Mid-Michigan Dining

• 4849 W. 95th St.
• Oak Lawn, IL 60435
• (708) 425-6262
• Website
• Menu

Palermo's 95th in Oak Lawn, IL

This is a review I’ve been holding for a couple months.  Honestly, I forgot about it.  When I was in town for a job earlier in the year, my girlfriend’s parents took us out to dinner the night before.  We drove home this weekend to see my niece and whenever we head to my parents, we stop at J’s parents on the way.  We came in to Oak Lawn late Friday night and drove past Palermo’s 95th.  I remembered I never did a review so I got out and snapped a few pictures.

J has always said Palermo’s ruined her on pizza.  Nothing she’s had anywhere else has even come close to living up to the standard Palermo’s 95th set.  I thought she was being dramatic, but I’d give her the benefit of the doubt.  When her parents suggested we go to Palermo’s for dinner, I was up for the challenge.

Palermo’s is on 95th Street in Oak Lawn.  There’s parking behind the building, but if you’re not there early, good luck.  We stopped in for a late dinner on Saturday night.  We thought maybe we’d be ok since it was after 8:00, but we were wrong.  The wait was only about 15 minutes so it wasn’t bad.  Had we been earlier, we could have waited up to two hours for a table.

After the short wait, we were seated at a table in the dining room.  The tables are angled and the white table cloth is covered by a sheet of white paper for quick clean up.  The waitress came with our drinks but didn’t stick around for dinner orders, so we waited a little bit longer.  When the waitress did come back, we were ready and really hungry.

The entrance to Palermo's 95th in Oak Lawn, IL

J and I ordered a medium cheese pizza.  We got the medium thinking there would be some to bring home.  What we didn’t count on was me falling in love with this pizza.  It was just a cheese pizza so it shouldn’t have been that good, right?  Wrong!  This pizza was probably the best pizza I have ever eaten and the reason it was the best was the sauce.  It was such a sweet red sauce that it made me want to keep eating and eating and eating.  J only had four or five pieces, but I ended up eating almost 3/4 of the pizza.  I got down to the last three slices and forced myself to stop.  We ordered the medium to have a little left over so I left three pieces for lunch tomorrow.  I can see now why J is a pizza snob.  Palermo’s pizza was sooooooooo good.

J’s dad ordered the veal parmigana.  He got three big slices of breaded veal covered in marinara sauce and mozzerella cheese.  The meal was served on a bed of spaghetti.  He thought three pieces was too much and asked me if I wanted to try it.  Of course I did.  There was more breading than veal, but it was still really good. 

J’s mom got the eggplant parmigiana.  Just like the veal, the eggplant came breaded, topped with mozzarella and served on a bed of spaghetti.  Her parents eat her often and there’s a reason they keep coming back.  According to all three of them, everything on the menu is delicious. 

Palermo’s 95th lived up to the hype.  The pizza was the best I’ve ever had.  Service was a little spotty.  After walking away without taking our order things didn’t get a whole lot better.  J and I both got Coke’s to drink and they sat empty for a long time.  I even finished off the glass of water served with the meal before the waitress came back for drink refills.  Our bill was close to $80 with a couple of drinks.  The meal took about an hour, but they were still packed.  I can’t wait until the next time we end up in Oak Lawn just so I can get another Palermo’s pizza.  My girlfriend’s parents also get a sliced beef pizza…..something you can only find in Chicago and I can’t wait to try it.