Which New York Italian Restaurant Sells the Best Marinara Sauce?

There comes a time in the history of a popular Italian restaurant when the proprietors — to extend the brand and make more money — decide they should bottle and sell their red sauce. And so chefs, co-packers, and marketing execs spring into action, formulating sauces and designing seductive labels as advertising for their restaurants.

I decided to gather several bottled marinaras from famous establishments and test them, not only to see which is best, but also to assess how they reflect and extend the brand. The contenders are Rao’s, Carbone, Patsy’s, Michael’s of Brooklyn, and Carmine’s. In addition to tasting the sauce out of the jar, I also used each in a dish to see how it complemented other flavors. I’ve listed the sauces in ascending order.

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5. Carmine’s Marinara

32 ounces, $13

The sauce from this Times Square and Upper West Side chain was flat and bland, with little flecks of tomato and a processed taste. The dish: I slathered it on Raffetto’s superlative cheese-and-spinach ravioli. Does a high tide lift all boats? In this case, no.

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4. Rao’s Sensitive Marinara

24 ounces, $10

The restaurant founded in 1896 is East Harlem is famous for being impossible to get into, unless you acquire a table — or know someone who has one. This is the Rao’s sauce I saw most frequently, noting the absence of onions and garlic. On the chunky side, forthrightly oily, and sweeter than most, the sauce, which claims to be a product of Italy, derives its flavor from aromatics, carrots, and celery. It’s more like a pizza sauce than a pasta sauce in its extreme simplicity. The dish: Thick dried fettuccine (also made by Rao’s) with fennel pork sausage (from Sopranos favorite, Satriale’s) worked well with the sauce.

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3. Carbone Marinara Delicato

24 ounces, $9

For a restaurant known for its exclusivity, Carbone’s marinara is often cheaper than others by a dollar or two, though the label suggests that by buying it you can “bring elevated dining home.” The sauce is bright red, thick, and perhaps a little too sweet, with carrots contributing to its brightness. Oil seeps around the edges, and the oregano promised on the label is undetectable. The dish: It excelled with poached squid and fusilli, a reminder that marinara means “sailor,” and marinara sauces are especially good with seafood.

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2. Michael’s of Brooklyn

32 ounces, $13

This sauce, from Michaels of Brooklyn, a well-regarded Marine Park Italian American restaurant, was not disappointing, though too sweet and dependent on garlic for flavor, with a tartness that was almost lemony. It bested the three previous sauces in that it was more assertive, which works in its favor, in my opinion. This, at least, is a sauce you could simply pour over pasta and be happy with. The dish: This sauce paired with onion-y lamb meatballs: Served with fresh cavatelli, it made an agreeable supper.

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1. Patsy’s Marinara

24 ounces, $10

The sauce from Midtown veteran Patsy’s seems born for the bottle: It doesn’t taste much like what is ladled over spaghetti in the actual restaurant. The sauce is chunky and piquant: This is a sauce with terrain. The dish: Tossed with ziti, eggplant, and mozzarella into a free-form Sicilian casserole, the sauce wailed on its opponents.