« Ballard Restaurants

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• trevista
  don't go here for the pizza; go for the quick-somebody-grab-me-some-lipitor comfort food dishes.
• M
  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.
• some guy
  horrible food, worse service. every other pizza restaurant in ballard is better even snoose junction with their pizza rotating behind glass, gags station style.
• Bella
  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.
• tp_ballard
  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.
• Jamie
  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!
• LM
  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.)
• JR
  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.
• MB
  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....
• tp_ballard
  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.
• M
  Awesome pizza - but not worth the Worst Service Ever
• MB
  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.
• walruslord
  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.
• Tre
  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.
• Jimmy
  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.
• bean
  best pizza in seattle hands down. although thats not a hard accomplishment in this city. Great Pizza!
• Stephen
  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)
• scrumbum
  poor, inattentive service. food is hit or miss. beer selection: cheap midwestern + korean, wtf? done with this.
• ballard bilge
  I have to agree with Scrumbum on this one. The service is, by far, the worst i've ever experienced. As far as the beers go, they are always out of their staple midwest beer and their small tap selection is lacking local beers but there is Hite, a crappy Korean beer not worth the piss it creates
• Worst of Seattle
  Is this place still in business?!
  
  If you want the worst food and service in Seattle, give it a try.
  
  You'll get to wait 20 minutes to be seated in the nearly empty space while the stoned waitress stumbles around looking confused. She will often look right at you then shuffle away to begin another task which is forgotten before it actually starts. Eventually the entertainment portion of the four hour show ends, and you will be escorted about five feet to one of the empty tables.
  
  Then, if you order pizza, you'll get some sort of heavily sweetened tomato and onion stew on top of bread. Don't ask if they brought you the wrong thing though. They will insist that they actually brought you pizza.
  
  Have fun!
• luzma
  I don't understand how they are still in business???
• FuManShoes
  Wow, either I am extremely lucky or can't recognize a bad restaurant. I've been to this place several times and have had a good experience most every time. Their mac n cheese is to die for and the pizza was good enough. I relish the lack of pretention in the place compared to what's happening elsewhere in the hood. The service was fine. The fact I trudged through the snow to warm up in Zayda's should tell you either I'm crazy or this place is worth a try.
• s_marie
  Not impressed. Service was awful. Pizza just ok. I mean better than Snoose, but not by much. Maybe I am clouded so much by the fact that the service was so horrid. They need more than 2 people working a Friday night, maybe the owners are cheap, I don't know. I think it is just hurting them in the long run though!
• b lite
  We ate there the other night with our kids. Service was very friendly & attentive. We really liked the pizza.
• SPG
  I went twice about a year ago. Hands down the absolute worst in this whole town. How bad? I still get pissed off just walking by and seeing they're still there. Maybe they've gotten better, but I'm not taking the chance to find out.
• JustMe
  We eat here all the time. I love the pizza. Maybe it is because it has cheese on it or that I like squares. I think they would be better off not trying to be a bar and admit that it is a great place to eat with my kids and we all leave satisfied.
• SunsetGirl
  We went last week and the mac and cheese we ordered for our 2 year old was absolutely delicious - I love the dorito-type topping! I also like their pizza - the crust is very crackery, which kind of reminds of Pizza Hut pizza from my childhood (1970's) and that's a good thing. Oh how I wish we could have stayed for the s'mores, but we had to catch a movie.
• Roadkill
  It takes a while to arrive at the taable, but by far the best pizza I have had in Seattle. I am biased because I am originally from the midwest and prefer that style any day over the typical (pagliacci, papa johns, etc) stuff around town. That was one of the biggest (or the only) things I missed from back there and this place is spot on.
• Fauxnothing
  My daughter and I went here for supper on a Sunday evening. It was Mother's Day, so we weren't surprised to find it mostly empty, as it doesn't seem to be a Mother's Day kind of place. Our server was very attentive from beginning to end, so no complaints there. We both ordered a Bloody Mary. The drinks were perfect, just the right amount of spice, with lots of pickled veggies and a cheese curd, served with a lager chaser. Our pizza had a nice thin crust, was served very hot, and cut into squares, which are so much easier to eat than huge slices. We also ordered the bratwurst, which was absolutely delicious. All in all, we were pleased and will return.
• KCrest
  Came in for the Hamm's, fell in love with the fries in gravy, coming back for the casserole. The pizzas feature adventurous combinations (Border Patrol: canadian bacon, pineapple, fresh jalapenos; Buffalo Chicken; etc.), a crazy slicing methodology, and crispy thin crust.
  
  The side dishes are where the fun is at. Plus, the salad has a unique beet/garbanzo bean/spicy topping.
• Silver
  I've only been once, with my sweetie, and we both liked the food and the service. Guess we got lucky!
• Sarah
  I love this place! The pizza is great and the service is good too!