Best Italian

Riccardo Ullio, the owner and executive chef of SOTTO SOTTO in Inman Park, is a perfectionist who hasn’t conceded to the Americanization of Italian cuisine. Specifically: The food is never drowned in sauces or piled up in belt-loosening quantities. Risottos are undoubtedly the best in the city. Taste rules and pasta dishes are straightforward, often featuring seasonal ingredients. The roasted fish, boned tableside, is a favorite with many. Fantastic desserts, such as the chocolate soup and the golden panna cotta, also win over hearts and mouths. less...

Who would have thought that the best Italian food in town could be found in a strip mall in Alpharetta? “Eat little, well, and often” is the motto at DI PAOLO, but you’ll have a hard time eating a little with a menu full of lovingly prepared Italian-American greats. The pastas, especially the ravioli, are rich and satisfying but not too heavy, and meat dishes like veal parmigiana are among the best renditions of this style of cooking we’ve ever had. It’s as if they’re taking Italian-American favorites and re-Italianizing them. A fantastic wine list and scrumptious desserts let us know that the details are important to these folks, which is probably why the place is packed almost every night. less...

SOTTO SOTTO has won Critics’ Choice for six years now, but try as we might, we can’t come up with another place that can touch it. When Sotto Sotto opened back in 1999, it set a new standard for authentic Italian cooking in Atlanta. Fast-forward to 2005: The simple salad of shaved pecorino and fresh fava beans explodes with summery flavor; the restaurant’s famed Tortelli di Michelangelo (ravioli stuffed with veal, chicken and pork in a butter and sage sauce) still thrill, as does the wine list of all-Italian vino. less...

In a town gone mad for Italian, this Inman Park restaurant is our favorite because of the menu of creative but straightforward dishes served in an informal but smart dining room. The staff doesn't change every two weeks and none of the servers behaves like recent rehab grads. The roasted baby chicken and the risotti are our favorites (and we wish the hanger steak would return). But we also love the free-form raviolis and the chocolate soup. We love it all. less...

Pastas are often the best bet — and pasta specials usually even better — at these 1940-ish evocations of what looked like imported exotica a half-century ago. Handsomely gotten up with polished oak woodwork, heavy flatware, red-checked tablecloths and a menu longer than Florida's coastline, Maggiano's is a casual dinner-house chain from Chicago's super-successful Lettuce Entertain You group. You could do worse than order fried squid (skip the marinara), Maggiano's salad (with prosciutto, red onion and blue cheese), mushroom ravioli and broccoli with lemon and garlic. less...