Sezz Medi - Dinner Review

Intro
Sezz Medi - Highly Recommended
1260 Amsterdam Ave, New York 10027
At W 122nd St
Phone: 212-932-2901

Back to Sezz Medi for a random date night with the wife. I wanted some fall flavors and Sezz Medi totally delivered. You wouldn't expect much out of this unassuming restaurant near Columbia University, but it might be my favorite Italian restaurant in the city right now. Solid Italian food and decent service for a great price. Overall, I give the restaurant an 86/100.

My Menu
1) Chicken Livers, Pancetta, and Sage served with a Garlic Crostini and Grilled Polenta (special) **
2) Homemade Pappardelle and Ragu Bolognese *
3) Lamb Shank and buttnernut squash cooked in Barolo with English Pea Risotto (special) **
4) Pear and Mixed Berry Tart

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Such a great dish and I'm totally making this sometime. Meaty, full-flavored chicken livers paired with the perfect Italian complements: salty pancetta, sage, and sweet caramelized onions. When you add this to the crispy crostini and grilled soft creamy polenta, you have some fireworks. Love this dish.
2) Nicely cooked pasta with a good bolognese sauce. Nothing mind blowing, but still satisfying. Weird thing is I may like it more straight from the fridge.
3) This is totally what I wanted - a great fall dish. Fall of the bone flavorful lamb shank, with surprisingly meaty and sweet squash. The velvety barolo sauce puts this over the top. Risotto was creamy, but a little thick for my opinion and the only thing holding it back from being a what the f dish.
4) After a solid app and entrees, we were pretty disappointed by the desserts. Usually, I'm anti-overly sweet desserts, but this was the opposite where the crust and berry mixture wasn't sweet enough.

Overall Restaurant Experience (86/100)

• Food 8.6/10 – Great apps and entrees. Scores would have been higher if the dessert was better. Surprisingly, even though they serve great pizzas, the breads they serve are pretty subpar. You'd figure with that brick oven, you could make some solid breads.
  
• Service 8.3/10 – Waiter was attentive and the food came out on time.
  
• Atmosphere 7.5/10 – Looks like a casual coffee shop with a brick oven. Crowd consisted of large groups, families, and couples. We got there at 8pm on a Thursday and were seated within 5 minutes. Surprisingly around 9pm there was a line to get in.
  
• Price 8.7/10 – Experience was definitely worth the price. For everything above including a glass of wine it was $70 including tips. No entrees are more than $23.
  

Closing Comments
With Andrew Carmelini leaving A Voce, I think Sezz Medi is definitely my new go-to Italian for the solid food, great price, and good service. Peasant also serves some great food, but the service is consistently pretty bad.