Napoli’s Italian Restaurant

It’s not quite The Hill, but it beats the daylights out of the Olive Garden.

Napoli’s, a new Italian restaurant at the corner of 33rd West Avenue and 61st Street — in the strip mall across the street from the S&S Market — offers good, authentic Italian food at great prices, and the service is second to none.

I’d been eagerly anticipating the opening of Napoli’s for weeks as the red, white and green window coverings went up, followed by the sign, then a banner promising “Open Soon,” and finally a “Grand Opening” banner out on the corner.

When a colleague brought me a slice of pizza and a little bite of cannoli last week, I surmised that the restaurant was worth the wait. The pizza — an assertive but not excessive crust topped with pepperoni, sausage, artichokes, and mozzarella cheese — reminded me of the stuff I got in my hometown of Herrin, Ill., whose per capita Italian population is roughly equal to that of Sardinia, and the cannoli was worth a trip all by itself.

This evening, Ron and I stopped in for a full dinner. My dinner consisted of a side salad with ranch dressing (passable but nothing to write home about); decent fried calamari; big, fluffy dinner rolls with herbs and butter; excellent manicotti made with a rich ricotta filling stuffed into delicate noodles that I am pretty sure were created on-site; and a helping of that wonderful cannoli. Ron skipped the salad, split the calamari with me, and ordered spaghetti with sausage instead of manicotti. He was less impressed with his food (I think he’s still pining for Zia’s in St. Louis and probably isn’t going to be completely satisfied with anything short of a 400-mile drive to get a plate of their lobster ravioli), but the service and price ensured that I won’t have to beg too hard to talk him into a return trip. Which is good, because I’m already dreaming about spaghetti carbonara and tiramisu.

We stuffed ourselves at the table and then brought home two big to-go boxes; mine was crammed so full that the waitress helpfully suggested I set my purse on top of it on the way home to keep it from popping open. The whole feast set us back $28.

All meals come with a side of eye candy, in the form of the good-looking young owner, who spends as much time in the dining room as the servers do, delivering food to tables and checking to make sure everybody’s happy. I suspect his hands-on approach has a lot to do with the exceptional service. Napoli’s manages to strike that rare balance between efficiency and comfort: Plates are whisked away and glasses are refilled as quickly as you empty them, but somehow you never feel rushed or smothered by the waitstaff. We had an enjoyable, relaxing dinner and still managed to get in and out of the restaurant in less than 45 minutes.

If Napoli’s can keep up this level of quality, I suspect it will be here for the long haul. Westsiders tend to be a loyal bunch, and I overheard one lady joking with the waitress and trying to remember what she’d had “last time” — a promising sign for a restaurant that’s been open less than two weeks.

Ron and I will certainly be back … just as soon as we get through that mountain of leftovers we brought home.

I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any photos to share, but you can find pictures — and more detailed information — in this Tulsa World article.

Grades:
Value: A+
Service: A+
Convenience: A+
Product: A
Overall: A+

~ by redforkhippie on February 8, 2007.