S.Egidio Pizze Salumi Espresso — Restaurant in Ridgewood

Went here on St. Patricks day more towards the evening and had a really great meal here, 1 bottle of Pellegrino, 2 appetizers, 2 specialized pizza's, 2 coffees and 2 desserts.

Basically 2 of everything since we came as 2 friends. Who hadn't seen each other and wanted to spend a nice evening out, to enjoy each other's company and catch up on old times. He mentioned this was a great restaurant with a long history of amazing service, not sure he was really serious after my deboggle at the end of the evening.. more of this later...

The outside of the establishment was dimly lit and the inside of this restaurant was quaint and inviting.

We were guided to our seats and once inside. There were four 2 top tables pressed against the wall, a little tight especially since we are in the covid Era where everyone is freaking out about personal space. There literally was none. No one wore masks which surprised me, not even the Wait Staff, or host who directed us to the table.

The waiter had to pull out this 2 top table for the person who sits on the inside of this booth to slide into the seat. Quite a feat if you are not on the skinny side. Moving on...

The 2 people who were sitting directly next to us on our right hand side within half an arms length were seemingly just as uncomfortable as I was.. they were already holding in their stomach and there food was pushed to the inside wall so it wouldn't tip over or fall off the table, as they sat in their tiny spot. Everyone on our side of this small area winced in sympathy knowing how small the space was but we made it finally into the spot without incident.

So I had a little acrobatics moment while shimmying into the seat. Once I was in the seat they pushed and slid the table back to the original space. Or none there of. 😳 I felt like a sardine fish crammed into a can. (Ladies don't bring your large purses or coats here, unfortunately there's no comfortable place to put it.) I had to keep it behind me as it drooped around me while we ate.

I was thankful no one sat on my left. But there were 2 people who sat at the next tiny spot one over.

One of the good things I picked up on was the background sound of toe tapping music. Once you were nestled into your space you felt like a baby bird in a nest. Unable to stretch out in fear of knocking something off your neighbors table or our own. That would be bad, since the food was expensive.

A little later we had taken off our coats and set our personal things within very close proximity did we feel somewhat at ease.

Amoung the many interesting things that happened there that night with the tiny tables and my food being carted away never to be returned or seen again.

Sadly even as I waited patiently for the waiter to bring it back, half of this Nostra pizza I had ordered during dinner, but I never received it.. We ate dessert and drank coffee,, a short while after, the waiter appeared out of nowhere and dropped off the check in a cigar box and he disappeared again into the back of the restaurant. So I asked a waitress what happened to my food and she said she would go look for it and then she disappeared too, into the black abyss of this restaurant.. Ridgewood triangle...seriously for such a nice place you would think the management had better service then this mess at the end of the night.

This was the only disappointment... but one could only hope that they take that into accordance or consideration after each person's review. Don't get me wrong the food was very good, I was just super irritated that I didn't receive the other half of the pizza I asked to get wrapped...

Wow where should I begin? This place had such great reviews, and although I got there a little before peak hour (Friday night around 6:30), the place was already full with a few people waiting. So I thought this was going to be a great night - with great food and lots of fun.

Turned out that I couldn't be more wrong. This turned out to be the worst dinner experience of my life!

To set things up, you need to understand that this restaurant apparently got a lot of "regulars". The whole time we were waiting for a table (which was like close to an hour), I saw the owner and some servers (who I suspect are related to the owner) constantly shake hands and greet customers on a first name basis. So 40 minutes in, when a table of 4 finally became available, the owner sat another group of 4 down, who apparently just came in 2 minutes ago, I was a little shocked, but bit my tongue. "OK, they are popular, and businesses take care of regulars all the time". I thought to myself. My husband came over and asked if I wanted to go to another place. I said no, let's keep waiting a bit longer (as it looked like another table of 4 would soon open up). Looking back I hit myself for not listening to my husband. I should have taken this as a bad sign - I did not have enough wisdom to foresee that this meant that I (our party) were in their minority "inferior" customer pool and we would always be the first group to be sacrificed for their higher profile customers. The more "popular" the business, the worse this is going to be.

Now fast forward to the end of the dinner. bill paid and we were ready to go. My husband told me he parked the car a bit far away, and I happened not to wear my coat that night. I knew I wouldn't be able to walk 15 minutes in the cold with only a light sweater, so he told me to wait a few minutes for him to go bring the car around. There has been less than 5 minutes since he left, and one of the servers came and asked us to leave because there were other people waiting!!

So there we were - bumped at the beginning and shoo'ed out of the door at the end. It's almost comical, how we paid over $100 to "buy" this experience.

Yes this restaurant is highly rated; Yes this restaurant looks packed all the time. It definitely has found its secret ingredient to success - this place is so small I don't think it takes too many regulars to keep it bustling. Give it a try and you might have a totally different experience than mine and might even become one of their regulars (especially if you "look like them"). But for me, I saw so much ugliness that I'm not even sure if I can pass in front of their restaurant again without...

Wow! Is the first words that come out of my mouth. This place was probably one of the best pizza places I’ve ever been too before. Right on a Friday night, seeing its packed with people, I could tell the food had to be good. Sat down with a lovely person who greeted us at the beginning and had a couple of dishes to offer especially for the holiday Halloween coming up.

Order two pizzas and a pasta, I was very impressed on the pasta. It was perfectly cooked and had a ton of different types of flavoring to it. It is something I would 100% want to have again. Got two pizzas and were brought over. The crust looked something like out of a movie, the main was just too perfect. Took a bite out of it, the entire slice was just something I have never had before. The food here was something I would have definitely have again especially the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Such a place knows how to put really nice lighting for the mood that it is in. Inside, photos of people, it felt old famished, even seeing the brick oven felt even more beautiful. Nice and dark and warm giving it such a cozy feeling of being in a restaurant.

Overall, this restaurant is a place I would love to come back too and to especially bring my family over for a pizza night out for something they most likely never had before. I would highly recommend this restaurant if you are around the area. This is the place I would drive to if I was out of state, that is how delicious it was. Even the service was amazing of staff being so friendly and making sure the food comes to...