Pizzeria Pellone — Restaurant in Naples

Overrated Neopolitan pizza with poor service standards for non-Italian speaking tourists.

We had very high expectations for this place after seeing Bourdain visit it years ago. First thing to know is that if there’s a line, you need to go put your name down at the front of house- no one tells you this and a few people cut right in front of us with nary a word from any of the staff who watched it happen.

The pizza itself was decent- the crush and dough are excellent, and the sauce along with the mozzarella are on par with what you’d expect from a historically well renowned pizza place. The main issue however is the cook on the pie: the center of the pie is extremely soggy, and it’s not helped by the excess olive oil that’s lopped on there to finish. Having had many other neopolitan pies in Naples, I don’t want anyone telling me this is how it’s supposed to be. The portions are huge- it’s quite difficult to eat an entire pie on your own. I think two people could comfortably share one.

While the pizza itself deserves perhaps 4 stars, the service here is truly abhorrent. It’s one thing if your service is universally terrible, as long as the food holds up, but if you’re serving mediocre food AND selectively treating only certain guests (E.g the non Italians) like second class citizens, that’s where there’s an issue for me. Menus were thrown on the table without looking at us, same with the cutlery, and while the same server smiled and made some polite chitchat with other tables, the way they interacted with us could only be described as with contempt. Somehow his attitude only perked up after we had paid in cash and were leaving.

Given that there are so many great pizza places around, I would recommend skipping this one to look for somewhere more hospitable, and with...

Bad Pizza, Bad Service - DO NOT COME HERE IF YOU'RE A TOURIST

My girlfriend and I came here because it's fairly close to the Naples Garibaldi train station and the reviews on Google were really good. The first warning sign happened when we came in. Even though there were many free tables, they seated us at a table with another person which was also against the wall so I had to awkwardly scooch in behind him to get to my seat. It was also clear that they didn't care about us at all; the owner served us with 0 enthusiasm and it seemed like he just wanted to get us out of there ASAP.

We ordered the margherita pizza since it's what this place is known for, and the pizza came out pretty quickly and is quite large for its price (it can easily feed 2 people and it's only 6 euros). However, this was the ONLY good thing about this place; the pizza simply seemed unfinished. There was a lot of oil on top of it and the cheese was barely attached to the dough. There were also very few basil leaves on it; it just didn't look like the pictures at all. When we cut it up, the pizza effectively disintegrated. Anyways, we ate as quickly as we could and got out of there; the owner made us pay in cash even though I read in a review that they take card.

I saw in a few Google reviews that this place is very rude to non-white, non-Italian customers, and from our experience, it seems like this is true. From looking around as we came in and as we left, the pizzas other customers got looked waaaaay better than ours, and a few of them were also...

Having read rave reviews of the restaurant I had to try out their margherita pizza, in Naples the birthplace of Pizza. The pizza was nice. The tangy fresh tomato paste on the pizza was delicious. And the pie crust was also delicious. The crust however was burned in some places on the edges, and I threw some away. The gobs of melted mozzarella cheese are hard to chew and swallow. The prices have increased (end of September/23.) I paid 8 euros. They have a separate English menu for visitors on which they automatically charge 15% gratuity. The waiters definitely provide no service to earn the 15% gratuity, and Italy does not have a compulsory gratuity on restaurant bills. I insisted on paying my bill with a credit card. They were not happy about it, but if you insist on following customs of my home country and charging me uncalled for gratuity then you should accept credit cards, since I use them for pay even the smallest charge.

I went early within half an hour of their opening so there was no crowd yet, but it does seem like a popular place with locals as well. Anyway, something off my bucket list. I enjoyed the experience but wouldn't go out of my way to...