VIVA NAPOLI (679 Mt. Pleasant, 647-344-8482) Rating: NN
Launched in June, Viva Napoli serves what the would-be Libretto of Leaside calls “autentica pizza Napoletana.” Translation: no AVPN, though we get the requisite DOP canned tomatoes, mozzarell’ and wood-burning oven. Shame the pies that come out of it are so worrisome.
Oh, the Carpaccio pizza initially impresses, a generous heap of thinly shaved beef, arugula and great whacks of grated parmigiano on an oddly wet thin crust. The Pesto & Polpo pie (both $19) is an even soggier mess, one swimming in olive oil strewn with octopus pencil erasers, mind.
Service in the already buzzing bistro ranges from sweetly befuddled to bullying. When we point out that our prosciutto and melon pizza ($20) is MIA, our all-in-black waiter insists not only that we didn’t order one, but that there is no prosciutto and melon pizza on the menu. Who argues with a customer?
When the pizza arrives five minutes later – another droopy disaster dressed with tissue-thin ham and the stuff you leave on your plate at brunch – we realize the dude was trying to tell us something.
