Who Has the Best Puff?

by HopsGrowler

36 Comments

  1. tiredhippo

    Me when I get off my ass, buy em and fry em in my kitchen.

  2. spaceace321

    Byron’s has my favorite, crunchy corners and soft middle YUM!!!

    Fun fact: I moved to Seattle five years ago and learned that pizza puffs are basically unknown throughout much of the country – I miss them dearly!

  3. BasedWang

    Joes BBQ doesn’t do much right….. But they sure know how to drop one of these ina fryer and provide the mild sauce

  4. dakind110

    IItaco are the OGs of the puff and still great when fresh out the fryer. Oops on the spelling

  5. Cheeseman_

    Jewel. The deli there knows how to fry them up perfectly and they’re on sale a lot

  6. petmoo23

    RIP Little Mel’s. They were the only place where the Iltaco puff they served you looked like the one on the poster.

  7. Pepperoncini69

    Does anyone else prefer the chewy doughy section of pizza puffs with almost no ingredients or am I a freak?

  8. optiplex9000

    Daisies does an incredible one with Puff pastry

  9. Foreign-Notice-4845

    Courthouse at 26th and California

  10. SlagginOff

    Burger Baron is right next to the Iltaco factory. It’s been a while but theirs were always pretty good.

  11. ChiGuy133

    I’d toss ricobenes into the conversation. Not the traditional pizza puff but far and away my favorite. More like a fried dumpling of pizza, but boy do those suckers hit

  12. YugoChavez317

    Dean’s Gyros in South Chicago Heights. Pizza puff and BG fries. Thank me later. 😉

  13. mmeeplechase

    Not sure, but I think it’s funny that this pic is “in the wild” 😅

  14. ElMonstro26

    Any hot dog joint that’s throwing an italco in a pool of oil that hasn’t been changed in years

  15. SupaDupaTron

    Just about any place that has fried chicken (like Harold’s), or those little greasy joints and sub shops, because I like mine fried with mild sauce.

  16. Conscious_Valuable90

    Does anyone remember the pizza freet? Buttons in Cicero had both the pizza puff and pizza freet. The freet dough was more of an empanada type. It was delicious.

  17. Zealousideal-Bite-67

    Herms Palace in Skokie has my favorite, Pete’s Red Hots in Oak Park is a close second for me.

  18. panda_zombies

    My vote is Super Submarine on Ashland. I don’t know why it’s better but it is. Plus they have the gyro puffs too.

  19. fowlmouth14

    There is a gas station south of blackjacks on 31 or 25 whatever road that’s on in the middle of nowhere that has every flavor of pizza puff ever created. This was about three years ago…I hope they are still open.

  20. lilbearpie

    Having flashbacks of Tom& Jerry’s in DeKalb, best puff I ever had

  21. yummyyummybrains

    Apparently The Freeze on Armitage has spinach and feta pizza puffs (spanikopuffs?). After going vegetarian, I can’t have OG pizza puffs, because of the sausage — and I don’t know of any places that have plain cheese. Dying to try it, but they’re closed for the season.

  22. FlyingDutchmansWife

    Duk’s on Ashland. They’re closing soon and will reopen under new management. Phodega has a good pizza puff too.

  23. skepticaljesus

    My wife is originally from Wisconsin, but we’ve lived in chicago for 15 years. But last week I mentioned something about Pizza Puffs and she said, “A what…?”

    I was like, “Stop everything. Stop the car, we need to go to the store, you’re not a real chicagoan yet.”

    Amazingly, the Tony’s carried pizza puffs, but didn’t have any that were just cheese (wife is a vegetarian), and neither did the next two stores we tried. It took a surprising amount of effort to find one she could actually eat.

  24. iced_gold

    Transplant Chicagoan here. Did Pizza Puffs predate Hot Pockets? I assume so.

  25. hsifder1

    Lived in Chicago for 25 yrs and never had one.

  26. corradizo

    Always wanted to start a pizza puff based restaurant that made different kinds. Then offer toppings like cheese fries. Sort of a reverse poutine. Fuck I’m hungry.

  27. NinongKnows

    Full disclosure: I know the family that ran it but Duff’s Dogs in Jefferson Park (closed years ago) was the only place I know of that sold every Iltaco pizza puff flavor. There’s about 13.

  28. OpalOnyxObsidian

    Lol Donald’s on western and the other Donald’s on central always gave us a good pizza puff.

  29. I like ’em from harold’s and dip them in hot sauce.

  30. theskyiscrape0514

    Back in high school, a bunch of us were sitting at the lunch table. For whatever reason, we got on the topic of going down on a girlfriend during that time of the month. This one guy insisted he’s done it several times and we all called bullshit. So he goes into the cafeteria and buys a pizza puff. He sits down and says, it’s something like this. He stuck his tongue through the pizza puff and I’ve never eaten one since.

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