Del Posto Voted The Best Italian Restaurant In New York And America

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 seven reside in Manhattan.

Del Posto is the result of a collaboration between Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich, and Mario Batali. With these three big names banding together, the result is "the ultimate expression of what an Italian restaurant should be." As a relative newcomer to the fine dining scene, Del Posto opened in 2010 in the Meatpacking District, and received a coveted four-star review from The New York Times, the first Italian restaurant to do so in nearly four decades. Enjoy modern gourmet twists on Italian classics like truffled carne cruda with grana padano, and watercress buds; ricotta and egg yolk gnudi with black truffle; and the restaurant's famous 100-layer lasagna (less expensive and a bit easier to experience during lunch), before ending your meal with a chocolate ricotta tortina.

Del Post took the very top spot on our list, making it the best Italian restaurant in America, according to our panel of experts. Six other restaurants on the island were recognized – Babbo (#2), ll Buco Alimentari & Vineria (#5), Marea (#6), Carbone (#10), Torrisi (#11), and Motorino (#40) – but since Batali and the Bastianichs' eatery topped them all, Del Posto gets the bragging rights to also being named the best Italian restaurant in Manhattan, and in all of New York City.