Bella Napoli
August 21, 2010
R and I decided to have lunch at Bella Napoli Pizzeria in Edgehill village. The folks at Valentino’s on West End opened Bella Napoli this August, building on Nashville’s wave of Italian wood-fired pizza, following the likes of City House and Porta Via. Bella Napoli is a great addition to the 12th south, Belmont, Vandy neighborhood, and to the Nashville pizza scene. The pizzeria has a large dining room and roomy outdoor seating area, with just-delivered patio furniture. I ordered the Margherita Pizza ($9). The crust was thin and crispy on the edges and the tomato sauce was tart and flavorful, not like the overly sweet sauce in American pizza. My only complaint was the sad piece of basil, wilted and brown on the corner of the pizza. I am looking forward to eating the left overs for breakfast. R had the San Gennaro panini with a healthy portion of prosciutto crudo, mozzarella, and marinated egg plant ($10). The flavors on the sandwich were great, and the eggplant was a real standout. R noted that bread was especially delicious. The side salad, mostly colorless pieces of lettuce, and the chips were a real miss. I think they should just serve the sandwich on its own. It is quite substantial.
While the place is great for lunch I think it needs to work on its atmosphere to attract dinner patrons. Also, while we were there “That’s Amore” was on repeat.
August 22, 2010 at 8:48 am
Is this a thumbs up right? Glad to hear it. I love a good piece of pizza! I am not one for sandwiches, but I love pizza!
August 22, 2010 at 10:28 am
Cool…we’ll need to get down there soon. How does it rate next to Porta Via?
August 22, 2010 at 6:50 pm
The only pizza I had at Porta Via had inferior meats. I would have to compare margherita to margherita. I think Bella Napoli needs to work on the crispiness of the center of their crust. But I enjoyed my pizza. I’ll look forward to what y’all think soon.
August 25, 2010 at 10:55 am
How many times did you go there?
August 27, 2010 at 1:03 pm
I only went there once. Did you have a different experience river view?
September 6, 2010 at 7:30 pm
VerY pizza is only to Naples, MY FRIENDS!!!
September 6, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I can’t WAIT to try this place. I’m so glad we are getting great pizzeria’s like this one and porta via in Nashville!
Best, Vivek
http://viveksurti.wordpress.com
September 7, 2010 at 6:18 pm
No, I’ve never even been to the place. *But* in the grand scheme of things, one visit is not a fair assessment of an establishment. You could have been there on a bad day – we all have them you know. Three trips to review is a lot more democratic. Who knows, maybe you are right. But at one visit with a neutral / negative review, you operate more on the level of gossip or bully pulpit. Real critics would never do that.
Just sayin’
September 7, 2010 at 6:56 pm
We typically write a review after the first visit and then follow up if a second visit proves different. Our review of Bella Napoli is quite positive. The food is great but the atmosphere needs work for dinner. I support professional food critics who get paid to eat out. While we love food and love to eat and write about it, we are a blog. Subscribe to the Tennessean, read the Scene, and read us all together. The more we support professional journalists the better. Thanks for reading our blog.
May 9, 2011 at 6:37 am
I ate there and felt “mixed.” I didn’t like the salad because it was more a greek salad than Italian. My friend’s Pancetta Pizza was extremely extremely salty and should have gone back to the kitchen. My Margherita pizza was good, just not great. Basil was hard to find. My husband’s white pizza w sausage was the best thing. We’ve eaten lots of pizza in Italy, so we had a standard. They have the oven and good crust. I think they need to tweek their ingredients. I do think you can write a blog post after one visit, because bloggers can’t go to a place three times in the real world. It’s still fair and up to the reader to realize this is a blogger, not a paid food critic, and all information must be viewed in its perspective.