Ida's Restaurant — Restaurant in Middletown

Fantastic dining experience. We sat at the bar, bartender Tess was wonderful, her drinks are superb, especially her tequila cosmo (which my best gal pal Jess calls a "tosmo" these days, it's got a cute vibe to it). The mussels appetizer were out of this world, they use a veal stock but graciously omitted that so the pescetarian could enjoy it. It's the type of dish you don't want to end, as you savor the last of the broth with the crustini, seriously...next level divinity. I had heard good things about the eggplant parm, and the term "good" is an understatement; thin, crispy, perfect amount of cheese and a delicious tomato sauce/gravy, served with a side of house-made pasta. I am an eggplant parm aficionado and this was literally the best I have ever had. We had a great chat with the owner, Sarah, and it's that type of ownership/management genuine kindness that makes guests return. As usual we closed out the night with an espresso martini, and they use freshly made espresso which seals the deal, BOOM! I live in the northern part of the state and will not hesitate to get back down to Ida's every...

I went to this restaurant by coincidence. I was looking for asian food that day and i saw this restaurant exactly besides an asian restaurant. I changed my mind and decided to try this so called ida’s restaurant. Wow what a great coincidence.

Everything from polenta appetizer ( a must have) to the main dish. Darn writing about it right now makes me crave their food again. You know what i am going back soon and if you are around that area, then I would advice to do the same. Other than the delicious food, the interior of the restaurant has a nice vibe about it. Lovely place. Next time I visit, i ll update with some photos.

Update: 09/13/2019 I previously gave this place 5 stars. Sadly, this second visit was not great at all. The food was sadly bad. Taste was bland.

Sadly, i have to downgrade it from 5 stars to 3 stars. The three stars just because the owner and the people working there were very nice and friendly. The food this time was 1 star. I dont know what happened to this place. Maybe it was...

We really wanted to love this place. All the of the hoopla and word-of-mouth...everything was positive about this place. We started with the stuffed mushroom caps as an appetizer, which contained crumbled sausage with Fontinella cheese. We detected no cheese whatsoever, but they were still decent. Then came the oregano. Most every true Italian restaurant I've been to does not put oregano in their marinara sauce or meat sauce. Different sauces perhaps, including pizza sauce (I actually make my pizza sauce this way). It's so pungent and can take over any marinara or meat sauce. The chicken parm was breaded and actually quite flavorful, moist, and tender and the portion size was decent. My veal parm was pounded into oblivion and had no breading on it. It spread out into a decent sized piece (which got lost in the sauce), but was so thin it had to have been a small piece of veal to begin with. I would like to go back and try something that doesn't involve...