There are Italian restaurants everywhere in this country, from our smallest towns to our largest metropolises. If you’re anywhere near civilization in America, chances are pretty good you’re within a few miles of a pizza or a plate of spaghetti.
Italian eating places come in many forms and styles, of course. Some are super-casual, specializing mostly in Italian-deli-style sandwiches or the aforementioned pizza. Some, on the other hand, are elegant eateries that serve authentic Ligurian, Roman, Sicilian, or Calabrian dishes, or that take Italian cuisine as a jumping-off point for creative cooking of their own. And then there are those good old-fashioned places serving a kind of fare that is unapologetically Italian-American.
What that means, in most cases, is things that you’re not likely to find in Italy itself (Caesar salad, mostaccioli with meatballs, shrimp scampi, chicken Scarpariello…), but that have been developed on our shores by Italian immigrants and their offspring, adapting home-style dishes to the ingredients available here and the tastes of their not-necessarily-Italian clientele.
One feature of Italian-American cooking that people in Italy are likely to find strange is the serving of pasta as a side dish alongside some kind of seafood, poultry, or meat. (Italians consider pasta a separate course, either before or instead of the main dish.) Sometimes the protein involved is cloaked in a sauce heavy with canned tomatoes and garlic and then actually served on top of pasta — again unthinkable across the Atlantic.
Tomato-based red sauce, in fact (sometimes called “gravy”) is emblematic of Italian-American cooking. So is lots of cheese, especially mozzarella or provolone, melted on top of things. Another emblem is the meatball — something that certainly exists in Italy, but is considered an entree, not an accompaniment to noodles.
All that said, however, the fact is that Italian-American cooking, however much it might diverge from the kind of food folks eat in Italy itself, can be wonderful stuff — comforting, filling, delicious. And fortunately there are still plenty of Italian restaurants around the country that specialize in it.
To assemble a list of some of the best old-school Italian restaurants in America, 24/7 Tempo reviewed and extrapolated from lists and rankings on numerous food sites, including Eater, The Daily Meal, Food Network, and Gayot, as well as a wide range of regional and city-specific sites, ultimately using editorial discretion to make our final picks.
While some of the places on our list serve pizza, we eliminated those that are primarily pizzerias, as those are subject matter for a different list. (If you’re a pizza-lover, check out this list of the 15 oldest pizzerias in America.)
Some of our top choices are more than a century old, and some are still owned by a third or fourth generation of the founding family. Many have counted celebrities among their clientele -— often Frank Sinatra, though also, in one instance, our current president.
All of them have a story to tell, and every one of them will feed you abundantly and well.
Scroll down for the best old-school Italian restaurants in America:
Venesian Inn
Fried chicken and spaghetti, a classic Tontitown combination.
- Location: Springdale, AR
Tontitown is an Ozark community founded by Italian immigrants in 1898, and the area retains a substantial Italian-American population today. One Italian, Germano Gasparotto, opened the Venesian Inn in a town next door to Tontitown in 1947, later selling it to the Granata family, which is still in charge. The iconic Tontitown specialty, combining Italian and Southern influences, is spaghetti with fried chicken, and the version here is classic. Also on the menu: three-cheese lasagna, chicken ravioli, fried shrimp, a few sandwiches, and more.
Cantalini’s Salerno Beach Restaurant
A longtime favorite in a beach community near LAX.
- Location: Playa del Rey, CA
Lisetta Maria, executive chef and owner of this popular beach city restaurant, traces her roots back to Abruzzo, where her grandparents were born, and she channels them with an array of house-made ravioli and tortelloni dishes like she used to help her grandmother cook, and with live music on Wednesday evenings as a tribute to her music-loving grandfather, whose accordion is on display by the entrance. The menu also offers a full range of other pastas, as well as meat, poultry, and seafood dishes.
Caffè Sport
The Caffè Sport interior is full of objects, bric-a-brac, sports mementos, and much more.
- Location: San Francisco, CA
Antonio La Tona, a native of Sicily, opened this North Beach institution as a social club in 1969, converting it to a full-service restaurant a few years later. The interior is crowded with La Tona’s own vivid paintings and evocative wood carvings, along with memorabilia contributed by fans around the world. The “fabulous menu” offers everything from “insalata alla Cesare” and penne with pesto to calamari all’Antonio (with creamy garlic sauce) and chicken parmigiana. One divergence from a typical Italian-American food custom: The menu warns, of its main courses, that they are “not over pasta.”
Dan Tana’s
Dan Tana's has been a landmark on Santa Monica Boulevard since 1964.
- Location: West Hollywood, CA
Onetime soccer player and actor Dan Tana, who came to the States from Belgrade, worked at a number of L.A.’s other old-school Italian places before opening his own. It quickly became not just a favorite of Italian food fans but a celebrity magnet, where one might have seen anyone from Fred Astaire to Joni Mitchell. Some of the menu items at this hanging-Chianti-bottle/red checkered tablecloth place are named for regular customers — like veal cutlet milanese alla George Clooney and shrimp scampi alla Jerry Buss.
Gaetano’s
Shrimp ravioli with a drizzle of pesto.
- Location: Denver, CO
Gaetano’s is the place, as the sign outside proclaims, for “Eccellente Cucina & Cocktails.” This longtime Denver standby was opened in 1947 by the Smaldone brothers — members of what was then a prominent local crime family. It remained in Smaldone hands until 2004, when it was bought by the local Wynkoop-Breckenridge Restaurant Group. Today, it’s owned by one of their former executives, Ron Robinson — who maintains tradition with dishes like clams casino, sausage and peppers, spaghetti and meatballs, veal parmigiana, and other such staples of the genre.
Consiglio’s
An antipasto selection.
- Location: New Haven, CT
A fixture in New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood — its Little Italy — since it was opened by Annunziata and Salvatore Consiglio in 1938, Consiglio’s is just down the street from two of the city’s iconic pizzerias, Frank Pepe’s and Sally’s, but there’s no pizza on the menu. Instead, look for Nonna’s meatballs, eggplant rollatini, “Italian kitchen pasta” (rigatoni with meatballs, roasted peppers, mushrooms, onions, and smoked mozzarella), and eggplant parmigiana.
Cafe Silvium
Stuffed mushrooms.
- Location: Stamford, CT
One of the toughest tables to get in suburban Fairfield County, this local favorite is a relative newcomer as old-school Italian restaurants go, opened only in 2001, by brothers Nick and Vincenzo Petrafesa. The extensive offerings include all the expected items (fried calamari, angel hair pasta with clams, chicken Scarpariello), but distinguishes itself with things like homemade cavatelli — a house specialty — in various sauces, red snapper Bari style, and such specials as octopus with purée of broccoli rapa and chickpeas and rabbit with mushrooms.
Mrs. Robino’s
Mrs. Robino's is a Wilmington institution.
- Location: Wilmington, DE
Joe Biden has been known to eat one of his favorite dishes, angel hair pasta pomodoro, at this restaurant , which grew out of Tersilla Robino’s home kitchen, where she started cooking for Italian immigrants in 1939. Today, the place is run by Andrea Minuti Wakefield and Robin Robino Mabrey, her great-granddaughters. Besides the president’s beloved pasta (which you’ll have to order from the “Choose Your Own!” section of the menu), you’ll find such specialties as beef braciole, chicken parmigiano Alfredo, and a number of pizzas.
La Scarola
Decades worth of photos of celebrities and loyal customers crowd the walls at La Scarola.
- Location: Chicago, IL
Pasta e fagioli touted as “the best in Chicago,” escarole (scarola in Italian) with beans, risotto primavera, baked cheese ravioli, and steak Vesuvio are typical menu items at this intimate 23-year-old restaurant owned by Armando Vasquez and Joey Mondelli. The two have developed a reputation as a couple of the city’s most engaging dining room hosts.
The Village at Italian Village Restaurants
Lobster fettuccine Alfredo.
- Location: Chicago, IL
There are three separate but adjacent establishments at Italian Village. It all started in 1927, when Alfredo Capitanini, an immigrant from Florence, launched The Village, decorating it with elaborate, riotously colorful Tuscan-inspired murals. His children joined the business in 1955 and added a second restaurant at the same address, the wine-themed La Cantina, which has now evolved into a cocktail lounge with Italian snacks called Bar Sotto. A third establishment, the Florentine Room, is now Vivere, where the cuisine is modern Italian. The Village, on the other hand, celebrates the old ways, with such offerings as pizza bread, mostaccioli with meat sauce, four-cheese ravioli, and a house specialty called beef Toscanini — filet mignon medallions with mushrooms and Marsala, served with pappardelle pasta.
Iaria’s Italian Restaurant
- Location: Indianapolis, IN
Family-owned and -operated since 1913, Iaria’s announces its old-school credentials with its motto: “Eat your spaghetti.” That would be what the sign outside calls its”famous” version of this elementary pasta, available with meatballs or Italian sausage. Besides that, there’s an antipasto plate of heroic proportions, a full range of other pasta dishes (including St. Louis-style fried ravioli), a selection of pizzas, and desserts including a peppermint cheesecake.
Latin King
Chicken Sorrentina and filet mignon Marsala with a potato croquette.
- Location: Des Moines, IA
Jim and Rose Pigneri, from Calabria, opened the Latin King in 1947. In 1983, it was bought by Bob Tursi (whose parents came from the same town as the Pigneris), who added his name to the place — it was known for years as Tursi’s Latin King — and updated and expanded it. In 2021, he sold it to veteran Kansas City restaurateur Whitney VinZant, who has retained the emphasis on traditional Italian-American dishes like toasted ravioli with meatballs or sausage, spaghetti with “zesty red sauce,” pan-fried chicken livers, and pepper steak. One unusual feature is an ample selection of seldom-seen Calabrian wines.
Pompilio’s
Prince Edward Island mussels with white wine and garlic.
- Location: Newport, KY
In 1933, John Pompilio took over an old saloon and turned it into a restaurant called Pompilio House. In 1940, it transitioned to Pompilio’s Café, and under that name welcomed such celebrities as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. Ownership passed to the Mazzei family in 1982, and Mike Mazzei and two partners, Joe Bristow and Larry Geiger, are now the proprietors. “House classics” on the menu, headed “Benvenuti in Authentic Italiano,” include homemade meat lasagna, rigatoni Bolognese, shrimp Alfredo, braciole, and veal parmigiana. Pancakes are not served, despite the fact that Dustin Hoffman’s character in the 1988 film “Rain Man” ordered them in a scene shot here.
Sabatino’s
Garlic bread with herbs.
- Location: Baltimore, MD
This longtime Baltimore dining landmark dates its origins to 1955, when Joseph Canzani and Sabatino Luperini opened it as a modest family-style restaurant in the city’s Little Italy. Canzani’s nephew, Vince Culotta, subsequently took it over. Lovers of old-style dishes like clams casino, fettuccine Alfredo, shrimp Fra Diavolo, veal saltimbocca, and veal Florentine will be very happy here. A house specialty is the Bookmaker Salad — a garden salad enhanced with shrimp, provolone, Genoa salami, hard-boiled eggs, green and black olives, red onions, tomatoes, and red pepper flakes, tossed in “our delicious house dressing.”.
Rino’s Place
A special of scallops limoncello.
- Location: East Boston, MA
Rino and Anna DiCenso opened their restaurant in 1997, and it quickly earned what Eater once called (with curious syntax) “the hard-to-find lovability of locals and tourists alike.” Portions are huge here, and involve such things as crabmeat-stuffed mushrooms, cheese tortellini, seafood cannelloni, veal Milanese, and sometimes lobster ravioli — which Guy Fieri raved about when he visited Rino’s for “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
Giovanni’s Ristorante
Seafood cannelloni.
- Location: Detroit, MI
A native of Italy’s Molise region, Giovanni Cannarsa came to America as a young teenager in 1913, and eventually ended up married to a woman named Rose and working for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Rose and her two sons opened a take-out pizzeria in 1968, and after a few years, her daughter, Frances, joined the business and upgraded the place to a full-service restaurant. Frances and her husband are still the owners, with their son as chef. On the menu? Among other things, sausage and peppers, Caprese salad, a choice of pastas with various sauces, veal piccata, and a house special called filetto alla Giovanni — grilled petite filet mignon with a potato and leek torte and asparagus, topped with “Giovanni’s zip sauce.”
Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill
The exterior of Charlie Gitto's in St. Louis's Italian neighborhood, The Hill.
- Location: St. Louis, MO
“The Hill” is the city’s Italian neighborhood. Charlie Gitto Jr. opened this place in 1981, on the site formerly occupied by a restaurant called Alfredos, where his father had been maître d’hôtel. Alfredo’s was famous because it was reportedly there, in 1947, that a chef accidentally invented the most famous St. Louis contribution to the Italian-American culinary canon: toasted (actually fried) ravioli. That specialty leads off the menu at Charlie Gitto’s, followed by such choices as eggplant parmigiano, rigatoni with sausage or chicken, ricotta-stuffed manicotti, and a bone-in veal parmigiano.
Battista’s Hole in the Wall
Spumoni ice cream pie.
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
The glitzy hotel-casinos on the Strip are full of Italian restaurants, but this is something else again — a homey free-standing establishment with red leather booths and walls blanketed with photographs and memorabilia. The menu isn’t long, but covers the bases — ravioli, lasagna, spaghetti or ziti with a choice of sauces, chicken cacciatore, veal Marsala, and so on, and the price of dinner includes minestrone or salad, garlic bread, a side of pasta, complimentary house wine, and a cappuccino to seal the deal.
Bamonte’s
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
Talk about classic: This Williamsburg icon, opened in 1900 by Pasquale Bamonte, a native of Salerno, is the oldest Italian restaurant in Brooklyn and one of the oldest in any of the five boroughs. Bamonte’s son, Anthony, took charge in the 1920s, and Anthony’s granddaughter, Nicole, now runs the place. The menu includes such familiar fare as fried calamari, eggplant rollatini, spaghetti with meatballs, linguine with white clam sauce, shrimp scampi, and tiramisù.
Manducati’s
Pumpkin pappardelle with lobster.
- Location: Queens, NY
Manducati’s feels like it’s been around forever, but in fact this Long Island City favorite dates only from 1977, when it was opened by Vincenzo and Ida Cerbone. The “old country Italian food” they promise includes scungilli salad, shrimp marinara over linguine, penne alla puttanesca, homemade spaghetti with sun-dried tomatoes, fish of the day Livornese style, veal chop with sage, and homemade Italian cheesecake.
Rao’s
Veal stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto, topped with sautéed mushrooms.
- Location: New York City, NY
When Joshua Anthony Rao opened this little restaurant in East Harlem in 1896, the neighborhood was mostly Italian. It remained a simple, out-of-the-way place patronized mostly by locals until a rave review appeared in the New York Times in 1977, spurring a demand for tables so great that the owners began restricting seats to regulars, or to lucky souls to whom regulars would cede their places. There’s no written menu, but servers offer such things as seafood salad, stuffed clams, various pastas, and the famous Rao’s lemon chicken. For those who can’t get in, there are offshoots, which operate under normal restaurant rules, in Las Vegas and L.A.
Guarino’s
Chicken piccata with white wine, roasted red peppers, and capers.
- Location: Cleveland, OH
Said to be not just the oldest Italian restaurant in Cleveland but the city’s oldest continuously operating restaurant of any kind, Guarino’s had its beginnings in 1898, when Vincenzo Guarino, an immigrant from Sicily, bought a pool room and tavern on the site. It evolved into a restaurant around 1918, after his wife started cooking Italian dishes for the customers. Vincenzo’s son, Sam, took over the business in 1954, with Sam’s wife and a family friend, Nancy Phillips assuming ownership in 1987. Today, Nancy’s son Scott now oversees the place and its menu of fried mozzarella, prosciutto-wrapped shrimp, pasta primavera, gnocchi with pesto, chicken or veal Marsala, and suchlike.
Dante & Luigi’s
The sign for Dante & Luigi's, with its original name, Corona di Ferro, included.
- Location: Philadelphia, PA
Indisputably one of the country’s oldest Italian restaurants, Dante & Luigi’s was opened as Corona di Ferro (Iron Crown) in 1899 by an Italian immigrant named Michael DiRocco. His sons, Dante and Luigi, took the place over in the 1930s and their name became attached. The family ran it until 1996, when it was bought by a local Sicilian-born builder, Michael LaRussa. Located in two converted townhouses, the restaurant serves a classic menu, featuring such items as roasted peppers with anchovies or provolone, steamed clams with marinara sauce, a choice of pastas with various sauces (among the house special Italian “gravy”) osso buco, cioppino, and a baked pork chop stuffed with prosciutto, spinach, and provolone.
Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen
Haddock Sicilian style with hot peppers.
- Location: Providence, RI
The eponymous Signore Marzilli opened his restaurant in 1956 in the Federal Hill neighborhood, Providence’s Little Italy. His son, Sal, follows his recipes today, serving polenta with marinara sauce, stuffed squid, beef braciole, Italian-style meatloaf, and more in a pink-walled dining room staffed by tuxedo-clad servers. Frank Sinatra was known to frequent the place when he was in town, and it was a favorite of the city’s late, notorious mayor Buddy Cianci — whose favorite dish was Sicilian-style baked haddock. Last year, Sal Marzilli put the restaurant up for sale, but it hasn’t changed hands yet, and it is to be hoped that the new owners will retain its style, and its menu.
Minard’s Spaghetti Inn
Half lasagna and half spaghetti combination plate.
- Location: Clarksburg, WV
Like a number of other Italian restaurants around the country, this one started out of a home kitchen, when Michael and Rose Minard began serving spaghetti to locals in their dining room in 1937. In 1938, Michael’s brother Samuel and his wife joined them and turned first the dining room, then the whole first floor of their house into a restaurant. Michael and Rose’s son Joe and then Joe’s sons Samuel and Michael joined the business, and the latter are the proprietors today. The menu features such things as lasagna made from Grandma Rose’s recipe, shrimp and broccoli over spaghetti, grilled steak salad, and a combo plate of spaghetti, lasagna, and beef cacciatore. There are some Italian-deli-style sandwiches and a couple of burgers. (Here are 20 “Italian” dishes Italians don’t really eat.)