PizzArte

69 W. 55th St., Midtown, NY

7.9

map & more

Neighborhood
Midtown

Cuisine
Italian
Pizza

Nearby
MoMa
Radio City Music Hall

212-247-3936 ‎

Official Website

By Andrew Steinthal
January 18, 2012

Where does one go for good pizza in Midtown? Nowhere, really. Maybe Bella Napoli (see Lunch In Midtown) for a slice, but it’s otherwise been slim pickins until now. Thankfully, PizzArte has brought the Neapolitan pie craze to Midtown.

Much like the recently opened Forcella, the specialty pizza here at PizzArte is the flash-fried montanara pie. Forcella’s version is significantly better, but it’s the rest of the menu – a full, surprisingly diverse slate of delicious starters, salads, pizza and pasta – that has us impressed with this place. And that’s not the only reason why you shouldn’t write PizzArte off as just a pizza joint. It also happens to be an art gallery. That must have sounded awesome in the business plan. “You know why MoMa sucks? No pizza.” “Sold. Where can I send this sack of gold?” Or at least that how we assume it went down. Believe it or not, it kind of works. There’s no Banksy or Mr. Brainwash on these walls, but we were impressed with the work of the Neapolitan and Italian artists currently displayed on the restaurant’s walls. PizzArte, if you’d like to commission some abstract Immaculate turkey leg artwork for an exhibit, let us know. I’m ready to put these finger paints I got for Christmas to use.

Food Rundown:

Polpettine con Passi e Pinoli
We loved these home-style Neapolitan meatballs. The meat was packed together tightly for a very neat, very smooth texture. The Italian pine nuts and raisins were a nice touch too. Definitely order these.

Melanzane Alla Parmigiana
A simple preparation of baked eggplant with tomato souce, mozzarella and basil that tastes fantastic. Simplicity is underrated. Order this.

Frittura all’italiana
This right here is a mandatory order, and a way to sample a lot of PizzArte’s anti-pasta all at once. The frittura sampler offers up a tasty potato croquette, pizza fritter, rice balls, zucchini, and a small version of the fried pizza montanara, but with eggplant.

Spinaci Salad
There’s a nice selection of salads on the menu, and we were fans of this combination of spinach, golden beets, goat cheese, mango, and pistachio nuts.

Paccheri al Baccalà
We weren’t expecting much from this pasta dish, but were pleasantly surprised. It’s a big serving of pasta with fresh tomato, Sicilian capers, olives, and squares of chopped up cod. We’d order this again.

Montanara Pizza
It’s definitely worth trying once. This fried, then baked mozzarella and parmesan pie is quite delicious. Unfortunately, it’s just not as delicious as the one we freaked out about a couple of weeks ago at Forcella. This one feels more like a calzone and less like a pizza. There’s too much dough, and not enough of the other stuff.

Other Pizzas
The Margherita, with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella and basil is OK, but is a little too oily which made for a wet, runny pizza. The $23 black truffle, Gorgonzola, mozzarella and walnut layered Tartufata pie was delicious. We’ve also had the PizzArte pie, with zucchini, speck, and burrata, even though it’s a bit pricey at $21.