Pizz'a Chicago

155 E San Carlos St.

Food: :-)
Atmosphere: :-)
Price: $$ ($12-15 with salad and drink)

If I was hanging out with prohibition-era Chicago gangsters toting automatic gatlin machine guns, I'd probably order some pizza from Pizz'a Chicago. It's the best Chi-town pizza you can get in San Jose.

Now with that said, I'm not much of a Chi-town pizza guy. In fact, I shouldn't be writing a review about a Chicago style pizza joint at all. My friends know I love NY style pizza so much that this review is going to wind up being biased.

But let me tell you, this comfortable booth-style pizza joint has a lot going for it. It has so much Chicago themed nick-naks that I've often wondered if they may have stripped Chicago dry of all that holds dear, including perhaps most of its street signs.

Normally I shy away from personal sized pizza. There is a certain ecomomy of scale between the crust/cheese ratio that gets all messed up in a personal sized pizza. There is still of this going on with Chicago, but they attempt to keep that crust thick enough to hold on to, but thin enough were it doesn't make the rest of the pie look a cheese/sauce oasis in the middle of the crust desert.

I've only hit this place at lunch and normally I order their salad, a simple and fresh device topped with simple oil/vinegar. Works well for lunch paired with a spaghetti and meatballs, or perhaps a personal pizza, or a turkey sub.