Bamonte's

"In the 120-plus years since Bamonte's opened in Williamsburg, the NYC dining scene has experimented with many different ways of having fun: all-you-can-eat sushi spots, restaurants on boats, and clubstaurants with caviar bumps. None compare to Bamonte's. It’s not that the food at this old-school Italian spot is spectacular. The calamari leans pale, and the red sauce is watery. But what you eat here never really matters. Because by the time a platter of totally okay penne alla vodka lands on your table, you’ll be obsessed with the woman in a fur coat who drove in from New Jersey, and 10 childhood friends from Windsor Terrace, passing around platters of baked clams. No restaurant entertains with bow ties and bottles of red quite like this one. " - molly fitzpatrick, willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah, neha talreja

"Eating at a big round table with your family isn’t a recent trend. That’s exactly what people at Bamonte’s in Williamsburg have been doing since this Italian-American spot opened in 1900. The dining room, which has a few round tables covered in white tablecloths scattered around its big space, hasn’t been updated since the ’50s. This is an ideal choice for a night of passing around baked ziti, pork chop parmesan, and fried calamari." - hannah albertine, kenny yang

"A red-sauce stalwart of Brooklyn, Bamonte's has been open since 1902 and hasn’t been renovated since the 1950s. It’s said to have been a mobster hangout and still attracts plenty of Williamsburg old-timers. Don’t miss the baked clams or the pork chop topped with peppers, which Eater critic Robert Sietsema deems “the city's most perfect evocation of that dish.”" - Eater Staff

"For a celebratory group outing, there’s comfort in red sauce. And no one spot in Brooklyn is more iconic for it than Bamonte’s, open for more than a century. Eater critic Robert Sietsema recommends family-style portions of eggplant rollatini, but there’s also penne with vodka sauce and chicken Parm. Call the restaurant to make a reservation for groups." - Eater Staff, Beth Landman

"There’s no place quite as much fun as Bamonte’s. Founded in 1900 by immigrants from Salerno, Italy, just south of Naples, Bamonte’s is one of the city’s oldest continuously operating restaurants, and it shows every year of its venerable age. You can still see bouffant hairdos in the front barroom, and the tuxedo’ed waiters are nearly all old-timers. The sprawling dining room, sometimes containing tables of priests in their collars, ends in a glassed-in kitchen. The menu is the perfect evocation of Italian-American cuisine, including a spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs that could serve as a model for cooking schools. The baked clams are a “don’t miss,” and so is the chicken francese, putting on French airs for a working-class constituency. The pork chops with peppers (sweet or hot) is the city’s best version of that recipe." - Robert Sietsema