Manhattan’s Little Italy is home to overpriced, wildly mediocre restaurants packed with nostalgic tourists twirling bites from heaping plates of spaghetti. Let’s face it: New Yorkers don’t really eat in today’s Little Italy, the stretch of Mulberry Street north of Canal and a smattering of Mott Street, dotted with restaurants where the red sauce tastes like it came from a jar.

But Little Italy does have some dolce vita left in it, even for locals. To find the diamonds amid the dross, keep these rules in mind.