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Orso NYC Information

Orso is our small Italian restaurant on Restaurant Row in the Theater District, well-known for its relaxed and informal elegance, its friendly and attentive service, and a menu that draws inspiration from every corner of the Italian peninsula.

Whereas “orso” means “bear” in Italian, Orso was named after a dog–a gondolier’s dog named “Bear” that believed he was the boss of Venice. He spent his afternoons sleeping under a grape arbor near a jetty, then dined on leftover rigatoni and cannelloni from neighborhood restaurants.

When the property adjacent to his eponymous restaurant became available in 1982, inspiration struck Joe Allen and construction began. At the time, Joe’s daughter, Julie, was working as a cook in Venice and Rome in three-star restaurants and simple seaside trattorias; an invaluable education in true Italian cuisine. When Orso open on March 17th, 1983, Julie was executive chef.

“The exterior is unassuming, but the intimate dining room is one of the coziest in New York, with warm light reflected in the blush-pink marble floor in the foyer and the blond parquet in the dining room, plus golden-hued walls hung with good art. It’s a place for grown-ups…and it feels authentically Italian, not just because of how straightforward and delicious the food is—crusty, squishy bread with complimentary white-bean dip; perfectly al dente rigatoni with meat sauce and crumbled Parmesan; grilled lamb chops with roasted potatoes (all served on beautiful painted terra-cotta dinnerware)—but also because it doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite being something of a celebrity gathering place.

~The New Yorker


Orso welcomes all guests. We are committed to facilitating the accessibility and usability of our website, orsorestaurant.com. We strive to provide online content that provides an excellent user experience for visitors of all abilities using any type of assistive technology to access our website. Our ongoing website accessibility efforts are based on conforming with the standards on the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA Success Criteria. We also follow the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines, which are in line with our philosophy of promoting usability for people of all abilities.

We actively work to maintain, assess and improve the usability and accessibility of our website through engagement of experts and regular monitoring and testing of our digital accessibility. 

Using mainstream, developer-supported accessibility monitoring tools and assistive technology, our site undergoes real time monitoring to detect any accessibility errors that may arise due to the addition of updated content.

We welcome feedback. If, at any time, you have specific questions or concerns about the accessibility of any particular Web page on orsorestaurant.com, please contact us at accessibility@joeallenrestaurant.com. If you do encounter an accessibility issue, please be sure to specify the web page in your email, and we will promptly make all reasonable efforts to make that page accessible for you.