23 Best Italian Restaurants in New York
The best Italian restaurants in New York City serve up excellent food, sure, but they're also places where you want to sink into your chair, drink some wine, and stay a while. It's about comfort and ease as much as it is pasta and pancetta. That's not to say that some of the picks you'll find below don't have white tablecloths and tasting menus, or that fine diners do not a solid Italian restaurant make. It's a testament to them, really, that they induce the same easeful feeling as the neighborhood red sauce joints. From the West Village and the Lower East Side to Carroll Gardens and all the way up to Arthur Avenue, these are the best places to eat Italian food outside of Italy. (And to be sure, some of the best Italian restaurants in New York are also some of the best new restaurants in New York City, full stop.)
Click the link to read our complete New York City guide.
Photo by Anthony D'agenziorestaurantFrankies 457 Spuntino
$$Frankies 457 Spuntino is a characteristically Brooklyn spot: warm and inviting, with exposed brick walls and a long wooden bar. The best part, though, is the intimate backyard space, which is open on warm summer evenings. Frankie's is always full of locals (including families) who know their stuff when it comes to food and restaurants, and is popular for an unplanned dinner or a very good brunch. This means waits can be long, but everyone you ask will say it’s worth it. Even if you don't order it for your main dish, be sure to get a plate of the sweet potato and sage ravioli for the table.
Diane Sooyeon KangrestaurantI Sodi
$$$I Sodi is a neighborhood institution and it's largely low on tourists—a blessing for the Village. The pasta is to-die-for good, but the artichoke lasagna, with its bazillion layers, is what dominates Instagram. Don’t skip the pappardelle al limone, the whole grilled branzino, or the extremely civilized antipasti platter though. Rita Sodi's Tuscan cooking has breadth and depth at once.
Diane Sooyeon KangrestaurantEmilio's Ballato
$$Emilio’s Ballato was founded in 1956, and stepping inside is like being instantly transported to mid-century New York, where vintage photographs and album covers line the walls and chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The small, warm space is ideal for cold winter evenings, when all you want to do is sip a glass of the house red and dine on a simple, straightforward (yet perfectly prepared) plate of spaghetti pomodoro or gamberi oreganate. When you want that classic Little Italy night out, you can't do much better.
Jon Bilous/AlamyrestaurantBamonte's
$$Bamonte’s opened in Williamsburg near the turn of the 20th century and hasn't changed much since. The decor is very "place where a guy gets shot in a mobster movie," with swagged velvet curtains, fading signed photos of celebrities from another era, and white tablecloths adorned with cut-crystal votives and vases holding a single, tomato-red flower. It's cheesy in the best way—a charmingly fusty time capsule in a neighborhood that's become the epicenter of trendiness. Looking for New York red sauce? This is your place.
Eduardo CerrutirestaurantVia Carota
$$Sparsely decorated yet warm and inviting, with plenty of wood and exposed brick, Via Carota is the kind of place where you might run into celebrities, but where you’ll feel totally comfortable sitting next to them in jeans and a T-shirt. But they don't take reservations here, so the flip side of all that cool is that waits at peak times can push three hours. The menu is full of supremely delicious creations from Rita Sodi and Jody Williams, who between them run Buvette in NYC and Paris, I Sodi a couple blocks away, and Bar Pisellino across the street. Even the relatively straightforward vegetable dishes, like the carrots with yogurt and pistachios, are remarkable in their fresh simplicity.
Photo by Evan SungrestaurantLilia
$$$This Williamsburg paean to pasta is in a former garage with exposed-beam wooden ceilings. Chef-owner Missy Robbins is one of New York’s finest pasta chefs. People come here for all sorts of carby stuff: rigatoni diavola, gnocchi, and ravioli. Start, though, with some cacio e pepe fritelle, gorgeous fried balls decked out with salty cheese and pepper, and move on to seafood, another Robbins strong suit. Maybe today’s the day for grilled clams flecked with Calabrian chilies? Cured sardines with capers? It’s all good. But, the absolute must-order dish is the mafaldini, a rippled noodle spiked with pink peppercorns. Reservations are hard to come by (you may need to book a month in advance) but snagging one is well worth the constant refreshes of Resy.
Visko HatfieldrestaurantIl Posto Accanto
$$$Il Posto Accanto, an East Village spot—some would call it a wine bar—is almost aggressively unstylish, right down to the plastic-sleeved menu printed unearthed from the depths of Microsoft Word's novelty options. But in today's world where everything is made to be photographed, uncool-ness is refreshing. This is a small plates, order-for-the-table kind of place, and there's a wide array of classic Italian dishes with a Sicilian slant. You could split one or two bites like curried salt cod fritters, a plate of cheese and salumi, or tuna crudo if you feel like nibbling on something over a glass of wine; or turn it into a full dinner with a couple of pastas like the tortelloni stuffed with oxtail. Desserts are predictable but delicious. You can't go wrong with panna cotta, chocolate mousse, or tiramisu.
Mark RosatirestaurantLucali
$The list, the list, the list. It's not easy to get a table here. Show up well before 5 p.m. (before the restaurant opens) to put your name on the list. Later than 5 and you risk not being able to get in at all. Despite the challenges, regulars and visitors come again and again for the brick oven pizza, which Lucali has perfected. Ingredients and toppings change daily based on what’s freshest, but flavors tend to be simple (think basil and garlic) and highly flavorful. Regulars swear the calzones are the best they’ve ever tasted. When you feel like having some of the best pizza in the world, you come here. Also keep in mind, it's cash only.
Diane KangrestaurantAntonucci
$$The Upper East Side isn’t a bastion of cutting-edge restaurants, but it’s definitely a neighborhood that does the classics very well. Antonucci, a few blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on East 81st Street, is no exception, housed in a bright, pleasant space framed by pink-painted walls and abstract paintings. The menu consists of Northern Italian comfort foods, from veal osso bucco with saffron risotto to perfectly crisp chicken Milanese, and there’s a perfect wine for every dish. Come for an ideal post-museum outing.
Diane Sooyeon KangrestaurantMalatesta Trattoria
$$Malatesta is the quintessential little West Village Italian spot. The restaurant’s charm draws in a big local crowd, which can sometimes mean long waits on warm summer evenings, but it’s entirely worth it for the cozy atmosphere with wood farm tables and candlelight flickering off of exposed brick walls. The handwritten menu is ever-changing, but usually includes pasta staples and seafood specials, and the house red is great and seems to go with everything. It’s a spot that works just as well for an intimate group birthday party as it does a first date.
Julia GillardrestaurantRoman's
$$Situated behind an unassuming storefront, the Roman's dining room is one of Brooklyn's most inviting spaces. This is definitely a local hangout, but it's also the sort of place Manhattanites will go out of their way for after seeing a movie at BAM. The frequently changing menu is a marriage between Italian tradition and Brooklyn ingredients—it's cozy and classic, and always seasonal and local. On any given night, the menu might feature paccheri with white beans and kale or celery root Milanese. At lunch, you can tuck into meatballs in sugo or a perfect chunk of crusty bread with butter and fig jam. The chocolate sorbet is the perfect end to any meal.
Alice Gao/San SabinorestaurantSan Sabino
$$$The seafood-heavy sister restaurant to the inimitable Don Angie was the hardest table in town to book well before it opened. If you are fortunate enough to elbow your way into a Resy, or walk in to snag one of their wooden bar stools, take your time. Start with a cocktail. We did negronis and note-perfect dry martinis, finished with a thick peel of lemon, just like they are on the Amalfi. The space itself recalled the fabled Italian coastline, with warm, sunny yellows and pops of Mediterranean blues, but an impressive bar with hand carved stools and leather booths make the place feel every part of an upscale West Village restaurant. And then, the food. After stints at Torrisi and the helm of Don Angie, chef Angie Rito knows a thing or two about Italian-American cuisine, which is how San Sabino classifies itself. Though here, she reinvents it even further. Contrary to red sauce norms, the menu is heavy on lighter dishes, like exceptional salads (the tricolore Sabino is their take on a Caesar) and crudos (the spicy tuna with broken arancini was my favorite bite of the night) and a smart, tight selection of pasta dishes. I resisted the urge to get meatballs and Sunday sauce manicotti and went full fish, because, when in Amalfi…. The crab-filled farfalle was delicate and wonderfully sauced as was the lobster triangoli. We had to order the restaurant’s viral dish, the shrimp parm, with heads popping out from layers of red sauce and cheese, sizzling on a silver platter. Risking backlash, I will say that it was good, but it’s not a can’t-miss. Instead, opt for an additional dish of what Rito does so exceptionally here - the fresher, lighter seafood (another crudo, or perhaps the halibut). And if you (like me) still need that fix of more on-the-nose Italian American, it is nice to know that Rito’s meatball spiedini—deliciously seasoned, served on a skewer—can be ordered with any dish, on the side. —Erin Florio, executive editor
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Courtesy Don AngierestaurantDon Angie
$$$Italian-American food may seem a dime a dozen in New York City, but this is the sort of place you'll need to return to at least four or five times to eat everything on the menu you want to order. The husband-and-wife chefs, Scott Tacinelli and Angie Rito, have been cooking together for nearly a decade—before this they were at Quality Italian in midtown—and whip up an inventive menu of next-level Italian-American: Think a stuffed garlic flatbread starter, with cheese oozing out of every tear; a take on Chrysanthemum salad generous with grated Parmesan; and a garganelli giganti pasta, cooked in a salty, delicious guanciale and pecorino ragù that's basically the spaghetti and meatballs of your dreams. Drinks stand up, too: a Nonna's Little Nip, a blend of grapefruit, Campari, and prosecco, or a Pinky Ring, a swirl of rye, Carpano Antica, Galliano, and Campari, are just what you need to take the edge off.
MorandirestaurantMorandi
$$It doesn't get more New York than a Keith McNally-run establishment. The restaurateur behind Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern (which is just over the border in Greenwich Village) has his West Village spot in Morandi, a rustic and wood-clad Italian trattoria best visited on Sundays for the lasagna special into which they layer prosciutto, bolognese, bechamel, and parmesan. On any day of the week, though, this is a highly reliable place to sit with an aperitif, martini, and-slash-or glass of wine, eat some comforting pasta, and watch the bona fide New Yorkers coming and going. —CH
William AbranowiczrestaurantCafe Carmellini
$$$Tucked inside the new Fifth Avenue Hotel, a 19th-century mansion turned exuberantly designed bolthole, is Café Carmellini, courtesy Andrew Carmellini, the chef behind Downtown favorites like Locanda Verde, Lafayette, and the Dutch. Its interiors mirror the old-school elegance of the building: Blue velvet and mustard leather chairs and banquets sit strikingly against Art Deco mirrors, concentric-circle chandeliers with more bulbs that I could count, and two very large trees that stretch up to the double-storeyed ceiling. There are plenty of seats to pick from (I have my eye on the bar seats for oysters and martinis the next time I visit), but for prime vantage, sit on the upper level with its opera-style box seats. The menu here draws on various sources of inspiration: some of Carmellini’s dishes are more personal, like the Shrimp Colonnata, a nod to a village near his family’s hometown in Tuscany, and the Grapefruit Sorbetto, an ode to his nonna; others are classic Italian like the duck tortellini; and still others that are homages to other great chefs, like the Scallops Cardoz, a touching tribute to the late Floyd Cardoz, who Carmellini worked with in the ‘90s. An 1800-bottle-deep wine menu accompanies dinner service as does a tight list of classic cocktails, but you’d do well to leave room for a nightcap at the hotel’s wood-paneled Portrait Bar down the corridor.—Arati Menon, digital director
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eugenia maffeirestaurantil Gigante
$$Neighborhood: Ridgewood, Queens
Go for: cozy Italian dishes (nothing misses) that will have you asking, “Why didn't anybody tell me about this sooner?”Il Gigante had to be really good to make it on this list—like, an undeniable standout of the year—as one of the owners is the partner of our executive editor, Erin Florio. We took our time to visit, we went to the other hyped spots first, even as Il Gigante started cropping up in our feeds. There's no way around it though: this trattoria is one of New York City's best new restaurant openings, in increasingly buzzy Ridgewood, and the tables—which are full by 7:30 on weeknights—speak for themselves, as does the food. Grab a seat in the room adorned with antique-market finds and low, flickering candles. Kick things off with the calamari fritti, equal parts crispy and airy, the kind of starter that will make even your anti-fried-food friend cave. As a pecorino lover, I found the pecorina salad with radicchio a perfect bitter complement to all that would come (it also balanced the salsiccia and beans appetizer, which was so cozy I understood what the restaurant means by “homestyle cooking” even though I wasn't raised in central Italy like the owners were). It's a challenge to not fill up before reaching the pasta and mains, but promise you won't: On a menu upon which nothing misses, the gramigna pasta (curly-cue noodles tossed in a pink sauce with sausage), and the cotoletta alla Bologense (a pork cutlet topped in 24 month-aged prosciutto and smothered in a parmesan sauce, heaven help us), are so delicious I was almost angry—why had nobody told me about this pasta shape, or this pork dish, sooner? Maybe they aren't all as good as Il Gigante's. The real kicker is that even the familiar dishes like bucatini cacio e pepe or lasagna are just perfect, and the constant din of other tables laughing or clinking wine glasses managed to convince an eagle-eyed group of travel editors that maybe, for the night, we might have been transported to Italy.
Martien MulderrestaurantBorgo
$$$Neighborhood: Rose Hill, Manhattan
Go for: an eminently cozy trattoria with a menu of unexpected effervescenceWe should all be so lucky to walk into cozy Borgo on a frigid winter night like articles director Lale Arikoglu and I did. The pressed-tin in the front and concave barrel-style ceilings in the back, flickering candles, and warm wood details elegantly deliver on the trattoria promise—this is where you want to lean in over great pastas with even better friends. Nothing here is heavy though, but light, airy, effervescent even. Looking around, you might wonder how so many fabulous looking people flocked to this spot before you did. (It’s because restaurateur Andrew Tarlow, behind the similarly stylish-but-comfortable Achilles Heel and Roman’s in Brooklyn, is to credit for Borgo.) Though there’s a great list of wines by the glass, we went for cocktails—and in Dry January, I appreciated that even the NA options like the Riviera Day felt legit. You can’t miss the chicken liver crostini, which is absolutely decadent, the refreshingly bitter chicories, or the bright lobster pasta. —Megan Spurrell, associate articles director
Ekaterina SmirnovaRoberto's
When you go to Roberto's, it's probably because you've made a bit of a pilgrimage to Arthur Avenue, the first block of New York City Italian-American food found up in the Bronx. And if you've made that pilgrimage, it makes perfect sense to cap the day off at Roberto's, a huge and hugely comfortable dining room on the strip that will bring everything you've seen at the markets together in perfect form. The hospitality is unmatched, the ambience old world, and the food fresh as a sassy child. Try the vitello, either alla caprese or with potato and mushrooms, and wash it down with some very good wine. —Charlie Hobbs
Courtesy Macosa TratorriaMacosa Tratorria
This beloved Bed-Stuy trattoria is so laidback, they hand-write their (extremely small, extremely good) menu of fresh pastas and maybe one standalone protein out on swaths of brown paper. And, whether you're warm and at east in that dimly-lit dining room or sipping a spritz out back in the expansive yard, you can't go wrong with our order. Follow your heart and come back to try the rest. —Charlie Hobbs
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Bar Mario
Bar Mario opened on a quiet corner of Brooklyn's Red Hook as the type of friendly and familiar neighborhood spot you'd swear has been around for years. The place is petite which adds to its conviviality, but the move here is to snag some bar stools and allow the cheery bartender to keep the Negronis coming as you make your way through the menu. Stand-outs include a creamy gnocchi as well as a tangy 'Hangover Spaghetti' which is kind of like a titanic puttanesca. And it's nice to know that even with its all-Italian team, its playful approach to dishes, and its selection of boutique Italian spirits, your bill will feel very true to its neighborhood—and not big city—roots. —Erin Florio
Palma
On a quiet street in the West Village, Palma can consistently whisk you away to a peaceful place beyond the chaos of New York City. With a strong history of almost 25 years in the city, the restaurant's interior emits a chic, homey feel with dishes that are rooted in fresh, traditional ingredients, with touches that still cater towards the modern palate. Its most unique feature is the stunning garden area out back with a bright skylight—an incredibly tough find around the city. Start with some apps like Roman-inspired carciofi fritti (fried artichokes), and share as many pastas as you can stuff, making sure not to miss their truffle fettuccine, and their Instagram-famous ravioli cacio e pepe (both of which happen to be gluten-free—but you'd never know it). Best of all, you'll actually be able to make a reservation here, although a reservation in advance is recommended to try and secure the outdoor area. —Emily Adler
Gentl + Hyers/Il Buco AlimentariIl Buco Alimentari
This more accessible little sister to New York's famed Il Buco has the elevated, recognizable plates of its sibling, including possibly the greatest cacio e pepe in the city. But with more of a let-your-hair-down and order that second bottle of wine vibe. It's polished but casual, in part thanks to the items like olive oil and more lining the restaurant walls, which turn the eatery into an alimentari, or marketplace. But what makes Il Buco Alimentari a standout for so many years in a competitive New York City dining scene is its ability to easily be whatever the occasion calls for: dinner with friends, anniversary date night, or a quick glass of red and bowl of arrabiata on a bar stool with a book for company. —Erin Florio
Tina BoyadjievaFiaschetteria
This classic West Village spot is rolicking, unpretentious and delicious—the three hallmarks of any good Italian trattoria, or casual restaurant. Here, wooden tables get covered fast with carafes of totally decent Tuscan reds, heaping plates of pici, and duck ragu, after platters of crostini and burrata. It's the type of stick-to-your-ribs Italian comfort food that is so true to its old country origins, you'd totally detour for it if driving through, say Tuscany on route from Rome to Milan. Which is actually something this writer has done more than once; its namesake is found on a small piazza in the pretty hilltop Tuscan village of Pistoia. But with the ambience of Italian-tongue gossip flickering between the staff and the savoriness of the bolognese at both, the only thing separating one from the other is distance. —Erin Florio
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