Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana — Restaurant in Oxnard

This review isn’t about the food because the food is always stellar here! It’s also not about the service, which is hit and miss, depending on who’s working and serving you. It’s about the fact that I walked into the female restroom to a woman having to change her baby’s diaper on the bench! Diarrhea diaper on the floor, very little room to do anything… the poor woman and the poor baby! She was embarrassed about the diaper on the floor and remarked to me about it. The female restroom is always a mess at this place! There’s either no soap or paper towels all over the place, the sink is a mess, and it seems they very rarely attend to the female restroom. I may be out of left field but I do believe the 2 guys who started this place in Utah are from a State where no one understands more about baby needs in a public restroom; and in a litigious State like California, it baffles my mind as to why they do not have a changing table in the handicapped stall, or anywhere, so a mom can change her baby in privacy and have the space she needs. With everyone else in this State getting what they want, they truly missed the mark for moms. Tisk-tisk! I also want to mention that it’s completely disgusting that a food server (young chap with professionally curled hair and holding his jeans up with a piece of twine) chews blue bubble gum, letting it fall almost out of his mouth like he’s a movie star or a thug, and moving it all around over his tongue as if he were going to blow real bubbles with it every 5 seconds. I have no clue if there’s a rule about this in the food service industry, but if there isn’t, they’re definitely should be! First of all, from a professional stance, everyone knows you should not chew gum when you’re working. Second, it’s so gross watching someone do that with their gum all over the restaurant acting as if he is the best thing since sliced bread and I am just SO grateful he didn’t serve me my food! Who knows what could have been flying out of his mouth all over the food with the way he was smacking that blue...

The restaurant itself is nice with a vibrant vibe, there are pictures on the wall depicting very peculiar aspect of the Neapolitan Culture. Physically it's a very good place to dine in, but food and service are not.

I've been there on a Saturday evening with my teenage son. While looking up at the menu, I ordered a Negroni which arrived fast and was okay.

To start we had bruschetta and arancini, both of them were soggy and not crunchy as they were supposed to be, both the 2 capricciosa pizza we ordered weren't crunchy as well but really mushy.

Besides the fact that the food wasn't okay at all, what really surprised me was that while we were still eating our pizza the waitress handed us the check without before asking if we wanted something else. I think we are a good typology of patrons and when we go out for dinner we don't think twice to order dishes that stimulates our palate and we look for a full experience from appetizers to desert with myself ending everything with a good shot of liquor, so I told her that we hadn't finished yet and we wanted to order a cannoli and a shot of Fernet Branca, a very famous after dinner liquor used as a digestive.

She took the check back and without any hesitation replied that they didn't have the Fernet Branca.

She came back with the Cannoli and the updated check.

While my son was eating his cannoli, which was delicious, from my table amongst all the bottles at the bar I spotted same not very popular Italian liquors so I found really strange that they didn't have the Fernet Branca so I went closer and, guess what, the Fernet Branca was just there.

I told her that they had it and if I could get a shot of it. Without saying anything she took the check back again bringing an updated one together with a shot of Fernet Branca.

I would have expected a little apology and as a touch of class for what happened, being just a 7 bucks drink, no to not being charged for the Fernet.

Summarizing my review in few words I would say: "a very...

Settebello takes pizza in a new direction by cooking it in a high temperature, wood fired oven that typically results in a slightly chewy, smokey crust.

My family and I have been here several times over the last few years and typically enjoy the pizza but there are a few caveats.

First and foremost - it's expensive! For a personal sized pizza (~10", super thin crust), it's going to set you back $13-16. That's enough to feed one normal person...here, let me unpack that. My 6 year old eats one by himself. My 5 year old eats half of a pizza. I eat a pizza and a half and my wife eats a whole pizza. Having said that, without drinks, this place sets us back $50 for a bare bones meal with bare bones pizzas (Margherita). It would be nice to get some appetizers or dessert...or even a drink but frankly, it's just too expensive. The saving grace here is Margherita Mondays...starting at 6, they have Margheritas for $5 each which is a fair price for what's being served. Again...still sets us back $20...then add drinks etc and it's not a cheap meal...but fair for what we're getting.

The pizza. Most of the time we come here, it's pretty tasty but has been unreliable in the last few times we've visited. What does that mean? Sometimes it's too chewy (crust barely cooked), sometimes it's burned. Not just a few spots of black here and there...but burned to the point that it's crunchy and just tastes like smoke. That was my last time which prompted this review.

Net...you're probably 50% likely to have an awesome pizza at a high price...for Oxnard. If this were in LA, Pasadena...or somewhere nice, I could see fronting this price. But it's Oxnard. The flip side of that 50% is that your pizza is 50% likely to come out imperfectly cooked. I'll probably keep rolling the dice but this place lost it's luster for me after a few bad pizzas. At this price, it has to be...