Best Italian Restaurants on the Upper East Side
Dana Whitfield · October 7, 2026 · 6 min
The best Italian restaurants on the Upper East Side, judged on what their own sites publish, are Caravaggio at 23 East 74th Street and Sistina at 24 East 81st Street for a formal dinner, Lusardi’s at 1494 Second Avenue for a neighborhood room serving lunch and dinner every day, and Via Quadronno at 25 East 73rd Street for a Milanese panino or a plate of pasta from 8am. For a late or unplanned table, Uva at 1486 Second Avenue welcomes walk-ins every night and stays open until 1am Tuesday through Sunday. Hours, prices and policies below were read from each restaurant’s own site in October 2026.
Upper East Side Italian restaurants at a glance
| Restaurant | Address | Best for | Key verified detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caravaggio | 23 East 74th Street | An occasion dinner | Lunch and dinner seven days; pastas $35 to $40 |
| Sistina | 24 East 81st Street | A long, expensive pasta dinner | 14 pastas listed, $35 to $50 |
| Lusardi’s | 1494 Second Avenue | A reliable neighborhood dinner | Open 363 days a year since 1983; pastas $32 to $44 |
| Via Quadronno | 25 East 73rd Street | Lunch or an early, casual meal | Open from 8am weekdays; panini $14 to $18 |
| Uva | 1486 Second Avenue | A walk-in or late table | Walk-ins every night; open to 1am Tuesday to Sunday |
How these were chosen
Every restaurant here has a live official site that was read for this list, and every price, hour and booking rule below comes from that site. Where a site doesn’t publish something, such as Sistina’s hours, the entry says so and tells you to call. Cost for two is a sum of specific dishes on the restaurant’s own menu, before drinks, tax and tip, and the dishes are named so you can check the arithmetic. This is a short list on purpose: four full picks and one walk-in fallback, not every red-sauce room between 59th and 96th Streets.
Caravaggio: the Upper East Side occasion room
Caravaggio has been, in its own words, “an Upper East Side institution” since 2009, under chef Giuseppe Bruno, on East 74th Street. Lunch runs Monday to Sunday from 12pm to 2:30pm and dinner from 5pm to 10pm, so a weekend lunch is a real option here.
What to order: the Spaghetti Carbonara ($35), which the restaurant describes as house-extruded pasta with guanciale, egg yolk and Pecorino Romano.
Cost for two: about $108 for a shared Prosciutto, Burrata & Pear ($38), the Spaghetti Carbonara ($35) and the Bucatini Amatriciana ($35).
Booking: OpenTable through the site, or by phone on (212) 288-1004. Two services a day, every day, give you more chances at a table than a dinner-only room. The site also has private dining and wedding pages if the table is a party.
Sistina: the big pasta list
Sistina is chef and owner Giuseppe Bruno’s other Upper East Side room, at 24 East 81st Street, and its site describes the cooking as “fresh comfort food which is the wisdom of his Salerno ancestors from Southern Italy,” with daily market sourcing. The dinner menu lists 14 pastas, from Gnocchi at $35 to Spaghetti Crab Meat and Fettuccine Integrali at $50, and 16 antipasti. The site also lists a separate weekday lunch menu and a second-floor evening lounge.
What to order: the Pappardelle Sistina ($38), the pasta that carries the house name, or the Ziti Genovese ($40).
Cost for two: about $111 for Beets and Burrata ($35), Pappardelle Sistina ($38) and Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe ($38).
Booking: OpenTable through the site, or call (212) 861-7660. The site doesn’t post its hours, so confirm them when you call. At these prices, this is the most expensive pasta list here.
Lusardi’s: the neighborhood standby on Second Avenue
Lusardi’s, at 1494 Second Avenue, says it has been open “seven days a week, 363 days a year, since 1983.” Lunch runs every day from 12pm to 3:30pm and dinner from 5pm to 10:30pm. The menu runs from Carciofi alla Romana to Gnocchi alla Piemontese, and it notes that gluten-free pasta is available on request.
What to order: Tortelli in Salsa Tartufata ($35), or the Tagliolini Cacio Pepe ($32) if you want the cheaper pasta.
Cost for two: about $95 for Carciofi alla Romana ($28), Tortelli in Salsa Tartufata ($35) and Rigatoni Cipullo ($32).
Booking: Resy, or call (212) 249-2020. Lunch and dinner every day, and a 10:30pm dinner close, make this an easy room to fit around an awkward evening.
Via Quadronno: Milanese, from breakfast on
Via Quadronno, at 25 East 73rd Street near Central Park and the Met, is the casual pick and the only one that opens early: 8am to 10pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 10pm on weekends, with the kitchen closing at 9:30pm. The menu runs to more than twenty named panini, most at $16 or $17, alongside a full list of pastas and secondi.
What to order: a panino at lunch, such as the Via Quadronno ($16), or the Spaghetti saltati alla Bolognese ($31.50) at dinner.
Cost for two: about $62 for Spaghetti saltati alla Bolognese ($31.50) and Risotto Milanese con Funghi ($30.50); two panini at lunch come to about $32 to $34.
Booking: by phone on 212-650-9880. The site also offers pickup, delivery and catering. Best suited to a lunch after the museum, or a dinner that doesn’t need to be an event.
If you didn’t book: Uva
Uva, at 1486 Second Avenue, is the fallback. Its own site says, “We welcome walk-ins every night of the week and reservations can be made via Resy.” It opens at 3pm Monday to Friday and 11am on weekends, and runs until midnight on Monday and 1am every other night. The wine list advertises more than 40 wines by the glass. The food menus are posted as PDFs, so check the current one on the site before you go. For more rooms that publish a walk-in rule, see this site’s guide to where to eat Italian without a reservation, and for other late kitchens, Italian after 10pm in Manhattan.
How to book an Upper East Side Italian dinner
Match the platform to the room. Caravaggio and Sistina use OpenTable, Lusardi’s and Uva use Resy, and Via Quadronno takes reservations by phone, so checking a single app will make the neighborhood look more booked than it is.
Use lunch. Caravaggio serves lunch seven days and Lusardi’s does too, which makes a weekend midday table the simplest way into either room. Via Quadronno is open from breakfast.
Budget by the pasta, not the room. Pastas here run from $26.50 at Via Quadronno to $50 at Sistina, and most antipasti at Caravaggio and Sistina sit between $35 and $45, so the dinners summed above come to between about $62 and $111 for two before drinks, tax and tip. Our guide to ordering at an Italian restaurant course by course explains why one antipasto and a pasta each is usually enough. For how the Upper East Side compares with Manhattan’s other Italian clusters, La Superlativa’s neighborhood breakdown covers the wider map.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side?
For a formal dinner, Caravaggio at 23 East 74th Street, which serves lunch and dinner seven days a week and lists pastas from $35 to $40. Sistina at 24 East 81st Street, from the same chef, Giuseppe Bruno, has the longer pasta list at $35 to $50. For an everyday neighborhood dinner, Lusardi’s on Second Avenue has been open since 1983.
Which Upper East Side Italian restaurants take walk-ins?
Uva at 1486 Second Avenue says on its own site that it welcomes walk-ins every night of the week, and it stays open until 1am Tuesday through Sunday. The other four take bookings through OpenTable, Resy or by phone, and the pages checked for this list say nothing about walk-ins, so call ahead.
How much does dinner for two cost at an Upper East Side Italian restaurant?
On the menus checked for this list, a shared antipasto and two pastas cost about $95 at Lusardi’s, $108 at Caravaggio and $111 at Sistina, before drinks, tax and tip. Two pastas at Via Quadronno come to about $62. Prices are from each restaurant’s own site in October 2026.