Ovest Pizzoteca

It’s an OK restaurant. Very casual for a late night dinner with friends after the theater.
I would recommend it just for (expensive) drinks. The bartender knows a lot of chemistry and he prepares the best cocktails. I really liked they have Cynar and Fernet but still is very expensive. $ 14 for a cocktail seems too much but I guess it goes pretty well with the overpriced pizza. It’s Luzzo’s I know but it’s just not good enough. The pizza in this city is just lazy. To break it down it’s just a piece of bread with some cheese and toppings over (if you are lucky).
Nice ambiance and décor with a chill vibe inside. Again I would recommend it only if you are around the area and want to have a drink with a snack.

Great stop off the hghline @27^th st. Nice selection of personal pizzas. Had the picante (sausage n hot cherry peppers) The 4 cheese rice balls alone are worth the stop ;)) Recommended…

Came here for a birthday dinner. Food is just okay but It’s not a bad spot if you’re looking for a place that can hold a large group in the area. Service was pretty good and appetizers came out pretty quickly but the pizza takes a while. The place was pretty empty when we arrived at 8 and filled up quickly after that.
Appetizers:
Fried artichokes — artichokes are awesome as they and everything tastes better fried so this is definitely a win as far as appetizers go.
Four cheese rice balls — 4 per order. They were solid. My friend who isn’t normally a fan of rice balls enjoyed these. They were soft and cheesy on the inside and a crisp golden brown perfection on the outside.
Baby octopus, plum tomatoes, celery, lemon and evoo — no bueno. The dish looks pretty but it had a strong charred taste that just seemed to overwhelm any other flavor possibilities.
Meatballs (beef, pork and spinach meatballs) — okay: medium sized, not dry, i’ve had better and i’ve had worse.
Pasta:
Tomato ragu with baby back rib, sausage, and meatball — was a hit. Our group ended up ordering a second plate of this to share because we liked the first one so much.
Orecchiette with broccoli, shrimp, garlic and red pepper flakes — good but overly salty.
Pizzas:
Ovest: Mozzarella, Tomato Sauce, Spicy Salame, Ricotta, Black Pepper, Basil — basically a pepperoni pizza (with the spicy salame). It was good but nothing amazing.
Bufala — Mozzarella, Tomato Sauce, Basil — didn’t personally try this but this pizza was the slowest to disappear at the table and got comments of «bit bland» and «plain».
Martha: mozzarella, prosciutto, truffle pâté and fresh basil — The favorite pizza of the night. It is a white pizza and the mix of prosciutto, truffle and basil made it incredibly flavorful and amazing compared to your average white pizza. If I ever came back to Ovest it would be for this pizza… nothing else here really stood out.
Dessert:
Tiramisu — Good. Some tiramisu’s have a very strong alcohol flavor. This one didn’t. It was mild and sweet and soft.
nutella zeppoli — Can’t go wrong with nutella and fried dough covered in sugar.

Pizza was pretty good and service was friendly. Would go again when in the area.

Had bunch on Sunday afternoon.
Nice inviting décor. On seating, told waiter that we were rushed for time, and he expertly took our order quickly and got us our 3 dishes within 10 minutes.
Our favorite dish was the «Via Roma», not pizza. Via Roma was an eggplant parm type of calzone. The eggplant parm was wrapped in Pizza dough. Excellent.
Grilled octopus was also very good.
Pizza was good, but not quite up to the highest Naples standards.

No idea how this place has gotten negative reviews for it’s pizza — it’s amazing!
I went for the aprevito and then dinner. The fact that they offer aprevito is awesome! Buy a drink and enjoy free appetizers! The appetizers included brushettas and some slice meat. There was also pizzas being put out. Once I tried the pizza it was so good that I had to be seated immediately to get more! Only con is 6:30pm on a Friday night all of the bar area seats were taken, but that is understandable.
We were then seated and ordered calamari and the avocado spinach salad. Both appetizers were alright but the pizza is where it is at! I got the Ovest and it was delicious. A light thin crust and fresh moz + ricotta + spicy salami. The only difference between ovest and luzzos pizza wise is that luzzos had a crunch that ovest lacked. still delicious and I plan on going back! The service was good and the waiters were very attentive.

No idea how this place has gotten negative reviews for it’s pizza — it’s amazing!
I went for the aprevito and then dinner. There were some free appetizers out that were good, and pizza. Only con is 6:30 on a Friday night all of the seats were taken, but that is understandable.
We were then seated and ordered calamari and the avocado spinach salad. Both appetizers were alright but the pizza is where it is at! I got the Ovest and it was delicious. A light thin crust and fresh moz + ricotta + spicy salami. The only difference between ovest and luzzos pizza wise is that luzzos had a crunch that ovest lacked. still delicious and I plan on going back! The service was good and the waiters were very attentive.

Been here twice. First time, the food was good and the service was superb. Second time, the food was great, but the service was slightly underwhelming. Waiter was preoccupied, and a few things came out wrong and/​or late. His helper, however was picking up his slack quite well.
Atmosphere is basic and casual, yet inviting. Rustic, in an NYC sort of way… exposed brick, wood tables, etc. Unfortunately, no beer on draft.
For appetizers, the Arancini Ai Quatro Formaggi (AKA: Rice Balls) are small, how I like them, and filled with just cheese. No meat or peas. They are delicious, but should come with marinara instead of a bed of mixed greens. The Fritto di Calamari is fried just right and was perfect on one occasion, and slightly chewy the next. Still, quite good both times. The Polpettine Di Clelia is four small beef, pork and spinach meatballs. They’re decent on their own, but come on a plate of very tasty marinara that brings it up a notch. They also offer a plate of Italian cold cuts with honey and provolone. It’s tasty, but quite pricey for what you get.
As for entrées, I’ve only had pizza and it is good. Very good. These are the same folks that run Luzzo’s, after all. The ‘bufala’ is the basic Napoletana-​style pizza and quite good, but for a dollar more, the house special ‘Ovest’ is fantastic! It adds spicy salume (think pepperoni), black pepper, and ricotta to usual Napoletana pizza toppings. Prices for the 10″ pizzas are also the most reasonable items on the menu.
Wish I could tell you about the pasta and paninis (which always look good on my friends plates) but I’m sticking with the pizza!

Been here twice. First time, the food was good and the service was superb. Second time, the food was great, but the service was slightly underwhelming. Waiter was preoccupied, and a few things came out wrong and/​or late. His helper, however was picking up his slack quite well.
Atmosphere is basic and casual, yet inviting. Rustic, in an NYC sort of way… exposed brick, wood tables, etc. Unfortunately, no beer on draft.
For appetizers, the Arancini Ai Quatro Formaggi Rice Balls are small (which is how I like them) and filled with just cheese, no meat or peas. They are delicious, but should come with marinara instead of a bed of mixed greens. The Fritto di Calamari is fried just right and was perfect on one occasion, and slightly chewy the next. Still, quite good both times. The Polpettine Di Clelia is four small beef, pork and spinach meatballs. They’re decent on their own, but come on a plate of very tasty marinara that brings it up a notch. They also offer a plate of Italian cold cuts with honey and provolone. It’s tasty, but quite pricey for what you get.
As for entrées, I’ve only had pizza and it is good. Very good. These are the same folks that run Luzzo’s, after all. The ‘bufala’ is the basic Napoletana-​style pizza and quite good, but for a dollar more, the house special ‘Ovest’ is fantastic! It adds spicy salume (think pepperoni), black pepper, and ricotta to usual Napoletana pizza toppings. Prices for the 10″ pizzas are also the most reasonable items on the menu.
Wish I could tell you about the pasta and paninis (which always look good on my friends plates) but I’m sticking with the pizza!

I’ve been here twice and it’s been amazing! The pizza is delicious and the staff is awesome! Their drinks are amazing! We let the bar tender make up a drink and he knocked it out of the park each time!!! The best drinks I’ve had in my life! This is now our go to spot and we plan on going back several times!

I enjoy the pizza. I’m annoyed I have been rush out at 11 pm when the places doesn’t close till midnight. I thought it was isolated incident but another time I Meet a friend there for a pizza on my birthday for quick bite at 11:15 and they refuse to seat me because they are saying they close soon. I think it’s rude when there was at lease 20 other people still eating and drinking, it dose not take 45 mins to cook a pizza and have a couple of drink. What happened to hospitality? Tell me… What’s the point of trying to save on labor cost if you paying people and they aren’t seating anyone for 45mins every single day?

I came here after drinks at the Mckitrick Hotel. The place was not too crowded for a Friday night, but pretty full. We had 3 different pizzas between 4 people, and it was just enough food. The pizza was good. It’s pretty hard to rate pizza in NYC, but I’d say you won’t be dissapointed, but I woudn’t make a special trip to come back here. Our favorite pizza was the square pizza — great crust and crunch.

I had the Martha pizza, super Delish! I sat at the bar and was amazed by the bartender, ok my correction mixologist! I never had such an amazing experience. I told Luis what I liked and he whipped up some crazy drinks I never had before. A true art! A pleasant experience for being solo exploring the city. A must have bar experience!

FRITTO DI CALAMARI $ 10 (Fried Calamari served with Marinara sauce) — 3.7÷5 stars. A bit over cooked, super chewy. Seasonings were good.
CARCIOFI ALLA GIUDEA $ 12 (Fried Artichokes tossed in Lemon and Herbs) — 4.2÷5 stars. Crisp, seasoned well. Would get again.
Ambiance nice, servers nice. Great stop on the way to Sleep No More. (Right across the street)

The food is average, the service abysmal despite having plenty of staff.
Front of house actually seemed like they couldn’t be bothered. When asked by the table next to us for more water, left the table, found the busboy who was sweeping the floor and asked him to fill the glasses.
Timing for drinks and food orders awkwardly long.
Food came pretty quickly though. We shared the calamari and the cheese & salumi apps. Salumi came with honey for dipping? Didn’t quite work.
Calamari was average.
Got the Martha pizza which was pretty good — good toppings, nice crust. We couldn’t eat all the Salumi and Pizza, asked to take the other half (!) with us to go.
Got home and was excited to have cold pizza… Only to find it never made it into the bag. Fail.
Top it off with a wobbly table that we had to take turns to hold down while the other was using cutlery.
Overall for this type of $$, it’s just all a bit inconsistent.
If you are in the area and you’re looking for somewhere to eat, save yourself the trouble, go across the street.

sorely disappointed. when I see a 4-​star average, I expect better than overpriced, tasteless food. I did enjoy my birthday cake, but that’s honestly it. the rice balls came recommended, but tasted no different from your average diner rice ball, for four times the price. my friends were similarly underwhelmed. the restaurant was also in no way understaffed, but service was lackluster (my friend adds that one of the waiters acted as if they couldn’t be bothered) however, another staff member was nice, and had no problem storing my friend’s suitcase when she’d come straight off her bus to my birthday dinner, so that’s not universal.
New York is a city of pizza. you can do better than this.

It’s off the beaten path, but if you’re in the neighborhood (or nearby on the High Line) it’s a great little pizza/​bar that did not disappoint.
The hostess/​bar tender/​waitress immediately greeted us, sat us at a table, and told us that if we wanted to try any of the wines, to let her know and she would be happy to pour us a tasting. We were both immediately happy and thrilled with her hospitality and enthusiasm.
We split the Polpettine (to-​die-​for meatball appetizer in a rich tomato sauce) and the Capricciosa pizza (topped with Mozzarella, Tomato Sauce, Artichokes, Ham, Mushrooms, Olives, Basil). Both dishes were really delicious. The pizza was a perfect size for 2 people to share, and all of the toppings worked well together.

Pizza? A++
Drinks? Depends on what you get.
I first came here over a year ago with my Italian roommate (from Sardinia) who LOVES it. I had one of my first tastes of arugula on pizza, and I fell in love. She claims it’s one of the most authentic places for Italian pizzas, and after spending a few weeks in Italy this summer, I’ll say that it’s not a bad replacement for the real thing if you need a good stop for pizza that isn’t NY style. My go-​to is the pizza with arugula and prosciutto, but I’ve had friends get a variety and loved all of them.
The restaurant itself is bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside but still has a quaint feel. Sometimes the music is the bit louder than I’d prefer, but unless you have a really large party, you can hear well and don’t have to scream to talk. I also love the wait staff, who are generally very attentive and quick to service your needs.
Now, the only downside: the drinks. If you come here for wine or beer, you’re definitely good to go. I’ve had a few of the wine and beers — I usually just ask their recommendation to pair with my pizza of choice — and have yet to be let down. However, when it comes to mixed drinks… well, this is a Pizzoteca, not so much a bar for mixed drinks, and I haven’t found one yet I’m very sold on. A friend tried the W 27^th something-​or-​another that claimed to have grapefruit juice, but I tastes no grapefruit. Another friend got a rather mediocre dark and stormy. My drink was peach-​based but was mostly just spicy with few if any remnants of peach flavor.
So, overall, if you want Italian pizza, TRY HERE. If you want beer and wine with your pizza, COME HERE. If you want a really good mixed drink with your pizza… well, you could have a toss-​up. I love the place enough to come back many more times, but will probably stray away from the mixed drinks (though I’ll always try the drinks of friends to see if they hit a jackpot).

Delicious date night spot! I had spicy salami ricotta black pepper and mozzarella pie, fried artichoke and meatballs. My boyfriend had some spiced jalapeño drink that he didn’t like and I had some drink called a mule. The oven is right there so you can watch them make your fresh brick oven pizza and the customer service was great. In the beginning our waiter told us that the bartender was busy (which was weird to me) but other than that this place is a real deal Italian gem in Nyc. They also have freshly made pasta dishes, specialty cocktails and wine list. Dark sexy date night vibe and it was packed so reservations is best if you do not want to wait.

Our best food adventures are unplanned. We wandered in here to escape the rain. We started with the meatballs, so tender with a delicately flavored marinara. Next we split the Arugula pizza. The thin crust, loads of arugula, and prosciutto all were perfectly balanced. We finished with espresso over vanilla gelato, and lapped it up. The wine was a fine complement and that service was friendly and efficient.
Update on 2015-​06-​30 — Talked to my stepson, who had been in that area two weeks before,
and he also went to Ovest, had the same pizza, and the Super Tuscan wine that my wife liked, and he also loves this place!

I’m in New York for the week and found this restaurant on Unilocal and seeing as it was just a few blocks away, I decided to give it a shot. The front of the restaurant is completely open, like a big garage door. We were greeted on the street by the hostess who sat us immediately.
I went with one other person and we ordered the arancini for an appetizer which are rice balls with fromaggio cheese and they were absolutely amazing. For our main course we chose the ravioli which are spinach and ricotta, in a butter and sage sauce with amaretti cookies crumbled on top which sounds weird but it was absolutely amazing. They gave us homemade bread and olive oil as well.
For dessert I got the lemon sorbetto which was creamy like gelato. The person I was with got a short pastry with patisserie cream, lemon zest, pine nuts and almonds and both desserts were amazing.
Overall we had a really great experience and if we lived nearby we would be regulars for sure.

Decent pizza, but the place smells a LOT better than that pizza tastes. We had the diavola pizza and a salad. Solid salad, in fact very good and hit the spot. The pizza, though workable, did actually fall quite short of a standard $ 2 slice in the world of random NYC street-​side slices. Poor cheese-​to-​dough ratio, and not so heavy on the ingredients. And the crust wasn’t special enough to anchor the pizza as «artisan» or anything special like that.
For a $ 50 bill for 2 people, not including any drinks, this was a waste of money from the food perspective.
That said, the ambiance is great. High ceilings, open feel, cool bar in the middle, nice warm cozy feel (think ski lodge) with the brick oven in the back. I’d come hang out for a relatively quite cup of coffee on a cold Tuesday evening and be thrilled.
Ultimately, however, our waiter’s attitude brought the place back to a 3-​star ranking. This guy with a beard treated us like he was too cool for school, no interest in engaging in anything beyond «what are you having» — not that we wanted a chat, but I certainly felt like we were on a conveyor belt and I had a giant «number 36» stamped on my forehead. As a spot «in the middle of nowhere» in Manhattan terms, you’d think they’d want us to leave feeling like they actually wanted us to come back! Lo and behold, apparently not the case.
Oh well, back to $ 1 and $ 2 slices on the street corner. At least the itinerant preachers seem to want to engage!

3.5÷5, but I’ll round up.
Came here on a Saturday night before going to see an EDM DJ in the Chelsea area. WARNING: If you’re not looking to spend too much money, this is NOT the place to be. In my case, I didn’t really care how much I spent so I didn’t mind.
First, they have such an extensive wine collection. It’s pretty legit. The environment is dimly lit making it ideal if you’re here on a date night. It’s the perfect environment.
My friend and I split our food orders and ordered the Ovest pizza, the Bufala pizza, and the Roast Beef Carpaccio. I must say that the presentation on the dishes were pretty nice. I could definitely tell the staff put work into making the food look really awesome. In addition, the pizzas are made in a coal oven. The tinge of burn I tasted on the pizza was great!
Overall, our bill came out to about 60 dollars, which wasn’t too bad for a place of this caliber. I had an enjoyable experience, and it was a definitely a nice start to our late night festivities.
One caveat, if you get here past 10:30pm on a Saturday night, it will get really crowded cause people like using this place to pre-​game before going into a nightclub where such nightclub would charge exuberant prices.

Customer-​friendly they are not. For some reason, my boyfriend and I were seated very far away from the rest of the other tables near the cold.
Upon entrance, we asked how quickly they could have a pizza in and out of the oven by, and they promised 5 minutes, but it took almost 20 minutes to get some water. We were on a timetable as we were trying to catch doors opening at 7:30pm for Sleep No More across the street.
Food was okay only, definitely nothing to brag about. Pizza is thin crust. Only thing that can be said is that their ingredients are fresh, but that is about it. Totally would’ve preferred going to a deli instead of this place.

Ovest is tucked away in a gallery-​ridden area of Chelsea, between 10^th and 11^th Ave. I think it’s a great addition to the neighborhood, since there aren’t many eating options so far west, but I do not think it is worth the trek over if you do not live nearby.
It’s right across the street from The Americano, so you’ll see a number of high-​rollers, gallery-​curators, and models from time-​to-​time, but the usual crowd includes mostly well-​dressed hipsters and young bachelorettes that come in for Ovest’s Happy Hour special.
Their Happy Hour special includes unlimited bruschetta and dip from 5−8PM on weeknights with any order of wine. So, you can imagine all the ladies that flock to Ovest, even if it’s a bit far west, to take advantage of this particular Happy Hour deal.
The ambiance and décor of the pizzeria is more comparable to a more spacious West Village wine bar, with its high ceiling, exposed brick walls, live music, and floor to ceiling garage doors that are left open during warmer months.
They also have their signature Vespa parked outside, just in case you do miss the Ovest sign hanging overhead.
Even during lunch hours, it’s dimly lit, romantic, and just perfect for any rendezvous.
Their pizza is a treat, too. The crust comes out perfect, not too burnt and never soggy from the cheese. My favorite has to be their Ovest pie.
They also have an array of salads, pastas, appetizers, and square pizzas too, if you’re looking to be adventurous.
They also deliver and are available on
and seamless.