This climate of contemporary American cuisine has its stars and its merits, although there are few places which specialise in a specific tradition of cookery and make it onto the list of the finest New York Restaurants. La Bottega is one of the most celebrated Italian eateries in the city, precisely because it mixes the familiar with the inventive, the loved with the rare, to realize dishes and flavors redolent of the finest kind of rustic Italian cooking.

The concept couldn't be more succinct, to create a New York Restaurant endowed with a design ethos of a welcoming and gently sophisticated trattoria, create a menu which offers the wonderful delights for which Italian cuisine has become known, and then treat them to a touch of creative reinvention.

Diners looking for their favorites will find them, as will those looking for the new and unexpected. In many cases a dish can be both. La Bottega’s menu offers delights which may very well have been created by a chef in the old country, but rarely find a home on the menus of New York Restaurants. Once you’ve found your table in the vibrant, convivial dining room, or perhaps taken to the terrace on a clement day, this is when the real pleasure begins.

From the beautifully balanced freshness of the salads and the tasty antipasto, there is something to inspire the imagination and wake the taste buds for whatever is to follow. The starters raise the expectations of the sensory feast to come and you will not be disappointed. The captain of the kitchen, Chef John DeLucie, is renowned for his diversity with the best seasonal produce. If you can turn your back on one of the legendary pizzas, you may just discover a whole world of magical alternatives to his coveted pies of deliciousness.

Pizza has become something of anathema outside of its country of origin. No longer can one order a seemingly authentic pizza and expect it to bear any relation the fine farinacious wonder which spawned the global craze for poor substitutes. Not at La Bottega, this is the New York Restaurant for pizza as you would hope and pray to find it. Attention has been paid to every detail, from the perfectly baked, authentically thin base, to the judicious use of discernibly individual ingredients. This is not merely the facsimile of a pizza that we have come to take for granted, but a veritable gourmet's heaven of proliferating flavors and contrasting textures.

La Bottega offers something for every time of day. Open from breakfast through dinner, there are a range of moreish meals to hit just the right spot. A Tramezzini Pollo con Truffle and a suitable crisp glass of wine from the extensive list is a lovely lunch on summer's day, while grilled salmon with asparagus is certain to make any dinner something to remember. Not to forget the dolci, the exceptional sweet goodies which the Italian kitchen does so well.

The Affogato, a homemade vanilla gelato with espresso, mixed at the table, is great combination of two of the ingredients which have lifted the food of Italy to its formidable position. Every mouthful of a La Bottega meal speaks of a nation's love and passion for food.