Angelina’s Kitchen
CITY GUIDES | NEW YORK CITY
The 12 Best Places to Eat on Staten Island Right Now
From Michelin-noted standouts to neighborhood legends you’ll want on repeat, these are Staten Island's best restaurants.
By Maria Rodriguez | Dec. 29, 2025
AUTHOR BIO: With a day job that requires constant travel, Maria Rodriguez is likely a regular at your favorite restaurant. She’s reviewed restaurants since 2007 in magazines from Barcelona to Bakersfield.
I moved to Staten Island in college for the same reason every broke student makes a “temporary” housing decision: rent. I expected a holding pen between classes and the city, but the island got under my skin.
Staten Island has grit, it had personality, and it had restaurants that did not care whether a Manhattan friend thought the commute was “a lot.” I soon learned the ferry schedule the way other people learn subway transfers, and I started eating like somebody who had stumbled into a borough that still cooks for regulars instead of algorithms.
Now I go back for friends, for birthdays, and for the occasional reset from the city. This list is the running receipt of those return trips: the places I actually crave, the ones I text people about, and the ones that remind me Staten Island has been doing its own thing the whole time. Here then are the best restaurants right now on Staten Island.
Angelina’s Kitchen
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Vincent Malerba runs this like a Sicilian canteen that happens to have a serious pizza oven, which is how you end up ordering a bee sting pie with spicy soppressata and hot honey like it is a normal weekday decision. The move is to keep it in the Malerba lane: pizza bianca con porcini e salsiccia, speck-tacular with smoked speck prosciutto and stracciatella, and mozzarella in carrozza when you want to remember what joy felt like. The room has the energy of a place that expects you to eat well and stop asking so many questions.
Best for: A pizza order that turns into a tableful
Anthony’s Paninoteca
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Anthony’s Paninoteca is a counter-service sandwich shop that leans hard into Sicilian-American swagger, starting with sandwich names that are as blunt as the portions. Go for the signatures built around Italian imports and rich add-ons—mortadella and stracciatella show up often, as do pistachio-forward spreads and bright finishes like lemon zest—so the sandwiches show somebody cared about the last 10 percent. It is a quick, loud lunch stop where you order at the counter, eat fast, and leave smelling faintly of the planet’s best perfume, cured meat.
Best for: A serious, messy sandwich run
Blue
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Chef-owner Julian Gaxholli runs this waterfront spot with a massive menu that goes from Thai calamari to grilled octopus to seafood risotto, on the same page as shrimp ripieni and branzino. The stunning views of the city are a big reason so many Staten Islanders come to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or just getting through a random Tuesday.
Best for: Dinner that feels celebratory
Denino’s Pizzeria & Tavern
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Denino’s has been a tavern since 1937 and a pizza place since 1951, and it wears that history the way some restaurants wear branded merch. I order the clam pie first, because the garlic-parsley-olive oil combo is exactly why most people are here, and then I add either the garbage pie (sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions) or the m.o.r. pie (meatball, fresh onions, ricotta).
Best for: A ferry-worthy pizza anchored by the clam pie
Don Cheech
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Don Cheech feels like the kind of classic Italian-American restaurant to celebrate becoming a made man, with white tablecloths, burgundy booths, chandeliers and mirrors, plus a big bar and a glass wine room. Chef Massimo Felici builds the menu around Italian-American standards that are meant to be ordered in courses, starting with baked clams oreganata, the spicy sopressata pizza, and stuffed long hots (ground beef and sausage, provolone, Parmigiano, breadcrumbs). Then wander into pastas like linguine vongole before continuing on to the signature “this is why we came” plate, the steak diane: a 16-ounce New York strip under a creamy brandy sauce with shallots, mustard, cremini mushrooms, and asparagus.
Best for: A sit-down Italian dinner in a dressed-up room
Enoteca Maria
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Jody Scaravella built Enoteca Maria around rotating “nonnas,” so the menu changes with the cook, and you might find dishes like salat odessa or lasagna di adelina showing up like they have always belonged on Staten Island. It feels intimate and a little theatrical in the best way, because you are essentially eating someone’s home cooking without having to do the dishes afterward.
Best for: A meal you will talk about later
Giuliana’s Ristorante
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Giuliana’s is built for people who want Italian-American abundance with just enough polish to justify the occasion. I start with the Artichoke Giuliana (fried artichoke hearts and fried spinach in gorgonzola sauce) and then head on to pastas like stuffed rigatoni with vodka sauce and chopped shrimp or tortellini in a cognac truffle sauce with filet mignon tips. The focus group for this menu is actual Staten Island families, which is why there isn’t a thing here that misses.
Best for: A celebration dinner that still feels like Staten Island
Joe & Pat’s Pizzeria & Restaurant
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
In a city full of similarly crusted (and glorious) pizza, Joe & Pat’s throws down a crackly thin crust like few others. The vodka pie is the signature here, but I also like that you can go fully off the rails with clams, shrimp, scungilli, pancetta, artichokes, or even fried calamari. It’s still a Staten Island neighborhood pizzeria at heart, meaning there’s almost certain to be second cousins running into each other during that debate about whether to have a third slice.
Best for: Thin-crust pizza obsessives who want options beyond pepperoni
Lakruwana
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Lakruwana is Michelin-recommended Sri Lankan cooking served in a room that looks like it could double as a small museum, right down to the statues and bright, maximalist décor. The menu leans into Sri Lankan staples like hoppers and kottu, plus curries that’ll alone justify the ferry ride. In a borough defined by excellent Italian-American restaurants, Lakruwana is a delicious option.
Best for: A “what should we eat tonight?” answer that is not another pizza
PastaVino
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
PastaVino is a newer Staten Island Italian spot that forgoes the copy-and-paste Italian menu for the kind of dishes you’ll find in Manhattan trattorias. There’s a quite excellent Roman classics like cacio e pepe and then modern pasta dishes like ricotta gnocchi with sweet corn ragu, baby zucchini and basil. After the pasta course, chef Josh Laurano's menu stays just as interesting, with a crispy-skinned salmon and Tuscan-style steaks with thick-cut potato wedges. They might not let me off the ferry for saying this, but PastaVino just might have the island’s Best desserts, headlined by an olive oil cake with a tangy blood orange sauce.
Best for: Pastas and proteins to follow with personality
Seppe Pizza Bar
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Brothers Joe and John Iovino opened Seppe in 2018, and the order I keep coming back to is the Morty (pistachio pesto, mozzarella, burrata, mortadella), with the Pep in Your Step as the alternate when someone at the table wants hot honey and jalapeños involved. After deciding on a pizza, add the oven-baked wings with garlic, herbs, and hot cherry peppers, or the cacio e pepe for something that proves Seppe does everyone well.
Best for: Waterfront pizza that still feels like Staten Island
Shaw-naé’s House
$$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Shaw-naé’s House is a six-table soul food spot inside the ground floor of a clapboard house in Stapleton Heights, where you sit on couches by a faux fireplace and read placemat menus that say, “It’s dinner time. You made it home.” Shaw-naé Dixon is there most nights blowing kisses, steering you toward the Sugar Daddy Wings (sticky, cinnamony, maple-butter gloss) and the soul fries layered with battered fries, mac and cheese, collard greens, and fried catfish. Do not skip the oxtails, which come in a thick gravy laced with star anise, and if you’re with a group, order the sunrise-pink rum punch pitcher and accept that leftovers are part of the plan.
Best for: A living-room-style soul food feast
The Best New Restaurants in Manhattan Right Now
From chef-driven tasting counters to rum bars and old-school steakhouses in the world’s culinary capital.
