This unfussy gem located on the Bronx’s Arthur Avenue — otherwise known as the borough’s Little Italy — has been dishing out generous servings of well-sauced pasta for over 50 years. It’s more food hall than restaurant, but the servers are incredibly knowledgeable about the long menu and expertly guide diners along. Other highlights on the menu include the stuffed artichoke, as well as a large sirloin steak served with a solid side of fries.

Roberto’s modern Italian fare, served on a side street tucked away from the hubbub of the Bronx’s Little Italy, is a welcome contrast to the red sauced Italian-American food common in the neighborhood. The wine list is more sophisticated, too, along with a menu that trumpets dishes like pasta and seasonal vegetables steamed “in cartoccio,” or in a foil pouch, as well as rabbit stewed with potatoes. Roberto Paciullo, a native of Salerno, Italy, is behind the villa-esque Roberto’s, where there’s not a meatball in sight.

The Upper West Side has no shortage of neighborhood Italian joints, but Celeste rises above them all. Owner Carmine Mitroni rules over the boxy Neapolitan restaurant, greeting regulars and making recommendations to newcomers. Tables can’t go wrong with the pastas, especially the popular tagliatelle with shrimp, cabbage, and sheep’s milk cheese, and the pizzas sport a nice char from the wood-fired oven. Expect a wait, and cash only.

Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli’s West Village restaurant have ushered in a new era for red sauce cooking with a supremely creative take on Italian-American fare. The duo knows how to present the unexpected with pasta, once packing caramelle pasta with pickled cantaloupe and oozy buffalo milk mozzarella. They make a heck of a garlic bread by stuffing sesame-seeded flatbread with stracchino and Parmesan. And the chefs have produced their own amaro out of sarsaparilla, resulting in a lightly boozy beverage that recalls root beer. Warning: Expect long waits if you haven’t secured a reservation.

This Italian restaurant and bar is the more casual follow-up to the West Village’s popular L’Artusi. Opened in October of last year, B’Artusi is a colorful new addition to the list. The menu includes more classic Italian-leaning dishes like its Sicilian chopped salad, lasagna bolognese, and cacio e pepe with broccoli and Aleppo pepper, while also deviating with an Italian twist on ceviche. For dessert there are affogatos and chocolate mousse with coffee gelato and Kahlúa-laced hot fudge.

Petite Tuscan restaurant Fiaschetteria Pistoia makes up for its size with charm — the servers are brusque yet friendly, slamming down a wooden crate of wine when asked for the list. Still, their recommendations for affordable bottles are on-point, and everything from the salads and pork cheek to the cacio e pepe and spaghetti con bottarga are celebrations of the genre. For dessert, the creamy tiramisu is so ethereally light, it’s worth ordering even if already full.

Roman newcomer Forsythia hit the ground running with a pandemic pop-up in 2020 that was booked out for weeks, and then followed that up with a Michelin Bib nod at their now-permanent spot on the Lower East Side. In February, the restaurant unveiled a prix fixe menu sprinkled with hits like the suppli, a fried cacio e pepe appetizer, and an agnolotti stuffed with braised short rib. The menu costs $75 for five courses in the dining room, or $40 for two courses (plus a glass of wine or scoop of gelato) at the bar.

If Spiaggia in Chicago is what put Missy Robbins on the radar, Lilia in Williamsburg is what rocketed the chef to stardom. Lucky diners might encounter Robbins near the flame-spitting wood grill, the device responsible for singing succulent lamb steaks. Unlucky diners will encounter a host quoting a two-hour wait for walk-ins. Reservations book up far in advance, which is understandable for pastas this good, especially the sheep’s milk ricotta agnolotti, slathered in heady saffron honey sauce.

Pasta is the reason to come to Faro in Bushwick, the one Michelin-starred venue from Kevin and Debbie Adey. The menu changes frequently, but the options rarely disappoint. Every pasta is made at the restaurant, including past recipes such as mushroom tortelli with truffle butter to the gnocchi with braised pork shank and roasted peppers. Round out the meal at this warmly lit ideal date spot with a bottle of wine.

This Clinton Hill establishment has been serving homey Italian fare in a cozy setting since 2012. Chef Robert Aita’s menu is particularly known for its vegetable appetizers including the brussels sprout salad and the roasted mushrooms, but the pastas are all made in-house and highlights include the oxtail ravioli, the chestnut gnocchi, and the spinach fettuccine served with a braised duck ragout. The restaurant also serves some of the city’s best pancakes for brunch.

The city’s oldest Sicilian restaurant, dating to 1904, is Ferdinando’s Focacceria in Carroll Gardens. The “focacceria” part of the name doesn’t refer to the familiar southern Italian bread, but to a type of snack shop often found in the island’s capital of Palermo. The menu here, once limited to small sandwiches of cow spleen or chickpeas and composed plates of seafood and vegetables of its prototype Palermo institution, now serves a full-blown Italian-American bill of fare. Depend on baked clams, fried squid or shrimp, and tomato sauce-soaked rice balls, as well as such arcana as squid ink linguine, washed down with coffee soda.

The warm, orange-hued space of Fausto features a tight menu from chef and owner Erin Shambura that rotates regularly based on the nearby Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket — though the crowd-favorite pasta, a housemade orecchiette with pork and wilted greens, is usually available. Many of the dishes lean simple, like a little gem salad or a pork chop with charred apricot mostarda. Definitely get wine, which is natural and culled by sommelier (and co-owner) Joe Campanale, and after dinner, try a vintage amaro; the staff is friendly and ready to educate. Fausto is good both for eating solo at the bar with pasta and a glass of wine and for dinner or brunch when family’s in town.

The dark, cozy space of Al Di La has been a Park Slope favorite since 1998 — both a date-night destination for Anna Klinger’s northern Italian pastas and a go-to for locals at dinner. Go for the spaghetti neri all chitarra (black spaghetti with octopus confit, basil, and hot chile peppers), tagliatelle, and an order of mussels if it’s a first-time visit, but there’s plenty to explore, too. Listen for the specials, and prepare to wait at primetime, though it won’t be as ridiculous as more high-profile places in Manhattan.

Joe’s is the city’s quintessential Sicilian spot, straight out of the 1950s located on the cramped streets of Gravesend, Brooklyn. Look at the glass case filled with vegetable and seafood dishes near the entrance, noting which ones appeal, then sit down in a dining room decorated with a delightful mural that depicts an island landscape with century-old themes. Don’t miss the chickpea fritters called panelle, the pasta con sarde loaded with sardines and sweetened with fennel, or the well-oiled octopus salad.

Red picnic tables on the outdoor patio alert diners to L&B Spumoni Gardens, an iconic Gravesend hangout since 1939. The calling card here is extra-doughy Sicilian-style pizza in square form, topped first with mozzarella and then with tomato sauce and a thin layer of Pecorino Romano. Italian classics like a sausage-and-pepper hero or spaghetti and meatballs are also well-executed, as is the must-get namesake spumoni, a colorful gelato combination with pistachio, chocolate, and fruity cremolata.

This Sheepshead Bay establishment has been a neighborhood staple for decades, serving a variety of seafood dishes and pasta and known for its red sauce that comes in a spicy and medium variant. The Randazzo family has been in the seafood business in New York for nearly 100 years, and the family is still involved in all of their seafood-related businesses, including the clam bar. The star attraction here is a fried calamari dish that’s topped with the spicy version of the red sauce. The seafood diavolo, as well as the raw oysters and clam, are also not to be missed.