Carmine's

Description:

• Everything is B-I-G at this family-style mainstay with two locations, on the Upper West Side (the original) and in Times Square. Carmine's, with a dining room vast enough to deserve its own zip code and massive portions, turns out better pasta and entrees than most 20-table Italian restaurants. I've never had pasta here that wasn't al dente, and the marinara sauce is as good as any I've had in Manhattan. The salads are always fresh and the fried calamari tender. Rigatoni marinara, linguini with white-clam sauce, and ziti with broccoli are pasta standouts, while the best meat entrees include veal parmigiana, broiled porterhouse steak, shrimp scampi, and the remarkable chicken scarpariello (chicken pan-broiled with a lemon-rosemary sauce). The tiramisu is pie-size, thick, creamy, and bathed in Kahlúa and Marsala. Order half of what you think you'll need. Don't expect intimate conversation; in fact, it's downright loud. Unless you come early, expect to wait.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2009
•  Recommended 2010