Dining Review: Massara – NYC

July 2024

Dining Review: Massara – NYC

It is no secret we are huge fans of Rezdora – an Italian restaurant in NYC featuring pasta from Emilia Romagna region in Italy with a particular focus on the town of Modena, one of our favorite regions and towns in Italy. Rezdora has won one Michelin star and continues to be a hot dining location. So when Rezdora’s sister restaurant Massara opened in June 2024, we knew we had to find a way in. And as luck would have it, a reservation was open just in time for Kevin’s birthday celebration.

Massara follows a similar format to Rezdora. First, the name Massara mimics that of the name Rezdora which in the dialect of the region, refers to the nonna, matriarch, or head of the house. The menu at Massara focuses on the Campania region of Italy where seafood reigns supreme.

As we walked at a brisk pace towards the restaurant, we actually passed right by it on the first go round as it is not a very prominent front – it is quite reserved in declaring its presence. Upon entering Massara, we were greeted by the front of house staff and promptly escorted to our table. The property is quite enormous as restaurants in NYC go. There are two floors – the first floor has a bar, dining seating, the open kitchen wood fire oven, and the back of house kitchen. The second floor as two large seating areas and a generous bar. The first floor seating is quite low light and then the second floor as a low light room and then a very bright room with large windows to let in natural light. So the biggest difference before even starting is that Massara has far more capacity for guests than Rezdora which comes with pros and cons. I was happy to note the bathrooms carried over a favorite feature from Rezdora – a continuous recording teaching Italian language. We were happily seated in the room with all the natural light but I think another prime spot to sit is in front of the kitchen and get a glimpse at Chef Stefano working his magic. The decor has a simple elegance to it that is inviting with warm wood, green colors and gold accents.

The menu focuses on the Campania region and the wine menu features most of southern Italy that includes Sicily, which makes the wine menu much larger. We were happy to see several reasonably priced bottles of wine among the luxurious bottles in the list. There were a few write ups of the wine bottles and since this is a region we are a bit under educated in when it comes to wine, we went with the Cantine Olivella, ‘Kata’ Vesuvio Catalanesca 2022. It was an easy drinking bottle that worked well for all the dishes on the menu.

The food menu is very simple. There is an appetizer section that includes small pizzas (antipasti), followed by a section dedicated to pastas (primi), then a few larger entree dishes (secondi). We heard from other diners and can validate ourselves that these dishes are quite small so the point of the menu is to order a bunch and share. There are many ways to order from this menu – going with a few in the first section, second section, and either one in the third section, or focus all your stomach space on the first and section section, or some combination that meets your interest. That is the exciting thing about how the menu is formatted so while even though it is not a large menu, there is enough diversity to keep a repeat guest excited. While we were recommended to try one of the pizzette (mini pizzas), we were concerned that pizza dough would consume too much stomach space when we really wanted to focus our attention to pasta.

CANDELE – “Ragu genovese”, “parmigiano”

This pasta had the ‘wow’ factor on the first bite. This pasta ragu is made of slow-cooked onions, beef, and white wine which translates into a deeply savory flavor. That paired with the saltiness of the Parmesan produced such a beautiful dish. I need to learn how to make this ragu genovese version cause it was simply fantastic. The candele pasta was cooked perfectly as well and I also loved the portion size of this dish To my surprise, this ended up being my favorite pasta of the day.

“CHEESEMAKERS RAVIOLINI” – “Bufala d.o.p.”, “datterini” tomato, basil

I think Massara made this dish specifically for photography as it has the most beautiful presentation. When you search for this restaurant, this is the photo you will see. And the taste matched the artistry of the design. The Mozzarella di Bufala inside these raviolini was intense, almost sharp and a bit sweet. Even the smallest bite of the raviolini produced a large burst of flavor. Kevin and I each could have happily ordered a dish of this for ourselves. If we had not ordered the candele, this would have been our favorite pasta.

CAVATELLI – “Allo scoglio”

There was no way we would skip a seafood pasta and cavatelli with mixed seafood is a favorite of ours. Other than the four clams, it was hard to tell what other seafood was buried in with the cavatelli and the quantity of seafood was underwhelming in this dish. The cavatelli, however, were plentiful and the sauce was incredible, dense with rich flavor and plate licking good – so we easily forgot about the seafood and really enjoyed this dish. And a great portion of pasta as well.

PACCHERI POMODORO – “San Marzano” tomato

It is hard to beat a classic and the simplicity of a tomato sauce is just that. We adored the sauce as it is a reminder of Italy that transports us with one bite. The paccheri was a bit too al dente for my liking – I found it pasta chewy – but Kevin claimed it was perfect. This is definitely one of the more traditional and basic pastas on the menu but it is well executed and Italian comfort food.

“IF PASTA FREDDA WAS EATEN IN AMALFI” – Almond and gambero rosso

This was the pasta we were most excited to try as it was a cold pasta dish. And for us, when we hear cold pasta we think of pasta salad – so we gathered (as the dish is named), this was Chef Stefano’s take on pasta salad in Amalfi. This dish uses the pomodoro sauce from the paccheri dish and adds gambero rosso to top it off – and it is served cold. We both really loved this unique and creative dish – you will not find anywhere else. I also found the shrimp to be high quality and in enough quality for the pasta. This was definitely on the smaller side and the most difficult to share but it was rich that more pasta was not necessary.

BISTECCA “NEW YORKESE” WAGYU – Wood grilled, flakey salt, extra virgin olive oil

I am never one to order steak but Kevin was jazzed about this for his birthday dinner. And I will say, it was a delicious and quite beautiful wagyu. It was cooked at a perfect medium rare and had the best sear on the outside that added a crunch and saltiness. I appreciated the presentation and the portion size as well. This was certainly a splurge but a birthday celebration is the best reason to do so. We also ordered zucchini flowers which were under the contorini section so do not miss the options there to complete your entree.

Dolce

We ordered two desserts and I will warn you – I have a lengthy rant about them. In summary, do not order dessert here unless it is the gelato – the portions are too small for what they are charging and in my opinion, the gelato is the only one that is somewhat worth the price.

Kevin ordered the gelato ($15) two two flavors – the salted caramel and the pistachio chocolate chip. The salted caramel was shockingly off as it was way too salty to eat. I do not know if we got a bad scoop or what happened but I am willing to overlook it, and the pistachio chocolate chip was delightful.

I ordered the sfogliatella ($14) which is a typical Italian pastry, sometimes referred to in the US as a lobster tail due to the shape. This came in three flavors of classic citron, fig & pistachio and I selected fig. I gasped as it was put on the table – it was the size of a donut hole – I could not believe how small it was, it was offensive. At the price of $14, it should include a full size sfogliatella – the size of your palm – or all three of the flavors at the bit size it currently is. It was gone in one big bite or two small bites. I was just shocked how they could justify this one. I even mentioned to the server that while it was a delicious bite, the portion was way too small. Her response was as she understands it, that is the size they are traditionally and while I have not been the Campania to validate that – trust me I will one day – I simply said then the price is too high for something this size. For just a few dollars more, I could have gotten an entire pasta dish! And for the same price, I could have gotten a pizza – and entire pizza – or anything on the antipasti list which would have been more satisfying. Very disappointing as it was a delicious pastry but the portion size for what they were charging should be re-evaluated.

A few other notes. I will say, the service was noticeably slow for us. This could be due to the recent opening and the newest of everything but I will say they have plenty of staff hired. It is certainly a challenge to have a building with two floors but a kitchen only on one. Another reason is that it could be the size of the restaurant being too big for the kitchen operation. I have confidence this will be improved in the future as Massara settles in.

Please make sure you use the bathroom at least once – an unexpected detail that is both completely unnecessary but absolutely brilliant! There is a constant Italian lesson going on in there for vocabulary and conversation. What a fun and productive addition to the bathroom! We all absolutely loved it and Chef Stefano – please never change it.

Overall, we loved our meal here and would definitely return in the future. Based on our first visit, I would say skip dessert unless it is the gelato. I know when we return, our meal will be focused on the antipasti and the primi sections of the menu so there is certainly much more for us to try. While it is one of the hottest reservations in NYC at the moment, check frequently for new reservations, cancellations, and they do have two bars for walk ins that can be used as well.

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