Lazzara's Pizza Cafe — Restaurant in New York

I am not sure how this place received a 9.5 for pizza via barstool! My guess is that they knew he was coming and had their best pizza maker in house. I made reservations to eat here before the Cure concert at MSG. The place wasn't packed, but for whatever reason the staff looked scrambled! Our waitress takes our order which was a sausage pizza, and pasta with pesto sauce and a large salad to start. 20 minutes after we ordered we were looking for the waitress to find out where our salad was, we finally see her and she's coming with the pizza and pasta, so we received our food without drinks and salad, she comes back with the large salad and there is no place to put the salad and I swear she tells us to put the salad on the seat as there is no space for it on the table. For anyone who has eaten here, the tables are very small, to the point that the pizza and pasta and drinks barely fit at the same time. So because the salad wasn't brought out first, it became very uncomfortable to eat the salad as we were unable to put the salad on a plate due to the lack of space so we eat the salad from the plate while holding the plate in the air. Now, I am a major pizza enthusiast, I am a Chef and have made hundreds of pizzas in my life, and was disappointed, the sausage had a funny taste to it and the pizza was soggy. Unless that is their style, which I doubt, it didn't look like there was much effort into making that pizza or it just sat around for some time before we received it! The pasta was seriously nothing to brag about as my guess is that they tried to make the pasta al dente and instead made it undercooked. I can honestly say that this place was a disappointment and easily forgettable afterwards. A place like this, or shall I say any place that you have to make reservations should always be consistent with taste, flavor, texture!

Now, this was my first time eating here, I've spoken with other people who have eaten there and most of them said that the pizza is light and crispy, I guess when I went they had the wrong person making the pizza! With that said, I will not give this place a second try.... At least the Cure Concert was amazing! I'm giving it three stars because it's in a great hidden spot, and for the fact that I've had more than 10 people in the industry tell me that it had to be an...

Pretty sure I felt the spirit of Billy Joel, circa 1985, sweep through me as I sat in Lazzara’s dining room this July.

Head up an unassuming stairwell in the Garment District to find Lazzaras. On the far side of a tiled entry, open the door and find yourself transported back to the New York City of 40 years ago in this charming pizza place. Feast your eyes on the crystal light fixtures, exposed brick and maroon plaster walls that echo the color of marinara sauce, and little tables waiting for a lucky few to dine with their friendly and helpful staff.

We loved the experience of dining here, from sampling Lazzara’s house sodas - sweet and bubbly! - to the yacht rock playlist keeping everything nice and chill on a summer’s afternoon. Yes, Steely Dan, it WILL come back to you.

The garlic knots were a light and buttery treat while we waited for our pizza. We wanted to sample a lot of different kinds of pizza in New York. We came to Lazzara’s because I read a review that said it was like “Totino‘s in the best way possible,” lol. While that may not sound like a huge compliment, I live in a house of people that love Totinos so I thought this could be interesting.

I understand what that reviewer was saying after trying the pizza. First, they are rectangle shaped pizzas with a very thin crust that is soft in the center and crispy in the edges. Then, their sauce is sweet and smooth in a way that is similar to Totino’s. Make no mistake, it’s good pizza and elevated from anything you would find in a freezer section, but I recognize those similarities.

We got a pizza that was half all meats and half lasagna pizza. I felt like the lasagna side, with a generous helping of ricotta cheese, was a little bland. But the meat side! The various meats that they added to that pizza were so flavorful!

We did feel like the pizza was expensive for what we got. It wasn’t very large, but too pricey to buy a second rectangular pie, and I don’t know that any of us four were completely full after we ate our garlic knots and pizza too.

I recommend you try Lazzara’s for the experience alone, for the delicious food, and absolutely for the opportunity to take a step back into a restaurant that exists in a bygone era. Lazzara’s, don’t...

I typically don’t write reviews unless there is something significant to mention, but our experience at Lazzara’s tonight was the worst food experience, or rather the worst experience in general, that we’ve had in our entire trip to New York. We came here tonight based on barstools rating and we were highly disappointed overall.

We arrived 30 minutes prior to closing (which we hate doing and rarely do) and another family was also waiting to be seated. We were seated at the same time as them, but waiter was clearly upset about seating us so we advised him we will be quick (we already knew what we wanted). He was quick to get our order and my fiancé asked how large half a pizza was. He said it was only 3 small slices and wouldn’t be enough for 2 people, and we could only dine in if we ordered a whole pizza. Our waiter was in such a rush that I didn’t dare ask for the wine list and just asked for water to avoid making him more upset.

Our pizza arrived quickly but I found the sauce to be too sweet and not consistent with the barstool rating. However, my fiancé enjoyed it. We saw the staff cleaning up and preparing to shut down the restaurant so we hurried to finish eating. Our waiter never came back to our table until my fiancé waved and asked for the check, which he dropped off at our table with an attitude. We both said thank you anyways with no response.

The name on the receipt says Marco but I’m not sure if this was our server or not. As we got up to leave, the other waiter on the floor acknowledged us and said thank you, which we honestly appreciated so much. It was the first time we didn’t feel ignored or unwelcomed since the moment we walked in.

Overall, the pizza was okay but the customer service was an F (except for the last moment with the other server), and I would not recommend this...