Papa Ray’s Pizza & Wings

The food is OK… Don’t order the Eli’s cheesecake. I paid $ 3.00 for generic cheesecake that tasted like it was in the refrigerator for too long. The chicken tenders were ok. The pizza and ribs are decent, though.

Monster cheesecake brownie is totally worth the [Grubhub] price! Super rich and lasted me a few days. The cheesy garlic bread was pretty good too, almost reminded me of Gumbys during my college days! Delivery time was sufficient and arrived relatively on time… That cheesecake brownie though! I will order from here again, need to test the sauce once more before I try the pizza

Ordered for delivery forgot sodas, food terrible. Pizza had enough grease to lube every door in the city and th chicken wings were dry and tasteless. Needless to say I won’t be ordering again.

Ordered a large order in advance. When I went to pick it up, it wasn’t ready. So I had to wait for it.
Placed a large order of wings, yet celery and sauce was extra. I’ve never been charged extra for that from another restaurant! In addition to that, the soda that came with the lunch special I ordered was left out.
I will never return to this place again! Don’t know how they keep customers with horrible service like this!

We order from Papa Rays regularly and their pizza and wings are always good. I like the spicy wings (battered) and the sausage and pineapple pizza.
they have good service and don’t outsource delivery which is great.

I ordered Papa Ray’s this past weekend, and it was decent. My favorite part about the pizza was the crust. It wasn’t too crunchy and wasn’t too soft. My one gripe about the pizza was that the toppings seemed to have moved prior to being put in the oven. There were a couple of slices that hardly had any toppings on them, while others were loaded down with veggies on the vegetarian pizza.
Delivery was quick and the driver was nice as he dropped off the food. I’m not sure about the quality of the wings or sides, as I only ordered pizza.
Overall, this place is right in the middle of all the Chicago pizza places that I’ve tried.

Just had the nastiest pizza I think I have ever tried in all my days of being a pizza eater, no exaggeration. Papa Rays made and delivered me a bbq chicken pizza I couldnt even eat while Im drunk. ⁰⁄₁₀ wouldnt recommend or try again.
P.S– Did you guys ever even try your bbq chicken pizza recipe before you started selling it?

Somewhere between Eek and Meh, at least for delivery. I ordered pizza from here about a month ago through Grubhub. When the estimated arrival time came and went, we called in and were on hold for like 20 minutes. My husband was probably kind of complain-​y on the phone, and the person he was talking to was like «What do you want, a refund?» So my husband was like, «…yeah.» They said they’d give us a refund and it would post in a few days. We got the food about another 20 minutes later, and of course, it was cold. We had to get the refund through Grubhub.

Wanted to like this place, and they do have good pizza. So if you’re looking for pizza, this is good. These two stars related to delivery ordering.
Wings were nothing special. They didn’t taste frozen, but ½ of ours were over cooked and tough. Here’s the two star deal.
Ordered a pizza and got the wrong ingredients on it. Normally doesn’t bother me but the gf was pissed. When we called back, they knew they put the wrong stuff on it before we mentioned it. You knew you sent the wrong stuff???
Said they’d credit us for the pizza. Didn’t credit us for the pizza. Two stars for saying you’ll do something and not doing it.

Ordered a 12″ bbq chicken pizza online for $ 16 + $ 3 delivery. The chicken is not «real»: probably chicken meat. They were skimpy with toppings and the quality of the cheese is truly not good. The bread was soaked in bad quality oil. NYC’s $ 1 slices are paradise compared to this.

I’ve ordered from here several times. I’ve never been too impressed. Tonight was the final straw. I ordered a cheese pizza, simple as it gets. I got my pizza THREE HOURS LATER. After two hours of waiting I called the place and they put me on hold for ten minutes. They explained they got a rush and were behind but my pizza was on its way. That means my food was in some guys backseat for an hour. I got cold pizza. Not luke-​warm pizza, cold pizza. I literally had to heat the pizza in the oven after I got it. There is no excuse for this. An operation that can’t handle a rush has no right to remain in business. I want my money back. I feel guilty tipping the delivery guy so well over grubhub. The people in charge of this location should be embarrassed.

Pizza is pretty good, but every experience I’ve had, the wait it at least double the amount than quoted. Was told 10 – 20 minutes tops… it’s been 40 and I’m still waiting. I’ve waited an hour and a half once. I get it, sometimes you get swamped, but surely you can guestimate peak hours.

I really like the pizza. I saw it compared to Papa John’s somewhere on here and that almost scared me away from trying it. It in no way resembles that hideous disc of dog dirt that Papa John’s calls «pizza». We got «The Works» pizza. The crust is very nice and crunchy and the ingredients were fresh and tasty. Especially the pepperoni! Fantastic!
We also got an order of Mac & Cheese. We got a large which I believe is weighed approximately 22 lbs. You could feed half of Chicago’s homeless with an order of this stuff. Pretty tasty too.
All in all we really likes this place and we will be back!

I’m new to the area and the gigantic sign shouting 50 Cents Wings on Tuesdays demanded my attention. I gave in and walked on in. Short wait time and was helped within 5 mins. The worker was fantastic! He gave me a quick run down of the wings situation (Orders of 5 for the special rate) and so I got 10 wings and a side of fries. The Teriyaki and BBQ sauces were fine, nothing out of the ordinary, and the wing sizes were great! The worker even tossed me a free drink which I was very glad for. Fries were yummy and fresh out. Thanks again!

I’ve been driving by the sign in the window for «Tuesday 50 Cent Wings» for a year. Today I stopped and tried some. I’m a fried chicken purist, so I opted for «plain», (as opposed to buffalo, suicide, parm/​garlic, etc).
To their credit, the wings were cooked to order, and served minutes out of the fryer. The coating was very crispy, but flavorless. «Plain» was an understatement. No salt, No pepper. Totally unseasoned. These were not the Jumbo wings advertised on the menu, they were wing «drumette» segments.
Moral of the story, U get what U pay for. Fifty cent wing drumettes from Papa Rays were not all that. If ur in Uptown, with a fried chicken fix, head over to Jakes on the corner of Sheridan and Montrose!

I give 5 stars bc… every time I order from there my food was delivered on time and still fresh. And there garlic parmesan chicken wings r the best I’ve ever had. And they r jumbo… like not tinys wings from this other pizza places. The flavor is awesome;)
My husband loves the hot wings. Pizza and wings from papa rays is a good combo together. If i could but i know my hubby wouldn’t let me… I would eat here 5 days a week lol.
Keep up the great work guys!!!

On a late night if you looking for something quick and something to help you sober up from a night of drinking. I would recommend Papa Rays. The jumbo slices are the best and I always get a cheese and mushroom slice. However I would not recommend you go to this location really late at night by yourself because you are very likely to get robbed. It’s a lot of sketchy people walking around in that area a lot. Just be aware of your surroundings. Overall two thumbs up for their pizza slices.

Come for the takeout, leave before you get shot.
Papa Ray’s is ok! They’re cheap, which is a huge plus in my book for your standard slice of pizza joint. You can get a monstrous slice of pizza with your choice of toppings and a soda and not break your wallet doing so. The wings are pretty damn good, but could be crispier so I can’t really recommend them too much. Their shining star, however, is their customer service. From the order takers to the counter staff the guys there are really friendly and accommodating. They find ways to say yes to special requests and go out of their way to make sure you’re happy. Rare in this day and age.
Negative is the area. You just don’t feel safe around that corner and for actual verifiable reasons. People get shot there. It’s always drug related but bullets tend to ignore who they hit so I always try and get in and out as fast as possible. Again, love the food but leave before trouble starts brewing from someone beefing over turf.

Oh where to start with Papa. My old roommate and I were probably one of their top customers from 2011 – 2013. If you live in Chicago, you know that sometimes people walk around and leave menu’s in your mailbox or on your gate randomly, Well, we had a policy that was basically if you leave a menu for us, we’re going to try your restaurant. That’s how we found the Papa.
Papa Ray’s had a great stretch there for awhile. Their thin crust sausage pizza’s were hot, fresh, quick and when requested, square cut. That right there bothered me a little, as I think all thin crust pizza’s should be square cut. But, I can live with requesting it as long as it comes that when I do request it. From time to time they would screw that up and that would REALLY grind my gears.
Over the years it seems like the Papa has started slacking on their quality, both in quality of pizza and quality of service. Their pizza’s have come cold, not as ordered, and much slower.
I don’t want to say it’s not worth a try, because it is. But, I don’t want to say that I recommend it because you could easily have a bad experience, and let’s be honest when ordering a pizza, no one wants that. That’s the quickest route to ruining a day and starting a fight in the house over absolutely nothing.
I thought about giving the Papa 2 stars, but I went with 3 because I had a good year or so with them and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I haven’t ordered with them recently, as I’ve found a better and far more consistent place.
PS — The only other menu item I’ve tried is their mac n cheese, and typically it’s really good. But, just like the pizza, it’s not consistent. This place is way more confusing than it should be.

This is a great example of how social media and web marketing can work for a business. Two details that could be negatives for them are location and the appearance of their store front. I’m sure the one word descriptor that rolls of most Chicagoans tongues is «ghetto». If the front had a fresh coat of bright paint, luring signage and alluring marketing, it wouldn’t look so, so, tattoo parlor like. But it does and it would probably turn away most newbies. Not unless you took a closer look and noticed the Unilocal sticker.
A quick synopsis shall I? Per signage inside and local talk, the stuff cooked and prepared here is all fresh. Pretty wild right? I know I have passed this place before and wondered whether it served a decent slice or whether it was garbage and I usually judged them based on their exterior appearance. Today was different, since I was willing to allow the carbs, I went for it. Try something new right!
So, if I were to believe their signage here’s what it says. Dough is made fresh in house and their sauce is made daily. Rib tips are home made and the chicken wings are made from fresh meat not frozen. A patron had just ordered a wing combo and I got to see them served. They were still piping hot and looked delicious. My mouth salivated as I took quick glances.
For moi I ordered a monster slice and the 1 lb rib tips combo which comes with a drink. It was clearly more than I could eat but it was enough to last two meals. The combo had fewer than ten pieces of rib but were mostly larger tips which were served over a bed of fries. The monster slice needed its own box. Pretty damn huge indeed, there were two thin slices which equaled a large slice. I’ll post pizza porn later, so make sure you check it out. About the slices; they are thin crust and large enough that you’ll use two hands to navigate it into your pie hole. Nice crust and a nice chew to the dough. Sauce is good and the slice overall is tasty. Pricing is inexpensive and most can make it out of there spending less than ten dollars and feeling full.
Looking back over my review the only positive I forgot to add was that they close at 2 am. Dude. freshly prepared food till 2 am! Wonderful.
Some free parking is available in the lot South of the restaurant. Parking spaces are marked.