www.monicalspizza.com
Intro
While I started this blog with full intention of visiting only local, independent pizza joints, I'm easily swayed by my kids (one of the reasons I'm doing this blog in the first place).
Sophia suggested Monical's, a pizza place based in Bradley, Illinois, with 60ish locations in Illinois and Indiana (and one in Wisconsin). According to my in-depth interweb research, all 13 Indiana locations are franchisee operations.
Of course, Sophia suggested the restaurant and then didn't join us because she was off doing teenager-y things (mall and a movie). Monical's tagline is "Home of the family pleaser, so 3/4 of the Holland family (Benjamin, Wesley and Brice) headed off early on a Saturday evening to check this place out.
Monical's has a typical resaurant-in-a-strip-mall feel to it, probably because it's located on the end of a strip mall. They seem to do a fair amount of delivery and carryout business (judging by their large counter and open kitchen) and the decor was colorful with exposed ceilings with the metal ducts and rafters painted black.
Like I said, it was a weekend, but (for some reason) it wasn't that busy and didn't seem to have a very good "energy" to it. So, I'd have to say the atmosphere would qualify as: meh.
Fine. Teenager server. Not overly friendly, but acceptable. Side note: Wesley and I went through the Taco Bell drive through the other night and were greeted by one of the friendliest restaurant employees I've ever encountered. GREAT attitude, oozing with personality and ENERGY (even at 10:30 at night). I actually went online to answer the survey on the back of the receipt just so I could compliment the young man and give him some props. C'mon, restaurant and service industry. Hire more guys like Aaron G. He should go apply at Monical's, where I could give him a tip instead of an anonymous "attaboy" online.
Pizza (and breadsticks)
First things first: this place doesn't sell beer. Whaa...?? I actually wasn't going to have a beer that night but the fact that I COULDN'T have a beer was very disappointing. No, I don't have a problem with beer. THEY'RE the one's with a problem.
The breadsticks, as appropriately described by Wesley, tasted like pretzels. Strange. I guess it was because the sticks tasted more like bread instead of dough and had salt on them instead of cornmeal or garlic butter. They tasted okay, but I don't think I'd order them again. Weird. How do you mess up breadsticks?
After talking with some people after the fact, I guess we should have ordered the hand-tossed instead of the pan pizza. As I took my sixth bite of pan pizza, I realized something: I don't really like pan pizza anymore. This pan pizza was actually not too bad (not overly greasy on the crust). But as I reflect on it, I think I burned out on pan pizza going to Pizza Hut after every LN football game and basketball game during my high school years. I feel much better now that I've shared that deep (pan), dark secret.
Actually, overall, the pizza was decent. We ordered half cheese and half "Mighty Meat". The cheese half could have used more/better cheese, but the MM side was quite good. A good balance of flavors, not overly doughy. Again, I think I'll have to try the hand-tossed some time and make an addendum to this review.
Verbatims from Benjamin:
The cheese (pizza) is very cheesy.
Verbatims from Wesley:
Breadsticks are exactly like eating a soft pretzel. Very sourdough-y. Not what I'm looking for in a breadstick.
Their pizza is just all right.
Rating (out of 8 possible slices, with 4 being average)
Dad: 5 out of 8 (decent pizza, bad sticks, meh atmosphere)
Wesley: 4 out of 8
Benjamin: 6.5 out of 8
No comments:
Post a Comment