Pastas.
5 rankings across the South Bay, built from 83 scored dishes. Pick the exact pasta you want — each ranking compares only that dish.
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Best Bologneses 29 dishes ranked A slow-simmered meat ragù — beef, often with pork or veal, softened onion, carrot and celery, tomato and a long cook — served over tagliatelle, pappardelle, spaghetti or another pasta. The plate the kitchen calls Bolognese or ragù, not a generic meat sauce.#1 Rigatoni Bolognese Italian Brothers Restaurant · Los Gatos 7.4 Medium confidence -
Best Lasagnas 20 dishes ranked Baked layered pasta: flat sheets stacked with ragù or vegetables, ricotta or béchamel and melted cheese, cut into a square. Meat, cheese, spinach and vegetable builds all belong here.#1 "New York Style" Lasagna Giorgio's Italian Food and Pizzeria · San Jose 8.1 Medium confidence -
Best Carbonaras 19 dishes ranked Spaghetti or another long pasta bound in an emulsion of egg, hard sheep's or cow's-milk cheese and rendered cured pork — guanciale in the Roman original, pancetta or bacon locally — finished with coarse black pepper. Many South Bay kitchens add cream; the ranking says which do.#1 Linguine Carbonara Italian Brothers Restaurant · Los Gatos 8.3 Medium confidence -
Best Fettuccine Alfredos 12 dishes ranked Pasta — usually fettuccine — bound in a butter-and-Parmesan emulsion, which in almost every South Bay kitchen means a cream sauce finished with garlic and nutmeg. Ordered as often with chicken or shrimp as plain, and the South Bay's version is a comfort plate rather than the Roman burro-e-parmigiano original.#1 Linguini Alfredo Luigi's Pizza & Pasta · Campbell 8.1 Medium confidence -
Best Cacio e Pepes 3 dishes ranked Rome's three-ingredient pasta: pecorino romano, coarsely cracked black pepper and starchy pasta water whipped into a glossy sauce — no cream, no egg, no meat. Usually spaghetti, tonnarelli or bucatini, and often finished tableside inside a hollowed parmigiano wheel. South Bay kitchens vary: a few swap in parmigiano and butter, or a pepper-cream sauce, so each listing says what it actually is.#1 Cacio E Pepe Locanda Sorrento · Downtown Campbell 7.2 High confidence