Mama K’s Pizza and Grille

Visiting from AZ and wanted an Italian beef. I had the choice of the chain restaurant down the street starting with P which is very good, or I stumbled across Mamas. I gave the local joint the shot and they passed with flying colors. The beef was tender, no gristle, and tasty. The kid had the Bacon cheeseburger and said it was cooked perfect. Good friendly service at the counter. I hope they are successful for many years.

Hidden gem in Gurnee! Great Froyo (from tcby if I’m not mistaken) and helpful and honest staff. Great place to stop for a quick bite to eat.

A nice family-​owned diner, the matriarch Mama K — very friendly and accomodating. I tried their pizza and the gryo quesadilla and both, were undeniably «very delicious» and ample in ingredients. The fries were exceptional and the rest is history in the making as I will return again and again

Hole in the wall restaurant near Great America. Everything here is worth a try and very tasty.

Shocked by the good reviews. Went there for dinner and other myself and my husband were disappointed. The chicken parm sandwhich was easily one of the worst things I have eaten. Standard sub roll, chucks of plain chicken. May have been canned. Bland sauce and not a bit of cheese. Shocked by the good reviews. Would never go back.

The pizza here is awesome! Thin crust, but not too thin so you can still taste the amazing crust. The staff is friendly, and everything moves quickly and efficiently. I have also had the gyro, and the meat was perfectly cooked, and tender… great tzatziki sauce as well. It is a family run restaurant which is always a plus in my book! They also sell their family’s Greek olive oil. I have a bottle at home, and it is top notch quality! I definitely want to try more things on their extensive menu, but have always gone back to the awesome pizza!

ordered delivery for ourselves and the nephews as we spent the weekend at key lime cove. wasn’t expecting much from a mom and pop pizza shop in the suburbs, but i was very wrong! we were pleasantly surprised by the mound of toppings and crust that could hold it’s own. it was the perfect median between cracker thin and chicago deep dish, with a little extra umph of thickness on the outside crust (see related pictures). affordable and delicious — can’t go wrong here!

Their froyo is AMAZING! By far my favorite place for froyo the vanilla is great but the chocolate is even better! Their pizza and fries are also veryyyy delicious!

I don’t know how they get such high reviews. The sausage sandwich that I had here was the worst. They deep fried the sausage to a point the two ends were black. I took one bite and threw away the rest.

I’m so glad I found Mama Ks. The food is fresh, clean ingredients, tasty, and priced well. There is something for everyone and oh, the frozen yogurt almost brought tears to my eyes. The service was wonderful and you just don’t find places like this very often. The whole package. I can’t wait to go back.

I would say I’m a pizza freak so when I found out this place is right around the corner from where I live I wanted to try it out. Everything from the pizza which I got hand tossed, to the wings, and beer nuggets were amazing. I go easily once a week.

My fiancé and I had their slice of cheese pizza, there was hardly any sauce on the pizza, cheese had a rubbery taste and texture like it was sitting there for hours overall it tasted very bland. I was waiting for Gordon Ramsay to pop out and «SHUT IT DOWN».

Amazing! Their food is always on point. Staff is super friendly. Nothing wrong here!
One time I did wait much longer than expected. My mistake. I didn’t call in a calzone and they handmade those every time. During my wait, Mama K herself gave myself and husband a small bowl of her delicious lemon rice soup. It was super sweet, and much appreciated.
I love this place and their service.
By the way, the calzone was amazing!

This place is truly a gold mine. Mama K herself has helped me both times I’ve been here. She’s talked about the food and about her business. The first time I visited I felt like they were family when I left. Okay. to the food.
I ordered two slices of pizza, one cheese and one sausage, a drink and then 2 slices of garlic bread and it came to 7 dollars. I couldn’t believe it. Everything is top notch in quality. Either homemade or top quality meats. It is so good.

HYPNOTIZED BY POTATO SALAD
Last night I had just finished another workout at FitNation and I was hungry for something fast and healthy. There was nothing exciting in the house, so I reluctantly slunk over to McDonald’s for a sweet chili grilled chicken wrap and a grilled chicken Asian salad. «We took those off the menu,» said the counter attendant standing beneath a banner titled «Now serving breakfast all day.» Something’s gotta give, I guess. So they sacrificed health for the hangover crowd? Harumph.
Between McDonald’s and my house are few choices at 8:30PM on a weeknight. I almost considered Burger King for one of those Halloween Whoppers with the black bun, but I couldn’t bring myself to completely subvert my exercise effort for a few luscious bites of carbs and fat.
I remembered that Mama K’s was owned in the same family as my other local favorite, Captain Porky’s in Wadsworth, so I thought I’d give it a try. This place looks like nothing on the outside. It’s a hole in the wall gyros and pizza place, ostensibly. Why, however, were all of the tables filled with people eating or waiting for their to go orders 30 minutes before closing? This IS Gurnee, right? In this neighborhood, restaurants go dead at 7:30PM when everybody rushes home to watch NCIS.
There was one guy behind the counter and a couple in the kitchen. Before me in line was a family ordering frozen yogurt with some crazy customized mixture of toppings. The first one ordered pumpkin, and the next one ordered creamy mint. Pumpkin yogurt? That sounded good. Then I understood that they make their froyo mix on premises, and they’re known for them. When the fourth person in the group asked for a banana split, I was starting to get hangry. Umm, can I just get my wrap and go?
Before I could fall over with low blood sugar, a giant friendly guy came out from the kitchen to take my order.
The menu has a lot to offer, and at first glance isn’t particularly different than any other diner: chicken fingers, burgers, cheese sticks, pizza and gyros. Upon closer inspection, however, I noticed a stronger Greek vein running through their options, and there were quite a few non-​traditional options. Bison burger? Yup! Cuban sandwich special? Yes, indeed.
I opted for a Mediterranean wrap after trying to decide between the Greek salad wrap and the grilled chicken pesto wrap. Any of the sandwiches, burgers or wraps give you a choice of fries, salad or soup. I had my eye on the soup of the day, spinach rice, so I chose that as my side. The potato salad sounded good as well. «I’m here to stay away from danger food,» I thought to myself. The wrap came out quickly with the soup. With a tomato base, the homemade soup was heavenly. It was so tasty, I uttered, «This is delicious!» out loud. The couple next to me said that they were curious about the soup but chose that tempting potato salad instead for their side.
Their pizza looked great as did their delicious glob of eggy, mayonaise-​rich potato salad. I was studying the menu and looked at some very interesting looking ingredient combinations on their specialty pizzas. A couple of them were named for people. One that caught my eye was the Greekza with feta, olives and chicken.
More and more people just kept filing into the place, even though the time was now approaching closing at 9PM. Hotdogs, frozen yogurt, pizzas to go were the most common choices. At this point I couldn’t stand it. The potato salad’s siren song was too strong. It beckoned me back to order a side of it to accompany my very tasty wrap. Practically inhaled, that yummy salad made traditionally with hard boiled eggs and onion benefited from some more black pepper.
It was now after 9PM and the food was so good, I thought that I had better bring something home for my better half. I got a Greek salad wrap to go and another cup of that amazing soup. The counter guy didn’t bat an eye. He just smiled and took my order and $ 9 and brought back the food within two minutes. Tummy full and doggy bag in hand, I left.
Now I know why this place is so highly rated. It’s all made there. It has a family imprint on it. They care about the product and the service, and it shows.

It doesn’t get better than this.
I walked in for lunch because this place had such high reviews, I was not disappointed. Upon entering I was unsure what to do since it was my first time but they told me about the specials and said they will bring the food up to me when it’s ready. I ordered a Bacon Burger, which comes with a side of fries and I just got a water cup to drink. While waiting for my order I watched some TV and the lady who I’m guessing is the owner of the business wiped down the table I sat at for me. I thought that was very nice considering I’m kind of a germophobe. Within 5 minutes my order was brought out and it looked delicious as heck oh my goodness. I ate the fries first and they tasted very good and well seasoned. Then when I took a bite out of the Bacon Burger, the world stopped for at least 13 seconds because the taste was so amazing I melted. To be honest I thought that the burger and fries would not fill me up, but I could barely finish the rest of my fries after I ate the burger. When I was done I left and was greeted with a thanks come again.
Nothing will ever beat a local business. Mama K’s Pizza and Grille has mastered the balance between customer service and great tasting food. Stop by next time you’re around the area, you won’t be disappointed.

This little family-​owned joint is the best there is in all of grand ol’ Gurnee. Having driven past it everyday for the past 2 months, I finally had a chance to stop in last Wednesday for a late lunch. Glad I beat the lunch rush, I found myself in an empty restaurant… no worries since it was during off-​peak hours. Mama K herself was at the counter, and she sold me on the gyro quesadilla.
The quesadilla came out in about 7 minutes. It was a huge tomato tortilla with feta, onions, tomatoes, and of course spit-​roasted top notch gyro meat. The potions were very generous. There was gyro in every bite, and the homemade tzatziki is phenomenal.
Although the food was awesome, it was the passion I saw in Mama K’s eyes that really makes me love this place. She was so proud of the quality of her food, and she pours so much love into cooking it all. I loved it so much, I came back the very next day, and got a bangin’ chicken pesto wrap.
Keep it up, Mama K’s. Just found my new Gurnee lunch favorite!

Since we loved it so much the 1^st time, we came back. And this time the owner gave us a sample of his olive oil. Have to say, I’m impressed. Being from a small island (Zakinthos) and having our own family olive orchard, I have to say… pretty amazing olive oil!

We stopped here after Gurnee Mills. We found it on Unilocal and decided to stop because of the good reviews.
My kids had pizza by the slice and all liked it. My wife and daughter LOVED the lemon rice soup. I had the Greek salad. The salad had the best Feta I’ve ever tasted!
The staff was very friendly (Mama K waited on us). We will definitely be back when we are in the area!

This was my 1^st time here, me and my son ordered a pepperoni sausage pizza! My tastebuds are dancing! DELICIOUS! Staff was super friendly too! DEFINITELY RECOMMEND EATING HERE!