• Ápizz

  217 Eldridge St., 10002, between Stanton and Rivington Sts., 212-253-9199

  A deliciously unsophisticated wild-boar lasagne guaranteed to make me lose my civility should anyone get too close with an errant fork.
  —HAL RUBENSTEIN

• Via Emilia

  240 Park Ave. South, 10003, between 19th and 20th Sts., 212-505-3072

  It’s properly wet and soupy without losing its structure, just like my mama never used to make.
  —ADAM PLATT

• Cipriani Le Specialità

  110 E. 42nd St., 10017, between Lexington and Park Avenues, 212-557-5088

  Alternating layers of sumptuous sauce and delicate, nearly diaphanous pasta prove you can never be too rich or too thin.
  —ROBIN RAISFELD

• Il Gattopardo

  33 W. 54th St., 10019, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, 212-246-0412

  The Neapolitan lasagne di carnevale is a persuasive argument that the Emilia-Romagnan version is not the last word on the subject.
  —ROB PATRONITE

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine