Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria, Anaheim

June 7th, my family and I ate at Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria, located in Downtown Disney.

Outside of the restaurant and the scary masked pizza maker

1565 S. Disneyland Dr.
Anaheim, Ca 92802
(714) 776-6200

Here is the mosaic on the floor in front of the entrance way. I thought this looked pretty cool.

The reasons why we went here were because:

(1) My sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece were staying at the California Grand Hotel by Downtown Disney because we went to Disneyland the day before, hence us having lunch in that area.

(2) Originally we had chosen the House of Blues, but they had Gospel Sunday Brunch and no one in my family seemed to want to do that.

(3) Cheesecake Factory, which was about 5 minutes from Downtown Disney, would have probably been crowded and the wait for a table of 13 would have been quite horrible.

(4) Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria was basically right next door to the hotel, so it was very convenient for the little ones and everyone else that was going likes Italian food, so that is how we chose this place.

Luckily, whenever I go to Downtown Disney or Disneyland, I always walk passed this place so I had a slight recollection of where it was or else my parents, who walked ahead, probably would have had a bit of trouble finding it (it also helped because my sisters pointed it out the day before XD). My other sister and I stayed behind and waited for my aunt and her family to come with my grandma and when they came, we walked together to the restaurant. I think that was good thinking on my part to wait and walk with them since no one in my aunt's family had been to Downtown Disney. It is not like they would not have found the place, but I think it would have taken them a bit.

Me snapping a picture while walking toward the table.

When we got there, my sister had already ordered a bit of food (Cesar Salad and Minestrone Soup) and placed an order for two pizzas, 2 bowls of mussels, and 2 orders of fried calamari. I got to have the last few bites of my sister's salad and I have to say that I was quite impressed. It was not drowned in dressing like the other salads I have had and it had a lot of garlic flavor, which I like. The bread and flavored oil dip was really good too. The oil had a bit of cheese, spices, and hot pepper flakes to give it a bit of a kick. The only thing that would have made that better would be if the bread was nice and warm, but it was not.

Now for the rest of the meal:

Mussels in a tomato broth and crispy bread
Taste: The broth was nice for dipping bread into, but I was not too impressed with the mussels. I think they were a bit over cooked, but then again, I am not really a mussel person, so maybe I just didn't really care for it. My grandma ate a bunch though, so I am sure the mussels were good.

Fried Calamari
Taste: The batter was light and crispy and the squid was tender. The dipping sauce was really thick though. The white sauce was a bit like mayonnaise, so I am guessing it was like a aioli, but I didn't think it was that good with the calamari because it was like a glob on the pieces. My sister really liked that sauce though and she didn't seem to have the same globbing problem as me. The red sauce was a tomato based sauce, but I think they might have added some cream or milk to make it that color (like cream of tomato soup). That one had more flavor, but I still didn't care for that one too much. I just ate it with a little lemon juice drizzled on the pieces.

Pizza with olives, pepperoni, sausage, and some veggies.
Taste: Thin crust pizza with toppings. I am not a huge fan of pizza, so this one was an okay tasting pizza, but I think it was very much the same as a lot of other pizzas I have tried. I did like that thin crust though.

Pizza with sausage and roasted peppers
Taste: Again, not a big fan of pizza, but I liked the flavor of this one a lot more than the other one. The roasted peppers were sweet and with the sausage, cheese and thin pizza crust, it was a very nice mixture.

My slice of sausage and roasted pepper pizza that I ate.

As we were getting served all of these dishes, we decided to order more because not everyone wanted pizza (I know I wanted something else). This is what we got:

Pasta Carbonara
My cousins and I decided to split this. I knew I was not going to finish a dish on my own and my cousin wanted to try this and his sister agreed, so we all decided just to share.
Look: The dish looked really interesting because it was served with a poached egg , but we didn't really know what to do with it, so I just mashed it and mixed it in.
Taste: Really heavy in cream and cheese and bacon. All I could taste was bacon. I know that carbonara is a supposed to be like that or something like that, but oh my goodness, none of us could really eat it. It was just too much. Needless to say, I got to take home the left overs and I added more pasta to it and it was better because there were more noodles to spread around in the sauce. That made it better.

Pasta pesto with shrimp and heirloom tomatoes
My sister ordered this.
Taste: Pesto. It was oily, no doubt, but the taste was not really strong and it was actually really good, especially when you ate it with the tomatoes. It gave it a sweet and refreshing taste. I think there should have been a lot more tomatoes in there XD

Chicken penne pasta
My aunt, who is lactose intolerant, ordered this not knowing that there was a lot of cheese in it. Needless to say, she did not eat much of it.
Taste: Cheesy with a creamy tomato sauce. It was very rich, but I think it was not as rich as that Pasta Carbonara dish. The chicken pieces were tender and went well with the pasta. The only thing I think it was missing was having some vegetables in it. Maybe some fresh tomatoes.

Pork loin over roasted green onions with bean and vegetable mash
My dad and grandmother ordered the same dish.
Look: The loins were cooked to medium...a little too rare for my dear grandmother, so we sent it back to be prepared well done.
Taste: The flavor of the pork loin was really good. The herbs that were rubbed on the outside and the smoky grill taste were melded very well. I did not care for the strange vegetable and meat mixture though. It was not very pretty and though the taste was not bad, starchy beans and slightly crisp vegetables don't really go well together in my opinion. My one year old niece loved it though. I think it was close to the consistency of baby food, but she knew that it was adult food, so she was very excited. The roasted green onions were very tasty as well, but it was a little weird that they were there under the meat since that flavor didn't really for with the pork or those beans.

Overall, the restaurant was pretty nice and the food was pretty good. I would go back for the bread and dipping sauce, Cesar salad, and the pork without all those other things on the plate. The only thing I did not really like was the fact that our waitress did a pretty poor job on checking if we needed anything...like WATER. Not only did she not bring enough glasses, but she never checked if we needed more...and we were sitting outside in the sun. Thanks! It was probably because we had such a large party and she was guaranteed her gratuity, which I don't think she entirely earned. I should have just told her to leave us a bunch of pitchers and not to come back.