Should I restore without the log file?
Community wiki answer:

You can't restore without creating the log file that was there when the database was backed up, so no.

It makes sense to have the reporting system in simple recovery (and perhaps even in read only) but in order for that log file to be smaller than the production system (assuming it doesn't fit there and you can't restore the big log file and shrink it), you'll have to restore it somewhere else first, shrink the log file there, and take another backup.