Ian’s Pizza By The Slice

What is not to love about Ian’s. It is my go to place before a Badger game or if I’m doing something on campus. Mac and Cheese is my go to slice. But I’m not afraid to try other slices.
Keep up the good work Ian’s Pizza!

Holy crap this place is awesome. Every time I am in Madison I make a point to try and go here. It is very reminiscent of my college days. Even though I went to school on the East Coast all college pizza joints have the same ambiance, crowd, ratio of drunk-​to-​sober people, etc.
What makes Ian’s stand out is the creativity and variety they offer in their pizza selection. I’m both thankful and envious that there wasn’t a location close to me when I was in school. The ability to get Mac and Cheese Pizza at 2 am after leaving the bars would be a blessing and a curse. That being said, if you are in the Madison area you must try a slice. The mid-​west gets a bad rap for pizza but I would prefer Ian’s over most of the pizza joints around my college in New England. That should say something.
My only complaint is that some of the pizza is quite dry. But the toppings make up for that.
Keep doing you, Ian’s. And maybe think about expanding to Maryland. I have a feeling you’d do really well :)

Came here on my last visit to Madison to check out UW and had the pleasure of trying out Ian’s! Back in CA we don’t exactly have decent «creative» pizza so when I had a slice of the mac n cheese pizza and another slice of the buffalo chicken, I was sure I died and went to pizza heaven. To top it off, they got some really bomb ranch dip! My friend told me that when he was going to UW, they would try to grab a surplus of ranch and since then, Ian’s no longer allows for self serve ranch which is a bust cause I need lots of ranch for my pizza. The line to order wasn’t too bad and it didn’t take long to get my order either. Overall it was a great experience to eat at a local joint especially when traveling, definitely would try Ian’s again and would recommend it to others!

They do make good pizza. And yes, there are tons of different toppings. But for me, this place is simply overrated. The crust isn’t consistent and the cheese can definitely be better. I’d take the Papa John’s nearby over this anyday.

Any slice will be outstanding, if it looks good to you then it will be, so order it.

The plain cheese Ian’s slice doesn’t just bring back warm memories for alumni, for me it brings back the intoxicating thrill of American freedom of speech and worker solidarity. During a frigid week of protesting with a couple hundred thousand disenfranchised government workers and our wonderful supporters, our spirits were buoyed by the delivery of hot plain cheese pizza from Ian’s, ordered and paid for by union brothers and sisters from all over the nation and even from like-​minded freedom protesters in Egypt. We lost that battle, but Wisconsin teachers still strive to properly educate the working masses even in the face of slashed wages and crippling working conditions; Ian’s plain cheese pizza to go is still the best snack to munch on while contemplating the beautiful capital dome from the square.

Small, unique place that has outstanding pizza! I’m pretty picky about pizza quality, and this place rocks! Old school good pizza, not the crappy pizza chain stuff. The caesar salad was fabulous! I will return here in the future.

Of course, they’re best known for the weird stuff. As a transplant from New York who believes that the regular cheese slice is the highest human creation, I am horrified by the idea of mac ‘n cheese or taco pizzas or whatever oddities are available on a given day. But what often gets overlooked about Ian’s is that their cheese slices are very good. So many places just pile cheese on bread, neglecting the third of the canonical pizza ingredients, and while cheese is delicious, at Ian’s they take the sauce seriously as well. In my view, it’s the best New York-​style slice in town.
I’ve had a few of the less adventurous specialty slices, and they’re good too. But don’t let all the hype about all the strange slices, or the image of the place as the place where drunk college students go at 2am, deceive you; Ian’s pizza is really good.

Ian’s provide two of the things I miss about Madison :
— Chicken Alfredo
— Philly Cheese Steak.
If you are visiting Madison this is one of the places you must visit!

Fresh mozarella with tomato and pesto = oh God! Thin and crispy. Right amout of fluid on the topping. It’s a Wisconsin must try.

The Wisco salad was absolutely delicious but way too small for the price! The salads here used to be larger — I don’t know why my salad was so small today, though the price stayed the same. I want to give them three stars but I should be full after spending $ 8.

My friend liked her mac and cheese, and my more conventional choices (some sort of feta/​tomato/​olive and BBQ chicken) were both excellent. Next time, I definitely want to try the penne marinara pizza, aka carbs on carbs, aka surely delicious.
They heat the slices up in a super hot oven individually, so your pizza is guaranteed to be delightfully crispy. I also ordered a salad, which way surpassed my expectations. I was ready for sad, iceberg-​lettuce-​y, sparse toppings salad, and got reasonably fresh lettuce with a smörgåsbord of delicious toppings. And there was a TON of it. Pizza and good salad for under $ 10. Surely this is what heaven is like.
The service was excellent.

Best pizza and best service :)
I graduated from Madison so I am a little biased. On our last trip, my fiancé and me tried
–Mac and cheese: my personal favoriate!
–veggies (mushroom, tomato, etc.): It was ok
–Bacon with bbq source
–short rib with bbq source
–Classic cheese
Everything tastes so good. If you ever come to madison, you must try Ian’s!

There is a huge hype about Ian’s pizza at UWMadison. Personally, I have never tried their pizza, but I have been told that it’s great by all of my friends on campus. The service is pretty fast, and you will get your order almost instantly since they are just heating up the pizza slice for you. If you are gluten free, no worries: they have got lots of options for you. If you are vegan, go on Mondays since that’s when they are selling vegan pizza by the slice, otherwise, you have to buy a 12 inch pizza… I opted to just get their Mediterranean salad without feta cheese with light dressing. It was a really good salad and very filling. The dressing was still too much for me, but I guess I am just being picky.
Be aware. The line at night for this pizza is super long… You can go to Wendy’s at that point if you would like since the line there is much shorter and you probably won’t really notice if you are drunk.

Was really disappointed in this joint. After a night of partying, I really wanted some greasy, yet quick snack before heading home. It took 25 mins for them to serve me 2 slices of pepperoni pizza. I am typically a patient person, but there were maybe 10 people in the restaurant and because they offered no reason (or apology), I can only assume they were just being lazy.
I’m going to give this place another chance because the pizza was tasty. But good pizza is easy to come by, it’s good service that is a rarity.
As it stands currently, I would recommend Glass Nickel. The pizza is fantastic and so is the service.

Love love love. Not just the pizza, as usual, but the location! I have never ventured to this location and it was SO empty! The selection was not as large, but who cares if you don’t have to wait in line?
The people were friendly and I love the new check outs on the iPads. Love love love.

COME FOR VEGAN NIGHT!
It happens every Monday and they always have great options for the veg-​heads among us. If they don’t have one in the case, they will whip one up while you wait. The Frances location has done this for me three separate times and each time asked if there was anything in particular I wanted. My favorite was a recent night when they whipped up a pepperoni and cheese plus an artichoke/​olive/​roasted red pepper. It doesn’t hurt that it’s around the corner from Vintage, which has $ 1 beers on Mondays!

Friends of ours were visiting for the weekend, one was also a fellow alumnus, and what brings college nostalgia back better than eating at the 2am drunk spot? Ian’s pizza was that spot for many a UW graduate but we were spoiled because it is a damn good slice of pizza drunk or sober.
The beef pot pie slice, yes beef pot pie — was so tasty. Crunchy crust with shredded, tender beef, a bit of potato, brown gravy for the sauce, onion, and we put this tangy sweet BBQ sauce on sparingly as well. There was also the Mac n cheese slice that I was told was very good.
We walked three miles that day, so we had good balance — which is key when choosing to eat at a place like Ian’s.

A perfect slice for $ 3…it had lasagna noodles on top! I was late arriving into Madison — typical delay on the airline– and it was late and our cab (bunch of us crammed in a cab since it was late and time to ride share) stopped across the street to drop off someone. i spotted Ian’s and asked if I had time to go get a slice. My cabbie said he would drop off another couple & swing back for me. I bolted from my cab, not EVEN getting the cab #, license plate # or driver’s name… seriously. I was that hungry. Left my triathlon bag with helmet and my suitcase in the cab.
When I went into Ian’s, it was packed. I was greeted by an employee who actually said, «you can’t come in unless you bring college boys with you.» Cracked me up. Especially since I could be his mother!
Place had lots of energy, everyone eating slices. I loved this place. Ate my slice and right after the last bit of crispy crust was devoured, here comes my cabbie. Amazing. Madison is a pretty cool town!
i did go to the Ian’s on State Street as well a couple of days later but I was disappointed in how little cheese was on my slice and it didn’t cover much of the crust near the edge — kind of bummed out. I prefer the one on N. Frances Street.

College flashbacks… and I didn’t even go to Madison and it wasn’t 2am this time.
I had the chicken cordon bleu and a salad pizza. Yup I had salad on top of my pizza and it was drizzled with a thick balsamic sauce, pretty freaking awesome. The cordon bleu was great too. The bubs went with a BBQ potato cheddar ranch and veggie pizza slice. Just one bit of the BBQ and I could tell eating that pizza would have been a party in my mouth, so many rich, bold flavors. You can not have just ONE.
Great pizza crust topped with unheard of combinations. Pregnant women can get their crazy, unique cravings right here… and no I am NOT pregnant.

Ian’s Pizza ist ein recht guter Laden,
um auf die Schnelle ein Stück Pizza zu kaufen.
Die Pizza ist typisch amerikanisch, sehr fettig und groß.
Ob man komplette Pizzen bestellen kann, bin ich mir nicht sicher.
Aber man kann sich einzelne Stücke aus der Auslage aussuchen.
Man kann die Pizza gleich vor Ort essen. Jedoch ist dieser Platz
nicht besonders einladend.
Ian’s Pizza ist nichts besonderes aber auch nicht schlecht.