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Grew up in the area back in the '50s. The park across the street was named Lawndale back then, but we called it Keeler after the street it bordered. Played little league there and went to HRI after games sometimes. The place was much smaller and I remember wallpaper of dogs playing cards around the bar area. Pizza was great, still is. Took my own kids there and they liked it too.
For those who might remember, went to "BA".
I'd rate it in my top 5.
Great spot. A bit of a distance for us to get to but we absolutely loved the pizza. My gf is a pizza snob. She likes her Gino's without exception and it gets tiring trying to convince her that Chicago has so much more to offer than Ginos when it comes to pie.
However being that we were fans of the Home Run frozen variety, we just had to give the actual restaurant a shot. And boy did it deliver. The place is big but completely packed. There was a loud and boisterous feeling in the air. People were there with date and families and just having a great time over some Chicago pie.
Everyone talks of the crust. This is what makes the quintessential Home Run Inn pizza. It is the greatest pizza crust ever to be made in all of time. It does result in arterial clogs but so well worth it. One thing I must stress is keep this pie simple! The more you put on it the heavier it gets and the more difficult it is for the xl pizza to maintain its structural stability as you work toward the center. Even with a lot of toppings it is most excellent but I personally dislike eating pizza with a fork and knife.
I got so excited I just jumped into the pizza review without mentioning the awesome starters. We paired the pizza arrival with a side of fries (just average) and some of the best chicken fingers in town. I know it does not take a lot to be an excellent chicken finger but it was as if they hand battered these in house with a special batter that had hints of peppers and spices you would find at Gus's World Famous (Memphis, TN).
If you are a pizza lover this is a must stop. You obvious will have tried the Ginos and Lous as well as Pizza Duo and others but this one has its own flavor and character and stands apart from the others. It will remind you of everything great about throwing a classic HR frozen in the oven but with so much more in variety and options and everything wonderful.
I have grown up on Home Run Inn pizza and still love it. The crust is great and so is the sauce. The garlic cheese bread is the best appetizer ever. This place is too busy on the weekends but the staff does a great job of seating big parties immediately. My only issue is that I'm always extremely thirsty for water after eating this pizza. I think the cheese might be too salty.
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One word.
Overrated. Then again, if you have to put butter on the crust, it probably wasnt that great to begin with ya know?
Home Run Inn has the best crust.
As a child, I loved eating the frozen pizza.
The only thing I love (outside of real people) more is the White Sox.
Then it happened last night, two great tastes tasted wonderful together.
Through a preseason deal, I bought a pizza, potato skins & a 2-liter Pepsi & i got two White Sox tickets good for any April or May game.
I did take-out.
It tasted remarkably like the frozen kind in the supermarket. It makes you think...
But hey. WHITE SOX TICKETS.
If necessary, I will play the infield if the whole Chris Getz thing doesn't work out.
Let's go, go Go-Go White Sox.
Chicago's proud of you.
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Order the "Chicago's Best" pizza if you want to get satisfied....Sausage, pepperoni, and bacon!!! The service is ok. For once I don't want to get seated upstairs, those large groups up there don't know how to stay put and control their kids. Other than that I love the pizza the crust is awesome.
One of my favorite pizzas period. They aren't super cheap but everything from the crust to the cheese to the toppings is wonderful. I've eaten at this one a few times but always order take out from the one closest to my house in Addison.
Great great great pizza...cant say enough about the crust.
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My girlfriend lived by HRI when I was 17 she introduced me to the greatest pizza in the world a awesome handmade open kitchen cheese and sausage pizza. I am 62 now the pizza is cooked on a conveyor belt in a closed kitchen with a machine that spits out round balls of sausage on the pizza.Do not waste you're time with this pizza which at one time was so great but is now average.
Other Pizza restaurants that use to be great but have fallen so far from their glory years under different owners and changed ingredients and cooking ways are Pizzeria Uno and Due, Giordano's (Stuffed Pizza was incredible when they were by 63rd & California later moved by 63rd & Kedzie) ,Gino's East Pizza. 162 E Superior St Chicago, IL (another conveyor belt pizza).
So sad, we miss you. RIP.
So I know I will make some enemies... BUT I have to be honest.
Pizza was good, but not worth the hype. It was a Sunday afternoon.. I ordered to go and it took an extra 25 minutes.. they weren't that busy. I got 2 specialty pizzas and was not impressed.
I wouldn't go out of my way for this place, but if there was nothing else open...
I heard the lunch buffet is good.. maybe I will go back for that
Best part was playing old school video games while I waited
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Joined a group for pizza. We had a sausage and pepperoni, and a veggie lover's pizza, all regular crust. It was my first time in the actual restaurant (had the frozen pizzas in the past). Food and drink service was prompt. There were a lot of families, but they seated us far enough away that mutual co-existence went well.
Would have given this 5 stars several years ago but something changed with the Home Run Inn recipe. They changed the sausage!!! You can't fool us, we know good pizza! Seriously, we noticed a few years ago that the authentic Italian Sausage that they used to put on their pizza was replaced by a cheaper sausage. This place used to be the bomb back in the 90's, specifically the one on 31st and Kostner. Not as good as in the "oldern" days, but still fills a void.
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Mmm, sausage and cheese on their regular crust - they give you 2 small plastic tubs of hot pepper and Parm cheese to sprinkle over; the pizza tastes even better when it's cold. Kind of salty, but just the way I like it. It is a bit pricey, though - a large sets you back at about $23.
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Neighborhood loyalty makes it hard for me to call this better than nick and vito's on 83rd, but damn I love it so and crave it far more frequently. The crust is so buttery, savory, delicious. An earlier reviewer was beside himself disgusted by its alleged once frozenness. I don't necessarily believe it, but don't care. This is some of the perfect chicago thin crust. They generally use a higher grade of toppings then most competitors and imitators (I'm looking in your direction, though it is a pretty good look, Falco's on Archer). I particularly recommend their sausage which is well seasoned with caraway seeds. I would recommend paring it with hot giardinara and old style. No delivery keeps it from that coveted fifth star.
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Im a pizza-holic and I love this place. I would say it can get pricy but the food is more then well worth it. The postato skins are great. The cheesy garlic bread is awesome and the pizza... not for words!!!
If you havent been here.. you need to check it out.
What a happenin' place. It looks small from the inside, but it is one hoppin' pizza party on the inside.
I had the Pizza Lite (the cheeseless pizza that's topped with fresh veggies), which I am assuming is far from the most popular menu item, but boy was it tasty. It was topped with diced pieces of zucchini and yellow squash, which seemed weird to me at first, but that combined with the fresh basil dispersed throughout ended up adding a deliciously crisp and fresh Californian vibe to the pizza. This, of course, was offset by the buttery crust, but I suppose that's what makes it unique. In any case, I loved it.
This place was packed on a Friday night and beer pitchers and cocktails were flowing. Go here if you want to have the kind of fun that you don't expect to find at a seemingly family-oriented pizza restaurant. Such, perhaps, as party girls making obscene gestures between mouthfuls of big sausage pizza.
I don't care what anyone says but this is by far Chicagos best pizza...
What's not there to love about it. I went in w/ a group of 40 people and they had cleared space for us upstairs. The wait was not long at all, maybe because it was a weekday. The waitress, by the way who's getting married next week was really sweet and attentive even thought there were a lot of kids. I know that's a lot to handle.
We had really good salad w/ tomatoes, peppers blah blah blah, then the appetizers came out. I love basic food... Mozzerella sticks and chicken fingers which were a tad spicy but yummy.
Then the pizza came. OMG... That pizza was gone in no time. The waitress still came out and gave us doggy bags in case we wanted to take any of the leftovers home. I cannot wait for my next trip here.
The building itself is a decorated w/ tons of pictures of what the old home run inn used to look like. There are pics w/ the mayor and all kinds of important people.
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(correct address is 4254 W. 31st, out west, closer to Cicero Avenue)
THIS PIZZA HAS CRACK IN IT. I CANNOT STOP EATING THIS STUFF.
After 25 years of eating this stuff, I cannot say how freaking good this pizza is. The butter crust has to be tasted fresh to be truly appreciated. Delicious sausage. Awesome sauce.
BEST PIZZA IN CHICAGO! HEAR THAT? I CROSSED INTO TABOO TERRITORY AND CLAIMED BEST PIZZA IN CHICAGO. WANNA START A FIGHT? I'LL DEFEND THIS PIE TO THE STINKING END!!!!
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I used to love this place. In fact, I used to crave it. But lately, I feel the quality has declined as I know the family is focusing on their frozen pizzas. There was something lacking from the fresh, and I'm not sure I'll go out of my way anymore.
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ive lived around the corner from this spot like forever, we would get a two pizzas at a time one with everything, and another with everything and hot peppers, i still go there now, i went for my birthday last year, and had a mushroom, sausage, pepparoni, green peppers, bacon, is your mouth watering yet, with a buttery crust, soooo good, i remember before the renovation, when i was a kid 20+ years ago, you could hear Galaga, and Pacman arcade in the background, to this day when i hear those arcade games it reminds me of HRI, everbody knows chicago for its deep dish pizza but this place is a good example that reguler crust pizza can be spectacular tasting, looking and smelling, if you have never been here try it before the other locations, all the people talking about the neighborhood need to get out more, its fine ive never had a problem or have heard of a problem, theres parking everywhere, great spot try it.
One phrase: Extra cheese and sausage with a garlic butter crust. The best tasting pizza I know. Maybe a little high on the price, but really well worth it. The delivery time can be a little sporadic, because the place is always packed, but the time is worth the wait.
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The old neighborhood tavern sells frozen pizzas in over 20 states and is the #1 selling frozen pizza in Chicago. (I remember selling the small personal frozen pizzas as part of a fundraiser for my grade school.) It also has won the title of #1 pizza at the Taste of Chicago six times in a row. While the Home Run Inn introduced a deep-dish style a few years ago, it is still mainly known for its thin crust. The restaurant also offers sandwiches, salads, pastas, and soups.
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The best Chicago-style thin crust pizza around. The buttery crust is incredible and would be good enough to eat on it's own. Add the generous amounts of cheese and toppings and this is seriously addictive.
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I love Home Run Inn pizza. There is something about the crust that I adore. It's thin with just enough around the edge to hold on to. It's crispy and buttery. Mmmmm-mmmmm, good!
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Home run inn pizza tastes like it should be followed up with a game of "bags'. Which is a good thing. It consists of a thin crust and mounds of cheese. Our service on the other hand was the pits. It's a tossup. A highlight of my night consisted of overhearing a little girl in the bathroom tell her younger sister that she smelled like old collard greens. Next time I think I will try and do the lunch buffet so I wouldn't have to deal that much with poor service.
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I forgot who dragged me here many years ago. Suffice to say I wasn't too thrilled with the location, but the buttery thin crust on this pizza is to die for.
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The pizza here is cheap and they don't skimp on the toppings but it was so greasy that it kind of made me nauseous. I love pizza and no other pizza has ever had this effect on me.
i like pizza. and I've had it from a lot of places.
This place violates one of my cardinal pizza rules.
DO NOT FREEZE THE DOUGH.
yep, home run inn has that weird translucent dough that only comes from a freezer, and it ruins a pizza. to be honest, if a place has pizza as it's showcase dish, and can't even do that right, i won't bother with the other stuff. they might have some kick-ass wings or cheese sticks, but the focus should be pizza.
oh well, peizano's is right down the street........
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not a big pizza fan but my boyfriend is a fan. service was quick. i ordered the signature salad. the smallest size was huge like a big cereal bowl. there was a strange hair in my salad...and they gave me a new one... but didnt give me a discount. we ordered the appetizer platter w/ hot wings, mozz sticks, potato skins. they give u enough sauce for all. we had a large pizza w sausage, peperoni, and bacon bits. i liked the dough but not the topping. too salty. they are kind of pricey.
Yuck. It tastes one of those Chef Boyardee kits you made when you were little.
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best thin crust pizza in the city. period.
Kids Eat FREE on Thursdays!
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Category: Pizza
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