Florian

225 Park Avenue South

(between 18th Street and 19th Street)

Christmastime is here!!!

And what better way to celebrate the holidays and cap off a year of visiting high-end pizza joints, but with Florian—another restaurant specializing in Neapolitan pizza.

The restaurant was also festively decorated in honor of the holiday season!

To continue with the festive spirits, we started off with drinks.

My friend ordered the sparkling prosecco rosé (foss marai, Veneto), which was served in a beautiful glass. Sparkly indeed!

 

I ordered the Pinot Noir 2013 lo triolet (Valle d’Aosta). A very drinkable and not a heavy red.

 

For dinner, we decided to share all of our dishes and Florian made it easy as they serve their meals family-style.

As a starter, we went with the roasted beet and heirloom tomato salad, which came with baby kale, red sorrel, burrata, celery leaves, and basil. Delicious! One interesting side note: It was served on a plate that was very similar to the plate style of Marta (the Italian pizza restaurant I reviewed back in May 2015).

 

We then ordered a small pizza: the Prosciutto di Parma and arugula with burrata mozzarella and parmesan cheese. The flavors worked wonderfully well together. One slight quibble though—the crust was so thin it seemed like we were eating matzoh bread. It literally crumbled when you picked it up, and it was hard to eat with a knife and fork as prosciutto is hard to cut!

We also ordered a small portion size of the spaghetti and short rib meatballs with Sunday gravy. My friend had a hankering to try their short rib meatballs as it was offered on several of their menu options so it must be a specialty. Very good and perfect as small portion as not sure I would want it as a full-sized entrée.

For dessert we had the cheesecake with strawberries and chocolate sauce ($12). So glad we ordered it to be shared as it’s dense and super rich. I can’t imagine one person eating it all in one sitting.

Best of all, at the end of our meal a server came by with a tray of freshly made chocolate chip cookies. We were so full, but how can anyone pass on fresh-made cookies!

 

Overall, the service is impeccable, the décor is lovely, and the food is delicious. What better way to celebrate the holidays!

 

Pros:

Relaxing atmosphere.

Good food and family-style restaurant.

Friendly service.

Cute bathroom!

 

Cons:

Pizza crust is too thin.

Final Thoughts

Must return to try out their whole lobster (yes, WHOLE lobster!) pizza.