Aita

"Aita Trattoria, a spinoff of Clinton Hill’s Aita, is a cozy little neighborhood restaurant in Crown Heights with a reliable menu of pastas that are traditional but far from basic, with lots of shapes and sauces represented, like a paccheri with oxtail ragu, spaghetti with white clam sauce, and pappardelle with roasted mushrooms and parsley. Aita also has a strong selection of aperitifs and digestifs for before and after your meal." - Robert Sietsema

"Aita is in Clinton Hill, and it looks like the country home that you don’t own—complete with old art on the walls, a bunch of wooden furniture, and a little chandelier. This place provides a nice break from the trash-and-pigeon-filled streets of NYC, and it also happens to serve some pretty good Italian food. Bring friends, and have some oxtail ravioli and whatever fried vegetable is currently available." - team infatuation

"Someone who lives on Greene Avenue feels very lucky to live next to Aita. It's the best type of neighborhood spot—where you’ll usually get a table, but the dining room will always be pretty full. This is good, because even if you come alone for a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta at the bar, there’s more to listen to than the sound of your own chewing. But this Italian restaurant is  also somewhere where you could bring your parents, or catch up with a friend over a few negronis. Try the octopus with tonnato, and oxtail ravioli. They also have brunch, and it’s not all eggs—there’s a lasagna, and a porchetta sandwich too." - willa moore, bryan kim, tiffany yannetta, neha talreja

"If you’re planning a date in or around Clinton Hill, Aita will never not be a good option. It’s a neighborhood Italian place decorated like an English professor’s weekend home in the Catskills, and it’ll make you seem like a mature, thoughtful person who files their taxes on time. You should also know that the food here is great, and, while the pasta portions tend to be a little small, you probably don’t shouldn’t eat to capacity on an early-in-the-game date anyway." - bryan kim

"If you spend time in the Clinton Hill/Fort Greene area, we highly recommend this place for a solo meal. It has a nice bar and a pretty long menu of pastas to choose from, and it feels like the the kind of place where people go on dates to mentally assess when they want to tell the other person they love them. But you don’t have to be on a date yourself to reap those rewards. You can just sit at the bar and listen, which is much more entertaining than staying home and watching that CSI episode you’ve seen a hundred times anyway." - hannah albertine