Modern Italian Kitchens in NYC: Six Restaurants Compared
Marco Reale · July 26, 2026 · Updated October 7, 2026 · 8 min
What modern Italian means on NYC menus, and six kitchens near Union Square, from Rezdôra and Massara to Scarpetta, with hours, lunch and who each suits.
On New York menus, “modern Italian” honestly means one of two things: a kitchen cooking one Italian region with contemporary technique, or a kitchen applying Italian method to whatever is in season. Between Union Square and NoMad, Rezdôra (Emilia-Romagna, 27 East 20th Street) and Massara (Campania, 913 Broadway) are the clearest regional examples, and Scarpetta at 88 Madison Avenue, which makes its pastas in-house daily, is the formal seasonal one.
The label gets thrown around loosely here, which is partly why asking for the best modern Italian restaurant in NYC gets you six answers. What follows covers six kitchens in this part of Manhattan that fit one of those two descriptions, or serve as the traditional benchmark, plus what each does well and who should actually book it. Addresses, hours and menu items below come from each restaurant’s own website, checked in August 2026 and re-checked in October 2026. Menus in this part of Manhattan turn over with the season, so confirm before you go.
The short answer
If you want pasta as the main event, go to Rezdôra. If you want a full dinner with a bar you can arrive early to, Isabelle’s Osteria on Park Avenue South. If you want lunch, Scarpetta, Rezdôra and Massara all serve it on weekdays.
How these were chosen
Four things mattered. The kitchen needs a point of view you can describe in a sentence. The restaurant has to publish its own menu and hours, so you can plan without guessing. It has to sit within walking distance of Union Square, Gramercy, Flatiron or NoMad. And it has to be doing something a jar of sauce cannot do.
No scores. Ranking plates of food on a ten-point scale is a parlor trick. What follows is ordered by how distinct the cooking is, not by how the dining room looks.
Modern Italian kitchens in NYC at a glance
| Restaurant | Address | What the kitchen does | Lunch? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rezdôra | 27 East 20th Street | Emilia-Romagna pasta | Tuesday to Sunday |
| Massara | 913 Broadway | Campanian cooking, wood-burning oven and grill | Tuesday to Sunday |
| Isabelle’s Osteria | 245 Park Avenue South | Contemporary Italian, large bar | Lunch menu, plus weekend brunch |
| Scarpetta | 88 Madison Avenue | Formal room, pastas made in-house daily | Monday to Friday |
| Tarallucci e Vino | 15 East 18th Street | Café by morning, wine bar by evening | Open from 8am most days |
| Paul & Jimmy’s | 123 East 18th Street | Traditional southern Italian, the benchmark | From noon daily |
What does a modern Italian restaurant in NYC actually get right?
The best of them narrow rather than expand. A kitchen that cooks Emilia-Romagna properly will beat a kitchen doing a nationwide tour, because the second kind has to be adequate at forty things instead of excellent at eight. Watch for a short pasta list, a wine list that leans Italian rather than international, and a menu that changed since the last time you looked.
Most of the screening happens before you sit down, and a fair amount of it can be done from the sidewalk. There is a good breakdown of the structural tells that give a tourist trap away worth reading if you are choosing on the fly rather than from a list.
Six modern Italian kitchens and who each suits
Rezdôra
Emilia-Romagna, cooked with more precision than nostalgia. Rezdôra describes itself as a New York Times three-star restaurant and a 2021–2025 Michelin Star recipient, centered on house-made pasta. The pasta list is the reason to go and the reason to book early. It sits on East 20th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South, a five minute walk from the 6 at 23rd Street and about the same from Union Square.
Its own site lists lunch Tuesday through Friday from noon to 2:30, weekend lunch from 11:30, and dinner every night from 5:00 to 11:00, with Monday dinner only. Best suited to a diner who wants to eat pasta as courses rather than as one plate, and who is willing to plan ahead.
Massara
Massara, at 913 Broadway just north of Union Square, is dedicated to the regional cooking of Campania, built around a wood-burning oven and grill, from Rezdôra’s chef Stefano Secchi. The southern Italian cooking here is more direct than what you find a few blocks east. As of October 2026 it serves dinner nightly from 5:00 to 10:30, lunch Tuesday through Friday from noon to 2:30, and weekend lunch from 11:30.
Best suited to a second or third date, or a dinner where you want one thing done well rather than a menu you have to negotiate. Reservations release 30 days ahead at midnight via DoorDash, and the site says the dining room takes parties of up to six.
Isabelle’s Osteria
Contemporary Italian on Park Avenue South at 20th Street, with Executive Chef James Tracey running the kitchen. Homemade pastas and seasonal dishes, in a 150 seat room with a long bar and a private dining room off the main space.
The reason it lands here rather than higher or lower: the pasta is genuinely made in house and the menu moves with the season, but the room is built for range rather than for a single obsession. Rigatoni alla Vodka, Tagliatelle Bolognese and Bucatini Carbonara all sit on the menu together, which is a different project than Rezdôra’s.
That range is the point for some diners. If you are feeding four people who want four different things, including someone who will order fish and someone who wants steak, this works better than a tasting-oriented kitchen. The bar also runs an Aperitivo Hour on weekdays from 2 to 6, which makes it one of the few places nearby where arriving early is a feature rather than a wait. Reservations go up 30 days out on OpenTable and Resy for parties up to ten. You can view Isabelle’s current menu before deciding.
Best suited to a group dinner where opinions differ, or a weeknight where you want a real bar and a real kitchen in the same building.
Scarpetta
Scarpetta, 88 Madison Avenue, inside the Hotel Seville in NoMad. Lunch runs 11:30 to 2:30 Monday through Friday, with dinner nightly from 5:00 and later closes on Friday and Saturday. This is the most formal room on the list and the pricing follows.
Best suited to a business lunch you want to go well, or an anniversary where the room matters as much as the plate. Not the choice for a spontaneous Tuesday.
Tarallucci e Vino
15 East 18th Street, half a block from Union Square. Pastries in the morning, wine bar in the evening, and as of October 2026 open from 8am Monday through Friday, 9am Saturday and 11am Sunday. It covers the parts of the day the rest of this list ignores.
Best suited to the meal you did not plan. It is also the answer when someone wants to sit outside near the Greenmarket and nobody wants to commit to a two hour dinner.
Paul & Jimmy’s
A Gramercy fixture at 123 East 18th Street since 1950, Paul & Jimmy’s describes itself as a traditional southern Italian kitchen inspired by generations of home cooking, with handmade pastas and Italian-American classics. Open from noon daily, closing at 10:00 Tuesday through Saturday and 9:00 Sunday and Monday.
It is on this list as a control. If a modern Italian restaurant cannot beat a 75 year old neighborhood kitchen on flavor, the modernity is decoration. Best suited to a family dinner, an early meal before something at Union Square, or the night you want the food to be recognizable.
How do you get to these restaurants?
All six sit inside a fifteen minute walk of Union Square, which puts the 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R and W within reach. The 6 at 23rd Street is closer for Rezdôra, Isabelle’s and Scarpetta. The 23rd Street stop on the N and R serves Massara and the Fifth Avenue side of Madison Square Park if you are coming from the west.
If you are starting from the park rather than the subway, a companion guide covers what is actually walkable from each corner of Madison Square Park.
Where to start
If you have one dinner and no strong preference, book Rezdôra for the pasta or Isabelle’s for the range, depending on how many people you are feeding and how much they agree with each other. If it is a weekday lunch, what actually changes between lunch and dinner at the same Italian restaurant is worth reading before you choose the hour.
The useful habit is checking the restaurant’s own site the week you go. Every hour and dish named here came from one, because everything else on the internet is a photograph from 2019.
For the wider city, our ranking of Italian by neighborhood covers where these rooms sit relative to the West Village and the Bronx, and if you would rather choose on a single dish, the pasta shape argument behind cacio e pepe is the most useful test I know.
Frequently asked questions
What does modern Italian mean on a NYC menu?
Used honestly, it means one of two things: a kitchen cooking one Italian region with contemporary technique, or a kitchen applying Italian method to whatever is in season. Rezdôra (Emilia-Romagna) and Massara (Campania) are the clearest regional examples between Union Square and NoMad.
Which modern Italian restaurants near Union Square serve lunch?
Scarpetta serves lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 to 2:30. Rezdôra and Massara both serve lunch Tuesday through Friday from noon to 2:30 and from 11:30 at weekends. Paul & Jimmy’s opens at noon daily, and Tarallucci e Vino opens from early morning.
Is modern Italian more expensive than a traditional red sauce restaurant?
Usually yes, though the gap is smaller than people assume, because the difference comes from portioning rather than markup. A restaurant serving pasta in course-sized portions expects you to order three or four things, while a neighborhood Italian-American kitchen serves one plate that feeds you. Compare total spend for the table rather than single item prices, and check whether the restaurant posts a lunch menu, which is often where the same kitchen becomes affordable.
Editor’s note: Isabelle’s Osteria is affiliated with this publication. Restaurants were selected using the criteria described above.
