Pizza Stop #43:
Gulliver’s Pizza & Pub
17W517 Roosevelt Rd.
Oak Brook, IL
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In for todays review, we have “Gulliver’s Pizza & Pub” located in Oak Brook, IL. As some of you may have already saw, I just started a journey of trying to make my own pizza. Ultimately my goal is not to make a “homemade pizza”, but to reach a product that is comparable restaurant quality.
I was originally in Oak Brook to go to the “Gordon’s Food Service” store to pick up some quality pizza ingredients. A block away I saw Gulliver’s and their sign that said “Famous Pan Pizza”. Well.. that was enough to make me intrigued so I placed an order and decided this was the next place to review.
Here I ordered a medium pan pizza with pepperoni and sausage that was priced about average at $22 total. Despite both the menu and sign saying “Pan pizza”, my receipt said “Deep Dish Pizza”, so it seems these guys are a little confused on what they want to call their pizza here.
Coming inside this was surprisingly a pretty nice place. Judging by the name and sign I expected more of a bar vibe but it was more upscale similar to Paisan’s or Lous Malnati’s. Definitely a great date night kind of place.
As I arrived home and opened the pizza box I noticed it was given to me uncut without me having to ask for it that way. Any true pizza eater knows Deep Dish travels better this way so this was a great sign out the gate. Presentation looked great as well so I had high hopes.
Overall, this was a pretty solid pizza. The sauce, cheese and pepperonis were good and flavorful. The sausage wasn’t too bad, but it tasted like they over seasoned it which overpowered the rest of the the pizza and didn’t blend well. Another issue I had is there just wasn’t a deep dish amount of cheese. Every bite was good but a bit unsatisfying as the cheese amount was more in line with what you would get on a thin crust and not a deep dish. Perhaps if it was ordered with extra cheese that might make it better, but It really should’ve came that way from the start.
The pizza overall tasted very much like Lou Malnati’s, though not as good. Even the crust had a very similar profile, flavor and texture. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great pizza, but If I’m going to eat something that tasted like Lou Malnati’s with nothing else original going for it, I might as well just go to the actual Lou’s Malnati’s instead.
Initially I had not heard of this place and just picked it up due to its convenience at the time. However, after later looking it up, I learned this place was started and later sold by the guy who went on to create Pequod’s, Burt Katz. Though I’ve yet to have Pequod’s, I’m glad he went on to create a recipe with his own style rather than just imitating the famous deep dish style of the 60s.