Ristorante Al 53 — Restaurant in Naples

We had dinner there our last night in Naples. Very disappointing experience.

Food was average, both entrees' Octopus and Cuttlefish were well cooked & tasty, but both main were poor. The pasta dish's Neapolitan sauce was thick and dry, taste like tomato paste, it supposed to be with pork and beef, but it came with a large piece of chewy pork, pasta was way under Al Dente, not cooked enough, the steak was a thin piece poor quality T-bone steak, full of fat, not enjoyable at all.

But that is not the worse part, it just went downhill from there.

One of our main (pasta dish) came while we were still eating our entrees, the waitress asked if that's our dish, then just plonked it down on the table & left, second main came a few minutes later, the waiter realized there was no room on the table & took the empty plates away. When we went to pay the bill, my husband stood there waiting while the waitress & the owner or the Manager arguing about something in Italian, looking through multiple paper cards (not sure for what), at the same time new customers walked in, didn’t look happy, more animated talking with the waitress in Italian, was just chaos & comical. After they sorted out a table for the group, an American guy came with the waitress, they decided to sort out what he wants to pay first, finally all done, the owner/Manager just continuously shuffling through his paper cards, completely ignoring us until finally we said, " can we just pay the bill".

The bottle of Rosé we ordered was the best thing that night, 80 euro wasted, not to mention after 3 weeks travelling in Italy, the worst food & service happened on the last night of our Italy trip, very...

You know it's going to be an interesting evening when you are ignored for a couple of minutes before being noticed by the staff. It seems one of the waiters is making it a mission to flirt with as much of the guests as possible, and the other one is getting annoyed with him. As for the rest, the biggest attraction of this square-bordering restaurant seems to be the insane number of tables is has out there. Staff seems thinly spread at first but once we're seated, is very present.

I order a seafood pasta, which seems a good bet in a restaurant that's mostly lauded for it's fish and shells. My partner opts for a pasta with meat and tomato sauce. This is not the best thing on the menu. The sauce is on the sour side. The sausage is chunky, which I enjoy myself, but my partner doesn't. I really enjoy my plate of squid, mussels and other seafood, but the pieces of pasta are fairly scarce and I'm left using the bread to vessel the leftover sauce into my mouth. It is extremely tasty and arrived quick. The white wine pairs well with it too.

Overall, not the best experience we've had in Naples, but by no means a poor one. It's a restaurant where they care about the food and wine, where they serve guests quickly and attentively. There's just that tiny little magic missing for a 5...

The service was below all standards

Based on our experience, I do not recommend the restaurant (albeit the seafood was tasting good).

We were disappointed on:

no wine glasses although we ordered a wine bottle the main food was served immediately after receiving the starters, leading to extremely stuffed table and unfinished appetizers no any service or contact after the delivery of the foods. We received only troubled looks far away from 3-4 waiters and the bypassers on the square no questions if we would like to have dessert or if everything was alright we paid 78 € for 2 person, which is too much in contrast to the service level the day earlier, multiple waiters completely ignored us standing in front of the entrance for about 10 minutes. We did not speak Italian, which appeared to be an issue.

On the positive side:

by the looks, the restaurant appeared to be appealing in comparison to the other places in the square. Also, the tables were reserved in advance and people arrived around 8-9 PM seafood was cooked with skill. The tastes were natural in all dishes the amount of staff was good, even though I assume that they didn't speak English / did not serve us...