good, not great pizza, from a ny'er. originally from ny, i am a pizza fanatic, enjoying most styles, especially ny style.
based on all the excellent reviews, i needed to try napolis.
overall, not bad (between good and very good) on the pizza.
but not up to par with all the outstanding reviews.
i guess thee reviews are based on the murphy location which doesn't offer a lot of competition...
anyway, i always like to provide detail on exactly what i think... so here goes.
for n style pizza, i'll break it down into 4 general tiers as follows:
tier 1: what you get in nyc, long island and nj, which is actuallu a wide range of quality, but all pretty much making tier 1.
tier 2: "close" to ny pizza in other areas, like the south (e.g. tx.)
this level is still good enough to make me crave it when away from real ny stuff for a while.
tier 3: a step below tier 2, but still decent. e.g. definitely better than nothing, and will actually crave it to an extent when tier 2 isn't available.
tier 4: not so good. always dissappoints someone with my standards, and i would prefer to avoid it even if it's the only pizza in town.
that said, texas has mostly tier 4, a bunch of tier 3, and a small handfull of tier 2.
no tier 1 that i've found...
i rate napolis as a strong tier 3 (e.g. just shy of making the tier 2 grade).
as north dallas pizza joints go, for example, it's not in the category of say, luigis in frisco, which is one of the few solid tier 2s, and i would say just a tad bit under say, eddy's in plano, which is a low tier 2.
but better than so-called good places like sals or napoli (not related) in garland, or pizza by marco, just to name a few that are "average" tier 3's.
what i liked and dissliked about plano napolis:
crust was good (but not great) in terms of flavor and texture.
cheese was good, but not great in terms of quality, where great ny quality = whole milk, creamy, gooy mozzarella, and bad quality = barely recognizable as real mild cheese.
sauce was average, where great sauce = fresh, standout, but not overbearing flavor, and bad = literally ruins the pizza.
good pizza = a delicate ballance of crust, sauce and cheese where each stand out as fresh and flavorful, yet not any one overbears the others in terms of quantity or flavor.
the weaknesses of napolis i found were:
1. inconsistent crust thickness.
some areas were appropriately thin, while others were too thick, and sloighly "english muffin" like. (certainly never an attribute in real ny pizza.
2. skimped on cheese.
this is important to me. there is a minimum standard, and a pizza with an ultra thin, even transparent layer in some areas doesn't quite cut it.
it surprises me that a mall mom and pop place like napolis would skimp on cheese.
3. sauce amount/balance was however correct, thought he sauce it self was just average (which is ok, at least not bad).
overall, again, not bad pizza, but not worth a drive over if you're not already int he area, and not the outstanding reviews others have given it (which is why i felt inclined to try it).