Sezz Medi

The place was pretty good, not better than Pisticci and more expensive but still very good. But then there was a fire or something and one could see the pans laying out on the dining room and now the place says it’s for rent. That is, it’s closed. Too bad the neighborhood needs more restaurants.

Service was terrible. Menu is overpriced. Go to Max Soha. It’s on the same block!

This place was really meh. Went here with my boyfriend a while back and we were excited to try somewhere different in the neighborhood but were both dissatisfied with our meals (calzone for him and bolognese for me). Shoulda stuck with our favorite prosciutto pizza back over at Bettolona! That said, Sezz Medi had a nice comfortable atmosphere! Maybe pizza is the thing to order here as well.

Food was good. Service sucked. Need to get rid of the waitress with the long black pony tail. She screwed up an order. Some co-​workers and I came here for lunch, and we asked to split the check between 3 cards. Long story short. We didn’t get refunded back until one week later…

Now, I should qualify this review by saying I met my philosophy idol from college (then in New Haven, now at Columbia for some 15 years) for a 2.5 hour lunch and if they had served me [fill in your most despised fast food], I would have thought it was sublime.
But we split a simple pizza with basil, tomato and cheese, along with a salad and it was great. You rarely see, except at happy hour, wines by the glass in Manhattan in the 7 or 8 dollar range so that was fabulous too.
It’s pretty loud and we got there at 1:15, after the height of the lunch rush. The service is, well, they never brought the chili flakes or oil and because we didn’t order immediately, the server seemed to relegate us to the bottom of his priority list.
But he was affable and I loved Sezz Medi. The selection of pizzas is long and with a pizza, salad, 3 glasses of wine, it came to 50.
I like it up here and now that I realize how easy it is to get from Upper East Side (4, 5 or 6 to the 7 and then up on the 1, 2, 3), especially if you get express trains, I plan to come up here and hang out again. Columbia is lovely and this is a cool area, much different from 20 years ago when I used to study or do research at Butler Library on weekends.
Other appetizers looked quite good and it’s just a charming little Italian about 7 blocks walking from the subway. I was late so I got a cab but if you weren’t late and it was reasonably good weather, you could walk easily from the 116^th station.

Food is a 3.5 and the service is a 1.
Five of us went and they moved a man and his daughter to another table after they had sat them to accommodate us. Good for us, bad for them. We felt awkward and apologized and thanked them. We ordered and then didn’t receive food for awhile, not even bread. Food did not come out all at once. I had soup and salad and it was good. The others said the food was good. We told each other because we never saw a server again to ask. «Fresh ground cheese or pepper?» –never happened.
The bill. Dear lord, the bill. We are colleagues so not part of a family and yes, we had credit cards. They have a rule, max of three. So I wrote out on the bill the title of credit card & how much exactly to charge to each. It came back wrong. We asked for it to be fixed and there was some attitude by the woman who was asked to fix it. She even came back to say it is not her fault and «Even though we wear all black we don’t look the same.» Um, it’s not the uniform dear, it’s the fact we have no idea who our server is because we’ve had no service. AND you are the only one here, with quite an attitude mind you.
Long story, longer — all of us now have double charges on our cards and no voids. When we called the restaurant the same ‘anti-​social I hate my job’ woman stated she ripped up the void receipts and we can come back for proof. WHAT?
Keep your money safe and go up the street to Pisticci.

I’ve been here a few times and have only had the pizza. The service and food delivery is very quick, and I really like their pizza, the only thing I have to say is that I alway ask them to make the pizza extra crispy since when I don’t say that the pizza crust tends to be alittle soft. Other than that this is a good basic pizza place to come to share a pizza with a friend and have a drink or too.

My friend and I came here on a Sunday evening as part of our goal to explore more restaurants in our neighborhood. Sezz Medi is cozily located on the same block as a few of the other great eats in the area such as Kitchenette and Max Soha. The restaurant is fairly small and has around 15 tables that can serve between 2 – 6 at each table and a counter area that seats around 6.
After carefully studying the menu, we decided to order two pizzas to share — the Ortolana, a vegeterian pizza with eggplants, peppers, and zucchini, and the Campione, a pancetta and mushroom pizza. The pizzas came out quickly and both were very good. The only negative about the food was that the crust on both pizzas was slightly burnt. But honestly, it wasn’t a huge deal and didn’t detract from how delicious the pizzas were. All in all, it was a satisfying dinner and a great addition to places I’d go back to in my neighborhood.

My girlfriend suggested Sezz Medi for our dinner date after I had dined at an italian restaurant the night before — so I end up ordering a burger… which was really good, but my girlfriend’s pizza was ammmmazing! and had me in total regret for not having tried their pasta instead of the burger.
She ordered the Campione w mushroom, pancetta, smoked mozzarella and tomato. Specially w the pancetta, It looked oily and heavy whn it arrived to our our table but it was actually light, fresh and pretty wonderful. One of the best brick oven slices i’ve had in a long while…
Service was super warm and super friendly the entire evening. The desserts were pretty awesome. And we received complimentary glasses of Gragnano, a sparkling red wine that was heavenly!
The only minor negative note is the super weak cocktails… but my alcohol tolerance is much higher thn average, so take it w a grain of salt…
Can’t wait to come back and try their brunch menu and pastas!

awesome pizza

The one bad thing about Sezz Medi can be the service — but you need to just take a cue from the laidback Italian owner and just sit back with a glass of wine and say ‘meh…’ Not ideal for high-​strung grad students trying to slip in a quick lunch before class, but perfectly ideal for high-​strung grad students trying to inject some much-​needed carbs the morning after a particularly stress-​relieving evening. The pizzas are all good, thin-​crust Italian-​style and especially if you’re sharing. But I always go for the pastas, especially the BREAKFAST PASTA! The house wines come in a carafe which is a good size and a great price. Best to come when the weather’s nice and you can sit on the patio people-​watching. If you’re stuck inside, you’ll most likely spend more time wondering why the three employees behind the bar aren’t doing anything to make your order arrive sooner.
Wonderful, hidden gem that is a nice change of pace from the alternatives — but expect old world service.

I would actually rate 2.5
I enjoyed the complimentary bread and hot oil.
The rice in the risotto was hard and the scallop tasted a bit «fishy».
The Margherita pizza was horrible, the tomato sauce slid right off my slice and into my lap twice.
The only dish that was enjoyable was the dessert I had («Sezz…, forgot the name»)
that had espresso and Kahlua in it. Fantastic!
Would be willing to go back and try something else

The food and service was great. The server was so kind; she let us sit outside with my little Jack Russell, and she even brought her a to go bowl with water.
I’d go back anytime.

This is some pretty good pizza for an area that seems to be just recently upping the ante for what makes a decent restaurant zone around this ‘hood.
Their pizzas are generally tasty and the texture of the pizzas is not bad either. Sezz Medi also has a nice variety of imaginative pies that they’ll serve you.
They make good use of the limited space they have there, but be forewarned: if you show up without your full party, even if it’s just a party of two and the other person’s not there yet and even if it’s early and the place is only ¼ full, they won’t seat you until all your full party arrives. I can totally understand this policy, but please — when it’s early and the place is dead, at least let a man come in and have a seat after having trudged all the way up here in the rain! Even if the single’s friend never shows up, you’re still gonna end up seating him at a two-​top! Use a little common sense, Sezz Medi.
Once you’re seated however, the service is very cordial and efficient. As far as that goes, it’s cordial and efficient when they’re making you stand there and wait for your ONE friend too, though you’ll feel like a total tool for standing there soaking wet, looking at a bunch of empty tables while the staff tries to maneuver around you, you being completely in their way. Yeah, I know… bitch, bitch, bitch, but this is completely moronic!
This place is pretty good for the neighborhood, I’d go back, but I don’t think that they’re «all that» like they’d like to think they are.

I really loved this place when I lived up in Morningside; Recently, I’ve ridden the train from Brooklyn to get their delicious pasta dishes, generous entrees, and creative specials. I always thought their brick oven pizzas stood out. Someone in that kitchen can surely cook.
Unfortunately, I have had quite a few incidents of flat-​out abyssmal service that has left a lingering bad taste in my mouth. Never before had I witnessed service that was OPENLY HOSTILE, forget lackluster or inattentive. There is literally no food worth the discomfort Sezz Medi’s waitstaff (often) induces.
One time the contention between my family (party of 4) and the waitress had grown so great that she included a 19% gratuity charge on the bill ahead of what surely would have been a tip confrontation.
It’s a rare place that can serve delicious food at affordable prices in Manhattan, and it’s a shame that Sezz Medi’s waitstaff squanders that distinction.

So I came here with a group of people and I really didn’t like it. like at all.
The pizza here is pretty awful. Over cooked, way too small for the price. The toppings were pretty bad too. We tried two of them, one with arugula ontop and the other with some form of sausage or something.
The servers were nice enough, but for a place that is so expensive and looks so nice, I would have expected a whole lot more.

I will never ever go back here.
I live upstairs from this fancy restaurant, and always wanted to go there so the bf and I went for a NYE dinner. It was all around awful.
I got the appetizer of shredded artichokes in a buttery sage and pistachios sauce with arugula and focaccia slices. It was decent, but I struggled to eat the mound of shredded artichoke pieces (not just the hearts, but at least they were fresh I think).
We both got pizza to be on the safe side. How could a fancy italian restaurant mess up brick oven pizza? Well the Ortolana barely had any veggies on it, and the cheese was rubbery and bland. Boyfriend’s pizza was the big shocker– he got the «stuffed» pizza, which I guess we thought was like stuffed crust pizza. No, it’s more like a calzone deep fried. He described it as, a giant fried cheese stick that tastes like ham. He didn’t even get the one with meat in it. It also looked really unappetizing. Also they never refilled his iced tea.

I wanted to like this place, but I couldn’t — though I could imagine liking this place if I were still in college… maybe.
The prices are a bit expensive, and our waiter left us feeling like he didn’t think we deserved his attention. We had to keep asking for water and bread.
Though I will interject here that the bread basket is damn good.
The Ortolana pizza did not have enough of anything on it. The crust needed more salt. The arugula and butternut squash salad was too dressed. A special of saffron risotto with shrimp was by far my favorite dish on the table.

What TK said — the opening sentence of a review of just about anything in Morningside is «it’s good for Morningside.» And that’s exactly what I’d say about Sezz Medi. By Morningside standards, Sezz Medi is adorable. I appreciate the big open windows that let you feel like you’re dining outside, and I appreciate the fairly sophisticated (for Morningside) menu which offers lots of veggie-​friendly options.
We started with the arugula salad which comes with roasted butternut squash (I would have preferred if the pieces of squash were a bit bigger — they were so tiny that they got lost in the salad), mushrooms, parmesan, and almonds. The almonds, parmesan, and squash were a good combination, but the «wild» mushrooms were a bit out of place.
We also had the tri-​color pizza– mozzarella, ricotta, tomatoes, arugula, and olive oil — this was far more successful than the salad, and I enjoyed the distinctive textures of the mozzarella and the ricotta, though I do wish the ricotta was a bit higher quality (I’ve had some amazing ricotta at other places these days).
The entire thing came to $ 25, and the food and atmosphere were nice enough to justify it. If you’re in Morningside, stop by.

I love everything about Sezz Medi… from their bread to their brick oven pizza. Although it is a bit of a tease when I’m starving and staring at them cooking pizza in the oven. Anyway, my friend and I shared a 20 $ pizza and we struggled to finish it… so the bill ended up being around 10 dollars. the pizza we had,
Ripieno (stuffed) — Ricotta, Mozzarella, Spicy Salami, Basil, Tomato, Mushroom
was more of a fancy calzone than an actual pizza. The dough was outside and it was stuffed with everything else inside. So good. Even the crust was delicious. Nothing was overwhelming. My only complaint is that the pizza options with meat were somewhat minimal… and I’m a total meathead. That might not be the correct term.