Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba — Restaurant in Naples

As a foreign expat working in the university, my colleague recommends me to give it a go for this ‘worlds very first pizzeria’. So I come to order a takeaway with expectations. However, the whole experience is meh or even worse.

Luckily, the girl staff who greeted me at the entrance was very friendly and helpful, and even smiled and said goodbye to me after giving me the pizza box. The old man (no idea if he is the boss) at the counter was very nice as well. They can speak English and I am really grateful for their friendliness.

However, the rest is disaster. After I paid at the counter, I didn’t know where to wait and they seemed to allow me stay in the room, so I stood beside a table. Soon, a lot of customers came and would dine inside. I literally didn’t know where to stand, so I moved a little bit inside near the bar and drink area, which no one would be there.

Then the disaster came. I suddenly heard a kind of yelling noise from a male waiter, and I thought maybe he was delivering food. But then he began to whistle, and I looked up! He was whistling at me asking me to leave the bar table! (And the funniest thing was nobody told me it was not okay to stand there!)

I am not trying to be racism, but this African-looking male waiter is so so rude to ask your customer leave by whistling. I am like ‘who the f are you?’ It is okay to speak normal words to instruct but not whistling. This is more than disrespectful and extremely disgusting. I think you need to give your employees a better education!!!

So I asked the old man at the counter if it is okay to be outside to wait. Before the old man could speak, the African-looking waiter answered ‘on behalf of him’ without any hesitation - ‘YES YOU CAN WAIT OUTSIDE’. I was totally speechless by its rudeness. I was like ‘Who are you? Are you the boss???’

But as I said before, the girl staff smiled giving me the pizza eventually, which is really nice. But the disaster hasn’t finished… Because this is the first worst pizza I ever encountered in Naples… What is this?? I cost 10 euro for this ‘yellow tomato pizza’. I was thinking it would be the wonderful and carefully made yellow tomato sauce with the cheese on the pizza baking well. However instead, it’s just tomatoes randomly on the piece. What are these chefs doing????

I mean the last good thing of this place, is perhaps, this place has a decent decoration. I mean, they think they are the first pizza restaurants in the world so they need to save their face right? 😅

Highly suggest avoid this place, or if you really want to try, then try to avoid...

Would give zero stars if I could. Visited on July 27th 2022 (My review seems to keep being flagged as fake by this business)

The pizza itself was amazing, however the experience of eating at the (apparent) oldest pizza restaurant in the world was overshadowed by the shockingly blatant and rude customer service provided by staff.

When we initially arrived we were told that they were closed (despite times online saying they were open from 12pm) and there was zero signage up outside stating opening & closing times so that customers were aware of this, and clearly the level of customers asking made staff irritable. On being told it was closed, we weren't told opening times to come back and had to specifically ask.

We arrived back at 6.25pm, 5 mins before our reservation at 6.30pm that we made after finding opening times (the app on which we booked on had earlier slots available even though we had been told 6.30pm was the opening time, again misleading/confusing customers.)

On arriving back we were met with irritable staff saying they were still closed and not ready yet, along with another 2 couples met with the same bad attitude.

We were eventually seated, and asked if we could take a table up the back since we had been seated at the front next to bins and people coming in and out next to us.

Including ourselves there were only 3 couples In the seating area and plenty of 2 seated tables (unreserved) available further back and not in use.

On asking we were met with an abrupt and rude "NO" before the waitress immediately stormed off cutting us off from any further dialogue. We asked the next waitress who clearly wanted to say no but abruptly asked why we want to move. Apparently our reason wasnt good enough and we had to remain at our original table.

Would have left to visit the pizzeria across the road instead based on the service however we had waited long enough already to try pizza here, so ended up staying.

I did pick up racist vibes here as it did appear that it was only tourists being treated like trash.

I suspect if not for the history and people wanting to tick eating here from their bucket list, this pizza place would be one of the worst rated in the world.

Zero smiles, zero making sure customers are ok, zero communication at all - Take your service somewhere you will be valued as a customer because it just isn't here.

The oldest pizza place in the world...doesn't...

There are plenty of reviews already singing paeans of this Pizzeria. So, I'll stick to what I experienced there. We arrived exactly in time for dinner with a grumbling stomach and a lot of expectations. We didn't have to walk too far from Dante metro station. A rustic ambience, cobblestone streets and tables arranged neatly outside. There were already quite a lot of people seated but luckily for us, there was one last table still vacant. We plonked our derriere on the chairs and a staff member quickly approached us, brought the menu and changed the table cloth. We decided on Parmigiana with Aubergine(eggplant/brinjal) and a Pizza with Aubergine, Mushrooms and Marinara sauce. It took us approximately 15-20 minutes to get the food. This wait could be longer on weekends or public holidays. The place was chockablock full and yet the people kept coming. By the time our food arrived, I was already salivating and the sight of a hot pizza direct from the oven was tempting all of my senses. To put it mildly and without any exaggeration, this was one of the best pizzas I've ever had, if not the best. The place lived up to its name. The Parmigiana was equally delicious but the portion size was small. So, we also ordered a Zucchini flower filled with Feta, Provolone and Pecorino cheese which was then layered with crispy batter and deep fried. This was a genuine surprise that turned out to be better than my expectations. The staff who served was really friendly and also entertaining. As for the cost, we paid around €29 for two of us, which also included a pint of Malt beer, a bottle of Mineral water and cover charges. All in all, this place is worth every effort...