50 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. 

Chic and charming Da Cicciotto corrals more than a few members of the city's fashionable set—if you dine here, there's a fair chance you'll find a Neapolitan count or off-duty film star enjoying this jewel with a tiny stone terrace (with seats and a canopy) that overlooks a pleasant anchorage. You can also opt for the large covered patio across the way and appreciate the outdoor setting at either lunch or dinner. Don't even bother with a menu—just start digging into the sublime antipasti and go with the waiter's suggestions. Cicciotto sits at the end of the same long winding road that leads to the famed 'A Fenestella restaurant and shoreline.

Run by the Di Porzio family since 1916, Umberto is one of the city's classic restaurants, combining the classiness of its neighborhood, Chiaia, and the friendliness one finds in other parts of Naples. Try the paccheri 'do tre dita ("three-finger" pasta with octopus, tomato, olives, and capers); it bears the nickname of the original Umberto, who happened to be short a few digits. Owner Massimo and sisters Lorella and Roberta (Umberto's grandchildren) are all wine experts and oversee a fantastic cellar. Note that Umberto has been catering to diners with a gluten allergy, as well as to vegetarians for years.

This restaurant is perched overlooking a beach in Posillipo near the end of a long winding side road, and has long capitalized on its location. The landmark also comes with its own piece of Neapolitan folklore: in the 19th century the owner's great-grandmother Carolina was one day standing at the window (fenestella in the local dialect) and was spotted by musician Salvatore Di Giacomo below, thus inspiring the Neapolitan folk song "Marechiaro." Today, the restaurant is straightforwardly traditional, with comfortable decor and the usual suspects on the menu.

If you're trying to keep to a budget but want to enjoy a seafood feast alongside the yachts of the Borgo Marinaro harbor, head to this former tobacco store. While your eyes feast on all the pretty boats, the Lungomare hotels, the Castel dell'Ovo, and Vesuvius, you can savor classic Neapolitan seafood spaghetti or an impepata di cozze (mussels with pepper and garlic). Or just opt for the special made with the fish of the day.

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.  

Just off Via Toledo, this simple restaurant with outside tables in summer serves good pizza and other southern Italian favorites. Try the gamberoni alla Posillipo (prawns in a seafood sauce made with cherry tomatoes) or the pignatiello di mare (octopus, calamari, prawns, and other seafood on fried bread).

A hidden gem in the Quartieri Spagnoli, A Pignata is a favorite with locals for its typical Neapolitan cooking. Each antipasto of land and sea is a meal in itself, but save space for the grilled calamari or baccalà alla Siciliana, made with potatoes, tomatoes, olives, and capers. Wash it all down with a bottle from their extensive wine list.

Just off bustling Via Toledo on the basalti flagstones of a narrow Quartieri Spagnoli street, this small trattoria does superb-value, classic Neapolitan dishes. Take a seat at one of the small tables with checkered tablecloths and ask the amiable staff about the day's freshest seafood, meat, and vegetable dishes, while taking in the atmospheric surroundings.

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.

At Ambrosino, ideal for a quick snack, you can take your pick of the pizzas and pasta dishes, or ask the owners to whip up a panino made from the excellent cheeses, vegetables, and meats on display. The uniformly high-quality ingredients make up for this place's spartan surroundings.

Favored by meat eaters who can't abide another bite of bream, this dimly lit cozy dining den is known for dishes such as tender carpaccio with fresh artichoke hearts. There are also excellent house-made pasta selections, including orecchiette with chickpeas or alla barese (with chewy green turnips), but the highlights are the extravagant grilled meat plates. Finish up with a babà or slice of pastiera for desert.

A fave with Via dei Mille shoppers is Bar Guida, which offers you not only the luxury of being able to sit down, but also has a decent range of savory light meals.

On a rather dark side street in the scruffier section of the Centro Storico, this place is well worth seeking out for its combination of old-style Neapolitan hospitality and attention to the quality of its food and wine. The place is run as a family affair, much like a typical Neapolitan household, and everyone who comes here seems to know each other. The pasta with chickpeas is a must, and baccalà fritto (fried salt cod) is a specialty. Backed up with a selection of wines from all over Italy, this place is a great value.

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.

Just off Via Toledo, Ciro has been an obligatory entry on any list of the best of Neapolitan cooking (as opposed to cuisine) since 1930, when Toscanini and Pirandello used to eat here. Popular with business travelers, artists, and journalists, Ciro is famous for a variety of favorites, with an emphasis on rustic food, from very fine pizzas and justly famed versions of pasta e fagioli to the classic sartù—rice loaf first concocted by Baroque-era nuns—and the splendid pignatiello e vavella, shellfish soup. The menu, which includes gluten-free items, almost looks too large for all its items to actually be good, but the owners must be doing something right, as the place is often packed with Neapolitan regulars. The waiters are darling wherever you sit, but try to get a table upstairs, which has a more pleasant atmosphere.

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.

Despite its location up an unpromising-looking vicolo (alley) off the Riviera di Chiaia, this small restaurant has achieved cult status for its seafood platters. It's remarkable what owner-chef Renato can produce in his tiny kitchen: start with linguine alla Dora, laden with local seafood and fresh tomatoes, and perhaps follow up with grilled pezzogna (blue-spotted bream). Like many restaurants on the seafront, Dora has its own guitarist on busy nights, who is often robustly accompanied by the kitchen staff.

Since 1938, this place has been popular with kids (and decidedly not with health-conscious adults) thanks to its greasy brown-paper bags filled with deep-fried eggplant, zucchini, zucchini flowers, zeppole dough balls, and potato croquettes—the Neapolitan versions of French madeleines. Forget all that stuff about the Mediterranean diet being so healthy and indulge in some oil-drenched bliss.

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.

Connoisseurs often say the most refined pastries in town can be found at Gran Caffè Cimmino. Many of the city's lawyers congregate here, to celebrate or commiserate with crisp, light cannoli; airy lemon eclairs; choux paste in the form of a mushroom laced with chocolate whipped cream; and delightful wild-strawberry tartlets. There are also preprepared pasta dishes for a quick lunch.

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.

Within the picturesque Borgo Marinaro harbor, in the shadow of Castel dell'Ovo, it's as if you're eating aboard a transatlantic cruise ship. With the Bay of Naples nearby and Vesuvius in the background, you can understand the nautical decor, blue tablecloths, and the menu abrim with fish delicacies. (Foodies should also note that this was the site of the Roman villa of Lucullus, the moneyed aristocrat famous for his passion for luxurious dining.) A best bet is the schiaffoni with astice and pescatrice (large flat tube pasta with lobster and angler fish), or one of the tasty pizzas, but leave room for the dolce of the day (great house-made tiramisu or pear cake with ricotta). If after one too many limoncellos you feel like crashing, just head upstairs and book one of the bright and airy guest rooms in the hotel.

This stylish place took the Naples dining scene by storm a few years back, and it remains popular thanks to the innovative cuisine of master chef Diego Nuzzo. A bar runs the length of the restaurant, where salami and other glorious tidbits are served. But for the real deal, take a table and be pampered with subtle dishes such as insalata di aragosta e gamberi alla catalana (lobster and prawn salad garnished with citrus). Large groups can book a private room.

The premise of this innovative eatery is to weigh the delicacies diners choose from the adventurous buffet and charge by the pound. In recent times they have introduced a menu of fixed-price bowls, a Neapolitan variation of Hawaiian poke—the squisita (exquisite) includes rice, octopus, hummus, and cherry tomatoes, and there is also a vegan option. The open kitchen looks over a large communal high table with stools, and outdoor seating overlooks the throbbing Piazza Beliini.

At this perfect place for a lunchtime snack, you point to what you want in the tempting glass counter, and pay for it at the cash desk. Among the specialties are the usual frittura, tangy cheese pies (sfoglino al formaggio), pizza scarola (an escarole pie with black olives), and slices of omelets stuffed with spinach, peppers, or onions. If you can't find a seat, you can stand against the wall, as some customers do, or just get your order to go and enjoy your meal outside.