napolese

more fancy bogusness. bogus, overpriced undertopped with terrible pepperoni and very little cheese. ordered two identical saus, pep, mush. pies and they looked almost completely different. very light on cheese and toppings were very sparse on one of the pies. total rookie or unconcerned pie maker obvious by center loading/ lack of toppings/ cheese. 14 bucks for a 10 inch 3 top?? give me a break. take it from a guy who has been in the pizza biz over twenty years. had to try it , but never again. can you say ripoff??

i really enjoyed the full experance.... the food was great and the people were great. i will be back!

great pizza. i can't speak to the dine-in atmosphere here, as i've only done take-out--i live in the neighborhood, and frankly the wait's too long for a table for me. but the hamaker corner pizza is fantastic, great flavor combo and the crust is incredible. pick-up service has always been ready when i show up, no problems. this pizza's named after my family (my cousin used to run the drugstore on this corner) and i have to say i'm proud to share a name with a pie this good. :)

the question would be, "would i go back?" only if someone else really want to go there. the wild mushroom ragout starter was pretty tasty but i ended up putting what we didn't eat of that on top of our blt pizza. the blt didn't have that much flavor & the leeks gave it a funny smell plus the taleggio cheese melted to a curd like consistency. the décor was ascetically pleasing but the tables were really close. if you want to go there to converse with someone this would not be the place. i felt like i was yelling at my friend & the neighboring tables could hear everything we were talking about as i them.
so would i go back? not if i were the one who was making the decision on where we were going to eat.

wow, awesome. first of all, why do people who don't know anything about neapolitan pizza bother to post their ignorance on food review sites???? this kind of pizza is supposed to be thin and somewhat soggy in the middle, duh! and charred on the bottom and sides. and that is exactly what i experienced with their pizza. the crust is exactly right, and the sauce is perfect. the fresh mozzarella was exactly the right proportion. people, this stuff is the food of the gods! if you don't like this kind of pizza, go to pizza hut and shut up, you don't have any taste! oh, and the tomato, goat cheese, cucumber, onion salad was almost the best thing i have ever tasted that was called a salad.

worth the wait. the husband and i decided to try napolese on a wednesday evening. we figured that it would be slow(er) in the middle of the week. boy, were we wrong! turns out there was a 30 minute wait for a table. we decided to settle in with drinks, served by the extremely busy yet polite, hostess. thirty minutes later our patience was rewarded and we were shown to our table. we decided to split the goat cheese appetizer. yum! it was bubbly, creamy, tangy, and slightly sweet, although we could have used a few more slices of bread to sop up the last few drops of sauce. for dinner i ordered a broken yolk pizza with quail eggs. it was absolutely delicious. the egg added so much richness and creaminess. the husband had the meridian-kessler, which is a meat-laden pie. he polished it off in short order but we ended up talking half of mine home for lunch the next day. we both agreed that the food was excellent, however, the price is steep ($70 or so for our food plus two rounds of drinks). we will definitely be back, but only for "special" nights.

disappointed. had several courses - salad, pizza, pine nut/custard tart. the only part of the meal i would recommend was the house chardonnay. bread underlying a very moist tomato/cuke/onion salad? soggy. pizza crust? soggy with a light smattering of toppings. dessert tart? lemon? did they mention that flavor on the menu? no. and the noise level was astonishing. i will not return and will not recommend to others.

ehhhhh no.. signed in with hostess, eleven people who came after our 2 top were seated even 4 who had left and returned 10 minutes after their name was called. just because 4 people leave does not mean you should set a party of 4! separate the tables and seat the 2 top! jeez!

i feel a little dupped. there is good and bad at napolese. i really enjoyed the bruchetta app and the chop salad. unlike others, our bread was perfect (maybe they have been listening...doubt it though). we went with the "pie of the day" it was squash blossoms and parm. well, for $20 we got three blossoms, you could see through the cheese and suace to the crust. i mean, it was absolutely worthless. they pies next to us looked a 100x's better, and they were $12-14. 3 quartinos (well, almost quartinos-the fill was very stingy for a proper quartino) plus our food, two people $100.

will i go back, yes, and i will order differently. i feel a little slighted/dupped because of all of the support i gave martha and this venture in the neighborhood (petitions, conversatios with people) i wanted this neighborhood restaurant. but, it is not much of a neighborhood, bring the family for dinner place. martha, we do not eat breakfast as a family any longer at patachou because $75 breakfast for a family of 5 is out of line. bring down your prices and you will get loyal guests that come again and again.

noshing @ napolese. part one

oh, where to begin. it's 5:00 a.m. and i find myself on (name the food website that brought you here) browsing...and then i remember why i came here so late/early--to see if anyone had written a review of napolese. they had. while it is late/early, and you may be wondering why i'm doing this review at this bird-chirping hour, i must be completely honest and tell you that i am not inebriated (still a difficult word to spell when you're sober).

i am, however, elated to be giving my first review on a pseudo-neopolitan pizzeria...because i don't recall there ever really being one in the indianapolis area in the 22 years i've lived here.

martha hoover has balls...big hairy italian ones. wait, those are just her meatballs:) no, seriously, it takes balls to close down a street to put in a ginormous gas powered pizza oven...wait, what? did you say 'gas powered'? i'll get to the oven in a bit...

there are oh-too-many bad/mediocre italian/pizza joints littered amongst the indianapolis landscape that after living here for over 20 years, i had pretty much given up on the idea that a local restauranteur would ever open up an authentic pizzeria or pasticceria. thanks for making headway in that respect, martha.

o.k., let me tell you something funny about napolese--the parking. and i'm not complaining about it, but, rather, am bringing to light something i read on ibj (that's indiana business journal to you acronym-phobic peeps out there). when napolese got its variance approval, it seems that some locals in the meridian-kessler neighborhood were opposed to it because they felt it was going to create traffic issues and also because there wasn't adequate parking.

well, that's just funny to me, because, when has indy ever had "good parking" anywhere??? wanna park in broad ripple on a friday/saturday night? good luck. wanna park for free downtown? good luck. it's simply a moot point, because, everyone and their mama knows indy ain't known for its parking...or it's numbered address signs on buildings.

just grin and bear it, dudes. it's not like that area has tumbleweeds rollin' down the sidewalks...people are forever running/walking/biking. let's not pretend that napolese isn't going to be good for the community of meridian-kessler, because, well, that idea is simply moronic. and, besides, it looks nice. it's not an eye-sore. the storefront is inviting. it makes you want to walk in and see what's behind those tinted windows (is that maria grazia cucinotta???).

so, since i brought it up, let's talk about the decor for a cool minute (you have the time for that, right?). i like the color black (o.k., i realize black isn't truly a "color" but, humor me). i like the black lights on the building of napolese. i like their shape. not sure what they're made of but they fit nicely. i like the simple font of the lettering used to spell out "napolese" that appears twice on the building. i like the wrought-iron chairs and tables on the sidewalk used for the outdoor seating. and what i really like is how it plays so well off of the 3-4 earth-toned colored bricks that houses this establishment. it looks classy with just the right touch of an old-style pizzeria that one might find in the motherland (italia is the motherland).

i'm not sure how many wrought-iron chairs and tables they have, but i'd venture to guess that once word gets out about this place, they're gonna need more--especially since summer is upon us. as for inside, it looks the part as well. the floors are lovely although i do not know what they are made of--i assume it's some kind of stone. and the dining tables appear to be made out of a high quality wood of which i am not familiar with because i know jack-all about wood(s). what i do know, though, is that it looks nice. really nice. basically, all of the furnishings look high quality and high cost. doesn't appear martha cut any corners in this regard at all.

just a quick side-bar here...are you still reading by chance? you started reading 'cause you wanted to see what i had to say about the pizza, right? well, o.k., you twisted my hairy italian arm.

to finish reading, please go to my personal foodie blog:

http://feedmeorfeedmetosomething.myblogsite.com/entry1.html

**note** i am not advertising/selling anything on my blog or trying to steal viewership from urbanspoon and this is not a link to spam. i have simply had to resort to putting this particular restaurant review on a blog site because it is too long to put on urbanspoon's website. thanks for understanding.

fantastic, for people with taste buds. first off let me start by saying if you are expecting the regular style, greek pizza you find at the chains, turn around. it's not about triple toppings and extra cheese, it's about dough, char and balance. napolese offers a number of pizzas you won't find at noble roman's or pizza hut, so take advantage! the toppings are fresh, the service is outstanding, and my favorite, they have fantastic beer and wine.

you will most likely encounter a wait up to an hour, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a cold beer or a bottle of wine!

in the end, you may run up a costly bill, but it's worth it. the food is great, the staff is extremely helpful.

my only caution is this: if you are expecting the normal, run-of-the-mill, extra large, dripping with cheese and toppings pizza, you're in the wrong place. it takes a little more developed pallet, but it's well worth it!

i wanted to like it, but....... wow, i am always astonished when i go to a restaurant and the noise levels are so obnoxiously uncomfortable. its called acoustic sound panels, please don't open your doors again until you install them. our party left with a headache, and it ruined the night.
the beer is overpriced, the smoked salmon pizza was awful, not even kind of good, i mean awful. the sauce wasn't even close to being good, also the server didn't tell us it would be served cold. after eating at cafe patachou 100's of times i figured we would be in for a treat, but this was a big disappointment. as for the other $18 pizza's we had, the ingredients were sparse and unimpressive, why no chicken or beef option? i hate to leave this review but its a big thumbs down

made us deaf!. there is nothing about this place that made anyone in our party want to go again. the acoustics are so atrocious, it made normal conversation impossible. on top of that, there was annoying music playing that just added to the deafening din. when we asked about turning it down, the server told us she tried to every night and the request was denied. then we asked the owner, and she was condescendingly rude about it.

the bruchetta appetizer was difficult to eat and completely underwhelming. it tasted like doughy pita bread with chopped tomatoes on the side. a plate of olives arrived to the table, and that was a welcome tidbit.

each of the 4 in our party had a different pizza, but no one was impressed in the least with their food. mine was the smoked salmon that our server happily proclaimed to be her favorite dish. it was a soggy, rather tasteless mess on a very undercooked blob of bread that tasted like pita bread you'd find at the local marsh. occasionally i would bite into a fresh herb that felt like eating a stick. when i refused a take home carton for what i didn't eat, the server acted totally surprised, but never thought to ask if i hadn't enjoyed it for some reason.

all in all, eating there was exhausting and unpleasant. what ought to have been a fun evening out with friends was a disappointing experience, and our ears are ringing from the awful noise level. i've been to quieter rock concerts.