Best Italian Restaurants in New York City

Italian-American cuisine is perhaps the most deeply woven culinary tradition in New York City's history, shaped by over a century of Italian immigration through Ellis Island. From the red-sauce institutions of Little Italy (now shrunken to a few blocks on Mulberry Street) to the celebrated modern Italian restaurants of the West Village and the hyper-regional Neapolitan pizza scene, New York's Italian food culture is vast and varied.

The city excels at both the old-school and the contemporary. Carbone in the West Village perfectly captures the fantasy of mid-century Italian-American dining. Via Carota and its sister restaurants define the Roman trattoria genre with extraordinary consistency. The New York pizza debate — Neapolitan vs New York-style vs Sicilian — is a cultural institution, with passionate advocates for every format and dozens of genuine world-class pizzerias to resolve the argument.