Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria Review

If you were to look into the Italy pavilion at Epcot, but not go any further than the gift shop at the front, you would surely miss Via Napoli. Nestled at the very back of Italy, Via Napoli is a pizzeria that features Italian specialties served by cultural ambassadors—people that are actually from Italy.

Until our last trip we had never eaten here, but I’m glad that we decided to try something new and journey into Italy.

There are plenty of Italian restaurants on Disney property; and on this last trip we actually ate at three of them. What makes Via Napoli different from Mama Melrose’s at Hollywood Studios and Tony’s Town Square at Magic Kingdom is that the food is being served to you by servers that are actually from the country that the food they are putting in front of you represents. Also, while Mama Melrose’s is themed as a Italian restaurant in Hollywood, and Tony’s showcases the restaurant where Lady and the Tramp share their first kiss, Via Napoli is only themed to fit in with the rest of the Italy pavilion—as a pizzeria in Naples.

As soon as you enter the building you can see the main draw to the restaurant—the three wood fired ovens where they bake the pizza. Once you have checked in and are being shown to your seat you will pass the Acqua Fresca or flavored waters. If you are on the Disney dining plan this drink will cost extra. The walls feature posters for different cities throughout Italy.

The restaurant is lovely; however it is quite loud. There is also an extensive menu, so you may want to do so menu research before your trip.

Food

To start, along with the bread and butter, we shared the Arincini and Calamari Fritti.

The Arincini were delicious golden balls of risotto and mozzarella cheese. The filling was warm and tasted like macaroni and cheese and the outside was slightly crispy from being fried. The rice balls were served with a warm meat ragu. The sauce complimented the arincini nicely.

The Calamari Fritti was crusted with corn meal and served with a spicy tomato sauce. The calamari itself was nicely crisp because of the fried corn coating, but it was not at all heavy. The tomato sauce was slightly spicy, but the spice helped to cut through the seafood, it was a great choice of sauce for this dish.

Onto the entrees… We were at a pizzeria after all so we both decided to try a pizza. (I have heard that they have water imported from Italy for the pizza dough so that it is authentic Napoletana pizza.) We had the individual Piccante and Quattro Formaggi pizzas.

The Piccante pizza was topped with mozzarella cheese and spicy Italian sausage. The crust had that flavor you would expect from wood burning oven. Additionally, we personally prefer a crispy crust and the wood oven more than delivered that. Overall the pizza was quite good, but we would have liked more sausage.

The Quattro Formaggi pizza was just like the Piccante in that it had a crispy crust. It was topped with mozzarella, parmesan, fontina, provolone cheeses. It was quite the cheese pizza.

If you can believe it, we had room for dessert. We spilt two gelato desserts—the Coppa Brutti Ma Buoni and the Gelato Frizzante. The Coppa Brutti Ma Buoni or “Ugly but Good” was definitely good. The Amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae was yum. Cherry and vanilla topped with whipped cream and a crisp cookie.

The Gelato Frizzante is an Italian style ice cream soda. It is made with San Pellegrino’s “Aranciata” and vanilla gelato. Smooth, cold, sweet – delicious.

Overall

Nia Napoli is loud because of the high ceilings, but the food and the experience are worth dealing with the noise level. It’s like being in Italy—or at least I think so, I’ve never been there. So, pencil this one in for your next trip if you want authentic Italian food in the middle of Epcot.