RFK Cuisine · Italian · New York
Best Italian Restaurants in New York City 2026
Italian · New York · 7 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
A bowl of spicy rigatoni vodka at Carbone costs twenty-nine dollars and a reservation war, and it is the dish that taught a generation what a New York Italian restaurant could be again: red sauce as theater, tuxedoed waiters, a room that came to be seen. But the city's Italian map is far wider than the velvet rope. Eleven blocks north of Carbone, the tables at Rao's have been owned by the same regulars for decades; across the river in Williamsburg, Missy Robbins rolls the pasta that reset the modern standard; in the Flatiron, an Emilia-Romagna kitchen sends out tortellini the size of a thumbnail. From 1896 institution to Michelin-starred tasting, New York eats Italian at every register. Ranked on the cooking, the room, and what the bill buys, with the dish to order at each.
1.Carbone
The red-sauce theater that reset the genre; book thirty days out for a night meant to feel like an event.
Carbone, on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village, is the Major Food Group room that turned Italian-American cooking back into an occasion when it opened in 2013, and it remains the most-wanted Italian table in the city. The cooking is nostalgia executed with real skill: the spicy rigatoni vodka in the high twenties, the tableside Caesar, the veal parmesan built for the whole table, the Mario's lobster. Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi cook the canon while the burgundy-jacketed captains run the room like a stage. Reservations drop on Resy thirty days out and disappear in seconds, worse on weekends. This is the room to book when the dinner is the event. Aim for a weeknight or work the bar for walk-ins.
Resy, thirty days out; spicy rigatoni vodka, the veal parm, the Caesar tableside.
2.Torrisi
Rich Torrisi's Michelin-starred Nolita tasting; book it for the most thoughtful Italian-American cooking in the city.
Torrisi, at 275 Mulberry Street in Nolita, is Rich Torrisi's personal restaurant, and it earned a Michelin star in 2023 and a place at No. 10 on the New York Times' best-of-New-York list in 2024. Where Carbone is spectacle, Torrisi is the chef thinking out loud: a set Italian-American menu that draws on the immigrant cooking of downtown Manhattan and reworks it with serious technique, course by course. The handsome, low-lit room is calmer than its sibling, and the kitchen's ambition shows in dishes that nod to the old neighborhood while standing entirely on their own. It is the connoisseur's Major Food Group room. Book one to three weeks ahead and take the full menu with the pairing.
Reserve on Resy; the set menu and the wine pairing, a corner banquette.
3.Marea
Michael White's coastal-Italian benchmark since 2009; book it for the fusilli with octopus and bone marrow over Central Park.
Marea, on Central Park South inside the Langham, has been Michael White's flagship of Italian seafood since 2009, and it is among the most decorated Italian rooms in the city. The dish that made it famous is the fusilli with red wine-braised octopus and bone marrow — a plate of such richness it has its own cult — alongside a raw bar of crudo, the spaghetti with sea urchin, and a pasta program that set a downtown-luxury standard uptown. The room is plush and grown-up, built for a celebration or a business dinner with a park view. It is the choice for refined coastal Italian cooking in a serious setting. Book one to two weeks ahead and start with the crudo and the fusilli.
Reserve direct; the fusilli with octopus and bone marrow, a crudo to start.
4.Lilia
Missy Robbins' pasta benchmark in a converted auto shop; book a month out for the mafaldini that reset the standard.
Lilia, in a converted auto-body shop in Williamsburg, is Missy Robbins' restaurant, and since it opened in 2016 it has been the modern New York pasta benchmark — the room every newer Italian kitchen is measured against. The signature mafaldini with pink peppercorn and Parmigiano is the most-imitated pasta in the city, joined by wood-grilled fish, the agnolotti, and a sharp Italian wine list. Robbins, a James Beard Best Chef winner, cooks with precision that never tips into coldness, in a bright, stylish room that stays warm. It is the destination Italian meal in Brooklyn, and the reservation is correspondingly hard. Book about a month ahead and order the mafaldini and whatever pasta is new.
Reserve on Resy, a month out; the mafaldini with pink peppercorn, the agnolotti.
5.Don Angie
Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli's West Village room; book it for the pinwheel lasagna and one of the city's wittiest Italian menus.
Don Angie, on the corner of Greenwich Avenue in the West Village, opened in 2017 from the husband-and-wife chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli, and it has been one of New York's hardest Italian reservations ever since. The cooking is Italian-American reimagined with real invention — the signature pinwheel lasagna for two, the chrysanthemum salad, the antipasti that read familiar and taste new — in a snug, terrazzo-and-neon room that earned a two-star Times review and a former Michelin star. It is the choice for a diner who wants the red-sauce vocabulary turned sideways with skill and humour. Book a few weeks ahead and order the lasagna for the table.
Reserve on Resy; the pinwheel lasagna for two and the chrysanthemum salad.
6.Rao's
The 1896 East Harlem institution you basically can't book; angle for a table for the meatballs and lemon chicken.
Rao's, on Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem, has been open since 1896, and its mythology is the reservation: the handful of tables are effectively owned by regulars on standing weekly bookings, so the public almost never gets in. If you do, the reward is pure old New York — the meatballs, the lemon chicken (pollo alla limone), the seafood salad, served in a small, memorabilia-covered room that has barely changed in a century. The food is honest Neapolitan-American comfort cooking, not cutting-edge, and that is the entire point. It is less a restaurant than a piece of the city. Befriend a regular, or watch for a rare released table, and order the meatballs and the lemon chicken.
Near-impossible booking; if you get in, the meatballs and the lemon chicken.
7.Rezdora
Stefano Secchi's Michelin-starred ode to Emilia-Romagna; book it for the city's best handmade tortellini and a tasting of pasta.
Rezdora, near Madison Square Park in the Flatiron, is chef Stefano Secchi's homage to the cooking of Emilia-Romagna, and it holds a Michelin star for what is arguably the best pasta program in the city. Secchi trained at Osteria Francescana in Modena, and it shows: the tortellini in brodo, the tortelli, and a multi-course tasting of pastas that walks through the region one shape at a time. The name refers to the Emilian women who roll pasta by hand, and the kitchen honours them literally. The warm, busy room is one of the hardest Flatiron bookings, and worth the effort for any pasta obsessive. Book a few weeks ahead and take the pasta tasting.
Reserve on Resy; the tortellini in brodo and the tasting of pastas.
How New York eats Italian
Italian in New York spans more history and more registers than anywhere else in America. At one end sit the institutions — Rao's since 1896, the red-sauce houses of the old neighborhoods — where the cooking is Neapolitan-American comfort food and the value is the room itself. At the other end is a wave of chef-driven rooms — Lilia, Rezdora, Don Angie, Torrisi — that treat Italian regional cooking with the seriousness Michelin rewards, rolling pasta by hand and reading like the work of a single mind. And in the middle is the Major Food Group machine, with Carbone turning the whole tradition into a glossy, ticketed night out. A good week uses all three.
Practically, the city runs on Resy and OpenTable, the marquee rooms release tables up to a month out and sell out for weekends in minutes, and tipping is the New York 20 percent or more. Geography spreads the list across the map: Carbone and Don Angie sit in the Village, Torrisi in Nolita, Rezdora in the Flatiron, Marea on Central Park South, Rao's up in East Harlem, and Lilia across the river in Williamsburg. Order pasta as the heart of the meal almost everywhere. For everything beyond Italian — the French rooms, the steakhouses, the sushi counters — the New York dining guide maps the city by neighbourhood and occasion.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for real Italian cooking
The Little Italy tourist strip on Mulberry Street. The checked-tablecloth rooms with hosts waving menus at the sidewalk trade on the neighborhood's name, not the kitchen. Torrisi sits on the same street and shows what the area can actually do; for the rest, walk a few blocks in any direction to a room on this list.
Carbone for a quiet, low-key dinner. It is a loud, expensive, scene-first room that runs late and is built to feel like an event. For a relaxed plate of pasta with conversation across the table, point yourself at Lilia, Rezdora or a neighborhood trattoria instead.
Frequently asked
What is the best Italian restaurant in New York?
It depends on what you want. Carbone in Greenwich Village is the most-wanted table and the best Italian-American theater, built on the spicy rigatoni vodka. For refined cooking, Rich Torrisi's Michelin-starred Torrisi in Nolita and Michael White's seafood-driven Marea on Central Park South are the benchmarks, and Missy Robbins' Lilia in Williamsburg is the modern pasta standard. Choose by neighborhood, mood and how hard you want to fight for the booking.
Which New York Italian restaurant is hardest to book?
Rao's in East Harlem is effectively impossible — its handful of tables are 'owned' by regulars on standing weekly reservations, so the public almost never gets in. After that, Carbone is the hardest open booking, releasing seats on Resy thirty days out that vanish in seconds, and Don Angie and Lilia are perennially tough. For Carbone, try a weeknight, a late seating, or the bar.
Where do you eat the best pasta in New York?
Missy Robbins' Lilia in Williamsburg set the modern benchmark with dishes like the mafaldini with pink peppercorn, and Stefano Secchi's Michelin-starred Rezdora in the Flatiron is the city's best room for Emilia-Romagna pasta, from tortellini in brodo to its tasting of pastas. Carbone's spicy rigatoni vodka is the most famous single plate. All three need a reservation well ahead, especially on weekends.
How much does dinner at Carbone cost?
Plan on roughly $150 to $250 per person before wine at Carbone, and more once the table shares the veal parmesan and orders a bottle. The spicy rigatoni vodka runs in the high twenties and the larger meat and fish dishes climb from there. It is a special-occasion price for a theatrical, tuxedoed room; book it when the dinner itself is the event rather than a casual weeknight.
Which New York Italian restaurant has Michelin stars?
Rich Torrisi's Torrisi in Nolita earned a Michelin star in 2023 for its refined Italian-American tasting, and Stefano Secchi's Rezdora in the Flatiron holds a star for its Emilia-Romagna pasta. Michael White's Marea has long been one of the city's most decorated Italian seafood rooms. Don Angie is a former star holder. Book the starred rooms one to three weeks ahead, more for weekends.
More Italian, by city
More from RFK
Browse the full New York dining guide, compare the global picks in the best Italian restaurants worldwide, plan an impress-the-client dinner at Marea, find a first-date table at Lilia, or open the full RFK cuisine index.
Restaurants for Kings is reader-supported. Some reservation links are affiliate links with OpenTable, Resy or Tock; we earn a small commission at no cost to you, and a link never buys a place on a ranking. Editorial scores and ranking order are independent of any commercial relationship. See our ranking methodology.