Review: Lou Malnati's Frozen Deep Dish Pizza

While there are many heated debates about the merits of Chicago style deep-dish pizza versus "New York" or other thin-crust varieties, I've found they are similar in some fundamental ways. They contain crust, tomato sauce, and cheese - and they can be very good or they can be mediocre efforts not worth the calories. And there is no broad-brush way to approach to any style of pizza.

After many years of being skeptical about "tomato soup in a bread bowl," I had a few trips to Illinois that gave me the opportunity to sample some critically acclaimed deep-dish pizzas in and around Chicago. At the very top of my list is the deep-dish at Louisa's in Crestwood, ten miles south of Chicago. All the elements are in harmony on this terrific pie, but the vibrantly fresh red sauce is the most memorable.

Deep-dish pizza from Louisa's

In Chicago, I sampled three other highly regarded deep-dish pizzas. While the pan pizza at Pequods was disappointing, I loved the traditional deep-dish at Pizano's and the hybrid version at Exchequer, where a huge mass of molten cheese sits atop the pie. But Louisa's has been the clear winner; for all the deep dish I've eaten, Louisa's is the benchmark pie.

Deep-dish personal size at Pizano's

Recently, a neighbor found out that he could get frozen deep-dish pizzas shipped to him from Lou Malnati's via Goldbelly. He found a special deal on six pizzas where the average cost was about $15 per pie, and was thoughtful enough to supply me with a pepperoni pizza for evaluation.

I loved the idea, and I have enjoyed some other frozen versions of Chicago deep-dish pizza. The 8" version of Gino's East pizza was pretty satisfying, especially in light of its $5.99 price tag at ALDI (I haven't seen it in stock recently).

The Malnati's pizza clocked in at 1.7 pounds, and required 45 minutes of baking from its frozen state. It looked promising before the bake and even better after. The final product had a nice golden cornicione, a deep red sea of sauce, and some nice char spots.

Before baking

I sliced in into six servings (340 calories per slice, according to the package), and we dug in. The first impression is the red sauce, which was rich, deeply flavored, and salty (in a good way). The crust was especially good for a previously frozen pizza. Crunchy on the edges, a bit grainy and crumbly on the interior, with a buttery biscuit-y flavor.

Out of the oven

On the interior, everything was tasty even though the cheese, buried under all the red sauce, is almost an after-thought. It does a valuable service as a moisture barrier to the crust, but it's hard for me to get past thinking about how much better it would be if somehow the cheese got the benefit of oven browning. 

Deep-dish at Exchequer Pub

I loved how the deep-dish pizzas are constructed at Exchequer in Chicago, with the cheese on top. But who wants to hear a Trenton tomato pie guy tell you that an Irish pub has improved on the traditional deep-dish pie?

The Goldbelly special included three cheese pizzas and three pepperoni pizzas; my pizza was labeled as pepperoni, but I couldn't detect it. I didn't see pepperoni or taste pepperoni. Overall, nonetheless, I found this pie very tasty, and it seemed to get better with every bite. I ate three slices and could have kept going. The sauce, the cheese, and the crust worked very well together.

Underside of the crust

A few days later, I heated up the two remaining slices for lunch. Lo and behold, the sauce had dried a little and it separated, revealing slices of thin pepperoni above the cheese and below the sauce! Much like the cheese, I lament that the pepperoni is buried and denied the character and texture it could acquire with some oven browning, but that is the dilemma of a Chicago deep-dish pizza.

In the final analysis, this was certainly one of the tastier deep-dish pizzas I've had. The great sauce, crust texture, and overall balance more than make up for the obscured cheese and pepperoni. If you want an authentic bit of Chicago deep-dish no matter where you live, this frozen pizza gets the job done; I'd like to try a freshly-made version in Chicago to see if it can measure up to the excellent pizza at Pizano's or the hybrid version at Exchequer.