Pizzeria de Michele — Restaurant in Bari

We visited the place today. The food was technically fine. The dough of both the pizza, and the calzone I ordered was very much burnt at the edges - more so than usually seen in most pizzerias I've visited so far, bringing an unpleasant bitterness to the eating experience. The tomato sauce was really sour, overpowering the dish. In the calzone, the salami used was overall fine, but had a lot of unchewable bits. Also, the dough of both the calzone and the pizza, quickly turned chewy and rather unpleasant, even while it was warm which does not happen often (meaning the dough was probably fermented for a too short time). The portions were very big, in an un-Italian way (the pizzas were bigger than the plates, making them hard to cut securely and they would fall off the plates in the process). The service was fine. Very neutral, not much outgoing, but fine. But, the full menu wasn't given to any of the customers. We were led to our table, only being told to give an opinion of the place online, and gave us incomplete menus. We were given a menu of six positions, supposedly with a 1980s vibe, all starting at 11 euros and with only one position in it being this price, and the rest was very expensive by the standards here (13-14 euros). There was also no explicit access to the full menu, only available right out of the restaurant and online on their website. There was no menu of beverages, either. And we were witnesses to a family asking their waiter if this is the full menu (it was not), and receiving an answer that it is, which is, in all honesty, scamming the customers. Moreover, we heard one of the servers using vulgar words in front of the customers. When it comes to the 'vibes' section, there were none. It wasn't a place where you really want to sit in, spend time, but come in, eat and leave. More like a fast food restaurant than some actual ristorante. It was extremely loud in there, and the music playing was way too loud and way too poor sound quality to be pleasurable. And, of course, the whole place uses marketing of Julia Roberts having filmed a scene in Da Michele in Naples. Which just seems cheap and...

Pizza was awful. I ordered Margherita La Flamme. First of all, amount of ingredients were shockingly low (mozarella and salame). My pizza was supposed to be hot, but wasn't even spicy. First time in my life I saw salame cut in a very thin stripes with no taste at all. It was probably just one slice. It looked like the one on a frozen pizza. Basically, pizza had one taste and almost one ingredient - tomato sauce. Then, after consuming some of it, very bitter aftertaste started to coming up. As we checked, the pizza base was very burnt, despite the fact, that upper side was not burnt at all. I was not planning to send my opinion then, so unfortunately I don't have a photo of it. Next situation make me share my experience here: About service, a lady was trying really hard to make us spend more money. First, when i was ordering pizza she said that the "Valentines special" pizza is way better than this one (ofc more expensive), then after we finished our meal, when i Ask for receipt, she strongly suggested coffee and dessert. I refused and asked for receipt. After waiting for receipt for 10/15 minutes, we recieved dessert menus. Then, we decided to go and confront the service about the situation, IT appeared that payment is on the way out. We waited on our table in our jackets on, we saw the service girl couple of Times, but we thought that she was busy. No one from the service get an idea to inform us about it, especially the lady that we asked for the bill. All of the service saw us waiting in jackets. Also, for me it is very poor method of payment. You are paying "coperto" for the table, food is brought to your table, so, as everywhere, you should also recieved your bill on your table. Terrible experience, terrible food. Only 3 starts for nice restaurant Garden. I'm attaching the only photo we have - pizza...

Tomato, tomato, and more tomato! If you’re a tomato lover, this might be the place for you. But if you’re looking for good pizza, I’d suggest looking elsewhere.

We’ve traveled to several cities in Italy, including Naples (Napoli), and unfortunately, this was the worst pizza we’ve ever had. Honestly, even small towns in Germany—where we live—serve better pizza than this place.

We ordered two pizzas. One was supposed to have salami and mozzarella, but what we got was basically just a pizza covered in tomato. The only flavor that came through was tomato purée/sauce—yes, that was fresh—but there was no trace of salami in taste or may be some in presence. The second pizza was a basic one, but it was so rubbery and chewy that we couldn’t even cut it with a regular knife and surprisingly burnt at the base.

Now for the best part: as we were leaving, the guy at the counter asked if everything was good. I politely said, “Yes, it was okay.” He pressed further, asking, “Why only okay?” So I gave him my honest feedback—that the pizza was overly chewy and all I could taste was tomato. His response? He defensively claimed it was the original Neapolitan recipe, which they’ve had for 170 years.

Well, maybe it’s time to take another trip to Naples, because it seems they’ve either forgotten the recipe—or how to use the oven properly.

Bottom line: don’t ask for feedback if you’re not willing to hear it.

Please don’t waste your time, mood and taste buds over this, maybe a regular pizzeria would serve you a better pizza.

P.S. the service was fine, and that 1-star is for the...