Italian restaurants in North America
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A
Sesto Senso
Early in the evening, this restaurant is ideal for a business lunch or romantic dinner. The Northern Italian menu is authentic and affordable, featuring delicious, lightly fried calamari, fresh vegetarian pastas and thin, crispy pizzas. After hours, the Euros show up in all their finery to dance the night away.
reviewed
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B
Casa Bianca
For over half a century, the Martorana family has plied Oxy students (from nearby Occidental College) and pizza punters of all stripes with habit-forming thin-crust pies. Their homemade lasagna and ravioli are also culinary excursions straight to the Boot. Pass the inevitable wait with drinks at nearby Chalet.
reviewed
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C
Il Postino
Run by a pair of chefs from Rome and Milan, this superior Italian restaurant features terrace dining along an arc of the Plaza Villa de Madrid (aka Plaza Cibeles). You might start off with an octopus carpaccio, followed by sea bass wrapped in calzone. Otherwise, ask chef Claudio for his inspiration of the day.
reviewed
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D
Trattoria No 10
An ideal stop for ticket holders, this lively bistro is just steps from the Loop theater district. The straightforward menu provides exceptionally flavorful takes on familiar items like ravioli (try the one filled with asparagus tip, bufala cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes) and risotto with skirt steak.
reviewed
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E
Autogrill
Wow, this sub-street room is soooo sexy! Leave the uncool you at the door, slink down the stairs and order a martini at the bar. Cream leather dining booths await, from which friendly staff receive orders for 10-inch stone-baked pizzas, rigorously re-interpreted pasta favorites and magical risottos.
reviewed
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F
Capone's Dinner & Show
Capone's Dinner & Show is an amusing gangland revue set behind the makeshift 'ice cream parlor' in Prohibition-era Chicago. Guests knock three times and say the password to get in to the 'cabaret and speakeasy.' An unlimited Italian buffet, as well as a few campy gangsters and their molls, await inside.
reviewed
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G
Penne Pasta Café
It's a simple place on a side street rather than the main drag, but that helps keep prices low, and you can dine alfresco at streetside tables. Think Italian without the hefty calories - fresh salads, tasty flatbread pizzas, gluten-free brown-rice pasta are the highlights. All in all, it's excellent value.
reviewed
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H
Osteria del Teatro
There are few things to swear by but the specials board of Osteria, one of the oldest and best Italian restaurants in Greater Miami, ought to be one. When you get here, let the gracious Italian waiters seat you, coddle you and then basically order for you off the board. They never pick wrong.
reviewed
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La Bussola
The Cultural District location is fitting. Since 1974 Franco and Lauretta Coccaro have worked to perfect their Italian supper house. The menu spans the boot, from pesto to red sauce, veal to seafood. Dine on the flower-bedecked sidewalk tables or in the stylish dining room.
reviewed
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Gio Rana's Really Really Nice Restaurant
Don't be deterred by outside appearances: though 'Gio's' home was once a nondescript 1950s bank building, the interior is actually (we have to say it) really, really nice. Hip without trying too hard, Gio's serves up southern Italian staples such as hot sausage risotto, veal, and 'sexy duck.'
reviewed
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J
Ago
Backed by Hollywood celeb Robert DeNiro, chef Agostino Sciandri’s sleek eatery will be hard-pressed to fail. The elegant menu of northern Italian cuisine includes signature house-made pastas, thin-crust pizzas, wild-mushroom risotto, delicately done seafood and other meatier fare. Inspired desserts.
reviewed
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Rom’s
Rom’s is a roadside institution that seats 500 and serves big portions of traditional Italian-American fare (and drinks) for moderate prices. Locals flock to the all-you-can-eat buffets (Friday night and Sunday morning). It’s across the street from the Sturbridge Plaza shopping center.
reviewed
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Café Prego
Avalon has a number of good Italian restaurants (Antonio's and Villa Portofino, both on Crescent Ave, are also recommended), but this one fits as comfortably as your favorite pair of flip-flops. No culinary flights of fancy here - just soul-sustaining pasta, crispy calamari, fresh seafood and steak.
reviewed
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K
Rosebud
This location in Little Italy is the first branch of an empire of quality Italian restaurants that has spread throughout the city. It is popular with politicos and old-school Taylor St Italians, who slurp down colossal piles of pasta and spinach gnocchi soaked in red sauces. Bring a big appetite.
reviewed
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Fratello’s
Inside an uninspiring strip mall, this classic Italian restaurant features a lengthy menu of brick-oven pizzas, traditional pasta dishes and chicken, veal and seafood plates. The dining room is bright and welcoming, thanks to the wall of windows. The upstairs lounge has entertainment on weekends.
reviewed
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L
Zia's Caffe
Opposite Windward City Shopping Mall, Zia's is popular with local families looking for good value and decent portions of Italian standards, like spaghetti and meatballs and shrimp scampi, along with mussels marinara, vegetable lasagna and Caesar salad. The place has an open feel and a kids' menu.
reviewed
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M
Pasta Bowl
You get more than you pay for at this affordable neighborhood pasta joint. The sauces are top-notch; the pesto reeks of garlic and the bolognese is redolent with basil. The meatball sub is also excellent, and the prices are just a fraction higher than you’d pay across the street at Subway.
reviewed
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N
Raffaello
Elderly bow-tied waiters provide attentive service at this charming Italian restaurant with its cosmopolitan-style enclosed sidewalk terrace and elegant dining room. There’s an upper-crust pizza choice, plus all the pasta favorites and a few rogue dishes, such as shrimp curry and goulash.
reviewed
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O
Ciccio Café
Tucked just off Rue St-Jean (up a steep hill), this hidden gem serves excellent Italian fare in a charming but low-key setting. Reliable old-world favorites include linguini with clams, as well as slightly creative touches like rib steak with Roquefort and a rich scallop and shrimp risotto.
reviewed
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Campo de Fiori
Authentic Italian cooking and festive Mediterranean flair have been the mainstay of this mini-mall kitchen off Aspen's restaurant row for more than a decade. The menu mimics its Vail sister. It's seasonal, the gnocchi house made, and the seafood – especially the calamari – is excellent.
reviewed
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La Scala
Well worth the price for Little Italy’s best. Here you’ll find creamy risotto with shrimp and porcini mushrooms, angel-hair pasta with lobster tail, and rich gnocchi with pesto. There’s also a good wine list and an indoor bocce court that sees a fair bit of action.
reviewed
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Q
John’s Italian Café
John’s classic joint wouldn’t look out of place in New York’s Little Italy, or even New Jersey. The tree-shaded patio is the perfect summer-night stage for a bottle of Chianti and a fresh cornmeal-crust pizza piled high with toppings. The coffee’s good too.
reviewed
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R
Mama Mia’s
There are plenty of quick-fire Italian eateries and pizza joints around town, but this one has been serving tasty and authentic pastas, seafood and carnivorous feasts since the ’60s. The Brooklyn/Brando atmosphere is relaxed and friendly – a good place to bring the kids.
reviewed
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S
Allegro Ristorante
Fan-shaped napkin sculptures adorn the white-clothed tables at this classic ristorante - a favorite along Ottawa's Corso Italia. Try some interesting twists on standard Italian cuisine, including the 'fettuccine Natasha' - noodles with vodka, cream, smoked salmon and caviar.
reviewed
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Central Grocery
Here, in 1906, a Sicilian immigrant invented the world-famous muffuletta sandwich – a round, seeded loaf of bread stuffed with ham, salami, provolone and marinated olive salad that's roughly the size of a manhole cover. This is still the best place in town to get one.
reviewed