The Best Classic Italian Restaurants in the US

There are many different kinds of Italian restaurants across the United States. Some are simple and casual, focusing on pizza and Italian sandwiches. Some others are fancier and offer authentic Ligurian, Roman, Sicilian, or Calabrian dishes, or feature their own creative take on Italian cuisine. Then, there are the cherished traditional spots serving classic Italian-American fare.

In most cases, this refers to dishes you would be unlikely to find in Italy itself, such as Caesar salad, shrimp scampi, chicken Scarpariello, or mostaccioli with meatballs. These dishes were developed in America by Italian immigrants and their descendants, adapting traditional recipes to local ingredients and the tastes of their customers.

One distinctive aspect of Italian-American cuisine that might puzzle Italians is the practice of serving pasta as a side dish with meat, seafood, or poultry. In Italy, pasta is typically served as a separate course, either before or instead of a main dish. Also, it's uncommon to serve the protein in a sauce with canned tomatoes and garlic directly on top of pasta. In fact, tomato-based red sauce, often called "gravy," is a trademark of Italian-American cuisine. Cheese, particularly mozzerella or provolone, melted on top of dishes, is another defining feature. One more quintessential element is the meatball, which is present in Italian cuisine, but is typically served as an entree rather than a complement to pasta.

To compile a list of some of the best old-school Italian restaurants in America, 24/7 Tempo reviewed and extrapolated from various food sites, including Eater, The Daily Meal, Food Network, and Gayot, along with numerous regional and city-specific sources. We used editorial discretion to make our final selections.

While some of the restaurants on our list serve pizza, we excluded those that are primarily pizzerias, as they belong on a different list. (Pizza-lovers can check out this list of the 15 oldest pizzerias in America.)

Some of our top choices are over a century old and still owned by the third or fourth generation of the founding family. Many have hosted celebrities customers over the years, including entertainers and presidents.

Here are America's top 25 classic Italian restaurant:

• 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.

• Location: San Francisco, CA

Antonio La Tona, originally from Sicily, established this North Beach institution as a social club in 1969, later converting it into a full-service restaurant. The interior is decorated with La Tona's vivid paintings and evocative wood carvings, along with memorabilia from fans worldwide. The "fabulous menu" features dishes like "insalata alla Cesare" and penne with pesto, as well as calamari all'Antonio (with creamy garlic sauce) and chicken parmigiana. Notably, the menu specifies that main courses are "not served over pasta," differing from the common Italian-American tradition.

• 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.

• Location: West Hollywood, CA

Former soccer player and actor Dan Tana, who immigrated from Belgrade, worked at several of L.A.'s old-school Italian places before opening his own. It quickly became a favorite not only for fans of Italian cuisine but also a magnet for celebrities, with sightings ranging from Fred Astaire to Joni Mitchell. Some menu items at this cozy spot are named after regular customers, such as veal cutlet milanese alla George Clooney and shrimp scampi alla Jerry Buss.

• Location: Springdale, AR

Tontitown, an Ozark community founded by Italian immigrants in 1898, still has a substantial Italian-American population today. In 1947, Italian immigrant Germano Gasparotto opened the Venesian Inn in a neighboring town. He later sold it to the Granata family, who continues to operate it. The iconic Tontitown specialty, combining Italian and Southern influences, is spaghetti with fried chicken, and the Venesian Inn's version is a classic. The menu also features three-cheese lasagna, chicken ravioli, fried shrimp, a few sandwiches, and more.

• 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.

• 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.

• Location: Wilmington, DE

Joe Biden is known to enjoy one of his favorite dishes, angel hair pasta pomodoro, at this restaurant that originated from Tersilla Robino's home kitchen, where she began cooking for Italian immigrants in 1939. Today, the restaurant is run by her great-granddaughters, Andrea Minuti Wakefield and Robin Robino Mabrey. In addition to the president's favorite pasta (which you'll need to order from the "Choose Your Own!" section of the menu), there are specialties like beef braciole, chicken parmigiano Alfredo, and a variety of pizzas.

• Location: Indianapolis, IN

Family-owned and operated since 1913, Iaria's proudly declares its old-school credentials with the motto: "Eat your spaghetti." This is showcased by the "famous" version of their signature dish, available with meatballs or Italian sausage, as highlighted on the sign out front. The menu also features a generously portioned antipasto plate, a full range of other pasta dishes (including St. Louis-style fried ravioli), a selection of pizzas, and desserts such as peppermint cheesecake.

• 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.

• 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.

• Location: Newport, KY

In 1933, John Pompilio transformed an old saloon into Pompilio House. By 1940, it had evolved into Pompilio's Café, welcoming celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. The Mazzei family took ownership in 1982, and Mike Mazzei and his 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.

• 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."

• 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."

• Location: Detroit, MI

Giovanni Cannarsa, originally from Italy's Molise region, immigrated to America as a teenager in 1913. After marrying Rose and working for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Rose and their two sons opened a take-out pizzeria in 1968. A few years later, their daughter, Frances, joined the business, transforming it into a full-service restaurant. Today, Frances and her husband are still the owners, with their son serving as the chef. The menu features dishes such as sausage and peppers, Caprese salad, a variety of pastas with different sauces, veal piccata, and a house special called filetto alla Giovanni — grilled petite filet mignon with a potato and leek torte, asparagus, and topped with "Giovanni's zip sauce."

• 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.

• 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.

• Location: Brooklyn, NY

This Williamsburg landmark, established in 1900 by Pasquale Bamonte from Salerno, is Brooklyn's oldest Italian restaurant and among the oldest in all five boroughs. Anthony Bamonte took charge in the 1920s, and today, Nicole Bamonte, his granddaughter oversees operations. The menu features classic dishes like fried calamari, eggplant rollatini, spaghetti with meatballs, linguine with white clam sauce, shrimp scampi, and tiramisù.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Location: Philadelphia, PA

One of the nation's oldest Italian restaurants, originally opened as Corona di Ferro (Iron Crown) in 1899 by Italian immigrant Michael DiRocco, now thrives as Dante and Luigi's. In the 1930s, DiRocco's sons, Dante and Luigi, took over and the restaurant was renamed in their honor. The family continued to operate it until 1996, when it was bought by a Sicilian-born builder, Michael LaRussa. Housed in two converted townhouses, the restaurant offers a classic menu, featuring dishes like roasted peppers with anchovies or provolone, steamed clams with marinara sauce, various pasta option (highlighting their special Italian "gravy") osso buco, cioppino, and a baked pork chop stuffed with prosciutto, spinach, and provolone.

• 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.

• 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.

• Location: Clarksburg, WV

In 1937, Michael and Rose Minard started serving spaghetti from their home to locals, which quickly evolved into a full-fledged restaurant by 1938 with the help of Michael's brother Samuel and his wife. The entire first floor of their house was converted into a dining space. Over the years, Joe Minard and later his sons Samuel and Michael joined the family business, and today they are the proud owners. The menu features Grandma Rose's famous lasagna, shrimp and broccoli over spaghetti, grilled steak salad, and a combo plate featuring spaghetti, lasagna, and beef cacciatore. There are also some Italian-deli-style sandwiches and a selection of burgers available.