Pizzeria Dada [Meeting #146]

Pizza Dada

125 S. Clark Street (Map)

Chicago, IL 60603

No Phone

CPC invaded Pizza Dada on Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Good news: The Chicago Pizza Club met for the second time in a week

Bad news: Just 3 members at each meeting

Good news: This pizza was great

Pizza Dada is a passion project from Table, Donkey, Stick. It's a stall in the Sterling Food Hall, so it's primarily a lunch operation. If you go at night like we did (they close at 7:00), I'd recommend ordering a whole pizza ahead of time. Because one of our three only eats cheese pizzas and the other two wanted to try more, we went with slices. They had 6 options, which was great, but none of them were fresh. That these were as good as they were despite being reheated slices, makes it clear Pizza Dada is among the best NY pizzas in Chicago.

The Margherita was fantastic. So much flavor out of such few ingredients. Definitely the best plain(ish) NY slice I can remember having in Chicago.

The Vodka Roni comes with mozzarella, pepperoni, and vodka sauce, all on a sesame seed crust. The flavors were top notch, probably my favorite of the night, but this one would be much better fresh.

I didn't get a close up of the pepperoni, but this picture tells the story. This is a great slice with top notch pepperoni from Enzo.

Plain cheese pizza is boring, but if you like boring, this is a great rendition.

Sausage at pizzerias in New York is, generally speaking, an embarrassment.  In Chicago, even loads of crappy pizza places have great sausage. I guess Dada is going for authenticity because the sausage was not good. Edible, but not good. Still a solid slice overall. 

I'm a fan of the ratio here - just one white pizza. The "White" comes with garlic, ricotta, basil, and lemon with a sesame seed crust. This one suffered the most from being reheated. We also would have liked more garlic.

The crust was uniformly a great rendition of NY pizza. Crisp and chewy and flavorful. What else can you ask for?

Some pizza club members were more eager to get to the meeting than others.

Pizza Amelia [Meeting #145]

Pizza Amelia

2111 W. Roscoe Ave (Map)
Chicago, IL 60614

(773) 697-8579

CPC invaded Pizza Amelia on Sunday, September 20, 2026.

The shop (photo from Yelp)

Thanks to a last minute visit by Andrew from the pizza desert of St. Louis, we had a last minute meeting of the Chicago Pizza Club at Pizza Amelia in Roscoe Village.

Scheduled turnout was light at six people, with Kate, Amanda and her kids Hugo and Felix joining Andrew and I. Kate and Felix got sick and Hugo was being a little teenage bitch boy, so there were only 3 of us in attendance. That was just as well because it's a tiny place with very limited seating. They were actually planning on no seating on Sunday due to the Retro on Roscoe street festival, but thanks to the rain, they let us set up a table.

With just 3 people, we were limited to one pizza and opted for a sausage and mushroom. I don't have too much to say about this one. It was a very good NYC/CT pizza with no flaws at all. It was well-balanced, the sausage was really good, the sauce was flavorful and the crust had a really nice crisp/chew thing going.

It's not destination dining, but so few pizza places are so that's not a knock on them at all. For families in the neighborhood in need of a last minute option, this place is really great. For people into takeout or delivery, this is a great option for the area. 

Kudos to me for making it all the way through the review without complaining that we got there a couple minutes after the scheduled opening time of 11:30 only to be told unapologetically and without a reason that they weren't opening until noon.