Nonna Dora's 2nd Avenue

Nonna Dora’s Pasta Bar: NYC Restaurant Review

"A compact, 28-seat pasta bar in a sunken Kips Bay strip mall built around the live-pasta-theater skills of Dora Marzovilla, who makes fresh pasta in a glass-walled exhibition kitchen and sells kits and retail pastas (including national shipping). The intentionally protein-light menu of roughly 20 rotating pastas showcases standout dishes such as perfectly textured cavatelli with broccoli rabe; thick, chewy orecchiette served with rabbit ragù; saffron-scented malloreddus (Sardinian gnocchi) with sausage and tomato; grano arso maccheroncini with peas and duck confit; candy-striped casoncelli stuffed with beets finished with lemon zest and poppy seeds; and the rare Puglian ceci e tria (fresh and fried pasta with chickpeas). Equally deserving of attention are antipasti — panzerotti, e cicoria purée, eggplant parm, Sunday meatballs, salumi, and a six-month-aged pecorino served with a knockout apple mostarda — plus an array of six inventive negroni variations and a deep, all-Italian wine list. Busy, casual counter and high-top seating and a focus on pasta-forward, convivial dining make the spot feel like a pandemic-streamlined, e-commerce-fueled evolution of the family’s previous restaurant." - Grub Street