Image
Restaurants & Nightlife

The best pasta tasting menus in NYC

Take your passion for pasta to the next level – try these pasta tasting menu options in NYC.

Words by Devorah Lev-Tov

4-minute read

NYC’s Italian roots go deep, and it’s no secret that New Yorkers are obsessed with pasta. Most of the hundreds of Italian restaurants dotting the city have several pasta dishes on their menus, and some take it to the next level by offering pasta tasting menus.

While not entirely new – Rezdôra has had one since it opened in 2019, and Italian standards Becco, Lupa, and Babbo all offer them – recently, there has been an influx of several more at some of the city’s top Italian spots, and they are raising the carb bar. Here is our pick of the best.

1. Rezdôra

Rezdôra focuses on cuisine from the Emilia-Romagna region. Over the past few years, it has become a beloved Italian institution in the city, and its pasta tasting menu is now the standard against which all others are measured.

Chef Stefano Secchi’s expert pasta-making skills are on full display – there are no appetizers or desserts if you order the five-course pasta tasting menu. The small dishes typically include tortellini in brodo, gnudi, and tagliolini with a ragu from Modena; a vegetarian version is also available. And while it’s impossible to leave hungry, you also won’t feel overstuffed – at $98 per person, this prix fixe is a steal.

Image
Image
27 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003

2. Al Coro

When this classy Italian stunner opened in the old Del Posto space in 2022, acclaimed chef Melissa Rodriguez had big shoes to fill. Thankfully, she’s done a stellar job, garnering two Michelin stars and a James Beard Foundation award nomination. In March, Rodriguez and her pasta maker Carlos Perdomo, who has worked with her for over a decade, added a five-course pasta tasting menu ($125 per person), starting with an amuse bouche and including bread with cacio e pepe butter and dessert.

The pasta options change regularly, but have featured culurgiones stuffed with fontina and potato and finished with golden osetra caviar and a herb lemon butter sauce, cappelletti alla vodka with smoked ricotta and fresh basil, and tortellini with braised greens in a complex brodo that takes days to make, topped with black truffle.

Image
Image
85 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011

3. Forsythia

Lower East Side Italian destination Forsythia, which grew out of a pandemic pop-up, offers a prix fixe menu ($109 per person) that stars traditional Roman pasta, although there are a few other dishes included too. Following the diner’s choice of antipasti, a selection of two types of pasta from a wide array of handmade options follow, each prepared by Executive Chef Emily Swaine (previously of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Maialino). All the dishes are made with peak season ingredients, such as crab tortelli with mascarpone and basil for summer, and pappardelle with ramps, morels, and mushroom brodo during spring. A choice of dessert is
also included in the tasting menu, allowing for a sweet finish.

Image Image
9 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002

4. The Oval at La Devozione

When this pasta emporium from famed Neapolitan pasta maker Pastificio Di Martino opened its first stateside outpost in Chelsea Market at the end of 2021, pasta lovers celebrated. The space has a market, a casual restaurant, and the open-kitchen pasta bar concept, the Oval. The Oval is where guests can book a multi-course pasta tasting menu – four, five, or seven courses are available.

Executive Chef Alessio Rossetti creates each based on a classic Italian recipe reimagined through a modern lens, highlighted by one of Pastificio Di Martino’s 120-plus different pasta shapes in the seasonally changing preparation.

Image
Image
428 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011

5. A Pasta Bar

If you’re looking for a stylish atmosphere to accompany your noodles, head to Soho for the Milanese-inspired A Pasta Bar, which morphed from Sola Pasta Bar during the pandemic. Here, for $130, guests dine on five signature pasta dishes to be shared between two people. The offerings change nightly, but options usually include crowd favourites such as tagliatelle with black truffle, rigatoni with vodka sauce, and spaghetti vongole with Calabrian chilli.

Image
Image
330 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013

6. Babbo

An NYC Italian institution owned by Joe Bastianich since 1998, Babbo may have been one of the first restaurants in the city to offer a pasta tasting menu, and it’s still one of the best.

These days, the $115 pasta prix fixe includes five kinds of pasta, a palette cleansing sorbet, and a slice of olive oil cake with olive oil gelato to finish. The changing pasta options range from black spaghetti with jumbo lump lump crab and chilli to beef cheek ravioli with black truffles to pappardelle with a Bolognese sauce.

Image
Image
110 Waverly Pl, New York, NY 10011

Discover the best restaurants in the world with priority bookings and insider access, from tiny local haunts to Michelin-starred behemoths… All courtesy of a Quintessentially membership.

Image Image

You’ve got good taste. We’ve got the specialist knowledge.

We keep our members up to date on all the latest restaurant openings and trends. And we secure them priority seats and exclusive perks at the world’s finest drinking and dining spots.

More to explore

Restaurants & Nightlife

First look: AngloThai

John and Desiree Chantarasak’s British-Thai concept has finally opened a permanent site – and we were first through the doors to try it.

Read more
Restaurants & Nightlife

The best restaurants in the West Village

As well as classic brownstones and cobblestoned streets, this NYC neighbourhood has a distinctly diverse dining scene. Here are 10 we love.

Read more
Restaurants & Nightlife

Mayfair’s best Indian restaurants

Spice up your life with these seven spots – from a bustling Bombay-inspired dining room to the glitzy new opening with a great DJ line-up.

Read more
Quintessentially Noted GIF

NOTED

Stay in the know with our monthly newsletter – a complimentary edit of everything new and noteworthy in the luxury world.

Loading Loading

By signing up to the newsletter you confirm you have read & agree to the Privacy Policy.

Make an enquiry