Torrisi.

Torrisi

Torrisi winds a slice of prosciutto around a warm zeppola, which Bryan Kim calls one of the most compelling bites of food in the city, and the kitchen dry-ages its duck two weeks before it meets the mulberry mostarda.4

Why go

Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi began sixteen years ago with a $45 prix fixe in a 600-square-foot sandwich shop on Mulberry Street; this room stands a block from it in the Puck Building, opened in 2022, and Ligaya Mishan says the same punchy heart beats in it.5 It holds one MICHELIN star, retained at the 2025 Northeast Cities ceremony, and North America's 50 Best Restaurants placed it 38th in 2026.78 Kim's argument is that Major Food Group built its name on themed rooms and that this one has no theme at all, which is why he calls it their best.4 Torrisi runs à la carte, which is rare at this level in New York, and the specials are read to you rather than printed.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the fennel and grapefruit cocktail, which sounds like a skip and is not. Immaculate coins of fennel are arranged like a mosaic on top of grapefruit, goat cheese, and crunchy bits of Marcona almond.4
• Order: the clam linguine. Dominique Roy: a pink, Manhattan-style clam linguine: a slightly spicy tomato sauce with a little butter and a little cream. It's one of the best versions of a classic pasta dish I know.3
• Order: whatever is on the rotisserie that season. Kim rates the lamb over the porchetta, juicy and rare under a cap of fat, and says to use all three sauces, the horseradish first.4
• Order: the tortellini pomodoro, if you want Matthew Schneier's pick. He calls it the most boring pasta on the menu and the most excellent, soft, desserty sheep's milk ricotta and basil-kissed cherry tomato sauce that tastes not just of tomato but of cherry tomato.6
• Avoid: bringing a bottle without doing the math. Corkage is $110 per 750ml and $190 per magnum, and more than three bottles needs an email to reservations@torrisinyc.com first.1

What locals & experts say

• Bryan Kim, The Infatuation, 20 April 2026, rating it 8.9: These people do the whole themed-restaurant thing better than anyone else. But for the first time, they're trying something different. That something different is their best restaurant to date.4
• The same review, with the bound on it: the whole thing can feel a bit like performance art for high-net-worth individuals, and he says that is what you should expect from this group.4
• Matthew Schneier, Grub Street (10 December 2025): the crush has turned the room into a Disney World version of Manhattan's most popular restaurant, and yet the restaurant remains incontrovertibly excellent, with all the service but less of the staginess of Carbone.6
• Dominique Roy (Eleven Madison Park), 2026-08, with the disclosure in his own words: I'm not friends with the owner, and I don't go there for any reason other than the fact that it's genuinely fun and delicious.3 He says thousands sit on the waitlist nightly, so book far ahead.
• Sam Sifton, New York Times, in a line the restaurant prints on its own site: Anyone who comes to this restaurant will taste the flavors of America as refracted through the eyes of — I'll just say it — the artist who created the dishes.1

Good to know

• Timing: lunch Wednesday to Saturday, dinner Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday. Kim says lunch reservations are the easier ones.14
• Booking: essential. Adults-only dining room, no children's menu, no strollers or high chairs, and a stated dress code.1
• Walking in: a twelve-seat bar at the front takes walk-in parties of one or two only. Kim turned up on a weeknight early in the evening and was quoted a four-hour wait.4
• How it ends: an affogato in an oversized martini glass, vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge and espresso granita, and the coffee is decaf.26

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Chefs experts insta rec"

Verdict

should-visit — It holds one MICHELIN star for Italian-American cooking in the Puck Building, and Bryan Kim rated it 8.9 in April 2026 and called it the best restaurant Major Food Group has built. Order the fennel and grapefruit cocktail and whatever is on the rotisserie. Dominique Roy goes back for the clam linguine and says in print that he has no relationship with the owner.