San Matteo Pizza and Espresso Bar

Their Eat24 opened at 4, yet the sign on the door when I arrived at 4:45 to pick up my order read CLOSED and the staffer greeting me was shocked about said pickup order. They apparently did have the order in a different corner of the small space but decided they would wait until I stood there a bit to begin preparing it, and take their time getting it to me. I really wanted to love the panuozzo Di Bartolomei Sandwich $ 14.00 (Roast pork, homemade mozzarella and micro arugula.) but they decided to not to cut the thing (even if that’s traditional/​authentic, it’s totally impractical when you don’t provide plasticware, nor napkins). It was massive, but completely inconsistent, with no bite like any other, and most lacking anything but a mouth full of arugula. The bites that did have cheese and roast pork weren’t much better, despite how recently it was made. Basically shame-​ate/​sustenance-​ate ¾ of the thing. They’re a Michelin Bib Gourmand 2015, and have 3 locations on 2^nd Avenue, but I don’t understand either after that monstrosity.

Pizza is delicious! Unreliable with delivery timing. It took ~1hr 45mins for 1 small pizza. No apologies, no ‘free pizza on your next order!’. Phone attendant was mildly rude when I called after 1 hour. Cash only for delivery.

Are you looking for a locally owned, authentic neighborhood pizza joint? This is the place.
It’s small, but if your timing is right you get seated with a very minimal wait and make friends with the people sitting next to you. You’ll hear Italian spoken by the patrons and servers/​owner alike. It’s awesome!
Many have said that the margherita pizza is the one to get. Listen to those reviews. It was great! However, if you are a lover of Papa John’s or the main stream pizza companies, this is different and prepare your tastebuds to taste how pizza should be made. The taste is fresh, no added sugars, real homemade mozzarella. The crust, oh the crust… thin, wood fired, and soft.
If you are a party of two, get a pizza and salad to share… then if you are still hungry order more. Besides, your table probably can’t hold much more at the same time.
Mangia bene!

Great pizza in a cozy and inviting environment. Just about worth the journey up to upper east side, if you have other things to do up here.

I heard about San Matteo from a friend awhile back. First, I love the atmosphere. It’s a sports bar meets a local Italian café. It’s great for a date or simply watching Sunday football with a beer and pizza. However, the service is a bit over attentive. In the span of a few minutes, three different waiters asked my friend and I if we were ready to order. We happened to be sitting by the register, so perhaps this area of the restaurant was particularly popular with the waiters. Besides this, my experience at San Matteo was great. The server immediately brought us fresh bread and olive oil, and frequently refilled our water. The pizza itself was good– the dough was chewy and the sauce was perfect. The salad had a good balance of salty and sweet, with olives, cheese, eggplant and capers. The dressing was light. Overall, this is a great neighborhood joint with quality food. The interior is quite charming and the service, though efficient, could be a bit more subdued. I’ll be back!

Very disappointing pizza experience. We ordered in 2 pizza pies and a salad for 4 people, which came out to $ 50. That in itself is incredibly expensive for a pizza joint. But what was most disappointing was the size of the pizzas once they arrived. For $ 50, we were expecting big pies where we could at least get 2 slices each out of each pie. They were so small, I would classify them as personal pizzas, each pie only rendering 4 small slices. Not to mention they showed up without being pre-​sliced so we had to cut it ourselves. We are left very hungry, only each having had 2 very small slices.
The only decent thing about this experience was the salad and the bread.

Great place for pizza in Yorkville.
This small restaurant on 90^th Street has been widely popular in the neighborhood for quite some time. Therefore, I recommend calling to make a reservation before 5:00 pm (note — they also recently expanded operations by opening an additional and larger location on 81^st Street). Be prepared for an awesome meal once you grab a table.
The restaurant has a cozy, intimate, and authentic vibe. Management and servers alike are energetic, friendly, and attentive. Their menu boasts an array of antipasti, pizzas (reds and whites), panuozzi, calzones, and desserts. The pizza is Neapolitan-​style, cooked in a brick oven, and tastes delicious!
The food is excellent. Normally, my group will order antipasti to start and a couple of pizzas to share. Two of my favorites for antipasti are the buffalo mozzarella and tagliere di salumi. I am partial to red pizzas in general so I tend to stick to that side of the menu. The classic margherita, diavola, and vestuti are great! I also enjoy the panuozzi di bartolomei.
I highly recommend this place for pizza enthusiasts. I am looking forward to my next meal!

Came in on Saturday afternoon, place was packed with families which is good for those with kids but a bit of a nightmare for those of us without. The dining room is pretty small so noise travels easily.
We had the margherita pizza ($ 14) and the special pizza which had burrata, black truffle and truffle oil ($ 24, price wasn’t listed otherwise I probably wouldn’t have ordered!) The pizzas are 12 inches so individual size if you’re feeling hungry.
Margherita had too much liquid, seems like it wasn’t cooked long enough. Good flavor but there were puddles on the plate from too much liquid in the sauce/​tomatoes. The pizza special smelled great but overall underwhelming, the truffles didn’t have the bang you’d expect and the oil sort of just spills off, again doesn’t seem like it was baked long enough. The best part of both pies were the crust.
The prices are a bit high for the quantity and quality of what we got. Overall probably wouldn’t go back, between the screaming kids and undercooked pizza it wasn’t my ideal lunch experience.

I love the restaurant. Great food and lovely atmosphere, but delivery is really bad. You can wait for over an hour for cold pizza. Go there because it’s a wonderful restaurant, but don’t expect much from the delivery.

Tried this place last night and absolutely fell in love with the food! We ordered two different pizzas hoping to try a couple of different styles. The staff was very friendly and we loved the atmosphere.
While we had two «complaints» neither warranted a decrease in stars. First, we were told the wait would be 40 – 45 minutes so we decided to run across the street for a drink. About 20 minutes later we were called and told our table was ready. We ended up having to rush to finish our drinks and hurry back. I’m not really complaining we were seated quicker than expected but a better estimate would’ve been nice. Next, the full menu wasn’t available because of their «soft opening». Again, not the end of the world but was a bit depressing.
Overall, we really enjoyed San Mateo and expect to go back many more times!

Came here a while ago. The pizza here is FAT! And the people were nice and the space was small. The prices are typical for the UES. Cute little hole in the wall.

Best tasting pizza ever. it is so good!
they use the best quality ingredients and i recommend going

Excellent Neapolitan style pizza. Authentic to Naples they use homemade tomato sauce that has a nice zest and tang to it and they go light with the mozzarella. The crust was just right, fluffy and crispy on the edges.
The eggplant is amazing, even people who dislike eggplant will love it here.

I don’t quite get the hype. It’s certainly a popular spot in the neighborhood and seems like people will travel their ways to get up there.
They certainly know their way in making dough and baking it so that its crunchy on the outside and chewy in the inside. But I’ve had other places with similar if not better crust.
I’ve seen signs and advertisement that they’re opening a bigger location a bit south. Maybe I should go back before that happens.

I don’t get it. I’d been looking forward to coming to San Matteo for a year or so. Mainly based on the Unilocal Reviews and couple of people who had been here before. I was bitterly disappointed. Bitterly and felt like I was robbed. We started out with a bottle of wine which was a fine bottle for the price. We each ordered a pizza at 16 and 18 $ respectively. Then the pizza came and I was thoroughly appalled. Before I even took a bite I was taken aback by the size: maybe an inch larger than the 1 $ Celetano microwave pizzas, the ones you nuke with a funky faux aluminum plate under them? That small. For the price this was a little too much to take. The pizza was okay, just okay. Nothing that bowled us over and not one of the better places we’ve been to in Manhattan. I can’t give it more than 2 stars.
N.B — The appetizers were so overpriced that I did not give them a second look. Uninspired and all in the 15 $ –18 $ range.
N.B — The plain pizza at Patsy’s on 117^th and 1^st is 12 $ and feeds two.

Perhaps this place is better on one of the more specialized pies. I ordered two of the Margherita Pizza’s and here are the takeaways:
Pros:
— Delivery was very very quick
— They were open late (after 10 PM in the UES and were willing to deliver)
Cons:
— Sauce had very little salt (very under seasoned)
— Dough for the pizza was like Naan. Very very doughy and chewy
— Not enough Mozz on the pizza
Overall, I don’t think the quality of the pizza justifies the price (compared to portion and other pizza places available here). Nick’s Pizza still remains my preferred pizza place on the UES.

This place has some reallllly high reviews, so I finally got around to checking it out. Tried the margherita the other day.
Tomato sauce: Pretty good. Nice tang to it, flavor held up nicely to the pie.
Crust: This is a really doughy pizza. The dough is surprisingly dense, not light and fluffy like I expected. Expect to chew to a lot.
Mozzarella was up to par, seemed fresh.
They gave me 3 tiny pieces of basil on one slice… :(And as I consider basil an integral part of a marg pizza, was not thrilled at that.
Overall, particularly at $ 14, this is not something I’d consider ordering again as I expect better in my ny pizza.

Delicious pizza that tastes so much like the pizza I had in Naples! Also loved their prosciutto panuozzo, which I’ve never had before and was filled with delicious prosciutto, which I“m not normally a fan of. Also, all the workers spoke Italian, which means they’re definitely authentic! Still thinking about that crust…

Absolutely fantastic place, perfect really. It only takes one expertly made Neapolitan-​style pizza to make me truly happy beyond saucy belief.
I came by on a Friday afternoon, having taken a random vacation day I was in the mood to treat myself for something beyond the ordinary and I found just that at San Matteo. Dining alone, I found myself at a lovely corner table facing 2^nd Ave., perfect for people watching. I ordered a margarita with prosciutto and it was just out of this world! All the ingredients were fresh and flavorful. A nice, sweet sauce and a thin and crispy crust.
Service was great and I was actually commended for eating by myself rather than given the usual pity eyes. The owner speaking conversational Italian really enhanced the experience and made me feel warmly welcomed.
I, without a shadow of a doubt, would recommend San Matteo to anyone in the area, and would even consider this one the Upper East’s destination restaurants. I can’t wait to return and ‘force’ my way through their white pies…

Best authentic italian style pizza in town!!! We have ordered from here before but never physically eaten here. We decided to grab a couple of pizza one day and loved the experience here. The set up feels like an Italian pizzeria, and the owner speaks italian too reminds us if our visit to italy two years ago.
We ordered a prosciutto and sausage pizza and nan, they are amazing! They are personal size pizza, so they are a good size for afternoon snack/​lunch
Also extensive list of wine if you are interested. Will be back soon!