AUUGHH!!! I'm in Toledo!
I went there last week. Being a pizza EXPERT, here's my review:
Deep dish Chicago pizza is hard to find east of Chicago---we have a place called "East of Chicago", but they serve the farthest thing from Chicago pizza. A proper deep dish pizza should have a 2" tall side crust, filled with "toppings", then covered with cheese, and then the sauce on top. Pizza Papalis has that---however the end result is so-so. If you've ever eaten at a top notch Chicago pizza place like
Ggiordanos, you build up an expectation: the closest thing to heaven in your mouth that you can experience. Buttery, garlic encrusted, flakey crust holding top notch ingredients and covered with a fantastic home made pizza sauce.
Pizza Papalis, based out of Detroit, only gets about half way there. They got the shape right, but the crust is basically flavorless holder for the innards. The cheese and toppings are decent, but the pizza sauce is a little bitter and the two pizzas we had were covered with oregano---so much that it overwhelmed both pizzas making them almost too seasoned to eat. Also, they have a lot of "specialty" pizzas, but they do not have a basic staple of Chicago: sausage, onion, and mushroom. You can get this combo custom made, but the end result makes for a more expensive pizza than their fully loaded VIP (which also does not include sausage). I think they need to do some pizza research there.
Oddly, their thin crust pizza was fantastic! Crisp cracker crust, flavorful sauce, generous toppings...I'd definitely go back for one.
Service was friendly, but a bit slow. Also, figure 45min-1 hour for a deep dish to cook, so plan on an appetizer. Pizza prices run $15-$25 depending on what you get.
Someone PLEASE open an awesome deep dish pizza place in NW Ohio---I'm getting ready to make a 4 hour trip to Chicago to get some!