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Just off the bustling corner of Sixth Avenue and West 4th Street—where basketball players shoot hoops and video stores flash porn and neon—Volare feels like a portal to an earlier, less harried era. In the sub-street-level dining room of this 70-seat restaurant, open since the late seventies, waiters glide by in dinner jackets and bowties, and the music of Rosemary Clooney and Tom Jones streams from the speakers. Low-hanging brass ceiling lamps and ink drawings of cancan girls complete the scene. While the menu spans Northern Italian dishes like lasagna pasticciata (with béchamel sauce as well as Bolognese) to Southern specialties like pollo alla sorrentina (prosciutto-wrapped boneless chicken breast), dishes tend to rotate. Still, the much-loved osso buco and braciola pop up regularly. And as in many winning restaurants in Italy, no one orders from the menu. So tell them what you want, and let them cook it. Presentations are bold and portions large: Gamberoni fra diavolo, jumbo prawns and steamed clams, come in plenty of spicy marinara sauce, and the involtini di melanzane appetizer, roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella rolled up in thin strips of marinated eggplant, is a meal all on its own. — Sarah Gold

Involtini di melanzane, $8.95; gamberoni fra diavolo, $23.50