Dining Review: Via Napoli in Italy at EPCOT

I'm excited to be writing my first official dining review here on the Blog! Recently, I visited Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria in the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT's World Showcase. We went for a lunch after not having been in over three years.

As such, here's my review of everything my party tried!

Disclaimer: Real customers paid for their experience. For the most accurate menu descriptions and pricing, please visit the official Walt Disney World website.

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Fast Facts

Location: EPCOT, World Showcase (Italy)

Operating Hours: 11:30 A.M - 4 P.M (Lunch)

4:05 P.M - 9 P.M (Dinner)

Food: Casual Italian Dining

View menu here.

Description: Discover authentic Italian cooking, including hearty pastas, fresh salads, and pizzas perfected in wood-burning ovens. Treat your taste buds to a culinary tour inspired by the flavors and dishes of Southern Italy.

The Italy Pavilion at EPCOT is inspired by the architecture found in Venice, located in Northern Italy. The Pavilion even includes a recreation of St. Mark's Campanile - a large bell tower in the middle of the city. (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

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Location and Layout

Via Napoli is located all the way in the back of the Italy Pavilion. The World Showcase country is home to two sit-down restaurants, Via Napoli and Tutto Italia. Tutto Italia is a bit more upscale and intimate, with an emphasis on being an Italian winery, whereas Via Napoli is a bit more family-friendly and bigger in size. That's where we're headed!

Exterior of Via Napoli. (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

Upon heading inside the restaurant, you'll immediately notice the three large wood-burning ovens that are used to make traditional Italian pizzas. Pizzas are heavily featured on the menu, but guests can also get quicker grab-and-go slices from a pizza window outside the restaurant to the left.

Fun Fact: The three wood-burning pizza ovens are named after the three major active volcanoes in Italy. This includes Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius, and Mount Stromboli. (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

We were seated towards the back of the restaurant in a quieter space. It's worth noting that we did not have reservations in advance and simply did walk-up availability. Lucky for us, we were able to get seated immediately at around 1:30 P.M, right before the usual lunch rush.

The back room in the restaurant features many paintings of horses, as Italy is a popular country for horseback riding, especially in regions like Tuscany. (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

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Appetizers

Now that we're seated, it's time to begin our review! To start, our party ordered two appetizers - the Calamari Fritti and the Arancini.

Calamari Fritti - Fried calamari rings, lemon, and a spicy tomato sauce ($23). Arancini - Fried risotto balls, fontina cheese, and meat ragù ($15). (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

We'll start with the Calamari. At $23, it is the most expensive appetizer on the menu, but boy was the price worth it. The Calamari was perfectly crispy on the outside and full of flavor. What we liked most about it was that it was all rings and no tentacles. Calamari tentacles are usually pretty chewy and sometimes inedible, so the fact that the entire appetizer was only rings was a pleasant surprise. Be sure to squeeze some fresh lemon on top for some added flavor.

The Calamari also came with a spicy tomato sauce on the side. While we enjoyed it, we'd recommend avoiding this portion of the appetizer if you don't care for spiciness, because it does have a moderate kick. Nothing crazy, but what could be a regular marinara sauce turned into something a bit more spicy with the added red pepper flakes. Either way, we thought it paired nicely with the Calamari, especially with some lemon squeezed in.

Despite the expensive price tag, the Calamari Fritti was some of the best we've ever had and would easily order again.

Next, we have the Arancini, which was another great appetizer. With a price of $15, it's certainly a much more affordable choice on the menu.

We're happy to report that we enjoyed the Arancini just as much as we thought we would. Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, just as it should be. The Arancini also comes with some marinara sauce, but don't worry - this is just a regular marinara. Unlike the Calamari, nothing spicy here!

This is another appetizer with a great flavor profile that we'd order again. So far, a great start to our Italian meal!

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Entrées

Now we get to the main course. Our party ordered two primary entrées, which was a pasta dish and a large pizza to share.

Spaghetti e Polpettine - Spaghetti with tomato sauce and homemade meatballs ($29). (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

First up, the Spaghetti e Polpettine. This is essentially your classic spaghetti and meatballs. For a $29 entrée, this was a pretty hefty portion and was very, very filling.

There's not really much to say here minus that the dish was good. Nothing amazing, but what else would you expect from spaghetti? It's a safe item to get as compared to a lot of other things on the menu, and one of the cheaper ones, too.

Getting a little more detailed, the marinara sauce was good and the meatballs were also solid. Usually, meatballs can be a hit or miss at any Italian restaurant, but these were good. Definitely not as good as the homemade ones my mom makes, but tasty nonetheless. The basil leaf on top was a nice touch, and if you'd like some shredded parmesan cheese on top, your waiter or waitress will happily put on as much as you'd like right in front of you.

Overall, a good, solid dish. If you're just craving some simple Italian food, then you won't be disappointed.

Large Carciofi Pizza - White pizza with artichoke, fontina, mozzarella, kalamata olives, and truffle oil ($42). (Copyright: It's A Small Blog)

Next, we have the shareable pizza, which was a Carciofi Pizza. Before we get into our review of it, it's important to note that what you're seeing here is the large pizza. When it comes to ordering pizza at Via Napoli, not only do you have plenty of choices in terms of the kind of pizza you want, but you can even customize the size of your pizza, too.

The photos you're seeing here represents the large pizza, which is the middle option for size. For context, there are three different sizes of pizza you can get:

Individual - $25*

Large - $42*

Mezzo Metro (Extra Large) - $58*

*Price varies depending on the kind of pizza you order.

I don't have the exact measurements of the pizza, and neither does the menu on the Disney World website, but I'm sure your waiter or waitress would be more than happy to tell you just exactly how big each pizza size is. What I can tell you, however, is that an individual size will typically feed 1-2 people, a large will feed 3-5 people, and an extra large will usually feed a party of 6 or more.

But now back to our review. Like I said earlier, we got the Carciofi Pizza, which is essentially your classic Neapolitan pie. It's a white pizza with artichokes, fontina, mozzarella, and truffle oil. It's definitely a little more adventurous than your typical Margherita Pizza.

While the pizza may not look like the most appetizing thing at first glance, we thoroughly enjoyed it. We liked the fontina cheese better than the mozzarella cheese, and also liked the artichokes as well. The crust was also thin and crispy and perfectly cooked.

You may notice that we also added some olives on our pizza. We thought they were originally going to be green olives but they turned out to be kalamata olives instead. While some people in our party enjoyed the added olives, others did not. Be sure to talk to your waiter or waitress if you're wanting to add any extra toppings to your pizza before you order, and make sure you're specific!

In the end, we enjoyed this pizza, and we would get it again, just without the olives.

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Final Thoughts

As I wrap up this dining review, we unfortunately didn't leave any room for dessert. Everything we had was so incredibly filling, but maybe next time!

As I stated early on, I've been to Via Napoli a few times before, but this was my first time back in a while. Over three years to be exact!

It's usually pretty rare to go to an Italian place and not have a good experience. And I'm pleased to say that our experience here was no different. Via Napoli has some great theming with an expansive menu and delicious options to choose from. While we only tried a few things, nothing we had was a miss, and we'd easily reorder everything we ate again. That's how you know we had a good experience.

Of course, not only was the food delicious, but the service was fantastic, too. The service you experience can be just as much of a make or break as the food can be, but we were not disappointed. Shoutout to our waiter - Simone from Verona, Italy. He was awesome!

If you have a big party who wants lots of options at reasonable prices, Via Napoli is the place for you, especially if you like some classic Italian cuisine. However, for a more intimate meal for smaller parties, I'd recommend visiting the other restaurant at EPCOT's Italy pavilion, Tutto Italia Ristorante. I've only been there once, but it's a bit more upscale and quiet, with plenty of opportunities to taste some Italian wine.

EPCOT's Italy pavilion in the World Showcase is just one of the many reasons why EPCOT is famous for its food variety and quality. We'd recommend Via Napoli (or any dining in Italy) to anyone visiting the park. You won't find better Italian food at any of the Walt Disney World theme parks than EPCOT!