Overview:
As you enter Italy in World Showcase, the striking façade of Via Napoli is prominently featured at the rear of the pavilion. The structure adds much needed depth to the pavilion and its intricate architectural and artistic details greatly enhance the overall theming and sense of immersion.
The opening of Via Napoli means that the Italian pavilion has two sit down restaurants located right next to each other, but they each offer a truly unique dining experience. You could eat at Via Napoli one night and come back to eat at Tutto Italia the next night because the two offer striking contrasts in terms of menu selections, atmosphere, and the overall feel of the restaurants. In this way, I think that the two restaurants compliment each other very well because they both help to showcase the wide array of cuisine found in Italy. Via Napoli is more than your ordinary, run-of-the-mill pizzeria. Just as with restaurants found all across Disney World (and especially World Showcase in Epcot), dining at Via Napoli is about more than just the food but rather is a complete dining experience. Yes, the food plays a major role, but there are many other factors that contribute to make this restaurant what it is and in every way Via Napoli lives up to the high standards that guests come to expect when they dine at a Disney restaurant.
Atmosphere:
Upon entering Via Napoli one can immediately begin to notice differences between it and Tutto Italia. Overall, the restaurant has a much more casual, family-friendly feel. The atmosphere is very bright, very open, and the dining area is just one big room. The restaurant features plenty of large windows that allow in a lot of natural light and its high cathedral ceilings add to this sense of openness. This offers a definite alternative to Tutto Italia’s more intimate and refined setting. It is very clear to see that Via Napoli is more geared toward families, and for this reason I think that the restaurant is going to be extremely popular. One slight problem that I did see was with the acoustics as the high ceilings seemed to amplify the sound of everyone talking making it a little noisy inside, but nothing too unmanageable. I actually thought that the noise level gave the restaurant a bit of energy and buzz that made it feel more like an authentic Italian pizzeria.
There is plenty of seating to be found in the restaurant, although the tables are a little close to one another. One interesting feature of the dining room was a large banquet-style table located in the center of the restaurant that could sit multiple families. There is also an outdoor seating area with quite a few tables. This area also has ceiling fans which diners will definitely appreciate during the hot summer months.
The décor of the restaurant is fairly simple and subdued, but still features several nice little details that add to the restaurant’s overall theming. The back wall of the restaurant features posters highlighting different Italian cities while another wall is entirely covered by a huge mural depicting a garden with images of flowers and trees. Overall, the atmosphere of Via Napoli is much more vibrant and colorful than that of Tutto Italia, a color scheme that is even carried to the costumes worn by the restaurant’s servers.
The most noticeable feature of Via Napoli, however, is its open kitchen and three wood-burning ovens. The ovens are named after the three active volcanoes found in Italy (Etna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli) and each featuring their own unique face. For me this was the highlight of the restaurant and a great example of the type of detail that makes Disney dining truly special. It would have been very simple to have just ordinary wood-burning ovens, but Disney went above and beyond to greatly enhance the level of detail and the overall theme of the restaurant and created something the likes of which you have never seen before. The ability to see the chefs preparing the pizzas also helped add to the sense of immersion and authenticity in the dining experience; it was like something you would expect to see when actually dining in Italy. The next time I eat here I am definitely going to request a table closer to the kitchen just to be closer to all the action and activity that is going on there.
The Menu:
Although Via Napoli has received a tremendous amount of hype for its pizza, the menu actually features a wide variety of different offerings. Although the prices are not cheap, all of the food that I saw being served appeared to be of the highest quality and portion sizes that were very generous. Since Via Napoli is a new restaurant that most people have yet to experience, I will take some time to look at the menu in its entirety.
Appetizers feature Italian standards such as Fried Calamari served with a spicy tomato sauce, Minestrone Soup, and Arancini, which are fired risotto balls filled with mozzarella and meat ragu. Other appetizer items include Caponata alla Siciliana, an eggplant salad with olives, capers, tomatoes, and raisins, as well as Insalate del Contadino, an array of fresh greens, fagiolini, fennel, radish, tomatoes, and a red wine vinaigrette. Another larger appetizer that can be split by the entire table is the Frito Misto that includes an assortment of fried vegetables, fish, and cheese.
Entrees of the non-pizza variety include Italian classics such as Eggplant and Chicken Parmesan, both of which are served with spaghetti. There are also two baked pasta dishes which are cooked in the wood-burning ovens. The Lasagna Verde features spinach, parmesan cheese, and besciamella while the Candele is candle-stick pasta with sausage ragu, mozzarella, and ricotta cheese. Other pasta dishes include Mafaldine Amatriciana, which is ribbon pasta with guanciale and pomodoro sauce finished with pecorino cheese, Spaghetti e Polpettini featuring veal meatballs and tomato sauce, and Fusilloni Trapanese, which is large corkscrew pasta tossed with tomatoes, almonds, and basil.
For those looking for something a little lighter there are several entrée salads to choose from. The Calamari salad features fried calamari, arugula, carrots, and fennel topped with an orange vinaigrette. The Pollo salad comes with chopped lemon chicken, romaine, cantaloupe, cucumber, red pepper, green beans, vidalia onion, almonds, pasta crisps, and a honey-citrus dressing. Lastly, the Bistecca salad is topped with grilled steak, watercress, tomato, red onion, gorgonzola, apple, cucumber, and a red wine-mustard vinaigrette.
Dining at Via Napoli it is clear to see that the pizza is going to be the most popular item of choice on the menu. While I was there it was not a stretch to say that about nine out of every ten people in the restaurant had ordered a pizza. Fortunately the menu features a wide assortment of different pizzas to choose from. What I found interesting was that all the pizzas were the same price regardless of the toppings that were on them. What makes the pizzas so special is the quality of the ingredients being used. The flour for the dough is imported from Naples, the mozzarella is handmade, and the water comes from wells identical to the water found in Naples. So while the pizza prices may appear to be expensive, you definitely get what you pay for. The pizza comes in three sizes: individual, large, and a half-meter. Below are the nine pizzas featured on the menu:
For those with a sweet tooth, the menu also features several delectable desserts ranging from the classic Tiramisu to more unique desserts such as the Coppa Di Brutti Ma Buoni, which is an amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae with cookies. Dessert options also include Torta di Sarena, an apple cake with almond sorbetto, as well as Zeppole di Catarina, which are ricotta cheese fritters topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
For my meal I decided to try the Calamari Pizza, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, fried calamari, arugula, and fennel. The pizza was a thin-crust just like what you would expect if you ordered a pizza in Italy, but not paper thin. It was cooked perfectly in the wood-burning ovens, slightly charred just enough to add a little extra flavor. The dough itself was very light in flavor and texture, and although it was crispy on the outside it was still nice and soft on the inside. The tomato sauce is very light and fresh, and the pizza is not too saucy at all. The calamari was fried and perfectly tender. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of it was actually on top of the pizza. My only complaint was that there was a little too much arugula on top of the pizza for my taste, but this could be easily picked off. What I liked most about the pizza was how well all the ingredient blended together, with no one flavor really overpowering the others. To top it all off, the portion size was absolutely huge; I ordered the individual pizza but could only finish half. It would not be a stretch to say that this was one of the best pizzas I have ever had.
Service:
I found the service at Via Napoli to be very good. My server was very friendly and took time to explain several of the items found on the menu. Since the restaurant is new and I had never eaten there before, I had quite a few questions about different things on the menu in general and certain dishes in particular and my server was able to aptly answer all of them. I could tell that the entire wait staff was very excited to be a part of the opening of this new restaurant and there was definitely a great amount of energy and enthusiasm about them. I was also pleased to see that the chefs preparing the pizzas in the open kitchen did not mind you watching them (or even taking pictures) and I actually was able to talk with one of them for a few minutes. Being a brand new restaurant, several members of the management team were also on hand and they asked me several questions about my dining experience really trying to see in what areas they could improve. For a restaurant that had just opened, I was extremely impressed at how smoothly everything was running.
Dining on a Budget:
If you are dining on a budget this might not necessarily be the restaurant for you, but since you are on vacation it is okay to splurge every once and a while. Even though the prices on the menu are a little expensive, you have to remember that you are truly getting what you pay for in terms of both quality and quantity. Yes, sixteen dollars for an individual pizza is a lot, but this is not Dominos or Pizza Hut. My best advice if you are dining with a larger group of people, the larger the pizza the better the value becomes. The largest, half-meter pizza is absolutely huge and could easily feed four to five people. If you are dining with two people and looking to save a little money, my best advice would be to order an appetizer or two and then split an individual size pizza. If you are still hungry after that you could then get a dessert to split. Also, the menu is the same for both lunch and dinner and thus it is the same prices regardless of what time of day you eat there.
Overall Experience:
I was very impressed by Via Napoli and will definitely be eating there again. With so many different items on the menu it offers the opportunity to try something different each time you, and not just pizza but also their wide variety of pasta dishes as well. My only regret is that the restaurant does not also feature a quick-service, walk-up window serving pizza by the slice that would offer a quick and affordable alternative to the table-service restaurant inside. That being said, I forsee this restaurant being very popular, especially among families, because of its menu and the fact that it offers a more casual dining experience than that of Tutto Italia. At the same time, I do not think that the opening of Via Napoli will hurt Tutto Italia just because the two restaurants are just so different from each other. The future success of Via Napoli rests on the fact that the restaurant lives up to the high standards that everyone expects from a Disney restaurant. High quality food, great service, as well as an immersive and authentically Italian atmosphere all combine to create a unique and unforgettable dining experience that is quintessentially Disney.
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