The Best Italian Food in New York, Dish by Dish
Fresh pasta in the West Village, vodka rigatoni under a tuxedoed captain, warm mozzarella on 187th Street, a Roman gricia in Cobble Hill and a two-pound hero in Astoria — here is what to order, and where.
20 dishes · 20 kitchens
New York has two Italian cuisines, and it loves both of them. One is Italian-American: red sauce, parm, meatballs, baked clams, cannoli from a white box tied with string, cooked by families who have kept the same counters on Mulberry Street, Arthur Avenue and 18th Avenue for generations. The other is Italy itself, and in the last twenty years it has arrived region by region — a carbonara from Rome, cappelletti from Emilia-Romagna, a veal chop from a team out of Pistoia, panelle from Palermo by way of Union Street.
This guide treats them as equals and goes dish by dish: fresh pasta first, then the red-sauce classics, a morning on Arthur Avenue, Italy's regions, the sea, the hero sandwich and, last, the pastry case. Pizza has its own guide.
A few ground rules. The best pasta rooms are small and book up; where a place is walk-in only, go at opening. Old-school delis and bakeries keep their own hours and some take cash only. And order the dish a place is known for the first time — there is always a second visit.
Fresh pasta
Rolled, cut and filled by hand, from the West Village to the Williamsburg waterfront.
- 01
Cacio e pepe, then the lasagna
I Sodi · WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Rita Sodi cooks the Tuscan food she grew up with outside Florence. The cacio e pepe is the benchmark, and the lasagna, built from many thin layers, has its own following; the pappardelle al limone is the third pasta to know.
- 02
Mafaldini with pink peppercorns
Lilia · WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN
The ruffled ribbons with pink peppercorns are the dish that made Missy Robbins's former auto-body shop the hardest table in Brooklyn. If you can get a second pasta, make it the sheep's-milk-cheese agnolotti.
- 03
Fettuccine with buffalo butter and black pepper
Misi · WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN
Robbins's pasta-and-vegetables room near Domino Park makes a springy, cacio e pepe-style fettuccine; the tortelli spilling warm mascarpone come next. Sit at the counter facing the open kitchen.
- 04
Cavatelli with hot sausage and browned sage butter
Frankies 457 Spuntino · CARROLL GARDENS, BROOKLYN
The dish lower Court Street has ordered for twenty years at Frankies, the neighborhood Italian two cooks named Frank opened in 2004. Add the meatballs with pine nuts and raisins.
Red sauce, done right
Italian-American cooking, taken seriously.
- 05
Spicy rigatoni alla vodka
Carbone · GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
The tuxedoed Thompson Street homage to mid-century Italian-American dining, and the vodka rigatoni the rest of the country now imitates. If you get the table, share the veal parmesan too.
- 06
Tagliatelle Bolognese and chicken parm
Emilio's Ballato · NOLITA, MANHATTAN
A family red-sauce room on Houston Street with no reservations, no call-ahead and framed photos of famous guests. Get the Bolognese, the chicken parm and the baked clams, and ask whether the off-menu veal with vodka sauce is on.
- 07
Pinwheel lasagna for two
Don Angie · WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli slice their lasagna into rosettes and brown the edges, the clearest example of how they sharpen Italian-American classics. The garganelli with meatball ragù is the other pasta to order, and you will need to book well ahead.
Arthur Avenue
The Bronx's Little Italy, best on a weekday morning with an empty stomach.
- 08
Fresh mozzarella, still warm
Casa Della Mozzarella · ARTHUR AVENUE, BRONX
Orazio Carciotto and his son Carlo have pulled mozzarella in the window of this 187th Street latteria since 1993. Come in the morning, eat a piece warm with nothing on it, then take a Numero Uno hero to go.
- 09
Eggplant parmigiana hero
Mike's Deli · ARTHUR AVENUE, BRONX
Inside the Arthur Avenue Retail Market since 1951, the counter whose eggplant parm once beat Bobby Flay on television. Eat it under the market skylights with a glass of wine from the market bar.
- 10
Spiedini alla romana and stuffed artichokes
Mario's · ARTHUR AVENUE, BRONX
The Migliucci family has run this white-tablecloth Neapolitan room since 1919. It is the Arthur Avenue dinner for an occasion; let the career waiters steer you.
Italy, region by region
Rome, Tuscany and Sicily, each with a dish to show for it.
- 11
Carbonara (Rome)
Roscioli · SOHO, MANHATTAN
The New York branch of a Rome institution makes a carbonara that holds up to the original. Follow it with the amatriciana, start with supplì, and ask for a table in the candlelit cellar.
- 12
Rigatoni alla gricia (Rome)
Lillo Cucina · COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN
Guanciale, pecorino and black pepper from a seventeen-seat, cash-only room on Henry Street, where Giampietro "Lillo" Remia takes the orders and cooks them.
- 13
Coccoli with prosciutto, then the cotoletta (Tuscany)
Prosciutto · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
A walk-in-only East Village room run by a team from Pistoia. Start with fried dough puffs, prosciutto and stracchino, and make the breaded veal cotoletta the main event.
- 14
Pane e panelle (Sicily)
Bar Ferdinando · CARROLL GARDENS, BROOKLYN
Chickpea fritters and whipped ricotta on a soft roll, served in the century-old Union Street focacceria the Cafe Spaghetti team reopened in 2026. Add a Sicilian arancino.
From the sea
Crudo, clams and octopus.
- 15
Fusilli with octopus and bone marrow
Marea · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
Handmade curls with red-wine-braised octopus and bone marrow, the dish Marea has been known for since it opened on Central Park South. Start with the crudo, and share several pastas rather than ordering a main.
- 16
Spaghettoni with clams
Rezdôra · FLATIRON & NOMAD, MANHATTAN
Stefano Secchi's Flatiron restaurant cooks the pasta of Emilia-Romagna; the clams are the seafood pick, alongside the leek-filled cappelletti that are its signature. Start with gnocco fritto.
Heroes
Long rolls, a lot of meat, and history.
- 17
The Italian hero
Defonte's · RED HOOK, BROOKLYN
Ham, salami, provolone, roast beef, mozzarella and fried eggplant on a long roll, from the Columbia Street counter Nick Defonte opened for longshoremen in 1922. Most people take it to go.
- 18
The Bomb
Sal, Kris & Charlie's Deli · ASTORIA, QUEENS
Fourteen inches and nearly two pounds: salami, pepperoni, ham, roast beef, pastrami and turkey, two cheeses and two kinds of peppers, from Astoria's "Sandwich King." One will feed two.
The pastry case
Cannoli, sfogliatelle and ices from bakeries that have been filling white boxes for decades.
- 19
Cannoli with sheep's-milk ricotta, and brioche con gelato
Villabate Alba · BENSONHURST, BROOKLYN
A Sicilian pastry shop from a family who baked in Villabate, outside Palermo, before opening on 18th Avenue in 1979. The cannoli are filled with sheep's-milk ricotta from Palermo; in warm weather, get gelato stuffed into a brioche.
- 20
Sfogliatella, and a lemon ice in summer
Court Pastry Shop · CARROLL GARDENS, BROOKLYN
Court Street's Italian pastry shop has been at it since 1948. Eat a sfogliatella and a cannoli on the sidewalk, and in summer get an Italian ice from the window.
Every kitchen here was confirmed open as of 2026-10-14. Menus change — confirm a dish is on before you make the trip.