5 Best Restaurants in Naples, Italy

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.  

For a hot-out-of-the-oven sfogliatella, Naples's tasty ricotta-filled pastry, try the justifiably famous Attanasio. You can grab one as soon as you get off the train; this place is hidden away off Piazza Garibaldi.

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.

Patrons of this Neapolitan institution have included the filmmaker Federico Fellini and that truly Neapolitan comic genius and self-styled aristocrat, Totò. It's in a fairly seedy area so take a taxi, especially at night, but it's worth it to sample Mimì's classics such as pasta e fagioli and the sea bass al presidente, baked in a pastry crust and enjoyed by visiting Italian presidents. The owner's son Salvatore is the chef, working wonders in the kitchen. This is not so much a see-and-be-seen place as common ground for the famous and the unknown to mingle, feast, and be merry.

Famed for its fiocco di neve (snowflake), the deliciously creamy pastry ball was created in 2015 by this century-old pasticceria.