The best Arthur Avenue restaurants in the Bronx are still mostly the same red-sauce institutions that have been slinging veal parm and cacio e pepe since your grandparents’ era, but lately the block’s most-talked-about table is serving grilled guinea fowl and fried plantains instead.
Arthur Avenue, tucked into the Belmont section of the Bronx near the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden, has spent a century being the city’s actual Little Italy while Mulberry Street turned into a strip mall for tourists. Family-run trattorias still run the show here, several of them five generations deep, and almost nothing on the block has a website built after 2015, not unlike the Queens bagel spots worth crossing a bridge for.
Here are the 8 spots making up the best Arthur Avenue restaurants scene right now, whether you’re after a century-old white-tablecloth institution, a no-menu family-style feast, or something that’s currently blowing up on TikTok for reasons that have nothing to do with pasta.
Zero Otto Nove – 🏆 Bowery Beat Editor Top Choice
Address: 2357 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (718) 220-1027
Style: Neapolitan pizza and pasta, wood-fired oven up front
Vibe: Loud, warm, big-party energy with sidewalk tables most of the year
Price: $$ (mains $18-$32)
Website: zeroottonove.com
If you only eat at one of the best Arthur Avenue restaurants, make it this one. The wood-fired oven sits right inside the front door, and you can watch all 13 pizza varieties go in and come out in under five minutes.
The cacio e pepe is textbook, just pecorino and cracked black pepper, no cream cutting corners. Start with the fried calamari or the seafood salad, seven kinds of shellfish dressed simply, before the pizza shows up.
It’s also the rare Arthur Avenue spot that takes big groups without a fuss, which makes it the default answer when nobody in your party can agree on what they’re in the mood for.
Mario’s Restaurant
Address: 2342 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (718) 584-1188
Style: Neapolitan Italian, open since 1919
Vibe: White-tablecloth, old-world, five generations of the same family running the room
Price: $$$
Website: mariosarthurave.org
Mario’s has been open since 1919, which makes it older than half the buildings around it, and the family still runs the dining room the way it did under Prohibition.
Go for the veal, whichever way the kitchen is making it that night, and don’t rush the bread course, it’s part of the ritual.
This is the pick for anniversaries, parents in town, or anyone who wants their Arthur Avenue dinner to feel like an occasion instead of a quick bite. It’s earned its spot among the best Arthur Avenue restaurants just by outlasting nearly everyone else on the block.
Dominick’s
Address: 2335 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (718) 733-2807
Style: Family-style Italian, no menu
Vibe: Long shared tables, strangers seated elbow to elbow
Price: $$ (cash only)
Dominick’s doesn’t hand out menus. Your server rattles off what’s good that day, and you either trust them or you’re in the wrong restaurant.
Expect to share a table with people you’ve never met, and expect veal parm and linguine with white clam sauce to show up whether you technically ordered them or not.
It’s cash only and it’s chaos in the best way, exactly the kind of place that makes Arthur Avenue feel less like a food tour stop and more like a real neighborhood.
Tra Di Noi
Address: 622 E 187th St, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (718) 295-1784
Style: Abruzzese trattoria, chef-run daily specials
Vibe: Small, quiet, more neighborhood secret than tourist stop
Price: $$
Chef Marco Colletti is in the kitchen at Tra Di Noi every single day, which is why the specials board changes constantly and usually beats whatever’s printed on the menu.
The spaghetti alla chitarra all’amatriciana and the orecchiette with broccoli rabe are both worth building a trip around.
It sits one block off Arthur Avenue proper, small enough that it never quite pulls the crowds Zero Otto Nove does, which is exactly why regulars call it one of the best Arthur Avenue restaurants for a night when you don’t want to fight for a table.
Emilia’s
Address: 2331 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (718) 367-5915
Style: Simple, homemade pasta
Vibe: No-frills, feels like eating at someone’s actual nonna’s kitchen
Price: $$
Emilia’s isn’t trying to impress anyone, and that’s the whole appeal. The fettuccine with butter and Parmigiano tastes like it came out of somebody’s actual kitchen, because it more or less did.
It’s a solid, unfussy pick when you want real Italian food on Arthur Avenue without the wait at the bigger-name spots down the block.
Enzo’s
Address: 2339 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (718) 733-4455
Style: Upscale red-sauce Italian
Vibe: Polished dining room that’s still very much a neighborhood spot underneath
Price: $$$
Website: enzosofarthuravenue.com
Enzo’s has been a staple since 2005, and the stuffed artichoke and baked clams alone are worth the reservation.
The eggplant tower is the move if you’re skipping meat, and yes, they really do serve an olive-oil-infused vanilla ice cream, which sounds wrong until you try it.
It’s a step up from the block’s more casual spots without losing the neighborhood feel, good for a date night that doesn’t require a trip into Manhattan.
Frankie’s
Address: 2376 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Phone: (347) 270-1452
Style: Modern Italian steakhouse
Vibe: Newer build-out, sidewalk seating, date-night energy
Price: $$$
Website: frankiesrestaurant.nyc
Frankie’s is the newest name on this list, and it’s already showing up all over TikTok for its steaks as much as its pasta.
It leans a little more modern than its neighbors, glossier room, a real cocktail list, sidewalk tables, but the portions are still very much Arthur Avenue.
Good for a birthday or a first date where you want the meal to feel like an event.
Yop City
Address: 2324 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458
Style: Ivorian and West African
Vibe: Bright, communal, currently the block’s most-filmed restaurant
Price: $$
Website: yopcityusa.com
Here’s the twist: the best Arthur Avenue restaurants list isn’t only red sauce anymore. Yop City serves Ivorian food a few doors down from the trattorias, and it’s been racking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok for its whole fried croaker and garba.
Order the grilled guinea fowl with alloco, fried sweet plantains, or the attieke, a cassava couscous that’s the perfect counterweight to a week of pasta.
It’s proof Arthur Avenue’s food scene is still evolving inside a neighborhood that mostly runs on tradition, not unlike Astoria’s Greek food scene a few subway stops away, and it’s worth the detour even if you came for the Italian.
So, What Are the Best Arthur Avenue Restaurants Right Now?
Honestly, picking the best Arthur Avenue restaurants depends on what kind of trip you’re after.
If you want the classic red-sauce experience, Zero Otto Nove and Mario’s have it.
If you want the full no-menu, cash-only Bronx experience, Dominick’s is non-negotiable.
If you want a quieter night off the main strip, Tra Di Noi and Emilia’s deliver.
If you want to see what’s actually trending on the block right now, Frankie’s and Yop City are where the cameras are pointed.
There isn’t one single answer, and on a block this dense with generations-old kitchens, that’s kind of the point.
Take the Metro-North Harlem line to Fordham, walk it slow, and don’t try to hit all eight in one afternoon, that’s a job for a few separate trips, not a single very ambitious lunch.
