13 Best Restaurants in Naples, Italy

Every pizzeria along Via dei Tribunali is worth the long wait—and trust us, all the good ones will be jam-packed—but just one can claim to have served a U.S. president: Bill Clinton enjoyed a margherita here when the G8 was held in Naples in 1994. Today the superlative pizzaioli (pizza makers) turn out a wide array of pizzas, all to the utmost perfection. Skip the calorie-counting and try the frittura, and you'll be pleasantly surprised with this mix of Neapolitan-style tempura featuring zucchini, eggplant, rice balls, and more. 

In the Neapolitan smorfia, a list of numbers used to analyse dreams (and play the lottery), 50 means bread, and kalò is the Greek for good. And good dough is on the menu here, with this airy pizzeria gaining accolades since opening in traffic-busy Piazza Sannazaro in 2014—the New York Times hailed the pizza among the best in Italy. Along with all the favorites, third-generation pizzaiolo Ciro Salvo’s creations include a selection of vegetable pizzas with locally sourced toppings including cabbage, pumpkin, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and capers. The wine list is worthy of the best restaurants.  

If you see a line of hungry-looking patrons between the Funicular stations of Toledo and Chiaia, you'll know you are close to Pizzeria Acunzo. To avoid anxious waits, many like to get here as soon as it opens at 7, just as the busier evening session starts. When ordering, note that few variations on the pizzas are permitted; but then owner Michele and his wife, Caterina, have been running the establishment since 1964 and have a tried-and-tested product, which is, as onetime diner Isabella Rossellini can confirm, fenomenale.

Considered the birthplace of pizza Margherita, it's also one of the most picturesque restaurants in Italy. Set on a cobblestone alleyway just off chic Via Chiaia, with an elaborate presepe in the window, it welcomes you with an enchanting wood-beam salon festooned with 19th-century memorabilia, saint shrines, gilded mirrors, and bouquets of flowers, beyond which you can see the kitchen and the pizzaioli at work. However, most of Naples stays away from this place, as the pizzas are admittedly better elsewhere. But there's no denying the decor is delizioso and if tourists like Luciano Pavarotti, Chelsea Clinton, Bill Murray, and Gerard Depardieu have dined here, it can be worth the stop to see a slice of pizza history.

In the 1954 film L'Oro di Napoli Sofia Loren sold fried pizza from a basso (a street-level room), something Concettina Flessigno Oliva had already been doing since three years earlier. Now one of Naples's most highly acclaimed pizzerias, her great-grandson's menu includes all the usual culprits as well as pizza wedges based on local in-season ingredients. Twenty-seven Pulcinella masks by renowned local artist Lello Esposito hang in the entrance, and a Nativity scene is perched over the proceedings in the long hall. If you add €2.50 to your bill you can partake in the tradition of pizza sospesa, a free meal for the next needy person to pass by. Gluten-free pizzas are also available.

You may recognize Da Michele from the movie Eat Pray Love, but for more than 140 years before Julia Roberts arrived, this place was a culinary reference point. Despite offering only two types of pizza—marinara (with tomato, garlic, and oregano) and margherita (with tomato, mozzarella, and basil)—plus a small selection of drinks, it still manages to draw long lines. The low prices may have something to do with it, but the pizza itself suffers no rivals, so even customers waiting in line are good-humored. The boisterous, joyous atmosphere wafts out with the smell of yeast and wood smoke onto the street; get a number at the door, and then hang outside until it's called.

There are a few restaurants called Sorbillo along Via dei Tribunali; this is the one with the crowds waiting outside and is world-renowned. Order the same thing the locals come for: a basic Neapolitan pizza (try the unique pizza al pesto or the stunningly simple marinara—just tomatoes and oregano). They're cooked to perfection by the third generation of pie makers who run the place. The pizzas are enormous, flopping over the edge of the plate onto the white marble tabletops. Be warned though, you'll have to line up for a while, but an entrepreneuring local often entertains the crowds with Neapolitan songs from a balcony.

For excellent pizza and a spectacular view, head to this hip little pie palace on the seaside promenade, on the corner of a street that includes more than 20 restaurants and bars. Locally grown or made peppers, olives, basil, prosciutto, ricotta, mozzarella, and other ingredients top a masterful wood-fired crust made with the lievito madre yeast starter. Nearly as tasty and just as tempting are such sinfully delicious snacks as the frittatina di maccheroni (macaroni frittata) and the potato croquettes. Enjoy them all, then walk along the lungomare to digest. In good weather there are few nicer places for people-watching and pizza eating than the outdoor patio at Gino Sorbillo.

The first restaurant to open on the seafront, this elegant pizzeria has been an essential hangout for Naples's gilded youth since 1994. Offering 36 kinds of pizza—including gluten-free—plus a fine selection of salads and an ample buffet make this a refreshing change from the more minimal pizzerie. The various stuffed pizzas named after kings are classics with a modern twist: try the Boccone di Re Ferdinando, filled with salsiccia (sausage), friarielli (broccoli rabe), and provola (smoked mozzarella) cheese, or the half-fried, half-oven cooked Re di Napoli.

Opposite the Palazzo Croce, home to the philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce, this is one of the city's most famous pizzerias, packed night after night. The young crowd heads down into the more boisterous basement, while the atmosphere upstairs is calmer and more congenial to conversation at standard decibel levels. On the ground floor you can watch the pizzaioli working the pizza dough, manipulating each pie as if it were a live creation. If it's not too cold there are tables outside on the pedestrian zone.

In a 17th-century mansion facing the grand Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, Palazzo Petrucci doesn't lack for dramatic settings for dining—under the vaulted ceiling of the former stables, near the pizzaiolo and oven action, outside in the piazza, or on the roof terrace at giuglia (obelisk) di San Domenico level. Expect classic pizze, pizze fritte, and some unusual topping combinations alongside heaped salads and antipasti.

A favorite haunt of students from the adjacent school of architecture, Giuliano has an old-style glass cabinet where the arancini are kept. These fried rice balls are the size of tennis balls, and you'll also find deep-fried pizzas, filled with mozzarella, tomato, prosciutto, or ricotta, which can fill that yawning void in your stomach—even if you have to sit down on the steps in the square afterward to recover.

Across the street from its archrival Da Michele—but without its lines stretching outside—this is a classic pizzeria with a simple yet upscale Art Nouveau ambience expressed in soothing tile and marble. More relaxed and upmarket than its rival, Trianon does the classics (Margherita, marinara) in an exemplary manner, but you can also feast on pizza with sausage and broccoli greens. The signature pizza Trianon comes with eight different toppings.