Bulldog Ale House Roselle, IL

Bulldog Ale House - http://www.bulldogalehouse.com/roselle-location

This visit was at:
394 Irving park RD. Roselle, IL

Great Pizza Search Overall Rating (5.7)
Pizza Type Size: Large
Crust type: Thin... but not really that thin.
Toppings: Pepperoni, black olive, and onion



In fairness to Bulldog Ale House, this blog is about finding "Great Pizza" and they do not claim to be a pizzeria. Bulldog Ale House is great for craft beer, burgers, fantastic wings, and excellent chips & queso. It's a fun place to hang out with your buddies with a ton of TV's playing various sports events, but it's also an enjoyable place to get together with friends or family. The seating is comfortable and spacious, and even with the music playing you can enjoy it, while still holding a conversation.

As for the pizza... the menu boasts that it's made fresh daily and the dough is made from scratch. While the overall flavor of the pizza was pretty good, the toppings tasted good and the cheese was really stringy, the crust just killed the experience. The crust had way too much uncovered crust on the rim. It was crisp on the very outside rim, but literally soggy in middle six inches of the pizza. If you're not particular about this in a pizza, you would probably enjoy it. Kids would probably enjoy it too. However if you're palate demands a flavorful pizza crust cooked to perfection, crisp throughout but not overcooked, then stick to the burgers and wings when you visit the Bulldog Ale House.

As for our dining experience, this was very unfortunate evening because we like Bulldog and have been there several times. But dirty utensils were the theme for the evening and had to be sent back to the kitchen. One of the napkin wrapped set of utensils even had gum in it, which was pretty gross and is frankly disturbing.

Presentation (Appearance/ Aroma): 5.5
Overall flavor: 5.8
Consistency / Texture: 4.1
Cooked Consistency: 1

Next day reheating of the pizza was really not bad. With a little effort to cover the pizza evenly (less exposed crust) and crisp the center of the pizza, without burning it, pizza from Bulldog would be much better.

May 2012 Pizza Road Trip Recap

This trip took us to the east coast and back, approximately 1,850 miles. We traveled through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. Stopping at three pizzerias our trip revealed some of the best pizza we've had and some of the worst.

At our first stop we visited Barbato's Italian Restaurant located at 7472 New Perry Hwy. in Erie PA. We stopped at this location due to it's location on our route as it's located just off highway 90 to the north. It was late in the evening so only carryout was available, only one person was working and there were no other customers... this was our first red flag, and we began to brace ourselves. We asked what the most popular pizza was on the menu, and the gentleman behind the counter informed us it was the Meat Lovers pizza... Great, we'll have that! After only a couple minutes our eyes got big and worry set in. You see at this location, like many pizza places, you can watch them make and cook the pizza. All the while you're getting hungrier and hungrier as you watch the hot, steamy, yet crisp pizzas come out of the oven. Well in this case, the pizza oven in question was a small tunnel oven. We watched, stunned, as our cook took a frozen cheese pizza out of the freezer, proceeded to put a few toppings on it and set it into the tunnel oven for it's first pass. At this point we started thinking about some of the other fast food restaurants we drove past as we exited the highway.  After the pizza's first pass through the oven, the cook added some more ingredients, namely various types of meat, and set it on the conveyor for another pass through the oven. This pass completed the cooking of our pizza. Hungry after many hours on the road we quickly paid the bill and proceeded to our vehicle, where dinner was to be served. As I am here writing this review, it is obvious we survived. As for the pizza... well, if you like pizza you see at the gas station, that's been sitting in that glass box under heat lamps for who knows how long... you'll be fine. Our preference at this particular exit from highway 90, should have been to hit Subway just down the street instead.

In all fairness, Barbato's has multiple locations, so the locals must like the pizza. I can't imagine the pizza is made this way at all the locations, but for this location... you've been informed...warned.

A few days later our journey brought us to a little town called Manchester in Vermont. Actually, not such a little town for Vermont, Manchester is a busy place, and a real attraction for tourists. There are many wonderful places to shop such as Northshire Bookstore, the world famous Vermont Country Store, or my favorite place, the Orvis Flagship Store. There are many places in Manchester to eat and shop, or just catch a movie like we did, (the Avengers first movie had just come out). As for food we chose a nice looking pizza shop called Christos Pizza & Pasta. With much more than pizza on the menu, the food represents the owners Greek culture, and is a nice place to come for a quick bite or a casual dinner.

Now for the pizza... We ordered a thin crust pizza with our usual favorite toppings, pepperoni, onion, black olives, and tomato. When it comes to pizza, we can be pretty picky, but pizza from Christos, OMG it's wonderful! The crust is like no other. It's very light an crisp and full flavor. What a shame it is that more pizza places don't understand how important a crust filled with flavor is to the overall enjoyment of the pizza. Christos hits the nail smack on the head with their recipe. If you visit Manchester Vermont, you simply MUST stop at Christos for some of their fabulous pizza.

The last pizzeria on our list for this trip was Altieri's Pizza in Stow Ohio.  Altieri's was the winner of Beacon's Best in 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011. It was also featured on Channel 8 Fox in Cleveland. We came into town in the early afternoon anticipating a tasty late lunch, however much to our dismay, they weren't open. We found this a bit odd for an award winning pizza, nonetheless, we were unable to try the pizza... Noting our experience at the beginning of our trip, we headed to Subway.

Serinos Pizzeria and Pub - Roselle, IL

Serinos Pizzeria and Pub - http://serinospizza.com
This visit was at:
468 Lake St Roselle, IL 60172

Great Pizza Search Overall Rating (6.5)
Pizza Type Size: 14"
Crust type: Thin
Toppings: Pepperoni, black olive, onion, and garlic

Our visit to Serinos Pizzeria was with a Groupon, $15 for $30 of food. This is a nice place to get together with friends or family. They had Baseball and Nascar to watch for entertainment and it was just a good comfortable setting. Nothing fancy but there was also a small alfresco dining area as well. With a few flowering plants, this would have been much nicer.

The pizza was okay, not bad, but certainly not great. The flavor/sauce was mild not zesty mouthwatering. The cheese was nice and stringy but pretty greasy and the other toppings didn’t stand out very well. Actually it was hard to tell that there was pepperoni on the pizza. All the ingredients kind of melded into one flavor… Again, not bad… average, and a bunch of kids in for a party would love it.

Presentation (Appearance/ Aroma): 6.5
Overall flavor: 5
Consistency / Texture: 5.9
Cooked Consistency: 7
 - A bit under cooked

Road Trip - May 2012

Sometimes the search for great pizza takes you on the road. This month, the Great Pizza Search will be visiting three pizzerias from Erie, PA to Manchester, VT to Stow, OH.

First we'll visit Barbato's Italian Restauranut - www.barbatos.com
Second we'll visit Christos Pizza & Pasta - www.christospizzaandpasta.com
Lastly we'll visit Altieri's Pizza - www.altierispizza.com

As usual our review will include presentation, Overall Flavor, Consistency / Texture, Cooked Consistency, as well as service and ambiance.

We'd like to give a special thank you to our sponsors for making this trip possible.

American Industrial Werks - (Food & Beverage) Machinery and equipment moving, rigging, and installation services.

Blooming Rails (Garden Nanny) - Alfresco dining area design, installation, and maintenance.

Tre Amici Pizza - Elk Grove Village, IL

Tre Amici Pizza - http://www.treamicipizza.com
This visit was at:
1536 Nerge Road, Elk Grove Village, IL

Great Pizza Search
Overall Rating (Pending…but really good)

A couple weeks ago we visited Tre Amici Pizza in Elk Grove, which used to be Taylor Street Pizza. Now we loved Taylor Street Pizza at this location, so Tre Amici Pizza had their work cut out for them. To top it off we ordered carry out.

We have no rating as of yet because it’s been decided, as with White Cottage Pizza, carry out does not give a fair and accurate representation… and this night we were going to experiment. So, living dangerously, we decided to try something different than our usual ingredients which are:

Thin crust, all Black Olive, all pepperoni and ½ onion…sometimes ½ tomatoes on the onion side.

Instead the ingredients we chose were thin garlic crust, peperoni, bacon, onion, and garlic. The results of this combination… very good. Even being carry out, the crust was crisp and delicious and the ingredients were spread evenly so there weren’t areas of un-topped crust. We were thinking that it might have been a bit light on the bacon, but further consensus was that this might have made the pizza too salty. The only thing that everyone noted was that the cheese, while good, wasn’t stringy and stretchy. It just seemed like it needed more cheese.

Now, since we enjoyed this pizza so much, and were perplexed by the cheese, we decided that the following week we would place the same order, as carry out, but with extra cheese. That order has now taken place and to our surprise, the pizza was not nearly as good. The extra cheese was a flaw in what we thought was a perfect plan. We got our stringy and stretchy factor, but the flavor of the cheese overpowered the other ingredients which made this combination so delightful.

Phase III. We’ve decided to take one more stab at this pizza with the original order, however this time we’ll have it fresh out of the oven at Tre Amici Pizza.

To be continued…

Crave Pizza - Mount Prospect, IL

Great Pizza Search
Overall Rating (5.5 out of 10)

Crave Pizza - http://cravepizzanow.com
This visit was at:
106 W. Northwest Highway Mount Prospect, IL

Pizza Type
Size: 12"
Crust type: Thin
Toppings: Pepperoni, black olive, onion, and tomato

Our visit was inspired by a Groupon ad we visited Crave Pizza. This is a nice place to relax with comfortable enjoyable sitting area. While not reviewed at this visit, the deep dish looked delicious. We will have to go back and try that sometime.

Presentation: 5
A fair amount of the pizza was not evenly covered.

Overall flavor: 6
Consistency / Texture: 6
Okay pizza, not great.

Cooked Consistency: 4
The crust was a bit under cooked.

Second Day Flavor
Cold pizza flavor: 5
It was okay by not something I'd crave.

Sides
Wings: The wings are okay. They were fried with no bread or seasoning then covered with different sauces. The meat was moist and tender.
Onion rings: Everyday run of the mill onion rings.

The Garlic Shrimp pizza - Delicious (8 out of 10)
Presentation: 8
Pretty good coverage and looked great to eat.

Overall flavor: 10
Consistency / Texture: 10
Excellent... bursting with flavor. Lots of garlic!

Cooked Consistency: 7
A little under cooked in the center.

Second Day Flavor
Cold pizza flavor: 2
Definitely not good as cold pizza. Heat it up with a pizza stone.

White Cottage Pizza - Italian Beef Special

Great Pizza Search
Overall Rating (7.8 out of 10)

White Cottage Pizza - http://www.whitecottagepizzas.com
This visit was at:
350 N. Wood Dale Rd, Wood Dale, IL 60191

Other locations:
280 S Randall Rd, Elgin, IL
596 Kuhn Road, Carol Stream, IL

Pizza Type
Size: 12"
Crust type: Thin
Toppings: Italian Beef Special - Carry-out

Presentation
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 8

Flavor
Crust flavor: 7
Cheese flavor: 8
Sauce flavor: 8
Other toppings: NA
Overall flavor: 8

Consistency / Texture
Crust crispiness: 4
Cheese coverage: 8
Cheese consistency: (Spongy/rubbery) 5
Sauce coverage: 8
Sauce Consistency: 8
Amount of other ingredients: 10
Ingredients even coverage/balance: 10
Other Ingredients Consistency: (tender but crisp) 10

Cooked Consistency: (Cooked evenly) 8
Reheated - Pizza stone: 8