Massara

Massara's pizzette comes out of an Acunto oven shipped from Naples, salty and charred with a rim bubbled up two knuckles high, and Matthew Schneier ate three of them in a sitting.4

Why go

Massara means matriarch, or head of the household, in the Campanian dialect, and Stefano Secchi named the room for the cooking he ate visiting Southern Italy as a child.3 He runs Rezdôra around the corner with the same partner, David Switzer, and the regional commitment here is not decoration: Schneier notes the list carries no Barolo at all, because that is northern.4 The pastas are small, which the kitchen calls European portions, so the room is built for ordering several across a table rather than one each.4 5 There is a pizza oven on the ground floor and a skylight from the room above it, so you can watch the pizzette being made from upstairs.2

Order this / avoid

Order: the cavatelli allo scoglio. Schneier calls it as good a pasta as I've had this year, studded with earring-size clams, fraying skeins of crabmeat, and, apparently, mussels and octopus, whose presence was less visible than palpable: just a breath of the sea.4
Order: the candele with the beef-shank ragù, which both Kim and Schneier single out, Schneier for its two-day braise.5 4
Order: the mezzelune if it is on. Half of each pouch holds soppressata and the other half peas and caciocavallo, which takes the edge off the cured meat.5
Order: the polpo to start, which Kim rates top of the antipasti, soft with a lingering smoke.5
Avoid: building the meal around a main. Kim: Don't save room for mains. They're perfectly fine, but a whole branzino isn't the best way to experience this place. Schneier paid $78 for that branzino in 2024.5 4
Avoid: the spaghettini with clams and Campanian olives, at least on Schneier's visit: it was almost inedibly salty.4

What locals & experts say

The inspector and Jihan Lee rate the signature dish; Matthew Schneier does not. The inspector picks out If pasta fredda was eaten in Amalfi, a thick cold noodle in puréed tomato under raw red shrimp and uni, as a standout, and Jihan Lee calls it his favourite thing here: It's tiny—like two bites—but the flavors are unforgettable. Matthew Schneier ate the same plate and wrote that it is served cold in an oversweet tomato-and-almond sauce with raw shrimp and sea urchin, is a bold stroke but not one that found many fans at my table.1 2 4
Bryan Kim, The Infatuation, 10 October 2024, rating it 8.5: the two pastas he would build a meal on are the cold spaghetti crowned with uni and raw red prawn, then go for the candele with a beef-shank ragu that clings to your taste buds.5
MICHELIN Guide New York, 2025: in the selection, and the inspector on the kitchen: The cooking is strong and clever. On the pasta: Most is made in-house and the dishes are sized for sharing, so order several to sample their handiwork.1
Matthew Schneier on the room's patter: just wait for the epic tale of the 35-year-old sourdough starter, nurtured on ambient Campanian yeasts and passed down generationally — but the flavors can be spotty. He also checked the chef's own story and reports Secchi as Campanian extraction but Dallas cultivation.4

Good to know

Booking: contact the restaurant. It runs its own book.1
Where to sit: Schneier prefers the second level, over Broadway, to the prime tables beside the open kitchen downstairs.4
Dessert: the sfogliatella is made to order and your server may warn you about the wait.4
Drinks: the list is Campanian, and Aglianico is the native red. Schneier drank Marisa Cuomo's Bianco from the Amalfi coast.4
Price: the guide prints $$$ and no figure. Schneier paid $78 for the branzino in 2024 and the wagyu was market price.

Verdict

should-visit — The pastas here are small on purpose, so order five across a table rather than one each: the cavatelli allo scoglio that Matthew Schneier calls as good a pasta as he has had this year, the candele under a two-day beef-shank braise, and the cold pasta fredda that he and Jihan Lee disagree about.

Massara.