L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele NYC — Restaurant in New York

I stumbled upon this place while trying to search for alternatives for good neapolitan pizza, and I wasn’t disappointed.

This is a place where you pay and you think to yourself: OMG, for the amount I am paying this volume and quality cannot be surpassed, especially in NYC. The inside decor is quite morden, and I really enjoyed the visuals of the plates and the cutleries: they have a Nordic feeling to them (though it feels a bit distant too, which sets it apart from the comforting facade of the food).

Us two gals did walk-ins on a Sunday afternoon at 3pm in west village. The outside decor isn’t so inviting: there were not menus or great see-through windows to take a sneaky peak, you have to know the place to know if you want to eat here or not.

We had eggplant rolls for appetizer and carciofi salad as a refreshment beside the pizza.

The carciofi salad came the first, radicchio and artichokes dressed in lemon dressing and sprinkled with pistachio bits and 4 large pieces of pecorino romano cheese. There are other seasonings like salt and parsley(not sure on this one). The portion is biiiiig! The major notes are citrusy, salty, with a bit bitterness. I dug this dish and found the combo to be surprisingly refreshing for me, especially to help me break even with the heavy dishes. But Fair Warning: for those who cannot tolerate bitterness and saltiness, it can be too mush to take in. I did found a couple of leaves to be extra salty due to the absorption of salt particles on the wet leaf green’s surface, so I guess the chef better do a better job tossing and mixing the salad if he doesn’t want his customers to be surprised unpleasantly after taking a few bites. That being said, I extra enjoyed the pistachio bits: they are just simply roasted but adds so much nuttiness and crunchiness to the dish.

The eggplant rolls itself came half-way during our consumption of salad, and the pairing of these two are a match made in heaven. This is a semi-heavy dish: the sheeted eggplant wrapped with melted cheese and drenched in tomato sauce and sprinkled with more cheese. On the side it also came with two pieces of ciabatta bread. These eggplant cheese pillows are so comforting. The flavors are not surprising: it is something you would expect from a parmigiana, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with this dish. The exceution is great.

Lastly, the spotlighted protagonist of this restaurant: the pizza. We ordered Margherita pizza with additions of prosciutto, arugula, and parmigiano (8 usd extra, that makes the pizza 30 usd). Initially my friend and I both thought that the pizza is going be a personal size, maybe a 6 inch, that’s why we also ordered salad and appetizer. However the pizza is a 12inch pizza with generous amount of prosciutto and arugula and cheese. Feels, it alone could be shared between 3-4 people or 2 very hungry people.

Aside from the portion, the pizza dough is genius! It is fluffy, a bit stretchy, with an apparent fragrance of wheat. It is charred on the edges so the edge crusts taste texturally different from the center, which is soft and light. It is definitely hand-made and I can see the uneveniness circularity of the dough. The tomato sauce and the cheese carried a lot of flavors and aided to combine the added prosciutto and arugula’s savoriness and hints of bitterness together. It is a very well-balanced pizza and is a great introduction for me to Naple’s pizza.

With all these food, we only paid around 40 usd each person before tips. I mean, what can you ask more for a sit-down Italian restaurant in west village with good flavor, generous portion, and a to-go box of food at the end...

OMG, this place is an offence to the Naples institution that "Da Michele" is. To the owners of the original place, is it really worth it to sell out like this?

If you are expecting an authentic Italian meal, forget it - the food here is simply terrible, you would only find something like this in Italy if you would go to a tourist trap.

And the service is so slow and overall incompetent I wonder about the total Trainwreck this place would be had it been full...

Unless you are completely ignorant to Italian food, avoid this place at all costs. Terrible.

EDIT: Since the restaurant wants to deflect from their poor performance and call it "personal beef" let me be more specific:

Gnocco fritto - not how it is supposed to be. Here it was like a "mini burger", the "gnocco fritto" was hard and cold. The prosciutto was poorly cut (too thick) and poor quality (full of fat), the "mini burger" also had cold burrata inside. If anyone ever had gnocco fritto in Italy, they would know that this is not it!

Arancini - this was decent tasting, but again not authentic to any region that has anything similar to it (Sicily, Campania, Lazio etc.). Finally, it was set on a literal bed of parmigiano (??).

Pasta (in general). The names/descriptions may sound authentic (for most of them) but the way it is cooked? C'mon you gotta be joking...my wife's pasta had broccoli stalks on it (in italy its always obviously removed)...finally, it was extremely salty. Terrible, we left it on the plate.

Pizza - if you know you know. Anybody that had proper pizza in Naples just look at the pics of the pizzas here and you have your answer. Cannot comment on the taste as you will see next.

The sub-standard service. Our dirty dishes (apps) were left on the table all the way until the main course arrived and we had to ask to clear the table to make space! Then they forgot to bring the cutlery..but that's not all.

First time in my life that a restaurant brought all pasta dishes and still hadn't brought my pizza! Everybody knows that pizza is fast and it ALWAYS comes first...anyways, everybody had finished their mains and I had to ask to cancel my pizza.

So dear manager, instead of deflecting feedback inferring that I have some sort of personal angle here (I don't know you or anyone at your restaurant)...next time just try to do a...

3.5 / 5.0 - Napoli pizza is one of my favorite foods and I've been to da Michele in Naples and Tokyo. They both had a casual pizzeria vibe, although the one in Tokyo was much pricer. So I was super excited about this new location in NYC expecting a similar experience, but it was completely different.

Da Michele in West Village was very stylish, with a modern, chic atmosphere. It was quite spacious, with a larger dining area in the back with high ceilings and plenty of space in between each of the tables. There were several families and groups, as well as couples. It threw me aback because there was no resemblance to the original one in Naples or to any other Napoli pizzeria I've been to, which are cozier and more casual. Don't get me wrong, I love classy establishments--it just felt like there was a slight disconnect.

My bf and I came for lunch today and ordered: Margherita ($22+) Beet Salad ($20+)

The service was attentive, although quite slow. They asked us if we wanted the salad first or with the pizza, so we asked for the salad first.

The Beet Salad was large and tasty, although it had a little too much dressing. There was enough to share amongst 3-4 people--it'd be great if they had a half-size for 1-2 people. As for the dressing, would recommend asking for it on the side.

After we finished our salad, they changed our plates and silverware, which was nice. But it did take such a long time for the Margherita pizza to be served. When it finally came, it was huge and the ingredients were of high quality. The pizza itself was not well-made, though. The crust was not very airy & fluffy and the sauce or the dough was too salty. We had some leftover slices, which they placed in a nice pizza box for us to take home.

Trying to get the check took the longest time. And what really downgraded the whole experience was their pay-at-table credit card machine and process. At our table and other tables, the server brought out the machine and confirmed each order, announcing the total bill loud enough for other tables to hear. The ambiance was perfect for a date, but using a credit card machine to pay at the table and having the total amount recited felt out of place for a restaurant with such a classy vibe. Hopefully, after some initial growing pains, there will be some adjustments made to enhance the quality...