1. Lucia. In the trendy Oak Cliff area. Good food.
2. Arcordo & Pomodoro. My go-to standby italian place. Great food.
3. Urbano Cafe. BYOB neighborhood place. Buy your wine at Jimmy's next door (see #4). Only table seating.
4. Jimmy's. Not really a restaurant, but an authetic italian grocery store that serves food. It's the real deal.
5. Ill Cane Rosso. It's all about their neopolitan style pizza which gets very high marks.
6. Mi Piaci - Popular and good food in north dallas/addison. Alittle too trendy environment for my liking.
7. Andres Italian Restaurant - piano bar on some nights. Friendly small restaurant. Decent but not great italian. This place has potential if they ramped up their cooking skills.
The previously mentioned Taverna di Lombardi's fit's your request nicely. And avoid Campisi's; as a northerner you will NOT like it.
None of these places are like the many great small family owned establishements that populate northern NJ/NY, where every town has several well run restaurants that turnout nice food and mix a good cocktail.
But the food (and beverages) are respectable at all my above recommendations. And none of them are chains !
Divertitevi !