Matteo's New Milford, New Milford

Although Matteo's cooks draw from a menu filled with classic Italian and seafood dishes—such as chicken parmigiana, tilapia piccata, and linguini with clams—they aren’t afraid of breaking from culinary tradition and allowing patrons to design their own personalized pasta feasts. Willing guests don the proverbial chef’s hat and build from the bottom up, choosing a noodle base—such as angel hair or rigatoni—before selecting from a lineup of five sauces that range from classic alfredo to pink vodka.

The cooks adopt a similar collaborative approach in their pizza-making process, letting diners take the reins and choose their own toppings—such as broccoli, bacon, or eggplant—to create a wholly unique pie. Of course, they offer a prearranged mélange of specialty pizzas as well, including the margherita, shrimp and bacon, and Clams Casino.