Best of 26 Ragu in NYC

This neighborhood favorite started as a coffee shop and became a dining spot a few years ago. It still draws crowds with its few tables despite its absence of alcoholic beverages and bathrooms. Lillo's lasagna ragù is better than what grandma used to make, her ideally textured meatballs with sauce are wonderful, and her speckled fettuccine in parmesan cream sauce is almost too rich to be completely etched in your memory.

Emilio's is a special place with a heady appeal and a kind of throwback romance that dates back to 1956. Its weathered walls are closely arranged with framed prints illuminated by pretty chandeliers and shallow sconces that seem to sum up the duality of the place. Expect a huge beef parm, sausage and broccoli rabe, lots of pasta and a wait. Emilio's Ballato does not accept reservations.

One of New York's best restaurants, Rezdôra received all kinds of praise when it first opened in 2019, and the awards just keep coming. Their $98 regional pasta flavor is a great introduction to preparations influenced by Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, but there are also delicious a la carte selections available for lunch and dinner.

Some New York restaurants with powerfully desirable beginnings fade into quiet, late-night status after a few "best of" seasons, but Via Carota remains popular even after its first opening in 2014, enough that You may want to change your plans if you appear to be spying on an open table on your way somewhere else. Its resilience is thanks to menu items like the hearty green insalata, hand-chopped steak, and subtly impressive pasta dishes.

Over the years, SA Hospitality Group has opened Italian-inspired restaurants, serving home-cooked cuisine that has attracted the upscale New York scene. But Felice Pasta Bar at Time Out Market is the team's first foray into all things Brooklyn. We can't wait to try another round of their trusty Tuscan food.

Aspiring Park Slope restaurateurs should study this pleasant Fifth Avenue staple before their own opening ceremonies. Although it opened its doors in 1998, Al di Là remains unbeatable in the neighborhood. Excellent northern Italian dishes include tagliatelle ragù, black spaghetti with octopus ragù, and stewed rabbit.

Bamonte's is a New York classic that every red sauce lover should visit at least once. It was first opened in 1900 and still retains much of its old-world appeal; the platonic ideal of an old-fashioned Brooklyn Italian restaurant with all the menu items to match.

Roman's casually polished style is cheerfully impressive in a "who, me?" in a way that will make your dining companions think you know the best places, even if this is your only place. And in any case, it's worth that designation, with a casually elegant interior and largely locally sourced ingredients on its Italian-influenced menus.

The carefully crafted Neapolitan pastries (thin crust with a pleasant char and a subtle hint of Parmesan) are among the best in the city. Di Fara's dough is always as fresh as possible, the basil is hand-cut to order, and the ingredients have been meticulously sourced since 1965.

Even with room for 70 people inside and two strips of sidewalk seating outside, Lilia's is still packed after six years of serving the area's best pasta program. Its brick-and-wood-clad interior is casually elegant, and the open kitchen produces hits like spaghetti with anchovies and a wood-fired leg of lamb with Roman spices.

Pasquale Jones' menu of affordable wood-fired wines and pies, including best-in-class clams with salty necks, parsley and garlic cream, is a great place to visit any night of the week. It's also (thank goodness!) a little easier to do than some of his contemporaries.

Click on Carbone's booking platform and you'll see a sea of ​​red as deep as Sunday gravy, so imagine how hard it was to get back before you had online bookings. It's clearly still as brilliant a product as ever, but, with a little effort, you might be able to snag a table as they are available seven days in advance. You'll need at least that much time to choose between the spicy vodka rigatoni, veal parm, and lobster fra diavolo at Carbone's cinematic dining room.

Follow the red and white striped awning on Mulberry Street until you reach Rubirosa's family-friendly space downtown. It's as pretty as a commemorative plate inside, but the dinnerware here is taken up by lists of antipasti, fritti, handmade pasta, panini, all sorts of pizza configurations, and some familiar red sauce entrees.

Bar Primi, a perennial people-watching spot, has had two stretches of sidewalk seating since before it was necessary. Tables are covered inside and out with abundant pasta options, plus low-commitment chicken, fish, steak and antipasti to accompany your drinks.

Astoria's Vesta is as lovely a place to evoke a mood with a glass of wine alone at the bar as it is to set up a date, romantic or not. Order a couple of apps for one or share pizzas and pastas such as gnocchi with roast leg of lamb, eggplant, tomato and ricotta ragout, and wild boar lasagna.

Like many ultimately rewarding activities, Noodle Pudding isn't easy to pull off: no credit cards or reservations needed for smaller groups. But if you pool your money and prepare for the wait (or book for a group!), wonderful rice balls, carpaccio, and pasta varieties await.

Denino's, also one of New York's best pizzerias, has been serving Staten Island since 1937. That was more than three Pete Davidsons ago, and it remains a prominent spot for larger groups to share not only a wide variety of pies, but also Applications. and a handful of entrees like eggplant parmesan, sausage and broccoli rabe or pep.

Whether fashionable notions draw you like an influencer to a photographic moment or set off alarm bells, it's notable that Dante is relevant 108 years after it opened. The intermittent bar, "the best in the world", has spuntini as cheese plates and salumi misti, a careful range of pasta and main courses such as branzino and chicken Parm in an address full of character.

Roberto's, capital of Little Italy in the Bronx, has been delighting and satisfying its guests for three decades. Its exterior sets the stage for a homey atmosphere inside, where the extensive menu includes piles of noodles, plenty of seafood, steak, rabbit, and eggplant parmesan.

Now in its twenty-ninth year, Il Buco remains in demand, with an extremely rustic charm enveloping a space that could double as a film set. It reflects its flattering light on homemade pasta options such as torchio with sausage, asparagus and pecorino and tagliatelle with black truffle and parmigiano.

Arthur Avenue's Zero Otto Nove (there are others in Manhattan and Westchester) is as charming as it gets in the Bronx's Little Italy. The decor walks a tightrope between generally Italian inspiration and theme for a truly charming effect, whether you're on a date or a big family outing. In any case, there is enough on the menu to satisfy tastes.

This casual spuntino was an instant classic when it debuted in Carroll Gardens in 2004. Of course, it's changed over the years, especially as it absorbed another now-defunct neighborhood favorite, Prime Meats. Frankies' wine list is a mile long, their cocktails are always fantastic and we recently enjoyed the cavatelli with spicy sausage and golden sage butter and the chicken Parm.

Wife-and-husband operation Don Angie seemed to be in full swing when it first opened in 2017. The popular spot still has more interest in reservations than availability; one of those places where you'll have to e-camp to make reservations at 9am. m. one week in advance. Once you're inside, try the pinwheel lasagna that helped it gain a following.

I Sodi first opened with Tuscan-influenced menus in the West Village in 2008. Its status as a New York favorite is evident in the wait for reservations, even as it moved to a slightly larger space nearby this summer. The menu includes burrata, lasagna, chicken, chops and steak.

Brooklyn's pizza legacy is legion, and even at 17 years old, Lucali is a relatively new addition to the canon. (We have some pretty historic pies here!) We still see people start lining up to get a shot at the tables about an hour before it opens, and then wait hours before they can finally sit down for BYOB and a Pizza of great prestige and in its best form. . If you can't stand that kind of weather, you can always try your luck at Lucali's newest branch, Baby Luc's, but be aware that the lines snake there too.

New to Brooklyn, Café Mars is a fun “unusual Italian restaurant” with uncommon attention to detail and welcoming hospitality. You'll have a splash of something presented in elegant glassware, as a welcome drink, and choose from unique starters like olive jelly, pastas like baked potato gnocchi, and large plates like the excellent Parm smoked pork ribs.