Al's Beef

Write a Review847-825-2345

CLOSED NOW - Opens at 9:00am

VISIT...

Visited this Al's & Nancy's location for the first time - not too far from our house in Des Plaines. Bought a Groupon, believing good food / service, being familiar with other Nancy's pizza locations.



LOCATION...

The facility is good sized for up to small groups. Clean, with two large TV's playing college football games at the time of our visit.



FOOD...

Purchased an Italian Beef combo meal with upgrade to Onion Rings, and a Tamale Boat to share with my wife for a quick lunch. Later ordered a Nancy's Pizza for dinner.



Beef was dry, gritty and had only OK flavor. Serving size was only adequate for one - note we tried to split into 3" halves. Hot pepper giardiniera ordered on the side, however, were outstanding! How 'bout a meal of peppers?! ;)



Onion Rings were very good, and a decent serving size. Real rings with a nice, thick batter. Not healthy, I'm sure, but very tasty.



Tamale Boat was inexpensive, and still not worth the price. Pasty texture with very generic, almost canned flavor. Fair amount of bland chili poured over, but we kept pushing the last bite back and forth for the other to eat.



Pizza ordered later for evening was very good! (Ordered NORTHERN ITALIAN VEGGIE PIZZA: Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic, Black Olives and Fresh Basil) Sauce and toppings were very good, but the thin crust lacked character and flavor. Very basic.



SERVICE...

The male employee was polite in taking our lunch order, but when I asked about the combo price - full price for all individual items - he told me that this was because of a Groupon. When asked about it, he made like he was being patient, but really wasn't very friendly explaining the extra costs. The combo is another 'special'. No problem, but he needed to say something at the time of the order, and be far more polite when addressing customer concerns.



The female employee taking my pizza order was wonderfully friendly. She offered advice on the limitations of a Groupon, and smiled the whole time.



LAST WORD...

Al's Beef & Nancy's Pizza is NOT the place to go for beef! Many other outstanding beef places in the area! Pizza's are good, but there are other Nancy's locations, as well as many other great pizza places, not far away. If it's convenient, stop in for pizza and to watch a game.