Inizio Pizza Napoletana Dilworth — Restaurant in Charlotte

Good evening my name is Lorenzo and I am one of your loyal customers. Between me and my wife we come here or to the others locations atleast once at week. Tonight I was closer to the one in Dilworth so I decided to get some pizza to go. Lights and power were off. I do work in the industry so I didn’t complain as long they were making the pizza. A building without light and power is not authorized by law in any part of the world to work or be able to operate. I was not complaining about this at all. I went to the car grab my phone and flash the light to help them prep the pizza. When the pizza came out I politely request some prosciutto on top of my pizza . Out of blue light came back up. And so everyone was happy. One of the people added ham to my pizza . As italian men that I am, ham is not even close to prosciutto so I requested why the had ham to my pizza when I requested prosciutto. At the point the whole team started laughing at me. Closing time is at 9 pm and was still 8,15 pm. An hour before closing almost. So in this moment after being polite and as much understandable with the whole working team, I had reached my limit. So i asked them why they had the ham while I told them not too. I was in front of them, and they just did so to get rid of me. I told all of them to listen to customers and their request and one of them was so mad at the way I was confronting them, that he decided to follow me outside, asking me if I have a problem . He was very insulting and trying to confront me face to face till one his coworker came out and bring him in back to work. I do expect to hear back from you ASAP . Customer never needed to be treated like me. Especially when they are so available and helpful. If they don’t know the difference between ingredients they better work in a place where food is mediocre. I like this place a lot. I hope you can understand my frustration. If you have camera in the building you can check all of what I am saying. Till when he almost follow me to the...

Four of us dined in yesterday 2/26 right around 4:45ish. We ordered four pizzas, the pistachio, the one with salami and anchovies, the brussels sprouts pizza, and the ham and artichoke. Everything was delicious. My only gripe is that the pizza could be cooked just a touch more to give it a little crispness, but the chew and softness of the dough was wonderful, next time I will just ask it to be cooked a touch longer. All of the toppings we top notch and very creative, delightful flavor combinations. I personally didn't care for the anchovy pizza but my dad, who loves anchovies on pizza, raved about it. All four of us agreed that the pistachio pizza was our favorite, it was just transcendent. Everything on that pizza blended together to create a flavor experience that I have never had in pizza. Just as good as the pizza was the service, seriously huge props to the staff, especially for a counter service restaurant. Our food was delivered, the young gent got plates for us, we were checked on to see if everything was satisfactory, plates and trash were cleared from our table, and they let us use an adjacent table to put all of our pizzas on. If the owner or a manager reads this please give the staff that was working that night praise, you guys freakin' rock! Oh, almost forgot about the cannolis! We brought some home after gorging on pizza. They were fantastic. Not too sweet and very rich. The seasonal apple cinnamon one turned out to be the favorite, it was fabulous. On a last note, we were all pretty hungry and almost finished the four "small" pizzas, they were of good size and if your aren't starving I could see a small being enough to share for 2. Alas we were pigs and went crazy and were stuffed for hours. A++ Inizio, you knocked it out...

Inizio Pizza Napoletana: A Passion Project That Forgot the Pizza

Inizio’s branding reads like a love letter to Naples—a story of passion, research, tradition, and dough perfection. “Expert craft.” “Strict standards.” “Memories around the table.” But once you're actually in the restaurant, it all falls apart.

The dining room was nearly empty. And once the pizza arrived, it made sense.

Despite their claims of intense training and authentic Neapolitan methods, what I got was a soft, soggy pizza with bland structure and over-salted toppings. The crust lacked that signature Neapolitan char and airiness. The flavor felt lazy, not crafted. It didn’t transport me to Naples—it barely even got out of the parking lot.

They talk a lot about sourcing ingredients from Naples—San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, “00” flour—but what’s the point of importing world-class ingredients if you treat them like filler?

Even worse, the menu feels bizarrely narrow. Almost every pizza is loaded with pork—salami, sausage, prosciutto, anchovy—and little else. No chicken, no vegetarian centerpiece, no seafood options. And here’s the kicker: actual Neapolitan pizzerias in Italy offer more variety than this. In Naples, it’s not unusual to see pizzas with tuna, mushrooms, zucchini, artichokes, onions, or even egg—all perfectly traditional and all noticeably absent here.

So when the owner says they don’t offer certain toppings because they’re “not traditional,” it’s just not true. It’s not about tradition—it’s about a lack of creativity and an unwillingness to evolve.

Inizio wants to tell a story of passion and authenticity. But from what I tasted—and saw—this is less “artisanal pizza” and more “empty room with a wood-fired oven.” A lot of talk. Not a lot of...