chicago experience starts promisingly but takes a turn for the mediocre. A $6.99 lunch special includes an 8.5″ pizza and choice of salad. Turns out, though, that the pizza is pretty bland.
Order–>pizza on table time: 19 minutes
pizza cost is $.097 per square inch

CRUST
OC offers thick and thin options for their crust, though to me they look to be about the same. Maybe the “thick” crust is soft. The thin crust is crunchy but tastes like my hand. Bland.

SAUCE
Booooooring. I’m trying to decide what the sauce tastes like. Oh, that’s it: nothing.

CHEESE
While they don’t have romano on the menu, there are several cheese options in addition to mozzarella: provolone, monterey jack, etc. I stick to mozzarella and it’s fine. Not too greasy or cheap-tasting.

TOPPINGS
The menu lists lots of varied ingredients, including yellow peppers, red peppers, andouille sausage, meatballs and broccoli. Also, fresh basil, which I order and can’t locate on my pizza. Wait, is this dry patch of green sprinkles a stand-in? Certainly not fresh though. They charge me for fresh basil but unless it’s microscopic, there’s no basil on my pizza.

SIZE/PRICE
An 8.5″ diameter mini pizza yields 56.75 square inches of pizza. The lunch special, which includes a two-topping mini pizza and choice of salad (house salad or Caesar) or soup is $6.99 (plus $.49 for each extra topping, which you may or may not get). That’s a good deal, and if we figure the salad is worth $1.49, that’d be $5.50 for 56.75 square inches of two-topping pizza, $.097 per square inch. A bargain!

OTHER STUFF
They serve salads other than anemic-looking iceberg lettuce chunks, and that’s a plus. Yes, they have Dr. Pepper! Not much to get psyched about in the shit-to-shake department. In fact, sitting outside, the parmesan and red pepper flakes are in packets. Despite being staffed by able-bodied youngsters, the hottie quotient is nil.

SERVICE
Service is okay. Our server is friendly and efficient, though refills are a little slow to come. We order at 1:23, and our salads arrive at 1:30. Pizzas are delivered at 1:42, 19 minutes after we order. When they biff part of our order, the manager guy comes out and makes an awkward apology and offers a free bowl of soup. Okay, please go back to folding napkins and looking at waitress butts now. Go ahead, no, it’s fine. Yeah, okay, we’ll take the soup. No big deal, it’s fine. The correct pizza comes at 1:57.

AMBIENCE
Baseball bat door handles are cool. Outdoor seating is nice at the end of August. We hear Don Henley over their speakers but most everything else is in good taste.

Soup and Salads

Pineapple and Black Olive Mess

Old Chicago

Science