Vongole at Antichi Sapori Partenopei, my favorite non-pizza meal in Naples

Where to Eat in Naples, Italy

I always hesitate to call posts “Where to Eat in (City)” because let’s be honest…I give you the good and the bad. I don’t just tell you where to eat. Sometimes, I am your own personal guinea pig and I tell you where *not* to eat.

If you’ve been following my blog over the past few months, you’ll know that I’ve written about my amazing pizza tour in Naples with Daniel Young. But because I had never been to Naples before, I headed into town a few days early to check out the action, which gave me time for a few non-pizza meals on my own. So here are my non-pizza meals first, followed by my pizza meals…luckily, I did not gain any weight on this trip!!!

Antichi Sapori Partenopei: All the guidebooks had this on the list of where to eat in Naples, Italy and dinner did *not* disappoint. This was the most delicious bowl of vongole I’ve had in a long time, and I consider myself quite the connoisseur. The table next to me were so enraptured with the beauty of my dish that they ordered it for themselves too and then actually finished it before I did. Hah. I would happily eat here again but I would concentrate on going at an off hour because they were really not happy that I was just one person. (It’s a very popular restaurant and while it was empty when I arrived, it was packed and there was a queue when I left.) The Verdict: Go! But not alone.

Where to Eat in Naples, Italy: Osteria della Mattonella

Osteria della Mattonella: After asking our hotel concierge where to eat in Naples, Daniel and I popped in here for a late lunch before our flights back to London. (Oddly, we were on different airlines departing at roughly the same time.) Firstly, this place is just so cute and lovingly decorated — the name of the restaurant is apparently in reference to the tiles. Also, the woman who runs the place is very, very sweet. We spoke to her in English and a very small smattering of Italian, she spoke all Italian and yet still we all managed to understand each other. Thus proving, yet again, that food is a universal language! It was like being taken care of by our very own personal grandmother. Food here was very good, particularly the pasta dishes and the pasta genovese. Definitely make a booking because this place is very very small. The Verdict: Very sweet and small and friendly. Give it a try.

Antica Lattaria: Sometimes I forget that in Italy, things don’t kick off til late. I showed up at this restaurant around the corner from my first hotel an entire hour before they opened. They were very friendly and told me not to worry and that I should come back in an hour. Then they gave me a somewhat weird table in the middle of the restaurant, facing the, uh, only other solo diner. So that was a bit weird but thank God for smart phones. This was my 2nd attempt at scialatielli — keep reading — and it was much better than my first attempt but still a bit too heavy for my liking. Me and scialatielli are over. The Verdict: OK

Umberto: Funnily, this restaurant was highly recommended by a number of people later in my trip and I didn’t even realize I had already eaten there! The restaurant was very loosely attached to my first hotel so I went there for dinner my first night in town and had an unmemorable meal of scialatielli, my first attempt at this dense spaghetti-like pasta that’s popular in Naples. It was like eating a lot of raw pasta dough all at one time with a lot of flavorless pesto and a dash of deeply indifferent service. Note that scialatielli is a deeply unphotogenic dish, hence the lack of photos here and above. The Verdict: Skip it.

So definitely some highs and lows in Naples but now let’s move on to where to eat in Naples when it comes to PIZZA.

Where to Eat PIZZA in Naples, Italy

La Notizia: This was my favorite pizza places in Naples based on atmosphere. It felt very neighborhood-y and normal. Comfortable. Put this at the top of your list of where to eat in Naples.

50 Kalo: Probably my favorite tasting pizza of my visit. Also, Ciro Salvo can make me pizza anytime. This is a buzzing, modern pizza place…very different in design from the other places. It felt much more local and without the crowds of tourists at Da Michele.

Sorbillo: Very crowded, very popular, lines down the block. Go early!! I think the central location puts it more on the tourist trail so you’ll find a mix of tourists and locals. Really big space which is good. Also, I appreciate a stainless steel loo!

Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba: There was zero crowd here when we dropped by during food tour, getting a pizza to go! This is widely believed to be the oldest pizzeria in Naples. I can’t speak to the atmosphere because we didn’t stay long, but the food definitely did the trick!!

Da Michele: This is the place made famous by Eat, Pray, Love. To be fair, it was probably famous before then, but Julia Roberts certainly helped. Go early to avoid the crowds. This was just a little too much for me. Too many people, too loud, too everything. Cheap though!!

I hope this post has helped you decide where to eat in Naples!! You can read more about my experience with pizza in this fantastic city in these more detailed posts…

• Pizza Tour Part I
• Pizza Tour Part II

Book a Naples Tour

The post Where to Eat in Naples, Italy first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

To persist, one needs sustenance. A change of scenery can help too. That’s why, my dear readers, I suggest you head to Naples at the earliest opportunity. As I wrote in my last post, I did not find Naples to be any of the things that people suggested it might be. It was convivial and pretty and bustling and overall, DELICIOUS.

Caseficio Colonne outside Naples

After Day 1 of our pizza adventures, we headed about an hour outside of town to visit Caseficio Colonne, a local producer of buffala mozzarella. We stood right there on the factory floor as they made the mozzarella and prepared it for packaging. I particularly enjoyed the smoked mozzarella although it was not for the faint of tastebuds. We even got to take some home with us!

Pizza at da Michele in Naples

By the time we  go to La Antica Pizzeria da Michele later that afternoon, we were suitably starving. So was the rest of Naples, apparently, but everyone was in good spirits as we all waited for our tables outside in the sunshine. “da Michele” is cheap and delicious and reminded me of the pizza I grew up with on Long Island, which was prepared by first and second generation Italians, dressed in all white and selling slices for a buck to neighborhood kids like me who left their bikes unlocked out front. (Cherrywood Pizza in Wantagh was my local. Sadly, it closed a few years back.) Pies (sorry, the New Yorker in me can’t not call them pies) at da Michele are big and meant for sharing. The restaurant was packing them in and turning the tables quickly while we were there, in contrast to 50 Kalo, which felt more like a place to linger and get dessert and coffee and solve all the world’s problems. You may have heard that Da Michele has just opened up in London’s Stoke Newington. I hope to make a visit soon.

Daniel Young and Gino Sorbillo

Last stop on our agenda? The famed Pizzeria Gino Sorbillo’s. I had walked by here on my first day in Naples and the queue was down the block. Thanks to Daniel, we had an in here and we were quickly joined by Gino himself and given a tour of the property. But then Gino tricked us!! He set up a big table out in front of the restaurant and served us right there on the street, surrounded by pizza paparazzi. It was pretty insane! I knew Daniel was pretty famous for his book (bible?) about pizza, Where to Eat Pizza, but I don’t think I realized exactly how famous he was until this very moment. Afterwards, Gino brought us over to his very cool laboratory next door where we talked pizza with Daniel before rolling back to the hotel, our pizza tour of Naples complete.

My trip with Daniel to visit Naples and eat all the pizza was truly eye opening. I mean, I know pizza is a big deal but in Naples, it’s REALLY a big deal. It was truly amazing to get up close and personal with these famous pizzaiolos and visit all of these famed pizzerias. Did I have a favorite? It’s hard to say. I honestly can say all the pizzas were totally awesome. I probably liked the vibe of 50 Kalo the best, but there was something about the pizza at da Michele that reminded me of my childhood — a more emotional connection.

Daniel runs occasional pizza tours to Naples. You can read more on his website.  I highly recommend booking a spot. If you can’t make it to Naples, definitely buy a copy of Where to Eat Pizza!

You Might Enjoy My Other Posts

• My Naples Pizza Tour Part I
• Where (Else) to Eat in Naples

Book a Naples Tour

The post Eating Pizza in Naples with Daniel Young, Part Two first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

View of Vesuvius from the Grand Hotel Parker

I don’t know what I was expecting in Naples, but Naples wasn’t it. The city is vibrant and teeming with people. Everyone has a small dog, and day and night, you see families strolling the streets together, window shopping (or just plain ole shopping), eating, drinking, and having that all important coffee. There are hills in Naples — steep ones! And it’s a city on the sea! And looming in the distance, there’s a VOLCANO! But most importantly, there is pizza and lots and lots of it. Excellent, excellent pizza, created carefully and with love by pizzaiolos who are often not the first person in their generation to knead the dough and make the sauce. I sort of fell in love — with the pizza AND Naples. And uh, the handsome pizzaiolos.

How did I find myself in Naples? I knew that Daniel Young, the former food critic of the New York Daily News, runs an occasional pizza tour to Naples. I also vaguely knew that he had written a book about pizza called, simply, Where to Eat Pizza. (I know now that this book is the BIBLE of pizza and both Daniel and his book are revered in pizza circles everywhere.) During a brief respite from work, I saw that Daniel had a few spaces free on an upcoming tour and before you know it, I had booked a place and my flight and I was GOING. Done!

I met up with the Daniel and the rest of the group at the Grand Hotel Parker’s, a grande dame of a hotel, towering on a hill above Naples and with a lovely terrace overlooking the sea. The hotel is set to be renovated soon, but I hope they don’t change the marble floors in the public spaces or the crystal chandeliers in the hotel rooms because hotels like this don’t exist anymore.

Enzo Coccia, outside La Notizia, pretending to deliver pizza old school style

We taxied over to our first stop, La Notizia, run by the intensely intense Enzo Coccia, who talked us through the history of pizza and Naples, fed us what felt like 20 pizzas, and then put us to work kneading dough. Kneading dough is not easy, trust me. It requires a tremendous amount of upper body strength and forearm power. Let’s just say I quickly decided that I enjoy eating pizza more than making it myself, but it gave me a new appreciation for pizzaiolos everywhere.

Pizza at La Notizia, Naples

I liked the vibe at La Notizia. It felt like a neighborhood restaurant that would be happy to see you, whenever you walked through the door. This was confirmed by one of our taxi drivers, who explained that he often makes a special trip to La Notizia, just to eat the pizza.

Pizza at 50 Kalo in Naples

Later that evening, once we had digested a bit, we headed over to 50 Kalo, a pizza joint with a more modern interior design scheme — it was almost as if they were trying to say “This is not a pizza joint.” Even though it is. Here we tried the standard Naples pizza configurations and then a few more creative options. (50 Kalo probably served us the most creative options of our tour, but this may have been more about how they treated our group than the menus at any of the places.)

Ciro Salvo at 50 Kalo

The restaurant was empty when we entered at 7 pm but there was a queue out the door by the time we left — a queue of all generations, a testament to the popularity of pizza AND 50 Kalo. 50 Kalo’s owner and pizzaiolo, the movie star handsome Ciro Salvo is, well, movie star handsome and a third generation pizzaiolo. Let’s just say that he can make me pizza anytime.

I probably ate more pizza this day than I have in the past three year combined — always watching the carbs, my friends — but I didn’t feel that heavy fullness that I get from a New York pizza or (certainly) a Chicago pizza. Pizza in Naples is lighter and airier. The goal seems to be “How can we make this crust as thin as possible, but still hold all this cheese and sauce?” This is the type of goal that we all should have! I have since been applying this mentality to my personal and professional life…a la…”How can I make as much money as possible, but work as little as possible?” I’ll keep you posted on how that’s going.

I slipped into bed that evening completely sated and completely copacetic with Naples and pizza and life in general. There really is no better way to spend a day than by eating pizza ALL DAY. You should try it some time. It’s good for you.

Stay tuned for even more pizza on Day 2, along with some other tips on Naples restaurants and things to do and see.

Buy: Where to Eat Pizza by Daniel Young

Go: Daniel’s Pizza Tours of Naples

You Might Enjoy My Other Posts

• Where to Eat in Naples
• My Pizza Tour of Naples Part II

Book a Naples Tour

The post Eating Pizza in Naples with Daniel Young, Part One first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.