Dinner Chelsea NYC: A Course-by-Course Italian Evening

If you have typed “dinner Chelsea NYC” into your phone on the way off the High Line, here is the short version: Da Andrea, on the corner of 8th Avenue and West 18th Street, serves a full Northern Italian dinner built around fresh pasta handmade in-house every day. You can keep it simple with a bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese and a glass of wine, or settle in for the whole Italian progression, from antipasti through dolci.

Da Andrea began in the early ’90s as a narrow storefront on Hudson Street serving Bolognese pastas, and the family later brought that same cooking to Chelsea. The Chelsea dining room has a cozy, warm trattoria feel: the kind of place where the evening slows down and nobody rushes you toward the check.

This guide walks through how an Italian dinner flows course by course, using real dishes from the Chelsea dinner menu, plus what to order for different kinds of evenings and how to fit dinner into a night around the neighborhood.

Key Takeaways

• Da Andrea Chelsea is at 160 8th Ave, on the corner of West 18th Street, a short walk from the High Line and Chelsea’s galleries.
• Dinner follows the Northern Italian rhythm: antipasti, primi (pasta and risotto), secondi (main plates), contorni (sides) and dolci (dessert).
• Every pasta is handmade in-house daily, and the kitchen leans on Bologna and Emilia-Romagna classics.
• Chelsea’s dinner menu includes a few dishes you won’t find at the Greenwich Village location, such as the Fritto Misto and Zucchine Fritte.
• Reservations are recommended for dinner, especially on weekends, and walk-ins are welcome when tables are free.

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How a Northern Italian Dinner Flows

An Italian dinner isn’t one big plate. It’s a sequence of smaller ones, each with its own job. Antipasti wake up your appetite. Primi, the pasta or risotto course, is the heart of the meal in Northern Italy. Secondi bring meat or fish, usually with less going on around them. Contorni are vegetable sides you share across the table, and dolci close things out with something sweet and a coffee.

You don’t need to order every course. Most tables at Da Andrea pick two or three: an antipasto to share, a pasta each, and maybe a dessert for the table. Others split a pasta as a middle course before their secondi, which is closer to how families in Bologna eat on a Sunday. The menu is written so either approach works.

Antipasti: starting the evening

The signature starter is Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto, warm, freshly baked flatbread buns from Modena served with Parma prosciutto. You tear one open, tuck in a slice of prosciutto, and eat it while it’s still warm. The New York Times “$25 and Under” column featured Da Andrea’s tigelle, and they are still the natural way to start dinner here.

Chelsea’s dinner menu also has the Fritto Misto, a mix of fried calamari, shrimp and zucchini with an avocado mayo for dipping. It’s a natural plate for the middle of the table. Lighter options include Burrata con Basilico (creamy burrata with roasted peppers, tomatoes, a balsamic glaze and basil sauce), Carpaccio di Manzo (thinly sliced beef with arugula, shaved Parmesan and hearts of palm) and Tuna Tartare with avocado, arugula and cilantro.

If you want something warm and comforting, the Polpettine di Vitello are veal meatballs in tomato basil sauce with ricotta, and the Cozze in Guazzetto are steamed mussels in a spicy tomato and garlic broth with toasted focaccia for soaking up the sauce.

Primi: the pasta course

This is where Da Andrea has built its name. The Spaghetti Bolognese is the dish the restaurant started with on Hudson Street: the classic Bolognese meat sauce over spaghetti. The Pappardelle, wide ribbons of pasta, come with a sweet sausage ragout and a drizzle of truffle oil. The Spaghetti alla Carbonara keeps to the Roman formula of pancetta, pecorino and egg yolk.

For seafood, there’s Tagliolini Neri alle Vongole, thin black squid ink pasta with clams, cherry tomatoes, garlic and white wine, and Ravioli di Crostacei, ravioli filled with lobster, crab and salmon in a saffron sauce. The Cappellacci Tartufo e Porcini are spinach ravioli filled with truffle mushroom and ricotta, and the Gnocchetti di Patate are small potato dumplings in a gorgonzola sauce with arugula.

There’s also a Risotto del Giorno, a risotto of the day. Chef Meliano Plascensia, who brings more than 40 years of experience to the kitchen, has a soft spot for rice dishes like risotto, so it’s worth asking what’s on that evening.

Secondi and contorni: the main plates

Secondi at Da Andrea are hearty and generous. The Stinco di Agnello is a braised lamb shank served over saffron risotto, a true cold-weather plate. The Filetto di Manzo is grilled filet mignon with spinach, mashed potatoes and truffle butter. Galletto Arrosto is a roasted Cornish hen with potatoes, spinach, pearl onions and a rosemary mustard sauce, and the Braciola di Maiale is a grilled pork chop with corn, golden apple and mushroom sauce.

On the seafood side, there’s Filetto di Salmone (grilled salmon with charred cauliflower and broccoli rabe), Gamberoni (grilled jumbo shrimp with vegetable “spaghetti” and saffron sauce) and Zuppa di Pesce, mixed seafood in a spicy tomato broth. The Tortino di Melanzane, grilled eggplant filled with mozzarella, tomato and basil, is a satisfying meatless main.

For contorni, Chelsea adds Zucchine Fritte, crisp fried zucchini, to the usual sides of spinach with garlic and oil, sautéed broccoli rabe, roasted potatoes and butternut squash. Order one or two for the table.

Dolci: ending on something sweet

The dessert menu covers the Italian classics: Tiramisu with espresso, ladyfingers and mascarpone, Panna Cotta with amarena cherries and a cinnamon tuile, and a homemade Tortino di Ricotta, a ricotta cheesecake with mixed berries. If you’d rather keep it small, an Affogato (vanilla gelato “drowned” in espresso, with biscotti) is the classic way to finish an Italian dinner. Espresso and cappuccino are on the menu too.

A Course-by-Course Dinner at Da Andrea Chelsea

Here’s the whole progression at a glance, using dishes from the Chelsea dinner menu.

Course	Dishes from the menu	What to expect
Antipasti	Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto, Fritto Misto, Burrata con Basilico, Polpettine di Vitello	Shareable starters; the tigelle arrive warm from the oven
Primi	Spaghetti Bolognese, Pappardelle, Tagliolini Neri alle Vongole, Ravioli di Crostacei, Risotto del Giorno	Pasta handmade in-house daily, rooted in Bologna and Emilia-Romagna
Secondi	Stinco di Agnello, Filetto di Manzo, Galletto Arrosto, Filetto di Salmone, Zuppa di Pesce	Hearty meat and seafood plates, served with their own sides
Contorni	Zucchine Fritte, Sautéed Broccoli Rabe, Spinach Garlic & Oil, Roasted Potatoes	Vegetable sides to share across the table
Dolci	Tiramisu, Panna Cotta, Tortino di Ricotta, Affogato	Classic Italian desserts, best with an espresso

Why Handmade Pasta Matters at Dinner

At lunch, pasta is often a quick plate. At dinner, it’s the centerpiece, and that’s where pasta handmade in-house daily makes a real difference. Fresh pasta has a softer, silkier bite than dried pasta, and it holds onto sauce. A wide pappardelle catches every bit of a sausage ragout. Thin tagliolini carry a light clam and white wine sauce without drowning it.

Because the pasta is made every day, the kitchen can match each shape to its sauce the way it’s done in Emilia-Romagna, rather than putting one pasta under everything. That’s why so many tables order a pasta course even when they’re planning on a secondi: it’s the part of the menu that best shows what Da Andrea does.

Making pasta by hand is also what has kept the restaurant consistent over the decades. Sam Sifton reviewed Da Andrea for The New York Times in 2002, and later coverage ran with the headline “The Pasta Is as Good as Ever at This 30-Year-Old Italian Restaurant.” The recipes have stayed close to their Bolognese roots since the Hudson Street days.

Wine With Dinner

Da Andrea’s wine list is a curated selection of Italian wines chosen to pair with Northern Italian dishes. Rather than guessing, tell your server what you’re ordering and how you like your wine, and let them guide you. A rich lamb shank or a Bolognese calls for something different than squid ink tagliolini with clams, and the list is built with that range in mind.

If you’re not a wine drinker, there’s a full cocktail menu, beer, and non-alcoholic cocktails, so everyone at the table has something to raise when the tigelle arrive.

Dinner for Every Occasion

Not every dinner is the same kind of night. Here’s how to order for a few common ones.

Occasion	What to order	Why
After a walk on the High Line	Fritto Misto to share, then Spaghetti Bolognese	Quick to settle into, comforting after a long walk
Catching up with friends	Tigelle, Burrata con Basilico, a few pastas to pass around	Family-style sharing keeps the conversation going
A cold Chelsea evening	Polpettine di Vitello, then Stinco di Agnello with saffron risotto	Braised, warming plates built for fall and winter
Seafood lovers	Cozze in Guazzetto, Ravioli di Crostacei, Zuppa di Pesce	Shellfish and fish across every course
A meatless dinner	Verdure Grigliate con Caprino, Gnocchetti di Patate, Tortino di Melanzane	Vegetables, cheese and pasta, no meat needed
Family dinner with kids	Spaghetti Bolognese, Scaloppine di Pollo, Tiramisu for the table	Familiar flavors, done the classic way

Already know Da Andrea from our patio dinner in Chelsea guide? This post is about the meal itself, wherever you’re sitting.

Dinner Around Chelsea: 8th Avenue After Dark

Da Andrea sits at 160 8th Avenue, right on the corner of West 18th Street. That puts it in an easy spot for a Chelsea evening. The High Line, the park built on an old raised rail line, is a few avenues west, and an early evening walk there makes a good warm-up for dinner. Chelsea’s art galleries cluster on the far west side of the neighborhood, so a gallery evening followed by dinner on 8th Avenue is an easy, walkable plan.

A lot of our dinner guests, though, aren’t visitors at all. They’re Chelsea locals who live a few blocks away and treat Da Andrea as their neighborhood Italian ristorante: the place they come back to on a Tuesday for a bowl of pappardelle, and again on Saturday with friends in town. That mix of regulars and first-timers is part of what makes the room feel warm.

Chelsea is also the location to know about if you’re in the area during the day. It offers a weekday prix-fixe lunch and a happy hour, and both are listed on the Chelsea menu page. For tonight, though, the dinner menu is the one to read.

Planning Your Dinner Chelsea NYC Reservation

A little planning helps, especially on weekends:

• Book ahead for dinner. Reservations are recommended, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings. Walk-ins are welcome whenever tables are available.
• Check the daily specials. Alongside the regular menu, the kitchen posts today’s specials, including the risotto of the day.
• Bringing a group? Parties of up to 25 can book with a credit card; groups of 26 to 30 need a deposit. Da Andrea doesn’t have a separate private dining room, so larger parties are seated in the main restaurant. See the large group events page for details.
• Staying in tonight? You can order pickup through the ordering page, or get delivery through Grubhub, UberEats or DoorDash.

Conclusion

Dinner at Da Andrea Chelsea is Northern Italian cooking the way it’s meant to be eaten: a few courses, pasta handmade that day, a glass of Italian wine and no hurry. Start with the tigelle, pick a pasta or two, add a secondi if you’re hungry, and finish with tiramisu and an espresso. Whether you’re coming off the High Line or walking over from down the block, there’s a table waiting on 8th Avenue.

Book your table for tonight, browse the full Chelsea dinner menu, or find directions on our Chelsea location page. We’d love to have you for dinner.

Frequently Asked Questions