A Big Italian Dinner in the Heart of Times Square

In the middle of Times Square’s fast-moving crowds and bright theater lights, this restaurant makes a convincing case for sitting down to a proper Italian dinner. The tables are built for passing plates, comparing favorites and discovering that two or three dishes can be plenty for a whole group.

The cooking follows a familiar, comforting Italian-American path: red sauce, bubbling cheese, pasta, seafood, veal, chicken and sturdy appetizers that invite a little extra bread. Portions arrive with serious intentions. A party of five has shared three entrées and green beans with food still left for later, while smaller groups have found two dishes enough to create leftovers.

That family-style format gives a meal here an easygoing rhythm. Rather than everyone guarding an individual entrée, the table can order a few things that sound good, send platters around and let the conversation keep pace with the food.

The restaurant sits in the heart of Times Square, close to Broadway theaters, so it works neatly as a meeting spot before a show or as a destination after one. It has accommodated theater dinners on a tight schedule, including a meal with about an hour to spare before a Broadway performance.

Reservations are useful on busy evenings, especially around showtime, when the room can fill quickly. Parking in this part of Manhattan can be difficult; paid street parking and paid garages are among the options mentioned nearby.

For a solo meal on a packed evening, the bar offers a practical alternative to waiting for a full table. The main dining spaces extend across upper and lower levels, giving the restaurant more than one setting while keeping the same bustling, communal tone.

Calamari, salads, stuffed mushrooms and meatballs provide the sort of opening course that keeps a large table happy while the main platters are on their way. The stuffed mushrooms and meatballs have been especially memorable, and they fit naturally into the restaurant’s generous approach.

Mussels make a particularly good case for keeping bread within reach. Their broth has been rich and flavorful enough to inspire an extra order of bread for the last spoonfuls, which is about as good a compliment as a bowl of mussels can get.

The tomato sauce is a major thread running through the meal: fresh-tasting, rich and full of flavor. It turns up in familiar forms, but a good red sauce has a way of making a table linger over one more bite.

Chicken Parmesan is one of the classic orders here, a natural choice for a table that wants a big, satisfying centerpiece. Veal Parmesan has also appeared among the substantial red-sauce plates, along with sausage and peppers and rigatoni Bolognese.

Vodka-sauce pasta has been a favorite, appearing as penne or rigatoni depending on the order. It is the sort of creamy, tomato-forward dish that disappears quickly once everyone starts taking “just a little” from the serving platter.

Lasagna has drawn special attention, with a deeply flavored sauce that can become a small supporting character across the table. A spoonful of sauce alongside another dish is entirely in keeping with a dinner where plates are meant to mingle.

Other pasta and chicken possibilities have included penne with broccoli, garlic and oil, chicken specials and additional pasta combinations. Vegetarian dishes have also been clearly labeled, a useful detail when a group is ordering broadly from the menu.

Seafood gives the meal a nice counterpoint to all the Parmesan and pasta. Shrimp Diavolo and shrimp scampi have both shown up on tables, offering different routes through the menu for diners who want shellfish with their Italian dinner.

Linguine with white clam sauce has been notable for the abundance of fresh clams rather than a few scattered shells on top. It is a straightforward dish, but one that rewards a group willing to add a seafood platter to the red-sauce lineup.

Whole branzino has also earned especially enthusiastic praise from a group that ordered it. For a table already sharing pasta and chicken, a whole fish brings another texture and a lighter direction without abandoning the Italian theme.

The dining room has an antique, historic-looking character created by its lighting, tables, chairs and paintings. Portraits decorate the upstairs area, while the lower level includes a large wall painting. It is a more traditional visual setting than the neon-and-screenscape outside.

Still, this is not a hushed white-tablecloth retreat. The room is energetic, full of group dinners, birthday gatherings, dates and theater parties, and it can become quite loud at peak times. That liveliness suits a celebratory meal, though diners hoping for a quiet conversation may find the busiest periods challenging.

At times, the evening may tip into outright theater. A waiter has entertained diners with familiar Italian opera tunes using a handheld player and microphone, prompting napkins to wave around the room. It is an occasional flourish rather than something to count on, but it captures the restaurant’s playful, high-spirited side.

Dessert can go classic with tiramisu, or take a lighter turn with berry-and-lemon sorbet. An affogato offers coffee and dessert in one small, useful package after a table full of pasta and sauce.

Cappuccino is an easy final order, particularly if the evening is continuing into a show or a walk through Times Square. Wine, red sangria, peach Bellinis and a prickly pear cocktail give the table several ways to make the meal feel a little more celebratory.

With large plates still being passed around and leftovers likely headed home, this is a dinner that favors appetite over restraint. Ordering fewer main dishes than diners is often the sensible move.