ida — Restaurant in Burlington

I have been to Ida three times. Each experience made me want to go back less.

First Time Ordered a square pie to go. With pepperoni. Ordered over the phone, waited about 30min once I got there. Was charged 20% gratuity which I knew about (from many reviews) and I just assumed this was owner's way of discouraging take-out and instead driving people to eat his pizza fresh in the restaurant. So I paid it. We enjoyed the pizza and I felt like I understood the hype. I like square pies and we really enjoyed it. But the high prices and weird gratuity policy made it clear this wasn't going to be somewhere I go without a special occasion.

Second Time I had a couple friends visiting from out of town. We all grew up outside Philly, where good pizza is all over, and I felt like Ida was worth taking them to even by our hometown standards. My one friend is a chef who specializes in breads and pastries, so I thought he'd appreciate the high quality ingredients. This time I wanted to get the dine-in experience since I assumed the owner was intent that people experience his pizza live and in person. And being a special occasion I was ready to throw down some money. We ordered our pizzas and then after that it was really kind of a downhill experience. The owner is clearly very proud of his pizza, his ingredients, his skills, his wine, etc. But when it comes to serving it, he really couldn't care less. We ordered a $65 bottle of wine. If owner is charging market prices for his wine, he's overpaying or making bad choices. But anyway, if you are going to make a point of literally typing on your menu, "This wine is near market price and is just very good wine." you probably should at least make an effort to serve it to people. Instead we had a waxed-top bottle put in front of us with a cork screw, and a bunch of empty wine glasses. Similarly when plates and silverware were brought out they were just left in a pile at the end of the table. Spoiler: there is mandatory 20% service charge if you eat in also! The pizza the second time was solid. I again like the square pie but it wasn't quite as good as my first visit. Still high marks though. The brooklyn style pizza was nice, and definitely getting it fresh and crispy is the right move. My friends and fiance all preferred this over the square pie. We also had a serviing of meatballs which were excellent. In the end I think we dropped a little over $200 on this meal for four people. Verdict from my out of town friends was that it's solid pizza but totally overpriced by any standard. There are some EXCELLENT pizza places down in Philly and NYC serving up pies of the same caliber as this place, but not for $50/pie. $30 would probably be a more palatable price point.

Third Time My brother was visiting. I wanted to take him and a few friends here. Again, despite bad service experience I steeled myself to drop another few hundred on a pizza dinner for friends. I walked in around 6:45 (before sunset) and asked if we could get a table for five people (to eat pizza). He said he was out of food, which is a confusing thing to have happen at a pizza restaurant where the owner literally puts his ingredients on display. But I shrugged and was going to leave and then he says, "I can make you pizzas to go." I just left at the point. The whole point was to sit down and eat together. Pizza to go was not really what we wanted. And I sure as shit wasn't going to pay 20% gratuity to be metaphorically shitted on by the owner again.

If you are in BTV area, and have never left VT you can just skip this place. You won't appreciate the pizza vs the price. If you are from out of state and live here, and really love pizza, this place might be worth checking out. If you are from Philly and like bad attitudes with your food this place might remind you of home a bit.

Would I go back? Not if I'm paying. Honestly, wouldn't shock me if the owner looks up my name and blacklists me for this review. Couldn't care less. Will save some money for next time I'm in...

I guess my original review got taken down because I was too mean (womp womp). Long story short, pizza is overpriced. Owner is incredibly rude. When we were a bit taken aback by the pricing (reasonable reaction, given that he’s charging $40 for a cheese pizza) he rudely told us to get outside and gave us the finger on the way out. Clearly has a huge ego and thinks he’s the center of the universe, but also has a very thin skin.

UPDATE here's the original review that I wrote, which I actually had a great time writing:

I almost never write reviews, but our experience here was so bad that I feel like I should. This past Saturday night we checked out Ida. I've never been to a restaurant where the owner is so full of themselves and rude. You're not the main character bro. First of all, $40 for a normal sized pizza is absurd. We weren't aware of how expensive the pizzas were until we got there, and we were all a bit shocked.

While we were debating if we should eat there, I said out loud what we were all thinking: "I don't want to pay $40 for a pizza." The owner's response was to incredibly rudely tell us to get out of there, along with a dirty look, and flipping us off. I've never had the owner/manager of a restaurant be so blatantly rude, and it comes off to me as incredibly tone deaf to be offended by the fact that people are taken aback by the idea of paying that much money for a normal sized pizza. I've been to some incredible pizzerias around the country and around Europe, and I don't think I've ever paid more than $25 or so for a full pie.

It's also pretty weird to be charging that much money when your pizzeria is literally located in a back alley next to a bunch of dumpsters, but this is appropriate given how bad of an experience we had. It's worth noting that the pizzas didn't even look very good. The aesthetic of the place is also weird. It looks like you just walked into a combination of a little kid's play room and a hippie prayer center or something. It didn't help that the owner smelled like weed.

We were all pretty pissed off by how poorly we were treated, but were very entertained to find afterwards that there is an instagram account (with over 500 followers) dedicated to hating on this arrogant pizza owner, due to similar experiences. I feel very validated in all of these opinions and criticisms, given that the vast majority of reviews we saw after the fact shared similar sentiments.

It's worth noting that this place was the only place we found that was pretty much completely empty on a Saturday around 8pm. At first we thought this was a plus, as we wanted to eat relatively quickly. However, within about 20 seconds it became glaringly apparent why the place was empty. It's pretty amazing to me that this guy's business survives, as I'm sure most if not all of the local college students hate him and can't go there because, similar to us, they are on college student budgets. Then again, when you charge ridiculous prices for pizza you probably only need to scam three to four people a day into buying one of your pizzas in order to get by. Pricing out college students in a college town. That's a bold strategy cotton, let's see if it pays off for them!

Long story short, we have no idea how good or bad their pizza is, but avoid Ida because the prices are absurd, and the owner is arrogant, rude, and thinks he's the center of the universe. If I could give a review with zero stars, or negative...

If I was on death row, pizzeria Ida would be my last meal on earth. And when asked what I’d like on today’s menu for that last meal, I’d be stricken with silence. Puzzled. Everything on the menu is good. Each item on the menu is a beautiful piece of art: unique in every possible way except in the way that I can’t pronounce any of them. But I’ve never had a bad anything there. Not only that, but Sitting at the front counter with the warm rays of light and steaming “pizza air” reaching my brow, I watch this pizza master’s hand sensually craft a masterpiece of a pie.

Do you appreciate art? If you do then get your behind to Pizzeria Ida! Art is everywhere. To describe the interior is like this heavenly, warm, dank dungeon of mouth pleasures. But it always feels like home.Last night my girlfriend saw me eyeing our finished plate and said, “Babe please don’t. I know it feels like home, but it isn’t.”

Now yes I’ll admit it’s a little pricey, but you are paying for every ingredient. Their ingredients are the most top notch and they bring so much to every dish. I hate wasting my money on any other pizza than Ida. Because no one can compare to the ingredients Ida has. You pay for the ingredients, but they bring the passion. This isn’t about money. This is about passion, pizza, and spreading the dank. I don’t really know what it means, but it sounds cool, and it makes sense when you are there.

I’m a poor college kid who hates paying while going out to eat, but Ida. I’ll give them my money, because not only is it the best meal of my life, they busy their Philadelphian butts (that’s where they are from) working with wood flames at their backs displaying artwork and craftsmanship on demand to bring me a pizza that makes my heart drop 10 bpms and calms me into this coma of flavor.

It’s tough if you are lactose intolerant, but the farts are worth it. Trust me.

It’s True Passion....