Minelli Meat & Deli

Classic Chicago Deli. Old school charm, family run business. Great food! Friendly staff. Good variety of items. I had a deli sandwich — it was perfect and what a deli sandwich should be. I will definitely return to buy fresh butcher meats and pastas!

We stopped in here for some lunch, and enjoyed a couple of sandwiches and a pizza slice. We ate in the pleasant Oak Mill mall dining area right outside of the store. Great value and top notch quality on the offerings here. We had a 7″ Italian beef sandwich ($ 5.50), a meatball sandwich ($ 5.50), and a cheese pizza slice ($ 3.00). The mall was very pleasant being clean, sunny, and quiet and in fact a secret lunch hangout place that I’m not sure I really want too many to know about. Lunch here is like having a nice picnic with indoor amenities, and we’ll be back again sometime for sure.

Everything they sell or cook is fantastic. Recommend their meat to everyone. Some of the best around

This place is a hidden jem! Forget buying angus beef etc. at a supermarket. Steaks here are far better!

Good food and service. I will try again and recommend to friends. I wish I could have purchased some more to take home. But I was on break.

Great meats, Italian sausage best around that I have found. Great meatballs, the staff does a great job packaging your order how you want it, and treating you like your family. Highly recommend this place for your deli needs, tamales and frozen Italian specialities. Been coming here for years, from old location to this location, you can’t go wrong.

I’ve been coming to this store for 20+ years and can’t find a better Italian sausage than there’s. The beef and pork roast’s have brought tear’s to my family’s eye when we get together during the holidays. I now travel 15 miles each way to fill up my freezer in anticipation of a new grilling season. These guys have the best meats at reasonable prices and pretty top notch cannoli’s to
Eat on the way home!

Minestrone!
The warm panini with mozzarell & peppers.
The Pepper & egg sandwich.
Feel free to skip the $ 6 take-​home personal pizzas they sell here. No bueno.
You don’t really get any kind of Sopranos fantasy that you’re at Satriale’s or anything, since you eat in an enclosed shopping center that looks like it hasn’t been renovated since the early 90’s, on a small table in front of a lady’s plus-​sized fashions store, with Muzak in the background. BUT! The food is amazing.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the guy behind the counter with the Black Flag tattoo slicing the meat who looked like he was up to no good.

Went there today for lunch today. Had an Italian submarine sandwich was a good sub seven inch with plenty of meat veggies and Italian spices. staff was pleasant and ready to please customers. Overall great experience good value better than expected not like the chain sub stores.

Their marinara sauce is the best! Love that they have kept the old time charm and that everyone is so friendly. I almost feel as if I have gone back in time because we just don’t see this anymore. I have tried and would recommed their marinara sauce, tortellini, sausage, stuffed shells, and fresh homemade desserts.

I love coming here with my family. They have great food and desserts. I wish they had more locations!

I moved to Edison Park about 8 years ago from the Midway airport area and noticed this place on Milwaukee ave. I went inside and was blown away by the wonderful old time charm and the wonderful smells. All the people in the store were very friendly like you were walking into the old neighborhood family grocery store where everyone knows you.
I picked up some sausage and a couple steaks and was blown away at how good everything was. The meat blows away the overpriced place across the street that everyone raves about. Minelli’s is the best thing about my new neighborhood. I love it so much that my family has purchased me gift certificates from here for my birthday and Christmas.
When they moved to the new location in the Oak Mill mall they lost some of their charm but the friendly service and food is still just as good.

MMMMM… M. E. A. T. Heavy on the Italian choices, but they do carry some other selections. They will make your sausage to order… hot as hell if you want. Great steaks. The folks behind the counter are helpful. Weird location, though.

Came here over the weekend to buy some Italian sausage for our Labor Day BBQ. My in-​laws are Polish and always buy Polish sausage from Kurowski’s in Logan Square, so I decided this year I would spice things up with some HOT HOT sausage.
They have 4 levels of sausage heat @ Minelli’s: mild, medium, hot, and nitro (double hot). The butcher also told me they have triple and quadruple hot, but you have to order in quantities of 40lbs or more. Uh, yeah… no.
I went with the mild and the nitro, both ends of the spectrum to see what was what. The mild turned out to be too wimpy and I wish I would have gotten the medium, which the butcher did recommend as the perfect blend of sweet and spice. The nitro, however, call me crazy, I thought could have been even hotter. I like my foods super hot on most occasions, and while the nitro did pack a punch by the standards of others, no one was hyper ventilating or gasping for a glass of milk or water… come on, we ALL know how much fun that is to witness :) For my sake with the in-​laws though, I’m glad it didn’t result in any near death experiences!
I also ordered an Italian sub for myself on the way out too. The sandwich was terrific, it reminded me a tiny bit of Bari Foods down on Grand. The meat was fresh sliced and all the fixings were fresh from the bread to the veggies. If there was one little nitpick, I’d say my sandwich was a little on the oily side, but I did ask for hot gard so I knew what I was getting into.
I will be back sometime… not in a rush to get back b/​c, while the sausage was definitely good, it didn’t really blow me away. The staff here though is very nice and friendly, and they always steer you in the right direction and you can tell they have been doing this for years and pride themselves on it.

I love mom and pop places. I’ve been going there for years. They new location is in kind of a weird location inside a mall. They have the best meat. This is the only place to go to get steaks. I love all the family pictures on the walls. They treat you like family at Minelli’s.

Awesome place. Great sandwiches and staff.

The old place at 7780 Milwaukee is closed. They moved here a few years ago. I buy all my Italian sausage here. They have many levels of heat from mild to as hot as you want it. If your looking to hurt your buddies with some really hot sausage call ahead and they’ll make it as hot as you like. They have a great meat counter along with all sorts of frozen pasta selections. Lots of Italian sweets too. I just had a sub sandwich there yesterday and it’s going on my best sub list. Good crunchy bread, wonderful flavor and really good giardiniera. They also have hot lunch items as well. There are tables and chairs set up in the Oak Mill Mall. The people are friendly. Get there early during the holidays and beat the rush.

I had the Combo sandwich. Italian beef was okay, not amazing like someone else said. Quality of beef was good, but not a whole lot of flavor. Sausage was good, but undercooked like most places. I also had the 5 inch Italian sub. I enjoyed that the most. A nice little Italian deli with good people. I like the set up of this place. It’s like a little grocery store.
My Top 5 Italian Beef Sandwiches:
1. Mr. Beef & Pizza (Harlem and Irving)
2. Mr. Beef (Orleans Street in downtown Chicago, not related to Mr. Beef & Pizza from my knowledge.)
3. Johnnie’s (Elmwood park, Arlington Heights)
4. Portillo’s (Great flavor, but I don’t like the aftertaste, something about it, has slowly been making it’s way down my list)
5. Al’s Beef (It keeps growing on me every time I have it. I did not like it the first time because it was different.)
Consolation Prizes: These places all have above average beef sandwiches in my mind. I will list as many as I can remember. Duke’s Beef, Coach’s Corner, Bub’s Subs, Chickie’s, Joe Boston’s, Frannie’s, Pop’s Italian Beef and Sausage, Tony’s Deli, Nana’s, Nottoli’s, Tommy’s, Buona, Capt’n Nemo’s, Joseph’s Elegante, Augustino’s, Rammy’s, Teddy Fabs, Gina’s, Mr. A’s.
There are definitely places I have missed and places I have not been to yet. My list always changes, depending on if these places and my taste buds are having good days or bad days.

I visited around 3PM on a Saturday and I was really disappointed that the deli was practically empty. I realize that they were closing in about two hours but all they had in their deli was a few pounds of ground beef.
I wanted to use the Groupon I had so I looked at their frozen pre-​made meals. All I can say is that it’s very very pricey. I decided on a 5-​lb lasagna and it cost a whopping $ 25 + tax. I would have thought it was worth it, but the lasagna ended up tasting like a Sarah Lee lasagna, nothing more nothing less. If I hadn’t use my Groupon I would have been pretty upset. The rest of their prices were pretty high too, so I don’t think I’ll be returning.

My parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have been going to Minelli’s for many, many years. In my mind, it sets the «bar» for good Italian Grocery stores.
When I am away from Chicago, Minelli’s is one of the places that I remember and miss.