Chicago Fire vs. Pizzeria Classico

In my hometown, there's a bit of a pizza competition going on. In Old Town Folsom, on Sutter St., there's two amazing pizza places right next door to each other. So, of course there's a fierce rivalry between the two: Chicago Fire vs. Pizzeria Classico. I've been to both of them and loved them each for different reasons, but decided to revisit them both in one week to decide which I like better.


Chicago Fire: At Chicago Fire, I ordered the small Caesar Salad. The dressing on the salad was too acidic and the lettuce didn't seem all that fresh. My mom and I shared a small Traditional Thin Crust Pizza, which was topped with fresh tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, parmesan and mozzarella cheese. The thin crust pizzas are cracker thin and have a nice crunch to them. The pizza tasted like a margarita pizza, and was perfect with a little crushed red pepper sprinkled on it. The pizza was amazing, and as I ate at Pizzeria Classico, I was thinking about this pizza!

We also ordered dessert, which was an item our server recommended that isn't on the menu: donut holes with a chocolate and caramel dipping sauce. Sadly, they weren't as good as I had hoped, the donuts weren't light and fluffy, but instead dense and probably made from pizza dough. Another advantage to Chicago Fire, is that there are multiple locations, and another to open at the Palladio Folsom in November of this year. 


Pizzeria Classico: A couple days later I went to Pizzeria Classico, and I knew the thing to order is their garlic chips, which are basically cheese breadstick slices.

Garlic Chips, dipped in ranch, were amazing!

I've heard this is the one thing to order when you go to Pizzeria Classico, or the half garlic, half pesto chips, which I have yet to try. We decided on the Rosemary Garlic Chicken pizza with the thin crust. It's made with roasted potatoes, chicken, rosemary, garlic, and alfredo sauce.

I thought the pizza would have been better with some roasted garlic cloves on top and the alfredo sauce couldn't be tasted. It was an interesting flavor combination, but I thought there were so many ways to make it have more flavor, and be less tasteless. Definitely will order a different pizza next time. Our service here was also not as good as at Chicago Fire. There weren't many of people there at the time, but our server took quite a while to take my card to charge it, and another server was the one to actual process it. Instead, most of the servers could be seen in the kitchen texting or chatting most of the time. I would prefer the service we had at Chicago Fire instead of Classico.


The pizza at Chicago Fire is a little cheaper, and I definitely liked what we ordered at Chicago Fire better. I did like that Pizzeria Classico has so many interesting flavor combination pizzas, with names like Stinkin' Rose, Marky Mark, and Club Med. Classico doesn't really have the classic flavor combos on their menu, you would instead have to make it yourself. Chicago Fire has less of these interesting combinations, but they have the classic ones on their menu. They also have stuffed pizzas on their menu, which I'll have to try sometime. Classico has pasta dishes on their menu, while Chicago Fire does not. 


I think for now, if I have a choice, I'll chose to eat at Chicago Fire. I'll need to go back and order the exact same pizza to really figure out which I liked better. Also, I need to try and compare their deep dish pizzas another time!