Best Italian on Arthur Avenue
Ten Arthur Avenue institutions that define the Bronx's real Little Italy in 2026, red-sauce trattorias, a century-old pizzeria, and one legendary deli counter, ranked by current critical consensus.
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- 1Belmont · $$ · 2357 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
A big, glass-fronted Neapolitan pizzeria and trattoria from Salerno-born chef Roberto Paciullo, successful enough on Arthur Avenue to spawn Manhattan and Westchester siblings.
The wood-fired oven sits right behind the front window, and the thin, blistered-crust pizza coming out of it is the reason this is the one Arthur Avenue kitchen that expanded off the block instead of the other way around.
Order The margherita or frutti di mare pizza, ordered as a starter before the pasta arrives.
Go for a weekday lunch, the wait for a table in the three-room, Salerno-style dining room can push past 45 minutes on a Saturday night.
Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0 - 2Belmont · $$ · 622 E 187th St, Bronx, NY 10458Map ↗verified 7w ago
A small, checkerboard-tablecloth trattoria a block off Arthur Avenue built around Abruzzese country cooking, the kind of place regulars have fought over a Saturday table at for decades.
This is the rare Arthur Avenue kitchen that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for doing nothing flashy, just exact hand-cut spaghetti alla chitarra and osso buco, priced like a neighborhood joint.
Order Spaghetti alla chitarra all'amatriciana, then the osso buco if you're staying for a second course.
It has no official restaurant website, so call ahead rather than trying to book online, the room seats around 40 and fills fast once the Bronx Zoo crowd finds street parking.
@tradinoirestaurant ↗Tra Di Noi
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- 3Belmont · $$$ · 603 Crescent Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Chef-owner Roberto Paciullo's original trattoria, a block off Arthur Avenue on Crescent Street, built around a blackboard of Salerno specials that changes with what the market had that morning.
There's no printed menu worth reading here, the real one is chalked up daily, which makes dinner feel like a chef's tasting menu at red-sauce prices.
Order Whatever porcini or wild-mushroom pasta is chalked up that day, plus the veal osso buco.
Skip reading the laminated menu and just ask your server to walk you through the blackboard out loud, that's where the kitchen's actual effort goes.
@robertos_restaurant ↗Roberto's Restaurant
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- 4Belmont · $$ · 2339 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
A big, boisterous family-run dining room with sidewalk seating, the default pick on Arthur Avenue for a large group planning to stay for hours.
The dining room is built for a long table of eight or more, plenty of elbow room, a wine list deep enough to keep the debate going, and enough pasta shapes on the menu that nobody at the table orders the same thing twice.
Order Potato gnocchi in basil pesto, followed by rigatoni alla carbonara.
Ask for the sidewalk tables under the awning when the weather cooperates, they're the best seats on the block from spring through fall.
Photo: laredawg, Public Domain Photo: laredawg, Public Domain - 5Belmont · $$ · 2342 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
The Migliucci family's pizzeria-turned-full-service dining room, in continuous operation on Arthur Avenue since 1919.
A James Beard America's Classic award and a Sopranos filming credit in the same dining room, this restaurant predates almost everything else on the strip and still cooks like it has something to prove.
Order Potato gnocchi, or the chicken alla parmigiana for the classic version.
The gnocchi is the dish the fourth generation still nails every single time, order it before getting talked into something fancier off the specials board.
Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0 - 6Belmont · $$ · 2335 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Also No. 1 on Best Hangouts in the Bronx →
A cash-only, no-menu, family-style institution where you sit at a shared table and a server simply tells you what's good that day.
There's no menu to hand you and no printed check to read, a server recites the specials, you order by pointing at a neighbor's plate, and it's still the single most Arthur Avenue meal on the avenue.
Order Veal parmigiana and the mussels marinara, split down the table.
Come with an appetite and a group, portions are built for family-style sharing, and the wait for a communal table can run long on weekend nights.
Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0 - 7Belmont · $ · 2344 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
The anchor counter inside the 1940, WPA-built Arthur Avenue Retail Market, half meat-and-cheese case, half hot kitchen, and essential to any visit to the avenue.
This is a deli counter running a full hot kitchen on the side, and the eggplant parm hero it builds to order beats plenty of sit-down versions charging double, two blocks away.
Order The eggplant parmigiana hero, or a fresh mozzarella sandwich built to order at the counter.
Grab a table inside the market itself instead of getting food to go, someone will bring your hot order over once it's ready.
Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo: Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0 - 8Belmont · $$ · 2331 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
A white-tablecloth, family-run dining room now three generations deep, currently run day to day by a mother-daughter team.
The handmade pasta here is deliberately plain, butter and Parmigiano, nothing else, and that restraint is exactly what separates a real Arthur Avenue kitchen from a tourist-trap one.
Order Fettuccine with butter and Parmigiano, plus whatever veal special is running that night.
It sits a short walk from the retail market and usually has less of a wait than its more famous neighbors, so it's a good landing spot when the bigger houses are backed up.
Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0 - 9Belmont · $$ · 2407 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
A five-generation family operation at the quieter north end of the avenue, still run by descendants of the great-grandfather who opened it in 1927.
A century under one family's name is rare anywhere in New York; on an avenue where ownership has turned over more in the last decade, it's close to unheard of.
Order Fresh mozzarella to start, then the veal saltimbocca.
It's a few blocks north of the retail-market cluster, so treat it as a separate stop after you've already shopped rather than squeezing it into the same walk as the market crawl.
@annandtonys_arthuravenue ↗Ann & Tony's Restaurant
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- 10Belmont · $$ · 2311 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
A 40-year-old Southern Italian dining room at the south end of the strip, with live music on Saturday nights and a menu built from what the Arthur Avenue merchants had that week.
Every ingredient on the plate was bought a few doors down, which makes the gnocchi bolognese here taste like the avenue itself rather than a tribute to it.
Order Gnocchi bolognese, or the chicken parmigiana on a quieter night.
Book ahead for Saturday, the 8-to-11pm live-music seating fills the room and turns a quiet trattoria into the liveliest table on the block.
Photo: Tony Fischer, CC BY 2.0 Photo: Tony Fischer, CC BY 2.0