Fiorella's Trattoria — Restaurant in Lexington

oddddddddio!! I lived in Napoli for years & am dead convinced they have the best food in the whole country (and therefore world), & have spent the last decade in the US looking for anything remotely close to Napoletano cuisine. To my frustration & despair! This is literally the closest I’ve come to a genuine Napoletano pizza - that farina 00 thin crust that’s crispy & chewy without being heavy in your gut, so you can enjoy a large pizza without eating the loaf of fried sandwich bread that is American pizza (soz) 😣. Savoury sauce that’s juicy & fresh & real, NOT the stuff loaded w chemicals & preservatives that retains its form when dumped out of a can (like refried beans or cranberry jelly). Mozzarella is on point & I’m sure the owners are well aware that can’t be replicated outside of Campania, so I appreciate that caprese is NOT on the menu (although I’ve found my closest approximation by setting out a tub of Bel Goioso ciliegine & some sugar bomb cherry tomatoes in the morning, then before dinner drain the ciliegine & combine w the tomatoes halved, + salt/pepper/olio/basilico fresco 👌 gets those rubbery juicy flavours & textures prettttty close). They even custom made my favourite Napoletano pizza, Diavola con Cipolla, using diavola pasta sauce, prosciutto, onions & mozz. The tagliatelle bolognese was also on point & next time I hope to order it as gnocchi bolognese. Yes this review is entirely too long but I’ve spent 10 years looking all over the US for anything that tastes & feels like Napoli, casually while travelling & intensely in the places I’ve lived. Always disappointing (upside at least: my home chef skills are bangin). I have NEVER ordered from an “Italian” restaurant twice. But these guys make actual Italian food - and actual Napoletano pizza - y’all gonna see me here a LOT. Dang near brought me to tears eating that diavola con cipolla, it brought back years of incredible memories 💚 Sto vivace nel cuore...

I have dined at other Fiorella's restaurants in Belmont and Concord and was happy that they opened a Lexington Center location (Lexington Center has a lack of good mid-priced restaurants for some reason). The food at this location is as good as the other locations. Fresh ingredients and well prepared and a good wine list. The last time I ate here I was disturbed by the kitchen playing loud music that conflicted with the soothing music in the dining room. I asked the bartender to please have the kitchen music turned off. It was turned off for few minutes, but was turned up again. It feels like the cooks prioritize their enjoyment over the customer. I asked the to speak with the manager. He promised that this would not happen again. Unfortunately the manager was not friendly. He was actually kind of hostile and cold. So much for hospitality. I'll try this location one more time, but if the situation does not improved, I will...

We ordered 2 large cheese pizzas for take out for ourselves and 2 friends. They were delicious. My complaint was that the crust was very, very thin and not crispy at all. It tasted good, but when I picked up a slice the bottom just flopped down it was that thin. I thought they had a special pizza oven that was supposed to cook pizza quickly and very crispy, but these 2 pizzas were thin and totally not crispy. I am usually full after 2 slices of pizza but I easily ate 3 slices and could have eaten a 4th, and I think that was due to the thinness of the crust. Again, the taste was delicious, I was just disappointed by how...