Best Italian restaurants in 50 major cities
Italian food has long been tied to comfort, family, and celebrations, with the best restaurants often feeling like an extension of home. From cozy trattorias serving handmade pasta to sleek modern kitchens reinventing traditional dishes, Italians are the heart of many local dining scenes. Approximately 16 million Americans (about 4.8% of the nation) are of Italian descent, according to the Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey, with the largest wave of immigration occurring from the 1880s to the 1920s. While metro areas like New York City and Philadelphia have some of the largest Italian populations and restaurant scenes, you can find pockets of Italian culture woven into cities and neighborhoods nationwide.
To showcase the top restaurants across the country, Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated Italian restaurants in 50 major cities using data from Yelp. To be considered, a restaurant needed at least 500 votes. If fewer than three restaurants in the city had at least 500 votes, the minimum threshold was lowered to 250, and then further to 50.
Read on to discover the top Italian restaurants across 50 major U.S. cities
Dining and Cooking