The best Italian restaurants in NYC will happily let you order badly, and ordering for a table goes wrong in a predictable way: everyone picks a pasta, four bowls arrive at once, and nobody tries anything they did not choose. The fix is picking two or three dishes built to be divided and treating the rest of the order around them. This is a working list of the dishes that split well, what separates a good version from a filler version, and how much to order per person.

If you only remember one thing

For four people, order two antipasti to share, one pasta per two people served family style, and one large format main if the table is still hungry. That comes out to roughly six plates for four people, which is less food than most tables order and more variety.

At a glance

Dishes that reliably share well: burrata, arancini, roasted octopus, meatballs, whole roasted fish, a large format pasta, a board of salumi, and any vegetable contorno that arrives in one dish rather than plated per person.

Dishes that share badly: risotto, anything fried that has to be eaten in the first two minutes, and a single portion of a delicate seafood pasta that turns to paste while it waits.

Antipasti worth splitting

Burrata

The default shared plate, and the easiest one to do lazily. A good version arrives at room temperature, not cold from the walk-in, and comes with something acidic or seasonal next to it rather than a puddle of balsamic glaze. In July and August that usually means tomatoes. Order one for every three people. Two burrata for a table of four is too much dairy before the pasta arrives.

Arancini

Fried rice balls, and one of the few fried things that survives being passed around, because the crust is thick enough to hold. Look for versions where the filling is described specifically, since “arancini” on its own tells you nothing. Two or three per person is plenty as a first bite.

Roasted octopus

More reliable than it sounds. Octopus is braised or simmered long before it is finished on heat, which means the kitchen has already done the hard work by the time you order. A good plate is tender without being mushy and has something starchy underneath. It splits cleanly into four portions with a fork.

Meatballs

Underrated as a shared course because people think of them as a main. Two or three large meatballs in a shallow dish of sauce, with bread, is a better opener for a table than four separate salads. Ask whether they come with ricotta. The version with ricotta is a different dish.

Salumi and cheese

The right call when the table is arriving at different times, because it holds for twenty minutes without deteriorating. The wrong call when it is the only thing you order to start, since it fills people up without giving them anything hot.

Pastas that share, and pastas that do not

Long pastas in cream or egg based sauces sit badly. Carbonara and cacio e pepe want to be eaten immediately by one person, and passing them around a table for two minutes changes the texture. Order those individually if you want them.

What shares well: baked or short pastas with a ragù. Rigatoni, mafaldine, lumache, and anything with a meat sauce holds temperature and does not clump. Tagliatelle Bolognese sits in the middle, since it splits fine but wants to be served fast.

A useful rule: one pasta per two people, served in the middle with serving spoons. Some restaurants will do this without being asked. Most will if you ask when you order rather than when the food arrives.

Large format mains

The whole roasted fish is the most reliable large format order in an Italian restaurant, usually branzino or dorade. One fish feeds two to three people, and the kitchen typically bones it tableside or in the back. It is also the order that makes a table feel like an occasion without anyone having to make a speech about it.

A large cut of meat for the table, a porterhouse or a pork chop cut for two, works when at least two people at the table actually want red meat. When only one does, order it as an individual main and leave the shared plates to everything else.

What to order at an Italian restaurant when you are unsure

Look at what the kitchen has committed to. A menu with four pastas and a note about where the flour comes from is telling you something. A menu with eighteen pastas is telling you something else. When the list is short, order from the middle of it, because that is usually where the kitchen’s actual identity sits rather than the crowd pleaser at the top or the expensive thing at the bottom.

If the restaurant lists a vegetable contorno section, order one. It is the cheapest correction to a heavy table order and the section most people skip.

How much food is actually enough

For a table of four, six shared plates is the working number. Two antipasti, two pastas, one main, one vegetable. For six people, add a third pasta and a second vegetable rather than a second main. Adding mains is how tables end up with leftovers nobody takes home.

Shared ordering also depends on who is at the table. When the group skews older or the room is loud, menu breadth matters more than any single dish, which is the argument made in this guide to picking a room that works for dinner with parents.

Order in two rounds if the restaurant allows it. Start with antipasti and one pasta, then decide. Most kitchens are happy to fire a second round, and it prevents the wall of food that arrives when everything is ordered at once.

Frequently Asked Question

Is it rude to ask for a pasta to be split between two plates?

No, and most Italian restaurants in New York expect it. The better phrasing is asking for the dish “for the table” with extra plates rather than asking the kitchen to physically divide it, since a split portion plated in the back often arrives looking thin and comes out slower. Say it when you order, not when the food lands. If you are at a restaurant with a tasting menu or a fixed number of courses, ask the server first, because the pacing may already assume individual portions and the kitchen will have built the sequence around that.

One more thing

The single change that improves most group meals is ordering fewer dishes than feels right and adding a second round. Tables consistently over order at the start, then eat the first four plates and push the rest around.

Check the current menu on the restaurant’s own site before you go, since seasonal Italian menus in New York change often and the version on a third party listing is usually months behind.

More of our shortlists, and the criteria behind them, sit on the front page.