Al Di Là Voted The Best Italian Restaurant In Brooklyn

What makes a great Italian restaurant? For some it may be the antipasti, while for others it's the quality of the wines and pastas that's the sure-fire test. Holding up one dish is dangerous. Octopus? Lasagna? Cacio e pepe? Which one dish should be the barometer of a great Italian restaurant?

The steps we took to compile our most-recent ranking were as thorough and comprehensive as possible: we looked at restaurants that made it to our 101 Best Restaurants in America; we also recruited an illustrious panel of judges that included some of the country's top food writers, critics, and bloggers to submit their suggestions, which we supplemented with our own choices, including previous years' rankings as well as lauded newcomers. This list of hundreds of restaurants was then built into a survey that was sent out to more than 100 panelists, who voted for their favorites. The final ranking included a significant number of Italian restaurants, and to create this list we supplemented the Italian restaurants that made it into our final list of 101 with those that came in as runners-up and those that were featured on this year's list of the country's 50 best casual restaurants. Turns out there are many Italian restaurants worthy of renown in America, and three reside in Brooklyn.

When chef Anna Klinger and husband Emiliano Coppa opened the Venetian-inspired Al di Là on Park Slope's Fifth Avenue in 1998, it was located on a sleepy thoroughfare perhaps best known for its wide variety of bodegas, and most Manhattanites wouldn't have even considered heading out to Brooklyn for a meal. But by the time then-New York Times critic Frank Bruni awarded the trattoria two stars in 2006, it was widely regarded to be the neighborhood's best restaurant, packing in crowds every night and anchoring a burgeoning restaurant row on the now-thriving avenue. Klinger's moderately priced menu of home-style antipasti, pastas, and braised and grilled meats rarely changes despite plenty of nightly specials, and that's for a good reason: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

Klinger's menu and execution is so good, Al di Là snagged the very respectable #9 spot on our list, out-scoring its borough neighbors Blanca (#16) and Di Fara (#38). This means that – according to our experts – Al di Là is the best Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.