Pompeii
Sheffield and Wellington, Chicago
Score: 83 in March, 1999
This is a great place to go by yourself or with a small group of people. The concept of "order at the counter, we'll bring it out to you" works pretty good for me. I can't believe they close at 10:00 PM on weekends, though. It seems like it would be a popular late night place, and in fact I've been there at closing time before and watched them turn away lots and lots of potential customers.
Anyway, the food is delicious. Pizza slices that are as good as any pizza in the city, along with pasta dishes, sandwiches, salads, soups, desserts. Besides the pizza, I've tried the pasta and the salads, and can attest to their high quality. They have a good variety of pizza slices, by the way. In fact, there's a good variety of everything on the menu, as long as you're in the mood for Italian or Italian-American.
Service, given the previously mentioned semi-fast food concept, isn't that great, but if you're self-reliant and don't mind taking care of yourself, that isn't a problem. The servers range all the way from friendly and nice down to teenage kids with bad attitudes. There always seem to be a lot of people working there, so its basically fast and efficient. Pleasant and lively inside, not crowded, and in a very desirable location. There are a small number of outdoor tables available in the summertime. The clientele is friendly and generally seems to be having a good time. Parking is never easy around here. This is a lot better than fast-food, and yet it doesn't cost much more and its still fast. Overall, its a great value and highly recommended. I wish there were one of these by my office downtown. A couple of pizza slices and a Coke goes for about $6.00, and there's no tip expected.