Fodor's Expert Review Bocca di Lupo

This upscale Italian institution is always crowded and the tables are crammed too close together, but everyone still adores the glorious spread of regional Italian small plates here. Located off Shaftesbury Avenue, the famous trattoria offers magnificent peasant-based pasta, stews, fritti, salumi, and raw crudi from Lombardy to the Veneto. Try the outlandishly fine Romani fried sage leaves with anchovy, the salt-baked fossil fish from Lazio, or roast suckling pig from Emilia. Sip an Aperol spritz before enjoying the all-Italian wine list, which weaves from Super Tuscans to ballsy Barolos.