Napoletana Pizzeria, Mountain View

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Napoletana Pizzeria 1910 W. El Camino Real Mountain View, CA 94040 650-969-4884 Napoletana Pizzeria Website

Napoletana Pizzeria is a new Naples style pizzeria in Mountain View. This unlikely strip mall location (Next to Cost Plus World Market), houses a low key, authentic thin crust Neapolitan pizza place. We first learned about this place from a thread on Chowhound. As the waitress put it, these authentic pizzas cook for about 90 seconds in their 900° wood burning oven. Our last visit was Summer 2019.

Cuisine – Italian
Chef – Vera Pizza Napoletana certified chef
Location – Mountain View

Opened – 2011

Decor, Vibe – Napoletana Pizzeria is a small restaurant with about 12 tables and a large wood burning oven in the back with stacks of Italian Caputo 00 flour next to it. The place was very loud when it was filled up.

Napoletana Menu

Napoletana Pizzeria Menu has for salads, seven pasta dishes, and nine different pizzas. A much wider ranging menu then some pizza specialists.

Signature Dishes – Margherita pizza

Website Napoletana Pizzeria Menu

Full Napoletana Pizzeria image set

Napoletana Picks:

Ask for the hot freshly baked ciaabatta bread roll! In 2019 they charged $0.50.

Insalata Tricolor con Parmigiano ($11) arugula, belgian endive, radicchio, dried cranberries was a large entree sized salad but a bit on the sweet side.

Insalata Caesare ($9) with grilled chicken ($4) Romaine lettuce with croutons and parmesan in a homemade Caesar dressing bucks the trend of the heavily dressed classic Caesar. This excellent salad had a light dressing that was not creamy, crunchy romaine, and a huge layer of thinly cut excellent chicken. Not on the menu in 2019.

Insalata Noci e Gorgonzola ($12) (walnut and gorgonzola) Radicchio, Belgian endive, watercress, dried cranberries, and arugula topped with gorgonzola and walnuts in a homemade apple cider vinaigrette dressing. This is a better bet than the Caesare.  Not too sweet, but balanced. Fairly generous portion too.

Cappellini alla Checca ($17) fresh chopped tomato, basil, extra virgin olive oil and garlic with penne instead, was a large pasta dish done just fine.

Carbonara Spaghetti ($17) with pancetta, egg, parsley, parmesan and extra virgin olive oil surprised us. This very good and simple looking pasta was homemade, possess thin noodles that were cooked until al dente.

Fettuccine alla Bolognese ($18) Fettuccine with minced beef meat and tomato sauce hit the spot.  Wider noodles cooked very al dente and made from dry pasta.  Really nice sauce, but a bit watery.

Rigatoni alla Pasqualona Rigatoni ($18) with Italian sausage, rapini (broccoli rabes) in extra virgin olive oil and garlic sauce. Penne like pasta tubes with some high quality sausage bits. Very Al dente, which was fantastic in our opinion.

Salsiccia a Funghi ($20) is a sausage and mushroom pizza with a lot of ground up sausage.  Quality is decent although the center was pretty damp.

Margherita pizza ($16) Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil, parmesan and extra virgin olive oil possess a wet and droopy center, a chewy edge, excellent high quality mozzarella cheese, a light tomato sauce, very light charring, and a very thin crust. Clearly he knows how to make the pizza. This is about as close to Naples as you can get around San Francisco. Compare this to our review of Pizzeria Starita in Naples.

Napoletana pizza ($19) Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, Italian homemade sausage, basil, parmesan and extra virgin olive oil was our favorite pizza of the evening. The same great crust and awesome cheese along with some perfect ground up sausage.

Del Cafone pizza ($19) Italian home made sausage, rapini (broccoli rabes), smoked mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil (no tomato sauce). A nice variant from the stellar margherita. The ground up sausage was exceptional.

Prosciutto e Funghi ($19) Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil, parmesan, mushrooms topped with Parma prosciutto and extra virgin olive oil was the weakest of the three pizzas. Although the crust and cheese were, the mushrooms seemed pretty pedestrian and the prosciutto wasn’t of the highest quality.

Tiramisu ($6) Layers of Espresso soaked ladyfingers, cream and mascarpone cheese dusted with cocoa powder was heavily spiked and clearly homemade. Very smooth and not as creamy as most versions.

OK: (Order if you like this dish)
None

Pans: (We would not reorder these dishes)
None

Service – The place had two servers that were overworked and still getting in sync, resulting in fair service. They tried hard but there were long waits with no contact and the food took a long time to arrive. With one pizza oven, this is a common occurrence.

Value – Prices are in line with our expectations and frankly a lot lower than artisan pizza – pasta places in San Francisco.

Alternatives – San Francisco’s touristy Tony’s Pizza has similar authentic pizza. The Neapolitan pizza here is far better than most places in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Recent pizza and pasta restaurants like flour and water have more rounded menus and possibly better and more imaginative pasta, but don’t match the authentic pizza here.

Verdict – Napoletana Pizzeria serves up stellar authentic pizza and solid pasta sure to satisfy any pizza foodie. Prices are reasonable.
Limited wine list with glasses of wine from $7, bottles of wine from $24.

Restaurant Map: