Locanda Verde

On our list of the best special-occasion restaurants in New York.

Andrew Carmellini opened his first restaurant inside Robert De Niro's Greenwich Hotel in 2009, in a room that had cycled through a nine-month failed Italian restaurant before him. The ravioli, made from his grandmother's recipe, still anchors the menu: simple, dressed in a red sauce with a slight tang. Big round tables make the sprawling dining room work equally for a family dinner or a table of coworkers, and the bar suits a solo seat just as well. It won a James Beard award for Best New Restaurant in its first year.