Ken’s Pizza and Pub

Chill place. Good portions and yummy food. Cheap as long as you don’t get fancy with add-​ons and substitutions. Good beer selection and not too loud. Cozy.

Worst eatery in Vermont. The food is all frozen food and the owners are cruel as can be! Do not go after 9pm as the owner will be drunk and easily go into a rage about any complaints you may have with his food or service.

Yuck.
I went to Ken’s pizza once years ago and didn’t like it.
So I never went again.
Well, I thought they finally deserved another chance and so I tried again. Thoughts? I was wrong.
I think I could get better pizza from the freezer section (sorry guys).

Ate here this weekend and was quite disappointed. The meal started ok with some shoestring fries and bisque for appetizers, nothing special but not too bad. The real problem started with the entrees, I ordered the chicken parm dinner which the menu claims that the chicken is prepared in house. The chicken was incredibly tough and there was no way that this was freshly fried. The texture was unlike anything I’ve ever had — tough and rubbery, almost hard. I don’t really know how one could achieve such a nasty result, maybe it was refrozen a few times, or they began with some industrial prepackaged chicken product, I have no idea. Anyway, I should have sent it back, but we were late for a movie and I just punted on it.
The service was good and the atmosphere was comfortable for a pub, but for an establishment that presents itself as specializing in Italian food, the chicken parm was unforgivable.

Do not get the champagne vinaigrette salad dressing. It’s disgusting and tastes like acetone. I mean it, absolutely ruined my salad. Customer service reaction was to remove the salad but never offer a replacement. They did have great pizza and wings.

Today, like we’ve done over a hundred times over the past 20 years, my spouse and I went to the Pub for lunch. While reviewing the beer menu we were interested in a draft porter that we had never heard of but wanted to try before we ordered a whole pint. Our server said she wasn’t sure if we could get a small taste and that she’d «have to ask». After checking with someone who was presumably «in charge», our server informed us that we could NOT get a taste. Somewhat shocked, we both decided almost immediately that we would have lunch elsewhere. Evidently the «someone in charge» did not feel empowered enough and thereby lost far more than the cost of a tase of porter. Hopefully this review gets to the right person «in charge».

Casual pub with a substantial menu. Bartenders were super friendly and recommended a great local beer (Fiddlehead). I had one of the nightly specials, a meatloaf club on surprisingly good ciabatta bread. On top of that, it’s in a great location, the downtown mall in Burlington. Definitely recommended for a quick sandwich, beer, or both!

If I could give this place 5+ stars, I would. I had the Vermonter sandwich and it was AWESOME!!! I literally said, «I’m sad my sandwich is gone» when it was done. Loved. It. Vermont turkey, cheddar, bacon, APPLES, and cranberry mayo? Yes please. My friends enjoyed their Reuben sandwich and they have Heady Topper! The pizza looked great, but I didn’t get to try it. Super fun place, great beer selection.

I used to love the place but I saw a very ugly incident. A man with a cute little dog was being screamed at by an employee for being in seating area before 11 am.

Food was fine, we like sitting outside to enjoy our lunch and a nice Heady Topper. The Vermonter sandwich was pretty good and the pizza is good. My problem on this visit was the owner, was rude and a real jerk. The restaurant opens at 11 am., we sat at an outdoor table to wait for the opening 3 minutes early. He sent a waitress out to make us get up and leave the seating area. My brother looked at his watch and said to me good one minute. The owner very angrily told us, if we were going to count down, he would open 15 minutes late, which he didn’t. We stayed to eat, but if it was up to me, I would have left. Next time, I wait for Pennycluse. My husband is in the restaurant business and would never treat his customers in this manner.

Kens is a staple in our dining out go-to’s in Burlington. There is seating place for every style. In the summer season there is plenty of seating out front, and inside is divided into the ‘family friendly’ side (enter to the left, it’s where the food is made, is definable brighter, and you can expect families in this side) and the dimly lit dive-​y side on the right. I humorous sign out front boasts, ‘husband daycare’. The space is a bit on the narrow side and usually fills up (bar seating on the left and booths on the right). On this side there are several TVs and you can always find a huge crowd on game nights.
The food is decent and affordable (the sizes of the slices can be a bit inconsistent though, depending on the cook so be warned).
The super casual atmosphere, affordable pizza and beer, with excellent church street people watching views will always have me coming back.

I’m local and this is where I come for a great meatball sub or a huge slice of pizza with always fresh veggies at reasonable price. But not everything on the menu is good (the soggy attempts at mexican dishes for example) and I only do take out. The waitstaff here are notoriously rude and stupid and the wait times ridiculously long. The kitchen staff, too, while ordering and waiting for your takeout are usually rude. And besides being rude to you, you get to listen to them say rude things about other staff and customers– there is zero professionalism in this establishment. It’s like everyone that works there hates their job, the customers, and they’re own lives… but they seem to greatly enjoy being mean and rude to other people.
But they make a damn good meatball sub, and sometimes they even heat up your slice of pizza before throwing it at you. Tonight mine was cold. and coincidentally I overheard one cook yelling at the other «in and out, in and out» in regards to putting things in the oven, and then laughed at me when giving me the box. That’s fine, I was taking it home anyway and my toaster oven works great. The pizza was good even if the staff were dicks.

I am an Upstate New Yorker who has been out in California for the past 11 months. I miss my family and friends, but the third thing on the list that I miss most is edible pizza! I was lucky enough to spend a few days in my happy place (BTV) and I went back to Ken’s for a bite. We grabbed a take out pizza and it did in fact travel well. The pizza was everything a NY style pizza should be. Our pie had the right crust, good sauce and the correct amount of grease. I highly recommend this place!

We were visiting from CT, so we love New Haven style pizza… If you’re looking for that type of pizza, don’t go to Ken’s. The pizza was slightly better than frozen pizza. The sausage was not good, and the sauce tasted like it came out of a can. Even worse, there was no grated cheese or red pepper flakes available to improve the taste.
My wife went against the grain and ordered clam strips. Not a good choice either.
On the plus side, the atmosphere was very good as it was a nice sunny day and there were a lot of people eating outside. And they had the famous Heady Topper beer that I’ve been meaning to try.
Otherwise, best bet is to try somewhere else for dinner.

I’m begging Kens to bring back their old buffalo chicken sandwich! Please! My sister moved out of VT and one of our favorite things to do when she came back was go and get that specific sandwich because it’s her all time favorite food!
Yesterday when we went in, we were informed that the sandwich had changed from deli style buffalo chicken to chicken tenders. The sandwich was okay but not even close to as amazing as it use to be. It wasn’t on ciabatta bread like it use to be, and there were no longer onions and tomato, it was just tenders, shredded lettuce on a roll with the blue cheese on the side (adiós blue cheese crumble :()
Point being, we’ve lost one of our favorite meals, and we aren’t sure why it needed to change. Every other place has that type of buffalo chicken sandwich, and that’s why we went to Kens. Please bring it back!!!

Awesome place. First went here in ’70’s as a UVM student. Avoided long lines at the time at What Ales You and Hannibul’s — Ken’s one of the last places from that era still left.
Outstanding pizza, subs etc. good bar food — a neat place to grab a beer and a bite. My go-​to place in Burlington that’s reasonably priced and unpretentious.

My wife and I have lived in VT for 4 ½ years and have been to Ken’s many times. About two years ago, we started to notice that the pizza was not as good. We kept going in, ordering different pizza’s on different nights, trying to find the quality we had always expected, but it just got worse. We stopped going about a year ago, and just gave up. Two weeks ago, we were out in the cold and went in for a salad, which is always good. We also ended up ordering a small pepperoni and cheese pizza just to see if anything had improved. Nope. The pizza was swimming in grease, and the cheese had a weird cottage cheese look with grease floating up between holes in the cheese.
I decided to try a slice anyway, but as soon as I picked it up, the entire topping slid off the crust on to my plate. It was then that I noticed that the crust was nearly raw underneath. Yuck! I called the waitress over and pointed it out. After explaining the problem, we noticed that she was pale and kind of shaking. I told her that it wasn’t her fault, she didn’t make it, and could I speak to the manager. She said «he won’t come over.» We could see that she really didn’t want to go to the manager, so I went to the bar and asked to speak to him. The bartenders just looked blank and didn’t answer me. I did notice them glance at a guy sitting right next to me hunched over his drink.
I went back to our table, and the waitress came back fighting tears. She said she was sorry but we would have to pay for the pizza anyway. We said no, we would not be paying for a greasy undercooked pizza and we expected it to be removed from our bill. We were very nice about it, but we were also firm. Two minutes later, a large angry man in a rage, rushed up to our table. He waved his arms above our heads like he wanted to take a swing at us, and loudly said «Pay for your drinks and get out, and don’t come back.» It was the guy who’d been sitting at the bar.
Everyone in the place turned and looked at us, but we were so shocked we couldn’t believe it just happened. It was such an over the top extreme reaction that we didn’t know how to process it! No one has ever spoken to us that way, certainly no business owner who relies on good will! It just didn’t seem real! We especially felt bad for the waitress and left her a very generous tip. I still feel like she needs to be rescued from an abusive situation.
FYI: My wife and I are a couple of 5’2, middle aged women dressed for shopping. We are not a threat, nor are we out to rip the restaurant off. We have never complained about the food at Ken’s previously. We had never met this guy before. We did expected the manager to treat us with respect because it is his establishment to manage, and most managers want to know about problems with food and service. Not this guy. He’s a powder keg waiting to blow.
After leaving the restaurant we went shopping. Apparently this guy is famous on Church Street for being aggressive and verbally abusive. We’ve spoken to several people who work in the surrounding businesses who told us that they won’t go into Ken’s because of the way this guy runs the place, and also because the pizza is so bad. I hope that maybe the owner will read this review and replace him, and maybe get the place back to where it was 4 years ago. All I know for sure is that I will never go back, or take any of our out-​of-​town visitors into Ken’s Pizza as long as he works there.
If you go to Ken’s, DON’T complain about the food!

A lot of beer choices on tap and excellent food. Caesar salad is phenominal. Nice wait staff, too.

I’ve never had a great pizza at Ken’s. It’s mostly mediocre but I do appreciate the NY style slices and crust. Other dishes seem to be sub par. My partner ordered chicken parmesan but the chicken was undercooked and tasted funny. My sicilian sandwich was ok after the first couple of bites but the dressing was just too overwhelming. Service is OK but nothing fantastic. The menu has variety but I don’t think any dish here stands out. Ken’s would do better with a pizza cart out on Church Street selling slices than try to do this kind of full-​service restaurant.

Bland pizza. Ordered a pepperoni and sausage slice. The sauce was flavorless. The crust just tasted like bread. The cheese did not seem to be fully cooked. The sausage was extremely bland. This pizza seems like the type that you would find at a flea market or a small local mall, as it was nothing special. The only reason I did not give this pizza one star was because it was not horrible. Nice restaurant, good service (at the bar), but pizza was very forgettable.