5 Best Restaurants in The Finger Lakes, New York

Since 1934, Balloons has been a local favorite for its prompt service, uncomplicated menu, and warm welcome. The concrete wall of the Auburn Correctional Facility is right across the street, but Balloons, with its original art-deco decor, is a transporting experience. Sizzling steaks are the specialty, but you can also go for heaping platters of spaghetti and meatballs, surf and turf, or rattlesnake pasta (chicken and pasta with a spicy chipotle sauce), all accompanied by an iceberg salad topped with the original secret-recipe house dressing.

Tucked away on a side street in downtown Canandaigua, this Italian restaurant offers an intimate setting with burgundy linens and candles on each table. The menu includes shrimp scampi, homemade potato gnocchi, and braciola (thin slices of beef rolled with a filling of prosciutto, sliced egg, Parmesan, and onions).

The family-run Italian restaurant, a staple in Charlotte since the mid-1970s, draws a loyal clientele from throughout the city. Homemade pastas—gnocchi, lasagna, veal and lobster ravioli, four-cheese manicotti—are a specialty, but then again so are the steaks, chops, and seafood. It's two blocks from Lake Ontario, which makes it especially busy in summer.

A Tuscan-style eatery, Rosalie's is upscale but relaxed. On a weekend night in the downstairs dining room you can forget meaningful conversation unless you read lips. (The smaller upstairs room is quieter and more romantic.) The buzz is about the food, served in generous portions. The Italian fare includes appetizers such as carpaccio—ultra-thin slices of raw beef served with capers and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese—and main dishes like chicken scaloppine with lemon butter, pancetta, and artichoke hearts. Don't skip dessert—the Banana Budino is unbelievable: layers of creamy banana pudding, real bananas, house-made cinnamon-sugar puff pastry, almond cookies, and caramel sauce.

Worth the 6-mi drive north of town, family-owned and -operated Tanino's, as it's called, serves more-authentic Italian than is usually found in this area: meals start with bread and olive oil rather than bread and pats of butter, and the wine list is one of the region's lengthiest. Ignore the strip-mall exterior and head into the casual, comfortable dining room with a fireplace. The large menu includes about a dozen choices each of pasta (cheese ravioli, penne alla vodka), seafood, poultry, veal, and beef entrées, plus popular brick-oven pizzas.