Becco

Co-owned by cookbook scribe and PBS personality Lidia Bastianich, this perpetually busy Restaurant Row dining complex—with five welcoming dining rooms, decorated in different degrees of hominess—runs like a well-oiled machine, powered by a battery of energized servers. The famous $22.95 all-you-can-eat special, popular with the pretheater crowd, offers unlimited servings of three watery, hastily prepared pastas of the day; better to stick to the pricier regular menu, which offers savory, family-style dishes in portions that are eminently well suited to sharing.