Napoletana in Dubai Marina, Dubai - Restaurant Reviews

Napoletana

Italian pizza specialist in the Jumeirah Beach Residence 12 Reviews

Picture 1 of 2

The sight of a mono-browed, ludicrously hirsute man leering up at me from the cover of a menu would usually send me running for the hills – but I needed pizza. I needed it bad.

Avoiding the restaurant’s indoor area, its bathroom-style tiles and awful laminate flooring glaring angrily under the ugly fluorescent strip lighting, I grabbed the last remaining outdoor table at the bustling Jumeirah Beach Walk location and settled down to wait for my dinner date. (It would seem I was not alone in my distaste for the interior: later in the evening I spotted a couple looking for an outdoor table. There were none left so they headed inside before doing a prompt U-turn.)

Still waiting for my friend, in a bid to rid my mind of the unappetising image adorning the menu I hastily opened it to find all the usual chain Italian options – pizza, pasta, salad – with zero original twists. Soon my similarly famished chum arrived and without stopping for small talk we got straight to the serious business of ordering. For me: breaded calamari followed by a chicken and rosemary pizza.

For her: mozzarella balls to start, then spaghetti with pesto (her preferred option, the homemade ravioli, was unavailable). Our waiter was friendly – in fact, a little too much so (we didn’t really want a full conversation about nationalities, where we lived and how beautiful and kind-hearted English women are) – and efficient, despite our ravioli disappointment.

The starters were lacklustre: my calamari was chewy and bland, and while my pal’s mozzarella did not disappoint, the accompanying ‘spicy sauce’ was more like a darkened thousand island dressing. It was almost a blessing when, still dejectedly chewing my way through the soulless squid rings, our mains were presented before us. The two dishes couldn’t have been more different from each other.

My friend’s spaghetti was, quite simply, dreadful: swamped in a thick, neon green sauce, I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn it was alien blood. It held none of the flavour of a good pesto, yet all of the calories.

My pizza, on the other hand, was a joy. Its base was so thin and crispy we immediately burst into impromptu, and exceedingly poorly accented, exclamations of ‘bellisima’, and the rosemary added a fragrance more deliciously pungent than big mamma’s kitchen.

Spurred on by this positive turn of events, and still a little hungry as my friend had abandoned the spaghetti ship and shared my pizza, we decided to share a slice of cheesecake for dessert. Aside from the slightly synthetic-tasting coulis, it was pretty good – topped with fresh strawberries, light and cheesey, with a firm base.

Napoletana makes a good pit stop if you’re in the JBR area and in need of pizza, but given its failure to satisfy in the starter and pasta stakes, you have to question whether it’s truly worthy of its Italian moniker.

The bill (for two)
1x Fresh strawberry juice Dhs20
1x Lemon with mint Dhs18
1x Mozzarella balls Dhs25
1x Calamari fritte Dhs36
1x Spaghetti pesto Dhs46
1x Chicken pizza Dhs46
1x Cheesecake Dhs26
Total (including service) Dhs217