The original Monical's Pizza in Tolono, IL, has a warm & wonderful hometown feel with fantastic thin crust pizza that's soft, yet crispy on the bottom and edges, with fresh ingredients and cheese piled on! I love their sausage, but any pizza that we order is obviously so good that we all end up eating way beyond the "I am so full" point!
Going to Monicals is a must every time we visit the area, we get our large family together and are seated in the back area that always looks clean and new. The owner is a wonderful man who always makes a point to come out and say Hello. The service is prompt even though they are always packed, the pizza is consistently so awesome that we always order more than we need so that we can take the rest home to eat a couple of "late nights" later.
We order several of the "Family Pleaser"s which include a big bowl of their "signature" salad and pitcher of soda each. I say "signature" salad, because it may sound simple, in a time where salads are comprised of mixed greens and elegant ingredients. It's simply a mix of iceberg lettuce (that's cut, instead of torn, extremely crisply shredded) and shreds of carrots & Colby cheese. It is a perfect pairing with the taste of the pizza, especially with their special Creamy Italian or iconic "Sweet & Tart" dressing (which is like a French dressing). I'm not a fan-minority, either because people order this dressing from Monicals.com and even Amazon. (Yes, we have, too.)
(They do have Ranch dressing as well. Their soda products are Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Sierra Mist and Mountain Dew, and they even have cute candy jars by the register. See my photos, including the open pizza oven area and wonderful back dining area. The quaint restroom is always clean as well.) read more