What’s more enticing than New York’s hardest-to-get reservation? To go to the 122-year-old, family-owned East Harlem institution, you have to know someone who owns one of the tables, and they either need to offer it to you for the night, or invite you to join them for dinner. Good luck. But let’s just say you land a seat at Rao’s. What are you ordering? The menu changes each night and there are no physical menus, but the restaurant offers a steady selection of traditional southern Italian fare—think baked clams, penne alla vodka, meatballs, and veal parmesan. A few house reds in, you’ll start feeling like you’ve died and entered a scene from The Godfather. —Clara Molot

Clara Molot is an Associate Editor at AIR MAIL