Napolese Pizzeria — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Keystone Location.

I had been here once before on the invitation of a great client. The experience was much much different the first time. This second time I ordered carry out. The gal told me it would be 15 minutes. Great...not a problem. I arrived in 20 minutes and waited at the hostess stand for 10 minutes before letting myself into the bar. Multiple waitstaff and culinary crew made eye contact with me, but kept going about their business. As I arrived to the bar, the gal behind the bar left, but proceeded to return a few more times so that she could refill from the draft pour behind the bar. While I was waiting...the guest to my right finished her meal and left..and the guest to my left finished up and was waiting to tab out. The entire time that I was at the bar, I stood and didn't seat myself so that I could be more visible. After another 10 minutes a gentleman did walk up as if everything was normal and offered me a menu. I simply stated that I was here for pick up and he presented me with the bill. I paid full price without saying a word and waited for the female manager to finally arrive with my box. I took the box and on a whim opened to check it. It was supposed to be a Casanova pizza...but it honestly looked like bread, some cheese, and a little bit of dried up prosciutto... I didn't know what to do at that point because I didn't want to wait around again, so I put crushed red pepper and Parmesan cheese on the pizza from the container on the bar and left. I hadn't eaten in over 12 hours and decided to have a piece of the pizza in the car....it was literally nothing but cardboard. Disgusted I walked back into the restaurant, waited at the hostess stand some more, and then a male server came up and asked if I needed anything. I opened the box and asked if this is what the pizza was supposed to look like...looking at it he immediately remarked that I was missing a few items off of the pizza and that he would go speak to the sous chef. Honestly...I'm here for pizza...pizza places don't have sous chefs. I told him above the din of the loud reggae music that it was fine. I then proceeded to go across the parking lot, order a bowl of lobster bisque, a wedge salad, a $18 glass of wine, a 14 oz. New York Strip medium with a brandy peppercorn sauce, a side of mashed potatoes and topped it off with a great creme brulee that I couldn't finish. I was still in my work outfit and was slightly embarrassed to be sitting around people with suits and cocktail dresses on, but I didn't care. When their sous chef came out and randomly asked me how everything was...I honestly didn't have a single bad thing to say. That entire experience lasted as long as the previous one...cost me $130 more...and left me satisfied beyond words. My suggestion...hire quality staff, spruce up the menu, add value to the menu, and don't try to make it some New York Urban Cultural experience. The ambiance isn't conducive to the music. At the end of the day, I just...

Ate at the Keystone location. This place could have been amazing. The flavors are all there. But their chefs don't understand the cooking process and how certain foods affect others.

Menu- I'm not sure why they charge you an arm and a leg to create your own pizza. I mean each topping was $3-4. So you could spend over $20 on your own 3 topping pizza while the their set menu creations were in the $14 range. I really don't get that. Almost insulting to customers, as they did not allow substitutions for toppings on their set menu.

First off their chopped salad was delicious and the portion was plentiful. Perfect for sharing between 2-4 people. I seen some other tables order the salad that came with quinoa and I think most people were a bit miffed that they paid $10 for a pile of quinoa. I mean it was a mountain of the stuff with some veggies mixed in.

On to the pizza. We did not try any of their crazy topping creations. None of them seemed very appetizing for a pizza. We got the Hamakers. Came with some pepperoni, bacon, sausage, and mushrooms. Flavors were really good. However the execution was terrible. Soggy pizza crust that fell apart in your hands. Toppings and cheese not evenly distributed amoung the six slices. If your selling Artisan pizza then care and craftsmanship should be at the forefront of your food. Its needs to come out looking perfect. I'm not sure who's idea it was to put whole mushrooms on a pizza. They hold too much water and thus release that water in the cooking process. Hence the soggy crust in the middle. Also their pepperoni slices while delicious were too large or thick. Which resulted in a greasy concoction in the middle of the pizza. Which also contributed to a soggy crust. Its the finer details that can sink a good pizza. They serve thin crust pizzas, so too much moisture ruins a good thing. They need to re-think some of their practices. Unfortunately this wont' happen as they have no shortage...

Like many (all?) of my experiences at a Patachou eatery, the service and ambiance are good but the food leaves much to be desired. The focaccia was underdeveloped, under seasoned, and undercooked. That, combined with an olive oil that had a distinctly oxidized aftertaste, made this the only bread order of which I've ever refused a second plate. The Caesar salad was better, in that there were no obvious detractors. Our first pizza was the "cacio e pepe", though I'm not sure why a goat cheese & asparagus pizza (normally with jowl bacon, we had ours without) should be named after an exclusively cheese-and-pepper pasta. Sadly the crust/dough couldn't redeem any misnomers - the best parts had the texture and consistency of a fry bread where it had been brushed with oil, but inadequate chew/stretch or bubbling to be accurate to Napolese-style pizza and a collapsed, nearly cracker like crumb. The second pizza, the burrata margherita, should have saved the day, as the sauce, burrata, and basil were great. But it is served uncut despite obviously needing to be sliced before eating (they give you a useless half-serated steak knife to mangle it with), and the technical demerits of the dough compounded the frustration. The resulting bites were representative of the meal overall: technically edible, far...