Mista

It doesn't look like anyone has posted about this small pizza-centric restaurant on Broadway. I went there for the first time yesterday, and was impressed with the food and prices.

I had the ChixPotle pizza, which had a somewhat spicy roasted chicken on it. The crust was very thin--maybe a cross between naan and a cracker (and I mean that in a good way). Their mista salad was also very flavorful, with greens, apples, dried cherries, macadamia nuts, and feta.

The prices are very attractive--$13.75 for the large pizza, $5.45 for the salad, and $1 for a can of soda.

Mista
2931 N Broadway
(between Oakdale Ave & Wellington Ave)
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 698-6688

Hmmmm There's a Mista slotted to open on Clark St in Andersonville, just south of Balmoral. The awning says something like "pizza, roast chicken and wraps." I wonder if this is part of the same chain? And I wonder if we're going to hit some sort of pizza capacity in that 4 block stretch at some point? Oh well, I bet we will check it out once it opens.

bjt

I had a very nice if not envelope-pushing salad from them back whenever they first opened. My wife and son had pizza there yesterday and liked both the pizza, which as made to order to conform to my son's gustatory eccentricities, and what they described as lots of unforced, genuine niceness.

whoops just posted this in the openings and closings thread.

Chitown B wrote:There is a Mista opening at Clark and Balmoral between the tanning salon and Restoration.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mista-chicago

(that's the Lakeview one)

It's cracker crust pizza, some other italian things too - fresh, organic.

But seriously....... Great Lake is around the corner, Calo is almost next door, and a block south is Homemade Pizza Co. and across from that is Ranalli's.

I wish Andersonville would put in something besides pizza. We have more than enough already. I'm sure this will be good, and I like cracker crust - but we're oversaturated.

FYI the awning is now gone in a-ville.... Weird

Mista opened in A-Ville yesterday. I decided to be one of the first to try it. My review is here on Yelp:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mista-chicago-2

I added a lot of yummy photos, but here is just the review if you want -

User: Brian E

Like Jeff, I've been curious and awaiting opening day at Mista. There weren't any signs letting anyone know when that exactly was, I just happened to notice they were open while walking by today. Thought I'd give it a try.

I walked in and grabbed a takeout menu, which were photocopies since they don't have proper ones yet. Went to the store and picked out my pizza. I decided on the Chicken Potle pizza, which is spicy sauce, roasted chicken, fresh cilantro, provelone and EVOO. Almost all of their pizzas feature extra virgin olive oil. I chose whole wheat crust, which is provided free of charge.

The staff were very friendly (I believe I ordered from the owner) and since there wasn't much hoopla I wasn't surprised to only see two people seated at the tables. My large pizza took 8 minutes from ordering to in my hands.

Got home and took pictures, which I uploaded here. The whole wheat crust had a crispy edge, but in the middle seemed droopy, more like a pita texture. It is tasty though, and I think the "cracker crust" they are known for is probably more towards the regular type since maybe wheat doesn't get that crunchy. The chicken was generous, the sauce was just spicy enough and tasty (I was told I could get it more or less spicy, but it came at about a "medium." The cheese was not greasy, and was just enough with the fresh cilantro giving good flavor and not too overbearing.

The place is small, with enough room for maybe 15 people tops. All in all, I was pleased and it was not overly expensive. More than pizza hut, but less than Calo. Also, their wraps all looked very reasonable price-wise. I'll be back to give other things a try. Enjoy!

had Mista again last night as a quick dinner. They are so FAST. I walked in and ordered a large sausage ($10) and a Broadway salad with chicken ($6) and a cannoli. Everything was great, and $20 for two people to get full. Took about 10 minutes tops for everything to go.

I'm very impressed with the food quality and personal service.

I've been going to the orig. Broadway outpost a bit lately. Seems like a very nice, reliable, wallet-friendly place for a quick light bite. Very friendly staff. Good prices. I haven't actually tried the pizza yet, but wife and son were very happy with it. I've been getting the wraps to go, and they were very generously portioned, but also filled with real care, balance, and proportion in the ingredients. The Italian one (I forget its official name) was a really nice balance of fresh and properly dressed greens with enough meat to make you feel that you'd eaten something, but not just a meat brick in a tortilla, as those can sometimes be. It's nice to be able to get a cold Limonata or Aranciata to wash it down as well. All in all, well suited to the neighborhood. Wish them well.
Frankly, the whole "wrap" genre doesn't really move me (unless I'm in a Mexican place getting an actual burrito). I'd just as soon have a sandwich on good bread, and they don't seem to do that. But these were as good as could be under the circumstances.

My first experience with this local chain came at their downtown location. I had a hankering for pizza, but didn't feel like Giordano's or the other usual downtown spots. The magic of Google and my smartphone pointed me in their direction. I realize this might be regarded as being damned by faint praise, but they are, without question, the best thin-crust pizzas available for take-out in the Loop.

I'm a sucker for pesto pizza, so that's what I opted for on the first day. The thin, cracker crust is nicely charred on the bottom, and they thankfully avoid my pet peeve of over-cheesing. To the contrary, they had an outstanding best balance of crust, sauce, and cheese - a completely unexpected finding for what was essentially a fast-food purchase downtown.

Unfortunately, they overdid it with the salt & roasted garlic toppings. It makes me think that they already salted & included garlic with the pesto, and didn't account for it when they added the roast garlic & cheese. I'm still relatively new here, so you'll have to take my word for it when I say that it takes an awful lot of garlic to get me to complain about it.

The margherita pizza was pretty darned tasty. Again, the crispy char on the crust stole the show, but the one thing holding it back - perhaps unsurprisingly, given the season - was the tomatoes. They just didn't have any of that regular tomato tang to cut against the basil or the cheese. Nevertheless, it's nice just to have this as an option for lunch downtown. I love the classic Chicago pizzas as much as anyone, but I tend to lapse into a coma after eating some. That's just not very conducive to working after lunch.

Finally, the regular, cheese pizza. There's not much to add to the description. The crust was as tasty as ever, they didn't overload it with cheese or sauce, and everything balanced nicely. And since it's roughly 1/2 the price of their 'signature' options, it's a worthy staple for lunch at the office.

All things considered, I had a very positive experience at Pizza Mista. I refuse to get into a battle over the one true style of pizza, so I won't make any comparisons to Spacca Napoli, Pizza Rustica, or any of the other myriad pizza joints around the city. Just let it suffice to say that they made some very tasty food, and I'm glad to have them downtown.

There's no such thing as having too many good pizza options; I hope others enjoy it, too, and they continue to expand.

Pizza Mista
3 Chicago Locations:
2931 N Broadway
5351 N Clark
134 N LaSalle

I tried it the other day and it's pretty good!
I decided to try a basic cheese and sausage thin crust thinking if they can't get this right there's no point on exploring any further.
Not bad at all - nice crispy crust, decent sausage. Didn't relly care too much for the sauce but it wasn't offensive.
At $5.99 for basic pizza it's a good option in the loop - I was at the one at 134 N LaSalle.