Rao's

"For around 130 years, this cash-only Italian restaurant in East Harlem has operated as an exclusive supper club full of meatballs and celebrities. There are 10 tables—four tables and six booths—and securing one is nearly impossible unless you know a regular with a standing reservation, or your name is Jay-Z or Hillary Clinton. You can, however, stop by for a drink at the bar. Robert De Niro, Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf Of Wall Street" - bryan kim, molly fitzpatrick, willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah

"The restaurant founded in 1896 is famous for being impossible to get into unless you acquire a table or know someone who has one. The Rao’s sauce is chunky, oily, and sweeter than most, deriving its flavor from aromatics, carrots, and celery. It’s more like a pizza sauce than a pasta sauce in its extreme simplicity." - Robert Sietsema

"Still, restaurants like Bamonte’s and Rao’s are getting fewer and fewer, and as you concentrate that into fewer restaurants, the ones that remain can charge more money." - Bettina Makalintal

"Rao’s, the century-old 10-table Italian restaurant in New York City, is one of those places where most people, myself included, need not bother trying to get a reservation. (It is, by many reports, a challenge.) Despite that, Rao’s has succeeded in becoming a known name in far more homes than its capacity would allow, thanks to the pasta sauces it started selling in 1992." - Bettina Makalintal

"The self-described conservative Republican until he turned Democrat was spotted dining at Harlem’s storied Rao’s with Republican billionaire John Catsimatidis shortly after winning the Democratic nomination for mayor. (Catsimatidis’s daughter has been the chair of the Manhattan Republican party since 2017.) “They sat at the table of another former cop, Richard “Bo” Dietl, who invited Adams,” the New York Post reported. Deitl has apparently owned his Rao’s table since 1977 — and that’s in part what makes the restaurant so hard to get into: You have to know someone who has a table. The Rao’s visit is where the Post reported that Adams ate broiled fish while a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said he ordered eggplant parm without cheese." - Melissa McCart