Leona’s Pizza & Italian Restaurant

I ordered, for delivery, an extra thin crust well done cheese pizza. It was not well done or extra thin crust. The pizza was barely room temperature. I also ordered the mozzarella sticks which were pretty good. Still not as warm as I expected. This is my first time ordering from this location, the one on Elston is much better.

Leona’s has really gone downhill. It used to be a place for great food in huge portions with excellent staff. Last Friday at around 9PM, the place was about ¹⁄₈ full when we went in (party of 2). We were seated right away, but it took about 8 – 10 minutes before someone came to check on even a drink order (And two minutes later a second person came to take our drink order). Then, we were told they were out of the margarita that was ordered. After the replacement drink came, the real fun began.
We ordered bruschetta with added fresh mozzarella, but received bruschetta and a side of deep fried mozzarella bricks. Asked for a side psychedelic salad with the lasagna, but got a full salad. Ordered the carbonara pasta (which comes with chicken according to the description on the menu) but had only four small cubes of chicken in the large dish – it was tasty, but not enough chicken for a dish so large.
I’ve had so many good meals at Leona’s in the past, so this was a huge disappointment. I probably won’t be going back to this location.

We’re not fussy people that typically write to complain… but our visit to Leonas was absolutely horrible. The wall paper was literally falling off the wall… which hadn’t been cleaned in years. Wires hanging from tv’s cheap THANKSGIVING décor crooked pictures and even Christmas lights turned off hanging from the ceiling.
The food was marginally better. Over sweetened lemonade, cold pizza, the garlic bread took 20 mins because the first one was burned. At least the staff had enough sense to not even bring it out. Everything from the margarita to the dipping sauce was «eh». And of course the bathroom was gross — holes in the wall… smelly
I have been going to various Leonas locations since I was 12 years old — when it was called the stinking rose on Harlem. After knowing how Leonas used to be it was actually depressing to eat at this location. Locations have been dropping like flies and it’s pretty clear why.

This used to be my wife’s favorite restaurant. Every birthday or celebration we came here. Until on our Anniversary when we found out there was new owners and rules to be cost effective. The cost was cut and the food tastes like a frozen dinner. Haven’t returned since.

This is the first time in my life that I didn’t finish fried calamari.
This place looks nice, but the food could be better. The wings were okay.

I ordered over the internet because you could and because you would save 15%. I ordered an extra thin, well done sausage and onion pizza. What I got instead was a regular crust and not well done. Alright, we can deal with that. We’ll just eat it and forgive the two mistakes on the order.
The next day I was eating a left-​over piece. I bit into the piece and my teeth got entangled on a string approximately four inches long. OK, that does it. I now had to complain. I took the piece with the string intact back to the restaurant. The lady at the counter tried to tell me it was a piece of cheese. I continued to insist it wasn’t and she finally gave up and said that it was indeed a string. She took hold of it and began to pull. And pull. And pull. Until about ten inches of string finally emerged.
She refunded my money but instead of putting down the real reason for the return of the pizza, she wrote «didn’t like the food.» I told her that was not the truth. She refused to change it in the computer. I repeated that was a lie and that I refused to stand by a lie. She said she couldn’t change it in the computer but that I could write on the receipt the reason I returned the pizza. I knew that wouldn’t mean a thing, but iI wrote on it anyway. Then I wrote their main office when I came home. I still haven’t received a response from them.
Since this is my only recourse to providing the real reason I returned the pizza, I decided to post it here. The lady intentionally tried to deny it was a string and intentionally wrote the wrong reason down on the return receipt. That’s not to mention that the pizza was not an extra thin as ordered and not well done as ordered.

Love this place. Amazing food. Everything on the menu is great. No complaints whatsoever.

A group of 15 of us enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Des Plaines Leona’s. Our table was reserved and ready when we arrived. Dida, the event organizer was accommodating in every way possible and the wait staff provided excellent service all evening long. From garlic bread to pizza, to dinner entrees, all the food was served hot and delicious. Leona’s is a great choice for casual dining and a relaxing evening out. We’ll be back!

I am very disappointed with this restaurant. I used grubhub to order. Since they were open at 1030 or so. After I ordered it stated that my food would be here between 1120 – 1130. Totally fine with that. Then it got close to 12 and they still weren’t here. So I called the restaurant and spoke to a man (who had very little enthusiasm). He told me that the drivers don’t usually get in until 11. Nowhere on grubhub does it state that they don’t deliver until after 11. When the delivery guy got here he just handed me my food and left. I opened it and the food looked fine except for the fact that the Alfredo sauce was under the pasta not over it. I went to pull out some of the pasta and everything was stuck together. I’m a nanny of a two year old. Most would know that two year old children usually still take naps. So due to the disgusting food i had to make a meal that I would have done in the first place if I had read the reviews prior to ordering. I called grubhub to complain since I knew I would get nowhere with the restaurant. They called them and they said they will give me 20% the next time I order. Uh no. I am not ordering from this place again. Grubhub was nice enough to refund me all of my money. There are way better places within this community, I definitely wouldn’t choose this one.

My wife and I use to come here a lot before we had kids. Last Friday we ordered from the one in Des Plaines. It wasn’t anything complicated. We asked for pizza (It’s no longer crispy or thin) and fresh bruschetta. My wife went to pick up the order and came home to find that they we paid $ 9.00 for bruschetta that only had four small pieces of bread in it along side only a little veggies with it. This use to be a quality restaurant but something has certainly changed. The pizza was not so good, or something that you could get from any of the other pizza places around us. When we told the manager about the bruschetta, he said that’s how much we get. Don’t waste your money on this place. Maggianos does a better job, and they have better customer service. Will be writing the company about this. It use to be oh so good.

So disappointed. Ive been going to Leonas for 20 years even worked at the original Lakeview location. This place is going down. There was nothing special about the bland food I had today in an empty restaurant. It was actually sad. I order a pizza off the kids menu for my son who wanted pineapples on his pizza for the waitress to tell me only cheese sausage or peperoni. What? You cant order what you want on a pizza at a pizza restaurant. Wow.

My sister had her family birthday dinner here and it was a Wednesday night at 6:30. No one was in this restaurant, we got a table right away. There were a total of 12 of us. It took the waitress a long time to come over and take the drink order, and the entire night moved like this. I’m not sure if the wait staff was the cooking staff, but no one seemed to be around. No one really came into this restaurant even after we began to eat. I can see why now. The mozzerlla sticks were ordered as an appetizer and everyone was wondering what they were? They were really big and had no flavor. I shared a cheese pizza with 4 others and I thought the pizza was good. We got our bill and one of us had ordered 2 budweiser beers. The Bill read 1 for $ 4.95 and 1 for $ 7.95. Same bottle of beer different price? They fixed the bill. We brought in some cupcakes and they wouldn’t even serve individual ice cream in a cup, you had to order a huge piece of cake or another dessert to get the ice cream. It’s not like they were busy? To accommodate this large table of patrons, but ok… I wish they would have asked, «why are you here tonight?» what are you celebrating? We didn’t get anything like that paid our bill and left. We will not be returning, I’m thinking because they will not be in business anymore.

People have been giving this place a lot of heat. I never ordered from this place before they «changed» or came into new ownership or whatever. I ordered a pizza today and it took like 90 minutes to get here which totally sucked, but the pizza was still warm (not hot) at least.
The one thing this place has over others is good crust. It’s not doughy or bland, and has the perfect consistency when you bite into it. Not bad pizza, just took a long time. Good crust is hard to pull off.

Everything changed from the original Leona’s. Garlic bread and mozzarella sticks were completely different. Pizza was decent, but changed in thickness, cheese and sauce.
Judge the restaurant on its own merit. You might like it. But don’t go there thinking it will be the Leona’s you’ve had in the past. Service was very good.
I was deeply disappointed in the food and won’t be returning.

Wish I can rate this place no stars. Ordered two large pizzas from here last night at 9:56PM. They close at 11:00PM. My total wasn’t cheap neither, it was $ 60+!!! (Including tax, delivery charge, and tip) Kept checking my email for updates. Received my first email saying estimated delivery at 10:46…cool. 10:46 rolls around, recheck my email, updated delivery time 11:05 — 11:15. Ok, cool still, I understand I ordered so close to their closing time. 11:15 rolls around… then 11:20, 11:25, 11:30… I unfortunately can’t call because they are closed for the night. Midnight rolls around and I have given up.
VERY disappointed in the delivery service of this Leona’s. Will NEVER order delivery here. If they deducted the full amount from my account, and I received an email saying it’s on its way, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THOSE PIZZAS?! BUYER BEWARE WHEN ORDERING VIA DELIVERY HERE. They have no problem deducting money from your credit card, but fail to deliver your order!!! First and last time I’ll order here. Forget about dining here as well. 2.5 stars total on Unilocal should have alarmed/​alerted me before I ordered. Oh well, you live and you learn, I guess. Ill stick to my Leona’s in Old Irving on Elston from now on.

One star is too many, this was probably the worst meal I’ve had and what a waste of time and $ 13.00. I met a friend there at 4 pm on Sunday and the place was empty, not one diner, not a good sign. I ordered the Cajun shrimp appetizer, the picture made them look plump and luscious… They arrived and I was shocked these flimsy shrimp were $ 9.95. Biggest mistake I made was not sending it back but I was starving. I mentioned this to server and he commented yeah I get that a lot… as I was speaking to him he walked away in the middle of my sentence, WOW. My friends pasta and sauce was also flavorless, was no bread served and definitely the Leona’s I remember is long gone. $ 13.00 wasted on 6 tiny shrimp and a beverage. When I left I headed nearby for $ 3.00 got an amazing Hot Dog and fries !
What a shame, I had special memories at Leona’s.

My mother and I were truly disappointed as we’ve been going to Leonas at various locations since 1997 and things have changed. A LOT! I don’t live very close so I haven’t been here in probably 2+ years, but the menu is almost non-​existent compared to the past. The quantity of food is about half of what we used to get, the little extras like sugar rim on my lemonade are gone. The little wafer cookies that used to be served with your check… are gone and not replaced with anything like mint even.
Prices are about same as they used to be buy half the amount of food and the soup or salad used to also be included. My mom got no refills on her 2.50 cup of coffee that she felt was very bitter. I had to ask 3 times for ice water to be served. The kick ass garlic bread is now far from kick ass. I used to rave about that to my family 550 miles away. The frozen garlic bread at my own house was better the other day.
Mom asked for a strawberry Margarita and the waitress hadn’t been even trained on how to take alcoholic orders, so they missed that sale. We were asked if wanted desert but didn’t see a menu ANYWHERE that gave the choices. Overall don’t think I will ever return. Sad sad day.

Not impressed with the food. It was my first visit to Leona’s and probably my last. Their signature chicken dish was just lightly breaded chicken with a few parmesan sprinkles on top. The cheese pizza was OK but there wasn’t much flavor. The service was quick and friendly but the food was nothing to write home about.

I came here with some friends for half price pizza night (Mondays). We were seated immediately and our server came over right away.
We quickly ordered the mozzarella sticks, a salad, and a pizza to share.
Mozz sticks: Don’t waste your money. $ 4.95 for 6 sticks, which wouldn’t be bad at all, except the sticks are tasteless. The coated breading wasn’t crispy, and there was no trace of spices in the it — just some oregano sprinkled on top. Definitely a frozen to stove food.
Salad: This was actually pretty tasty, but then again, it’s salad. We had the vinaigrette dressing on the side, and I really liked it. There were some olives, tomatoes, and a stray cucumber circle or two in a salad that we were told would feed at least 2. The real bummer was that even though the server knew we planned to split it, we only received one breadstick for all of us. I would have given an extra star if he had brought out 3!
Pizza: We ordered the thin crust with pepperoni and mushrooms. There was plenty of cheese and enough topping ingredients, but again, where is the seasoning? It was so bland, especially the sauce which was more like watered down pasta sauce. The original total for the pizza was over $ 20! I’m glad we only shelled out $ 10 for it. Definitely not worth $ 20.
With tip, it ended up a little north of $ 12/​person. Reasonable price, but I’d rather spend it elsewhere. I probably won’t be back. Such a shame, I read such great reviews from last year. I guess the change of ownership hasn’t been for the better.

What can I say… it’s been fun while it lasted, but all good things come to an end. Good things like: Mac n cheese lasagna, Leona cakes, amazing bread when seated, friendly faces, great blends of music videos… all gone.
What remains? A quality burger, and homemade sauces. But one must ask, will these soon follow the fate of the Erika Badu videos I had last seen played here?
The last few times I’ve come, I’ve not known what to expect. Each time something was new. New menu. New staff. New interest in sports on every screen. I just don’t recognize Leona’s today to be the same as I reviewed it in the past. As that’s a sad, sad thing.