napolese

terrible!!!! rude personnel. have given them 3 chances, each time service was terrible. staff very rude,foodaverage. don't waste your time or money.

anonymous. you can do better. overall this place serves a decent pizza. however the service is terrible. i have been a couple of times and was treated with rude and impatient servers each time. it took forever to get ourfoodthe first time. when we mentioned the delay to our server she just walked away. the same thing essentially happened the second time as well. we mentioned the prior incident to a guy at the next table. he said, "all of martha's places are like that.......just deal with it". i have to assume that martha is the owner. ironically, i found a similar, but much better place in carmel called crust. afterwards i found out that "martha" is suing this place for "copying" her. talk about arrogance! apparently they didn't do too good of a job copying her..........the service was fantastic!


-----24 may, 2012-----

a big disappointment. the pizza was ok, but nothing truly magical. the dining experience was terrible. the highlight of the evening was listening to this nasty little woman scold a young hostess until she broke down in tears. the guy at the next table informed us that it was the owner and that this "happens all the time". i don't care how good the pizza is, i will not support a place that treats it's employees with so little respect.

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.

greatfoodbut 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 thefoodat 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 muchfoodand 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!

all in all, hubby agreed with me that napolese has some interesting sounding combos for their pizzas, and we both enjoyed thefoodand wine we had. the downside, as i have said in the past, and hubby agreed, was the noise.

a real gem for indianapolis. i don't write many reviews but many of the negative reviews i have read about napolese were not accurate according to my own experiences.

i've now been to napolese twice. both times thefoodand service were excellent and rivaled the best indy has to offer.

concerning the price:
this is not papa john's. if you are looking for a $5 three topping large; go elsewhere. however, you get exactly what you pay for (at napolese and at papa john's). the portions are not small. 1 salad and 1 pizza is plenty offoodfor just 2 people. there person who had 1 app, 1 salad, 2 pizzas for 2 people took home at least 2 full meals with them. my birthday dinner with my wife was 1 salad, 1 pizza, and 2 glasses of wine. total cost was $38 (we even took home 2 pieces of pizza).

concerning the pizza:
again, this is not a crappy chain pizza place. it is artisan pizza. the toppings are different than you are used to and so is the crust and cooking style. the crust is supposed to be burned to perfection. it is supposed to be chewy. the toppings are supposed to be sparsely tossed onto the pizza. if you don't know what to expect from a restaurant, how can you know if what you got was unexpected?

concerning the noise:
this is not the olive garden. you don't get your own 8'x8' private booth for your private conversations. it is a fun atmosphere and a shared experience among all of the patrons at the restaurant. if you wish to dine in solitude, please do so at home and stop complaining. it can be loud at times, but why does this bother you? unless you have a migraine, there isn't anything to complain about.

if you ignorantly walk into a restaurant with a set of preconceived notions; how can you be upset when you are proven wrong? i know this is 'merica and you can always have it your waytm ; but this is not an american restaurant.

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

wow, awesome. first of all, why do people who don't know anything about neapolitan pizza bother to post their ignorance onfoodreview 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 thefoodof 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 thefoodwas excellent, however, the price is steep ($70 or so for ourfoodplus two rounds of drinks). we will definitely be back, but only for "special" nights.

noshing @ napolese. part one

oh, where to begin. it's 5:00 a.m. and i find myself on (name thefoodwebsite 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. thefoodis 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!