napolese

good but loud. great pizza, salads and more in a trendy environment. most nights you'll need to shout to your dining companions. loved the olives and salt choices. not a place for an intimate dinner for two.

authentic naples-style pizza!. my wife and i visited italy for our honeymoon last year and one of our stops was in napoli, the birthplace of pizza. authentic italian pizza isn't quite the same as what we have come to expect in the us. the pies are generally wood-fired at a high temperature which creates a crust with a slightly charred, crispy exterior, but chewy interior. they also don't pile on tons of toppings and sauce. we were also amazed by the fact that you typically order a pie per person. considering that they use a thinner crust and the pizzas are more lightweight, it wasn't too big of a deal. pretty cheap too. i could easily and happily eat an entire pie myself. although the city left a lot to be desired (too grimy), the pizza did not disappoint. we were a little bummed coming back to the states knowing that it would be difficult to find a place with authentic napoli-style pizza. that is until we discovered napolese. the crust has that similar char and texture. the toppings are amazingly fresh and the meats from the smoking goose only add to the flavor. i absolutely love the jowl bacon and insist on having it on every pie. when their fall menu comes out, i absolutely must have the bison meatball appetizer. the meatballs and marinara are excellent. especially with the pieces of crust they give you to dip it in.

if you want to know what real italian pizza taste like i highly recommend that you give it a try. i've attached a photo of a pie i took on our trip. you will find that the pies from napolese look (and taste) pretty much the same.

average. patachou/petite chou are my favorite restaurants in town. napolese was just average. the service was poor, too loud, and pizza was okay. don't know that i will go back.

great food, lackluster service. got there at exactly the right time for a friday evening. it got busy soon after my party arrived.

still, that's no excuse for the amount of time we had to wait for a server (actually she may have been a manager) to assist us. we ran out of water many times. even waiting for the check took an abnormally long time.

great food but the service leaves a lot to be desired. may return one day but not for a while.

omg. random dude
's
you are right about the owner - soemthing not right there. had to take my freind for b-day dinner since she insisted. had gone to patachou the day before and was treated badly at the counter ..martha couldn't admit she had any servers that were not good and went on and on and on - i finally had to tell her to let it go. she likes to be righl. anyway the food at napolese is so so as is patachou. - the emperor's new clothes. someday the kingdom will come tumbling down because there really is nothing there.

delicious!. this was our first time visiting napolese and it most definitely won't be our last. our party of 7 was seated right away at 5:45pm on a thursday. our waitress was very knowledgeable and we took her recommendation for wines, appetizers and salads. we ordered the special bruschetta which featured a cheddar cheese, jalapeño and barley dipping sauce. it was amazing. she also suggested we try the meatballs which featured three giant meatballs mixed with tomato sauce and lots of mozzarella cheese. we cut each into 1/4 and shared. yummy! our salad was the roasted brussel sprouts, dried cherries, apples and fresh parmesan cheese with a drizzle of balsalmic vinegar. it was light and quite different than an ordinary lettuce salad. my only complaint was that it was a tad bit on the dry side. it would have been perfect with some romaine and a splash of actual salad dressing. we ordered the buffalo mozzarella pizza and the meridian-kessler. the salad and pizzas are plenty big to split between 2-3 people. although we were sufficiently full, we decided to take the recommended cobbler with us to go with a side of vanilla bean gelato. the cobbler was probably the most delicious dessert i have tried. it was full of apples, cherries and extra streusel. although our bill was high, we ordered way too much food and will know next time to split. but, we are all glad that we got to sample so many wonderful items off their menu. service is super fast and all of the staff was very friendly. the interior is quaint and it is fun to be able to see the wood burning oven for the pizzas. we will be back!

great pizza the way it was meant to be. the dough is exactly like you get in napoli, my grandmother's hometown. i'm guessing the negative reviewers were expecting the american version.

there are a few bar stools in front of the cooking area. it reminded me of noble roman's pizza growing up where you could watch the pizza artists through the window. you get a sense of how fresh the ingredients are as you can see the chefs chopping, rolling out the dough, and assembling the pizza. the key to a good wood fired pizza is the movement of the pizzas in the oven. you do not want to keep the pizza in the same place as it will burn. on the contrary if you add a pizza to the oven, you do not want to place it where you removed the last pizza as it will not be as hot. it becomes an art and the chefs at napolese are pros.

overall: since my first visit, napolese has been among my favorite restaurants in town. i can’t in good conscience say it is the best pizza around simply because there are too many varieties to reward that title without categorizing, but this is at the top of its kind. i have tried several salads and pizzas and never once been disappointed. quite the opposite actually, as my fondness grows deeper with each sampling. if you haven’t been here yet, make plans immediately.

really wonderful waiter. very burnt bread for goat cheese app. disappointed. average pizza.

much ado about nothing. napolese attracts mostly a younger crowd which is to be expected in this "hip" neighborhood. on the night we were there (a thursday) we didn't see many families: mostly young 20 and 30-something couples. the wait staff is attentive and friendly, and we were seated immediately (it was too hot to eat out on their sidewalk dining area).

there are various salads to choose from for $9.00. one is enough for two persons to share. this is strictly a pizza place with a few sandwich options. each pizza is an individual pie; this is not a 'small, medlium, extra-large' etc. all pies are for individual servings. however, the pies were more than each of us could eat; we all ended up taking home about half of our individual pizzas. the presentation was attractive, but appearances deceiving. mine was sausage and roasted peppers: their "meridian kessler." granted, the toppings, peppers and sauce were quite good, the sauce delicate, but the crust rubbery. if the crust is rubbery, then i always believe a pizza is "much ado about nothing." i expected a thin crispy crust and instead, the rubbery texture turned me off. jockamo's in irvington as far as pizza is concerned is far superior in quality and much more economical. we won't be returning.

ok, i'm not going to lie, this is my favorite pizza place and may be my favorite overall place to eat in indianapolis. the restaurant has recently expanded to accommodate more seating and i really appreciate it because now i don't have to wait so long to eat! the whole place is painted a deep navy blue which gives off a very warm and cozy feeling. the wood fire oven and visible pizza kitchen allow you to see what's going on and you can even sit up at the bar and watch the pizza masters make your pizza.

décor is fairly subdued — dark wood, one bookcase full of books and glass knick-knacks, another full of wine bottles. a row of bar seating gives diners a chance to check out the pizza-making process up close and personal. cool. there’s really not much room to play with, but they’ve done a good job of making it feel classy, not kitschy.

baffled by the negative reviews. i have eaten here several times and have never had a bad experience. their dough and sauce are easily the best in the city. i have had artisan style pizza from new york city to california, and i found that napolese can hang with the best of them.

i definitely recommend trying napolese pizzeria to anyone looking for great artisan pizza in indianapolis.