Lombardi’s Pizza Review | New York (Little Italy), NY

Lombardi’s Pizza in New York, NY is recognized as the first pizzeria in the United States originally opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1905.  Gennaro Lombardi was an Italian immigrant who began serving Neopolitan pizza in the Little Italy district of Manhattan in 1897 and received a license for his restaurant by the city of New York in 1905.  Amazingly, Lombardi’s Pizza has continued to thrive over the past hundred-plus years, and it has expanded into quite a large restaurant with many different seating areas.  Still, you can expect to wait to be seated as this is a famous site, and they hold onto some older traditions by only accepting cash and not offering free refills of soda (although you can get pitchers of soda and beer that are a better deal than getting them by the glass).

I started my meal at Lombardi’s Pizza with the bread sticks pictured above.  Honestly, they were rather plain and not too great, but they were pretty fluffy which allowed them to nicely soak up the delicious tomato sauce they were served with.  Still, I might recommend trying another appetizer such as their bruschetta instead.  Next, I ordered their original margherita pizza that is made with San Marzano tomato sauce, Pecorino Romano, and fresh basil, and I added pepperoni to half of it to get a taste of their other toppings.  Lombardi’s has stayed true to the roots of their Neopolitan-style pizza, and, therefore, the highlight of it is the sauce, just as it was with the bread sticks.  Their sparingly placed slices of Romano cheese further draw your focus to the sauce – as opposed to pizzas with shredded cheese covering the entire pie.  The crust was thin and slightly charred, and the pepperoni had some good spice to it.  The pizza at Lombardi’s is good enough to earn a recommendation, and the fact that it is a historic pizza landmark only strengthens my resolve to recommend eating there if ever in Manhattan around Little Italy.

What I Ate: Margherita
Rating: 8.0/10.0

Lombardi’s
32 Spring St
New York, NY 10012
(212)941-7994
FirstPizza.com