17 responses so far ↓

• 1 trevista // May 5, 2008 at 4:28 pm

  don’t go here for the pizza; go for the quick-somebody-grab-me-some-lipitor comfort food dishes.

• 2 M // Jun 3, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  5 stars for the pizza, 0 stars for the service.

  Great pizza (haven’t tried the sides) and a great place to get Wisconsin/Midwest beer.

  We’ve gone back a few times because of the food, but each time leave really disappointed at the horrible service. The two or three young women who are working on Friday or Saturday night are by far the most inattentive servers around.

• 3 some guy // Jun 14, 2008 at 11:37 am

  horrible food, worse service. every other pizza restaurant in ballard is better even snoose junction with their pizza rotating behind glass, gags station style.

• 4 Bella // Jun 15, 2008 at 5:37 pm

  Wow, I ate here on a Saturday and the food was really good, and no problem at all with the service, even though we were out back where it would be easy to forget about us.

• 5 tp_ballard // Jun 23, 2008 at 1:00 pm

  This place has the worst food and service is Ballard (tied with Lombardi’s in my opinion). I have been there three times in the past few months due to some time constraints during the day while other restaurants were too busy. That is our first clue - it’s always easy to get a seat in Zayda Buddy’s.

  The service is very slow. The servers seem understaffed and preoccupied with other things. They are always out of their highly-publicized Midwestern beers. These beers have never been available on my visits. The food is very overpriced for the quality and portion. Take a look at the ($11) chicken caesar salad - it’s airport food-service quality. The sandwiches are low-quality, the sides are not very tasty, and the pizzas are just okay.

  You can tell that the owners are having trouble keeping this restaurant afloat. They are always 86ing items for the day, beer is missing, food quality and portioning are reduced and the waitstaff is inattentive. Check your bill - they also nickel and dime you for sides/extras/refills now. They are owned by the same folks that own TopPot donuts. I’m not sure that they understand how to run a full service restaurant.

• 6 Jamie // Jun 23, 2008 at 3:04 pm

  5 of us went on Saturday night and loved this place! I’m glad we didn’t have similar service issues as other posts, in fact our server was pretty well on top of it, replacing beers quickly and offering suggestions on the menu. She did forget one of our appetizers, but none of us noticed until we had left (we didn’t miss it since we all over-ordered and she didn’t charge us for the wings). Overall very yummy! We’ll be back!

• 7 LM // Jun 24, 2008 at 8:35 pm

  It’s no wonder we have no good pizza places in Seattle when people feel this way about good pizza. This is probably the best pizza up here. There are actually plentiful toppings, cheese and taste.
  Whatever else, just have a beer and relax. (I’ve never had a problem getting a midwest beer here and I go all the time.)

• 8 JR // Jun 27, 2008 at 8:41 am

  Terrible and aloof service, took too long to get food so we left. C’mon we live in Seattle (great micros), Midwestern beers?!?…sorry I’ll get my Grainbelt at a St. Paul Saints game for cheap.

• 9 MB // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:24 am

  I agree with LM. This is hands down the best pizza in Ballard. They use ‘real’ ovens (no conveyor belts-Snoose), high quality cheeses and tangy sauce with a light, slightly flaky crust, and not under cooked (i.e. darkened cheese spots)…. real pizza!!!

  Seattlites get too caught up into whether they can have a goat cheese-chicken-pesto toppings and miss the point of pizza. Visit- Italy, NY, Chicago and you will learn it is all about three things- crust, sauce, cheese….

• 10 tp_ballard // Aug 4, 2008 at 5:28 pm

  I grew up in a large East coast city - downtown, not the suburbs. The pizza at Zayda Buddy’s is not anything like that. This pizza advertises itself as “Midwestern”. I would agree - it’s like pizza you would find in Kansas, not Chicago.

  Let’s stop the owner/staff postings on the restaurant boards.

• 11 M // Aug 11, 2008 at 12:12 pm

  Awesome pizza - but not worth the Worst Service Ever

• 12 MB // Aug 12, 2008 at 7:35 am

  Full disclosure-

  Not an owner, not a staff member…. just know good pizza from bad having grown up working in pizza houses in Chicago.

  Zayda’s is good.

• 13 walruslord // Aug 13, 2008 at 5:19 pm

  Went the other night with a mid-sized group. Didn’t encounter any issues with the service, other than the pizza taking a while to come out. That’s what happens if you order something that has to be cooked in an oven I guess.

  The pizza was excellent, I’m originally from NY so I have certain expectations for pizza claiming to be NY style, and I’ve been to Chicago a bunch so same for that kind. I was pleasantly surprised by the pizza here, I have no idea if it is authentic midwestern or not, but I do know it’s damn tasty. Like the above poster said, it’s all about sauce/cheese/dough, and if they aren’t right it doesn’t matter how many candied walnuts or potatoes are on the thing, it’s not good pizza.

  The crust was great, the sauce was very solid, there was something different about it compared to most pizzas but I couldn’t quite figure it out. Either way it was great sauce. The cheese was great as well, and in good proportion. Loved the square cut style.

  Great place for a meet-up with a bunch of friends when you are jonesing for a good pizza you can all share.

• 14 Tre // Aug 25, 2008 at 6:28 am

  I grew up in Minnesota and this is exactly like the pizza we would get at the local pizza joint, and I love it. There is no reason to compare this to a Chicago style pizza. Chicago has its own unique style.

  There are already a ton of local bars offering local micro brews. If you want local, then go to 99% of the other bars in town. Some of us like variety and welcome an establishment that makes an effort to do their own thing. Lacking local distribution for Minnesota beer it is understandable that there might be complications in keeping it stocked all of the time.

• 15 Jimmy // Sep 5, 2008 at 11:15 pm

  Lot of boring posts from the owners/employees. Service - average. If I were the owner though, I would spend more time firing unhelpful employees or making a customer happy in the store rather than trying to win over people that are just reading what others experienced.

  This place has a nice atmospher and the pizza is decent (not amazing, but not bad - tasty even). If you want to slum it with cheap basic american beer ok. No one, unless it is due to nostalgia actually prefers to drink this type of beer for any other reason other than it is wet.

• 16 bean // Sep 22, 2008 at 8:24 am

  best pizza in seattle hands down. although thats not a hard accomplishment in this city. Great Pizza!

• 17 Stephen // Oct 18, 2008 at 5:41 pm

  GREAT pizza. As for the service, I guess it’s fine enough - I don’t remember thinking it was bad. But it was a little weird - they gave us about 4,000 napkins. (But if they’re going to be weird about napkins, more is better than fewer!) Now that I think of it, the server seemed unfazed when I told him the flatware was dirty. He replaced it, but it would have been nice if he had said, “Oh! I’m really sorry.” He just said “OK” and replaced it…odd. So, bottom line, great pizza, a bit of a weird experience…kind of like Minnesota! (where I grew up)

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