Best Italian restaurants on Long Island 2026

Adam Kopels and Elizabeth Ronzetti took over the old Dimon Estate in Jamesport last year and established the third iteration of their much-lauded modern Italian restaurant. First in Bayville and then on Shelter Island, the chef-owners demonstrate a commitment to local, seasonal cuisine that begins with the farms and purveyors they visit on their way to work and ends with the two of them cooking, side by side, in the kitchen for the next 11 hours. They offer a four-course, fixed-price, Italian-accented tasting menu ($145) that changes weekly  and comprises a quartet of antipasti (perhaps lobster bisque, grilled artichokes, fluke crudo and wild boar with quince), homemade pasta (recently, Chioggia beet-ricotta caramelle with truffle butter), an entree (fancy a pan-roasted duck with sunchokes, frisee and blood orange?) and one of Ronzetti’s simply elegant desserts such as almond cake with Chantilly cream. The eatery now offers an a la carte menu (also ever-changing) for customers who want a less involved meal or even — gasp! — grab a bowl of pasta at the bar. The new dining room has some of the widest-spaced tables on Long Island and, outside, the stately property sprawls over almost 4 acres.

Alessandro Acquista grew up in his family’s Queens eatery, Acquista Trattoria, attended New York’s French Culinary Academy and, in 2021, opened his own Manhasset place, Sandro’s, with his wife, Diane. Three years later, they gave the dining room a chic-but-cozy makeover and rechristened the restaurant Alessandro's, establishing it as one of the Miracle Mile’s culinary treasures. Acquista's family has Sicilian roots and his menu seamlessly blends Italian American and regional Italian. Starters include exemplary baked clams and one giant raviolo stuffed with an egg yolk and showered with truffle. Eggplant is done in the Sicilian style — thinly sliced and layered with tomato sauce and cheese — and served in an individual casserole. You'll also find Sicily's favorite vegetable in the maccheroni Siciliana, where it is joined by tomato sugo, garlic, basil and sheep’s milk ricotta salata. Pastas, made in house, are all excellent, from tagliatelle Bolognese and Pugliese lumache (shells) with sausage and broccoli rabe to the Roman trio of carbonara, cacio e pepe and Amatriciana. Be on the lookout for spaghetti allo scoglio (topped with mixed seafood). Entrees include chicken and veal scallopini in all the usual guises but executed with real flair; the kitchen does equally well with steaks, chops and fish. Ossobuco with risotto alla Milanese and veal chop Valdostana (with prosciutto and Fontina) are two specials worth hoping for.

Opened in late 2024 by chef Danny Aggelatos and his wife, Angela (and named for their daughter), Anna Pizza + Wine is more than a great pizzeria. The brief menu pitches above its weight with well-curated salumi, exquisite ravioli simply dressed with lemon, Parmesan and butter; perfectly cooked broccolini with lemon and Grana Padano, a Caesar salad with radicchio and, drumroll please, head-on shrimp that taste mostly of the sea but also of lemon, chili and parsley. The wine list includes fewer than a dozen bottles, all of which are affordable gems (most under $60) and most of which are available by the glass. The pizza is among Long Island’s best and, on any given evening, you will find Aggelatos pulling his own mozzarella and pickling his own long-hot peppers. The clam pie is made with a suave reduction of clam juice and cream; the mushroom pie is earthy, with roasted shiitake and maitake mushrooms laying atop a whipped garlic-confit cream and brightened by barely caramelized onions.  If you need a break from pizza, try the calzone oozing with mozzarella, ricotta, soppressata, broccolini and Grana Padano.

Since 2022, Edoardo’s has stood out in Huntington as a singular expression of one man’s culinary passion and skill. Born in Ecuador, Edoardo Erazo trained in Italy before moving to New York, where he worked at some of the city’s most celebrated Italian restaurants and opened his own. The menu changes seasonally, but you might well find antipasti such as baccala mantecato (whipped codfish) on polenta crostini or bresaola (air-dried beef) with grapefruit, pistachio and lemon. Among homemade pastas, linguine with shrimp and lemon sauce and pappardelle alla Bolognese are staples; you might luck into tagliolini with Ossetra caviar. Secondi include Dover sole in a white wine-caper sauce, grilled octopus with bell peppers, roast pork shoulder with mashed sweet potatoes and caramelized pear. The dinner menu is available at lunch, along with five sandwiches on homemade focaccia. Erazo trained as a pastry chef and he produces a range of southern Italian confections rarely seen on these shores: Torta Caprese (rich-but-light chocolate-almond cake), delizioso di limone (a dome of sponge cake filled and blanketed with lemon cream) and torta soffice all’arancia (sponge filled with orange custard and covered with marmalade).

The only Long Island outpost of the Manhattan-based SA Hospitality Group opened in 2022 overlooking Roslyn’s duck pond. It's one of the prettiest, most romantic dining rooms around and practically screams (or whispers?) "first date." Partner Jacopo Giustiniani, Felice’s culinary director, and Roslyn’s chef Niccolo Simone, are both Tuscan by birth, and the dining room evokes a rustic Italian fantasy. Many of Felice’s dishes are drizzled with its own olive oil from San Casciano Val di Pesa, outside Florence. The mostly Italian wine list includes bottles from Fattoria Sardi, the restaurant’s organic vineyard. The menu ranges all over the boot and into New American territory as well with starters such as fried calamari and baby artichokes, arancini (rice balls), eggplant Parmesan and Tuscan prosciutto with burrata. Don't miss the crostino topped with chicken-liver mousse and surrounded by prosciutto. Pastas include a sublime pappardelle with mushrooms, porcini broth, truffle and Grana Padano as well as gnocchi al pesto, spaghetti all’arrabbiata, and tonnarelli cacio e pepe or carbonara. There's a creditable chicken Milanese along with salmon with sun-dried tomatoes and chickpea puree, branzino baked in parchment, sirloin steak and even a hamburger with Taleggio and bacon. And everything is even better when consumed on the splendid patio.

After conquering Oyster Bay with 2 Spring, Four and Gimme Burger, chef-impresario Jesse Schenker’s Gioia is a love letter to the Emilia-Romagna region's most storied products: Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella Bologna, Aceto Balsamico di Modena, among them. All are deployed deliciously at this sliver of a restaurant. Vegetables get a lot of love here, from grilled cauliflower over whipped ricotta to humble green beans, which the chef lavishes with pickled onion, almond, capers and colatura (the umami-packed southern Italian fish sauce). Pastas, all homemade, range from spinach ravioli with sage in brown butter to a spicy sausage gramigna (G-shaped noodles) with spinach, tomato and cheese. The regular menu includes three grilled mains (chicken, salmon, steak), but every night brings a special "piatto del giorno," such as whole grilled fish, pork cutlet or duck breast. Dine on Sunday for the lasagna Bolognese. There’s a Negroni menu, as well as a spritz cart and tableside martinis.

When Pasquale Lubrano opened his restaurant in 1980, there was so much construction going on in Glen Cove that he fretted that "they’ll need a compass to find us," and promptly named the place La Bussola (Italian for "the compass"). Now, 45 years later, La Bussola is a beacon for folks seeking classic red-sauce Italian cooked with finesse and served with grace. La Bussola is now run by Pasquale’s sons Carlo and Marco, the chef. His other two sons, Tony and John, can be found at the family-style La Piccola Bussola in Huntington. This is an establishment that prizes continuity; virtually every server on the floor started as a busser, every cook started as a dishwasher. The hushed dining room — the white-clothed tables have plenty of room around them — is the perfect setting for a menu that Long Islanders know by heart: Caesar salad, fried calamari, stuffed artichokes, baked clams, spaghetti marinara and scaloppine. A textbook southern Italian lasagna oozes with mozzarella, and the chicken scarpariello can’t be beat. Old-timers will revel in two dishes that have fallen out of fashion since the Reagan presidency: fegato alla Veneziana (calf’s liver with onions) and Dover sole, here served with olives, capers and tomatoes.

Luca gleams with refined cool. But while executive chef Luke DeSanctis’ elegant, modern menu features many tweezer-precise platings, there’s a soulfulness to his food. Dishes change with the season, but you will usually find braised calamari with ’nduja and white beans, and a carpaccio of Montauk tuna whose richness is cut by a garnish of capers, Fresno chilies and crunchy chickpeas. Pastas include a classic Northern Italian (light on the tomatoes) tagliatelle Bolognese, cappelletti stuffed with stracciatella and corn, and torchietti (twists) with almond-jalapeno pesto. All the pasta here is made in house, except for the gluten-free, which is available for every preparation. Composed entrees such as veal chop with cremini mushrooms and rosemary-vermouth cream, duck (seared breast, leg confit) with dandelion and chickpeas, scallops with romesco sauce, potato-crusted halibut tend to skew more New American than Italian but are no less delicious for it. Desserts are excellent, particularly the lemon tart with vinegar gastrique.

It’s been the hottest spot in the Hamptons since 1988. The sprawling restaurant comprises multiple dining areas — inside and outside, all appointed with low-key elegance — and, thus, is equally appropriate food for solo meals at the bar, intimate dates within view of the mosaic-tiled wood-burning oven or blowout celebrations. One key to longevity is that the original concept — rustic Italian with an emphasis on local produce — turned out to be an enduring approach and that, 37 years later, the East End grows better produce than its founders could have imagined. In the 1990s, the restaurant established its own garden that now supplies up to a third of what the kitchen cooks with. The menu changes frequently, but you’ll always find inventive salads and fish, chicken, steaks and chops that pick up a hint of smoke in that wood-burning. Pastas are uniformly terrific, and the kitchen faces protests when it tries to take the penne alla vecchia bettola off the menu, so addictive is this version of penne alla vodka made with oven-roasted tomatoes. This is not the place to skip dessert and, if you can get a volunteer, split the homemade tartufo for two, a caramel truffle center surrounded by homemade chocolate and hazelnut gelati and sprinkled with almond biscotti crumbs.

"Orto" is Italian for vegetable garden, and few Long Island chefs care as much for vegetables as chef-owner Eric Lomando. The restaurant evokes the Italian countryside, from its pastoral setting in the tiny hamlet of Miller Place to its rustic interior, low-key professional service and, most of all, Lomando’s intense focus on seasonal, local ingredients. In the winter, it’s the warmest, coziest dining room around; in fine weather, there’s no nicer lawn on which to dine. Bread is baked on the premises and served with a dish of fresh-and-fruity olive oil. The menu changes frequently but almost always features the deep-fried "farm egg" on a bed of polenta and graced with smoked pork in a bacon broth and a stellar fritto misto of shrimp, clams, calamari and skate. Two other stalwarts are the lasagna Bolognese and eggplant Parmesan. You might also find paccheri (giant, Neapolitan rigatoni) with a braised sauce of beef and onions or squid-ink pasta with spicy shrimp. Hearty mains could include slow-cooked braciola with polenta and greens, pork Milanese with roast potatoes and Taleggio fonduta or briny, head-on Skull Island (Australia) prawns and clams in a smoky, shellfish and bacon jus. Desserts are made in house and are highly recommended. Once BYOB only, Orto now has a concise list of bottles and glasses that are both interesting and well priced — or you can bring your own wine and pay no corkage fee. Cash only.

Umbrian-born chef Marco Pellegrini turns out Italian food of astounding purity and vigor at this occasion-worthy restaurant. The interior rocks with modern Italianate bling, but an ancient tradition informs the dominant design feature — a massive wood-fired grill-rotisserie, where slowly revolving birds and beasts lend their drippings to waiting pans of vegetables below. In addition to prime steaks (and a gargantuan porterhouse "Fiorentina"), you'll find veal chops with mushrooms and black truffle, Iberico-breed pork chops with apple chutney and bay-juniper kissed racks of venison with Marsala sauce. Pellegrini’s wife, Sabrina Vallorini, creates all the pastas here, from the delicate basil-tinted ravioli stuffed with burrata and ricotta to the toothsome taglierini tossed with cheese and flambéed in a wheel of Parmesan — right beside your table. Other greatest hits include skewers of breadcrumb-crusted calamari, a Caprese salad topped with basil sorbetto, a bruiser of a wood-grilled veal chop and deep-dish tiramisu. Pellegrini serves his house-made bread and focaccia in Umbrian olive wood bowls and stocks a cellar of Umbrian wines that is probably unequaled on Long Island.

Social-media colossus, celebrity magnet, 365 / 7 party place — Robke’s is more than an Italian restaurant. And yet, none of the hype would matter if customers could not count on huge portions of dishes whose flavors reflect Italy, the Bronx and chef-owner Louis Selvaggio Sr.’s imagination. Robke’s Country Inn had been a modest bar and grill for 17 years when Selvaggio bought it from Ernie Robke in 1978. He and his family gradually turned up the Italian volume and expanded both the dining room and kitchen (still shockingly small). Second-generation partner Louis Selvaggio Jr. (nom de penne: Louie Sel) managed to launch it into the stratosphere. The menu blends Italian American standards (baked clams, rigatoni alla vodka, chicken Parm) and holdover grill favorites (bacon cheeseburger, steak sandwich) with signature creations such as linguine chop chop (with shrimp and clams in a light tomato sauce) and, most famously, Pork Chop Martini — which is not the craziest cocktail you’ve never heard of but, rather, a chop that’s been pounded flat, breaded and pan-fried, then sauced with lemon juice and cherry peppers, sprinkled lavishly with Parmesan cheese and broiled to a gooey goldenness. At lunch, most prices are almost half what they are at dinner but, no matter when you dine, come early (11:30 for lunch, before 5 for dinner) if you don’t want to wait in line (probably outside), and bring cash.

Chef Fabrizio Facchini started his culinary career in Italy’s Le Marche region. Stellina, the chic spot he owns with Oyster Bay residents Tom and Adriana Milana, has an open kitchen that boasts a pizza oven and a lot of finesse. Don’t miss the light-but-chewy pies that issue from that oven, or the fried baby artichokes with lemon aioli. You won’t find a more refreshing salad around than Facchini’s pinzimonio, paper-thin slices of beets, carrots, watermelon radish and cauliflower with an olive-oil-lemon emulsion. The chef heaps glory on paccheri (giant rigatoni) with a suave golden saffron sauce marbled with pistachio pesto. The bucatini all’Amatriciana is as porky as it is tomatoey. The kitchen’s own fresh pasta shines in the form of pappardelle with ragù, agnolotti stuffed with veal and truffles and baked gnocchi Sorrentino. (Most pasta dishes are also available with gluten-free noodles.) Main dishes run the gamut from a roast chicken with rosemary and thyme to a 16-ounce veal chop served Milanese-style to a Tuscany-style porchetta made with roast Berkshire pork belly.

Talina Osteria Romagnola opened in 2024, focused on the food and wines of Romagna, the southeastern portion of Emilia-Romagna. The impossibly cozy spot is all exposed brick and farmhouse wood, brightened with Romagna’s distinctive textiles and, suspended from the ceiling, rolling pins of the type that partner Pietro Faetanini’s late nonna Talinawould have used to make pasta. Faetanini mans the bar and the dining room while his partner (in life and business), Brittany Middlemiss, aces her succinct menu. Here’s the place to try the great flatbread piadina, stuffed with a selection of salumi and cheese, and don’t miss the fasul all Faetanini, beans braised with pancetta and rosemary. Middlemiss’ pastas include strozzapreti with Speck-spinach cream sauce or sausage ragù and breadcrumbs. There are spinach-ricotta-filled ravioli and a majestic pile of tender tagliatelle with beef-pork ragù and peas. After pasta, you have a choice of turkey cutlet or a board featuring a mixed grill: sausage, lamb chops, pork ribs plus vegetables and warm piadine. Desserts include red-wine soaked pears and a chocolate espresso mousse. Faetanini, a veteran mixologist, gets jiggy with creations like a peanut butter and jelly espresso martini.

"Great things come in small, hard-to-find packages" could be The Trattoria’s motto. Carved out of the back end of a hidden strip mall, the modest dining room accommodates fewer than 25 diners, and yet the kitchen packs more culinary firepower than those of most huge, opulent Italian palaces. Chef-owner Steve Gallagher isn’t doctrinaire about Italian tradition — you might encounter roasted cauliflower with tahini, pine nuts and mint or salmon with parsnip puree and Brussels sprouts — but his emphasis on clarity of flavor, seasonality and the primacy of vegetables get to the very heart of Italian cuisine. The menu changes, but you’ll always find house-made ricotta and sun-dried tomato tapenade to go with the excellent bread. The lasagna Bolognese, made in the Italian fashion with béchamel instead of mozzarella, is legendary as are the meatballs over polenta. Old-school dishes such as braised tripe, baked clams and chicken Parmesan (which the chef resisted until the pandemic and now can’t take off the menu) coexist with classics such as spaghetti all’Amatriciana, orecchiette with sausage (house made) and broccoli rabe, and brasato (red-wine-braised beef). Innovations such as pork loin with bacon-cheddar risotto or maple-mascarpone cheesecake pay off too. Once BYOB, the restaurant now has a good, value-packed wine list. Bring your own bottle (or six-pack) for a $12 corkage fee.

Luca Schiano Di Cola, a native of Monte di Procida (near Naples) is determined to show Long Island what "Neapolitan" means with Via Cuma. There are more than a dozen pizzas, from the simple Margherita to the cheese-free Napoletana, topped with cherry tomatoes and anchovies from Cetara on the Amalfi coast. More elaborate specimens include the Patate, Porchetta e Provola, a white pie topped with cubes of roast potatoes and pork; and the Genovese, named for the Southern Italian sauce of braised beef and onions. Schiano Di Cola also offers a tight menu of specialties such as house-cured anchovies with Gaeta olives on a bed of arugula; a salad of preserved tuna, chickpeas and greens, and Italian-style eggplant Parmesan (more of a layered casserole than an eggplant "steak" covered with mozzarella). For dessert, try the tiramisu served in a Moka coffee pot. If you’d like something harder than soda, bring your own wine or beer.