Best Italian Restaurants in Phoenix

Adela's Italian Restaurant is a family-owned Italian eatery where the lasagna is as good as the one your Italian aunt used to make. If you weren't lucky enough to grow up with an Italian aunt, welcome to Adela's, where the homespun Italian cooking is the next best thing. The menu offers upscale classic starters like escargot and stuffed mushroom. This is the place to go when you're craving a hot plate of gooey, cheesy pasta, including a wonderful meat lasagna. The chicken piccata, served with lemon wine sauce and capers, really hits the spot, and there's a whole menu of delicious seafood entrees. As an added bonus, pretty much everything here comes with a side of the house fresh bread.

Avanti is one of the most venerable Italian restaurants in metro Phoenix, the kind of restaurant where the owner stops by your table for a short chat and to make sure everything is to your liking. The black-and-white decor and zebra-strip decor imbue the space with a retro vibe, but the real sense of timelessness is on the menu, which collects an array of classic Italian dishes like pasta e fagioli and linguine carbonara. Start with a classic like caviar or oysters Rockefeller, and continue your classic Italian feast with ossobuco Milanese and chicken parmigiana. Of course, you'll want to finish with the house tiramisu, which is a classic around these parts.

Babbo means "daddy" in Italian, and that sums up the food philosophy at Babbo Italian Eatery: warm, homespun Italian cuisine designed to make you feel as if you're dining with family. The expansive menu features gourmet salads, appetizers, pizza, sandwiches, calzones, and a build-it-yourself chalkboard menu. The pasta menu is full of luscious plates like a pomodoro tomato pasta; an Alfredo Supremo made with white wine, garlic and cream; and a roasted red pepper and mushroom pasta served on fettuccine. The calzones are excellent, and there is a build-your-own option with your choice of meats and ingredients. For something lighter, the salad menu offers 16 different types of specialty salads.

Tratto is the new restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Bianco, who has been instrumental in helping shine the national spotlight on the burgeoning Phoenix food scene. This time around, Bianco and company are shifting focus away from pizza with an unpretentious menu inspired by the classic Italian trattoria, with an emphasis on Arizona terroir. The menu changes with the seasons, so expect to see small plates brimming with vegetables served at the height of the season. Expect to find starters like farinata and house-cured lardo on grilled bruschetta. Primi courses feature freshly made pasta dishes, and secondi courses are where you'll find lovingly prepared plates like braised pork shank and chicken served with Arizona-grown grapes.

Nook evokes images of a cozy place to sit back and relax with a hearty plate of comfort food. Fortunately, that's exactly what you'll find at this Arcadia eatery, tucked away in the Gas Light shopping center. The menu has everything from light cafe fare to hearty Mediterranean dinners. For starters, try the excellent poutine house fries, served with beef gravy and mozzarella curd. The restaurant also serves a variety of unique bruschettas, including a short rib variety featuring a mushroom duxelle and port demi reduction. Dinner entrees include a savory filet, savory halibut tacos, and a creamy pasta crepe. Gourmet pizzas, excellent desserts, and a winning wine menu make this the perfect destination for a special occasion dinner or date night.

Tomaso's is a classic white table cloth Italian restaurant in the leafy Arcadia district of Phoenix. The dining room is framed by Tuscan country brickwork columns, and the menu features a sprawling assortment of regional Italian cuisine, so you'd be hard-pressed to find something on the menu you won't like. The mozzarella tasting board is a good place to start - it features three different mozzarellas, plus a beef steak tomato, some fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Or, try something harder to find, like trippa alla parmigiana, braised calf tripe in a delicious tomato sauce and parmigiano cheese. Entrees include handmade pasta dishes like taglione with artichokes and pistachios and pappardelle in a wild mushroom ragu. Of course, you'll also find Tuscan style steaks, seafood dishes, and various Italian desserts.

North fattoria Italiana translates as Northern Italian farmhouse, a name meant to conjure images of a rustic farmhouse and family-style dining. This is driving concept behind North Fattoria Italiana, an Arcadia restaurant where the food is handcrafted on site and served in a casual, family-style dining room. The dining room features community tables and gathering spaces, creating a warm, welcoming environment that is perfect for large groups. The menu reflects the restaurant's philosophy of hand-made offerings to a tee. All pizza and pasta dough is made from scratch all day long, especially for every guest. Authentic Italian food, made from scratch, and a great ambiance make North Fattoria Italiana a must for true food aficionados.

La Piazza PHX is a tiny downtown Phoenix pizzeria that boasts true Neapolitan-style pizza (certified by the "Verace Pizza Napoletana" from the VPN association based in Napoli, Italy). In a city of great pizza, La Piazza stands out for its strict adherence to the traditions, ingredients and cooking methods of Naples. The mozzarella and dough are homemade, and the tomatoes are imported from San Marzano, Italy. The dough is light, the crust is crispy, and the sauce is delicious, simmering with the flavors of high quality extra virgin olive oil. Along with great specialty pizzas, the restaurant also serves salads, panini, antipasti, pasta dishes and a small but delightful selection of homemade desserts. The restaurant also has another location in historic downtown Glendale.

This Central Phoenix urban pizzeria is situated in a restored 1913 bungalow, making it the perfect backdrop for a leisurely lunch or romantic dinner. Exposed brick, hardwood floors, authentic stained glass windows and a working fireplace means that you'll have much to admire while you nosh on your salad, antipasti, made-from-scratch pasta or artisanal pizza. Each pizza is made-to-order and hand-tossed by Chef Guido Saccone, native of Sicily, and then topped with a delicious drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Don't miss the new "stuzzichini" happy hour menu, served Mondays through Fridays from 3 to 6 pm. It features small bite specialties like arancini, Arborio rice deep-fried with a center of mozzarella.

You would think that finding authentic Neapolitan-style pizza would be a challenge in the Arizona desert. If traveling to southern Italy in search of great pizza isn't feasible right now, you can satiate your appetite for great pizza with a visit to Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana. The pizzeria features thin-crust pizzas made according to the ancient pizza-making traditions of Napoli, in an oven imported from Italy. The expansive menu runs the gamut from the classic margherita to savory specialties like the quattro stagioni (four seasons), which is loaded with sausage, mushrooms and salami. The menu also features antipasti, pasta dishes, and salads.