After reading the reviews and arriving at Nizza Restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, we had high hopes, especially since they were quite packed. We opted for eating at the bar, as a wait on a table would be quite a long time (there were 5 of us). Once at the bar we ordered our drinks, and all went downhill from there.

Our drinks went empty a few times, each time we had to work to get the attention of the bartender (who was busy socializing with other Nizza employees) and point at our empty glasses to make her understand what we wanted. As I said, they were quite busy, so we refrained from complaining on how long it took for our food to be ready. What we did have to do, was send back my girlfriends gluten free Socca which is toppings on a chickpea pancake (the closest thing to a gluten free pizza they had on the  menu). It was burnt!  We’re not talking a little dark, either. The Nizza employees actually thought it would be ok to send out a “pizza” with black crust, a black bottom, and burnt toppings. I wish we had a chance to get a picture of the black mess.  We had them remake it and were told it would be about 5 minutes. After quite some time passed a new socca was brought out to her. She described the crust as mushy and tastless with a texture that was hard to choke down. The sauce and cheese were bland and of low quality. The sausage topping was great and the only thing she really enjoyed but there wasn’t much of it. The long hot peppers that were supposed to be on it were missing.

We could have eaten at another highly reviewed gluten free pizza joint but, due to the fact that this one was GIG and GFRAP approved we made the grave error of choosing Nizza.

The rest of the Nizza’s Pizzas? The other members of our party described the pizzas as “plain”, “tasteless”, and “it sucked”. One was all sauce and no cheese another was all cheese and no sauce. One was missing a few of the toppings that were clearly listed for this pizza on the menu. We ended up making a pizza sandwich of the two different pizzas to end up with something edible. Oh and they didn’t even bring bread to the non gluten free guests in our party.  All other tables were served bread and oil with spices to tide them over until their food came.

We passed our dislikes on to the manager, who stated he was sorry we didn’t like it. He let us know that Nizza’s pizza was “authentic” and that Nizza had the “best pizza in New York”. Then he walked off.

As for the Nizza Restaurant gluten free pizza, my girlfriend had pain and bloating equal to a gluten response for 24 hours after eating it and she is still having residual problems 3 days later. She hadn’t eaten anything else that could have caused a reaction. I’m not saying Nizza’s food caused her this reaction, it “could” have just been a coincidence… Or, it could have been the food.

We all left NYC that night unhappy with our dining experience.

Good job Nizza Restaurant. Burnt food, probable glutening, lack of care, and horrible customer service from both the standard employee and the management.