Via Napoli
We spent our day in the Magic Kingdom, where we grabbed two snacks from one of the popcorn carts by Little Mermaid in the afternoon before our late reservation at Via Napoli.
Nic and I split a Mickey bar, which came broken (hence the pouty face), while Jacques had a frozen lemonade.
The lemonade was very standard frozen lemonade fare and the Mickey bar was just as delicious as an unbroken one.
We got to Via Napoli 15 minutes early for our 7:00 ADR and waited for 45 minutes for them to seat us. It was by far the longest wait of our trip to get a table.
Once we sat down, our server was in absolutely no hurry to do anything. I'm not a big fan of being rushed through my meal, but we were pretty hungry, so I was hoping to get our order for appetizers in quickly.
He came over like five minutes after we were seated, and I tried to order our apps at the same time as the drinks, but he just walked away while I was in the middle of trying to order. We were pretty confused by that, but whatever.
He brought our waters and I tried to order again, but he just wandered off again. It was the weirdest thing.
It was probably ten more minutes before he brought our drinks, and by that point, I was really antsy to order and getting annoyed. Then he says "Are you guys
finally ready to order?" and I wanted to scream.
Instead, as politely as possible, I put in our appetizers, but by this point, I also really just wanted to get our entrees put in too, so I ordered my entree at the same time. He said he'd come back for entree orders, but I insisted on them being put in because I didn't want to risk his strange disappearances again.
We finally got our appetizers at 8:45, two hours after arriving at the restaurant. This was the salad and bread they served with the appetizers. They were both good, but nothing out of this world.
Fritto di Verdura
crisp fried vegetables, marinara piccante
$8.00
This was Jacques' pick, and he really enjoyed it. The batter wasn't as heavy as some places have, and we'd definitely order it again.
Prosciutto e Melone
prosciutto di parma, canteloupe
$10.00
Nic and I decided to split two apps. First, this prosciutto and canteloupe. This is something I absolutely love, but it's kind of hard to mess up as long as your ingredients are good quality. They were, and this was delicious. I love the salty meat and sweet fruit combination.
Arancini
fried risotto balls filled with mozzarella and meat ragù
$13.00
These were one of the big reasons I wanted to come, and they didn't disappoint. They were pretty filling, but even Jacques had some and we all cleaned the plate easily.
We finished eating and waited a while for our server to bring the entrees. Jacques was pretty exhausted, so we asked to put our desserts in as soon as possible. The restaurant was clearing out and we had already missed Illuminations at that point. We'd hoped a 7pm ADR would get us out in time to watch it, but apparently not, since our food finally got there at 9:10. We also hadn't managed to get a single drink refill.
Spaghetti e Polpettine
hand-crafted veal meatballs and tomato sauce
$21.00
Jacques loves meatballs, so this was his choice. He declared it "alright" with a shrug. The portion size was pretty big and he didn't even come close to finishing it. I didn't try any though.
Lasagne Napoletana
beef, veal, and pork ragù, fresh egg pasta, bechamel, baked in our signature wood-fired ovens
$27.00
This was Nic's choice, and I did have a small bite. It was pretty good, but Nic said he'd order something different next time because it wasn't good enough to warrant a second time.
Margherita 10" Individual
tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil
$18.00
I just went with a standard fare Margherita pizza because I love it other places. It was a lot soggier than I was expecting, but I still devoured it. I'm a deep dish girl, so any thin crust is technically against my background, but it was still okay. I'd definitely try it again to see if maybe I just got a weirdly cooked one, though.
So, our entrees were dropped off at 9:10 and I put our dessert order in then. I asked for them to bring out the desserts and the check as soon as they were ready, even if we were still eating our entrees, because we just wanted to get out of there and get to sleep since we were rope dropping the next morning.
We didn't get our desserts until 9:55 and that was only because I went up to the front and asked to speak to a manager because we literally never saw our server again after he dropped off the entrees.
No refills ever during the meal, no checking in, nothing. We didn't even see him around the restaurant after that. I didn't even want the desserts by that point, I just wanted to leave the restaurant.
Coppetta di Gelato
chocolate or vanilla Italian sundae
$5.00
Jacques just wanted some ice cream, so he got this off the kids' menu. It was pretty standard, nothing special, but he only ate a few bites because he was falling asleep in my lap.
Gelati e Sorbetto
vanilla, chocolate, pistachio gelato; lemon sorbet
$10.00
Nic got the chocolate gelato, because he loves it, and this didn't disappoint him at all.
Gelato Frizzante
ice cream soda “Italian-style” made with San Pellegrino aranciata and vanilla gelato
$11.00
Despite my utter annoyance at everything going on and my insistence to Nic that I didn't even want dessert, I still drank about half of this when it was delivered and it was really good. I used to get something similar at a restaurant we went to often when I was a kid.
Finally, we got out of the restaurant just after 10. It was so late that I got an unexpected experience: we had to wait at the drawbridge for the Illuminations barges to go back. I'd never been in Epcot that late before, so it was a first for me.
Ratings
Food - 8/10
My pizza was soggy and some things were just alright, but I'd certainly come back in the future for the food.
Service - 1/10
I will give him one point for actually bringing our stuff out, but that's it. He was one of the worst servers I've ever had, and I was having flashbacks to the awfulness that was our meal at Citrico's on our honeymoon (read our dining report for that if you enjoy awful server stories). I was so upset by the end of the night that I cried on the walk to the bus because it was so frustrating.
Atmosphere - 6/10
The restaurant itself was nice but it didn't blow me away. We were seated pretty close to other tables, which is definitely expected but not necessarily appreciated. It just kind of felt like any good Italian restaurant anywhere, instead of the Disney magic I've come to expect.
Overall Experience - 3/10
Obviously, things did not play out how I'd hoped, but the bottom line is: would I come back? Absolutely. Service like this isn't the norm in my experience at Disney (or anywhere, honestly), and I don't want to let it sour me on the restaurant as a whole. However, I'd definitely put anywhere I haven't been in Epcot higher on the list because there are good options for places to eat at that I haven't tried.
Total Cost - $132 + tax and tip
I hate doing reviews that aren't super happy, but this one obviously had to happen. There's really only one other experience that we had that wasn't great this trip, but it wasn't nearly this bad. The rest were somewhere between good and amazing.
Next up is Sci-Fi, which is exciting for me, because that's the first place we're eating at when we get to Disney... IN 4 DAYS!! We're there for a week on the DxDDP again and doing Food and Wine, but this time we'll be with my family, which means double the meals, plus my mom and step-dad have a special diet and my step-brother is a picky eater, so it'll be more adventurous. That dining report will follow this one, but I'll be sure to lead everyone over there when the time comes.