Sapori di Napoli — Restaurant in Monterey

This review is based on a restaurant that is just opening. After a soft opening they had issues with there POS system and actually had to shutdown. So this is a "reopening" which just happened yesterday. Mentioning this because everyone is new there. The staff, the cooks, etc. They're still dialing things in as any new restaurant would have to do. We believe some of the current reviewers may not have been aware that this restaurant had literally just opened the day they visited.

With that said, we found the food to be very authentic, we know our Italian. Real Italian food is nothing like US-based Italian restaurants.

Portions were so large that you'll have enough to take home for another meal. The calamari was very well done. Very light on the flower, and fried to perfection. The red sauce that comes alongside it was not overpowering in any way.

The chicken parmesan was very well made. The breading on the chicken was very good. The only thing I would suggest would be sliced mozzarella versus shredded. But that's a personal preference.

The fettuccine bolognese was very good. Plenty of meat sauce that was well seasoned with linguine that I believe was freshly made in house. (If not it's really good quality pasta.)

Two typical desserts for an Italian restaurant, Tiramisu and Cannolis. Unfortunately, the Tiramisu was still being made this evening and thus wasn't ready for serving. The Cannoli was nothing special, but I feel it was overpriced.

We found the atmosphere to be to our liking, however they really should replace the artwork they put on the walls. They look like posters behind plexiglass. It doesn't help the acoustics of the building and if they would replace those with canvas, paintings or even prints it would help with some sound absorption not to mention have a better look.

The owner greeted us at the door, and we had our service dog with us. The owner stopped before he reached us, knowing he was a service dog, and asked permission if he can be petted while "working". Funny part is we don't believe the waitress ever noticed the 80 lb service dog laying next to the wall. Then again part of this job is to not be noticed.

All in all we will be back, and hope to see things dialed in even more. We give the owner(s) credit for opening an authentic Italian restaurant in Monterey, Tennessee!

Update 12/24/24... Yes you read that right. We went back to the restaurant on Christmas Eve. It was a pleasant experience for sure. Staff was very attentive, food was excellent, and the portions were again to the point that we need to bring them home for leftovers. All in all the restaurant is doing well a number of weeks later...

Holy moly, I didn't think I'd ever taste REAL Italian food again! We had given up on trying "Italian" (aside from delicious pizza at Marioochi's) restaurants after being tainted by the military in Napoli years ago. It was all too Americanized here, not quite right, and too expensive for the trouble. When Sapori di Napoli opened last year I was cautiously optimistic that it might actually be decent when I saw the founder is from Napoli himself. This is by far the best Italian food outside the country itself. The pasta is done al dente and you can tell everything is made fresh there. They bring warm crusty bread with infused oil for dipping and it got me very excited for the rest of the food.

We started with the calamari and it's so lightly breaded and crisp, the rings were not over cooked and had the perfect chew. The tomato sauce was nice and bright but really the squid was so good it didn't need anything else on it.

I got the linguini alla pescatore s angelo, it had shrimp, clams, mussels, and calamari in a light oil tomato sauce. They were out of clams so they said they would put a little extra of everything else on it. Heavenly. The first bite took me right back. All the seafood was cooked perfect and juicy and sauce... it's so simple but they pack it with flavor. Some kind of voodoo magic, I'm sure.

My husband got rigatoni salsiccia funghi which was simply packed with the sausage. It was so rich and the meat filled every bite. He thoroughly enjoyed it all. We were just sad that the busboy was so on his game, he saw us packing away our leftovers and swooped up our plates before we could greedily sop up every last morsel of sauce with the crusty bread 🤣

We ordered their fresh made tiramisu to go and it also was mind blowing. The prices are a bit steep, but we got 3 meals apiece (granted we're trying to be good about eating less. We really wanted to devour all the leftovers at once but adding a salad at home we spread it out well), and honestly you can taste the quality there. It is more than worth it, and literally everyone leaving had containers of leftovers.

I don't know if they take reservations. They're only open for dinner and we did have a little wait getting there around 5:30 on a Saturday but it wasn't bad. I honestly can't...

I don't understand the great reviews. Maybe Monterey residents are so starved for restaurants, they're willing to give this one a pass. Our party of 6 were met by the manager who raved about the chef from Italy. We expected great things but were sorely disappointed. Just because the chef is from Italy doesn't mean he can cook. Only one person didn't complain about the food. She only goes to restaurants that have pork chops. That's what she ordered but didn't say if she enjoyed it. The veal parm was dry, 2 of us had Spaghetti al Nero (squid ink pasta). It lacked salt (any good chef should know how to salt the pasta water). And squid ink pasta should taste a little briny, but this didn't. The 4th plate was some kind of veal which our friend didn't finish. The worst was the grilled chicken with mixed vegetables. We were told one of the specials was lasagna. The server came back and said it was out - Tuesday nite at 6pm and they're out of lasagna? The chicken dish was the backup. The chicken was pounded thin and overcooked. The grilled zucchini and eggplant were undercooked and the tomato was mushy. And for some odd reason (which was missed by all of us) this was the only chicken dish that wasn't served with pasta. The server didn't say that when the order was placed. We insisted on a side of pasta with extra marinara sauce to make the chicken and vegetables palatable. We asked for salt and told they don't offer it to the table. Two of our friends don't like olive oil and asked for butter for the bread. We were told they don't have butter. Where we live in Michigan, every Italian restaurant (upscale or family style) offers a salad with dinner and salt and butter if requested. Here it's alacarte.The arrogance of the chef is apparent in the prices. The website invites you to "savor the taste of Italy". This place doesn't come close to offering delicious...