Naples Italian Restaurant

Great food!

Good food and authentic. Wait staff ok.

Food was less than satisfactory. Bland, small portions of very mediocre Italian food. I had the veal parmesion. Veal was almost non existent, mostly breading and cheese over and small amount of spaghetti. My wife had the spinach lasagna which could have passed for a kids portion. Alot of sauce not much substance.
The complimentary uninteresting side salad is like 4 regular bites. Complementary bread was good. I really don’t know how some of these older knoxville restaurants have survived in such a competitive restaurant market?
A chain like the Olive Garden looks great against a place like this, which is mind boggling for a guy that spent the first 18 years of his life in the NYC area.

I’m an Italian food snob, I’ll admit it. That Margherita pizza was absolutely delicious. It’s listed as an appetizer, but I had it as my entrée. The butternut squash ravioli was mediocre, but the member of my party who ordered it enjoyed it. The herbed butter and bread you get on the table is to die for. The cappuccino machine has been broken for a while now, so they should take that off their menu, but I was told by a member of my party that the regular coffee was delicious. If you buy a bottle of wine and don’t finish it, you can take the rest with you.
Our waitress was quite friendly and attentive. The inside was small and pleasant. It’s a local restaurant, not a chain. Such a good vibe, and you can get mints on the way out! ;) If I lived in Tennessee, I’d come here all the time, and I don’t say that often.

I now know why this place has been here since 1936. Excellent food and service!
We never had our glass empty. I had to hide my glass just to avoid not getting more sweet tea. Lol normally you have to chase someone down for a refill, not here!
My wife had the eggplant parmesan and she said it was possibly the best she’s had out yet! The eggplant was flavorful, and crispy breading on the outside. Their sauce is excellent and not watery or bland, not to mention the pasta cooked well.
I had the spinach lasagna, which was also great!
All around great! Bread is good also! You won’t go wrong here if you want good Italian food!

I really love this place… an old school Italian restaurant with modest décor, great service, and fantastic food.
I don’t think I’ve ever had anything here that wasn’t delicious. The bread and herbed butter is amazing. Tonight I tried the spaghetti carbonara for the first time and loved it. It will be my go-​to dish from now on. The last two times I went, I had the pork loin and it was also spectacular. The bar area is fun for a happy hour or an after dinner drink. Service is very good.

Best fine dining in Knoxville. I have loved this place for years. The go to place for a romantic date night.

My grandfather, Luigi Sacco, would have complained from start to finish.
The food wasn’t bad, but when I asked for sausage with my manicotti, I expected to get Italian sausage, not breakfast sausage. Over the years, my expectations for Italian Restaurants has diminished, but even then I was disappointed, especially with the sausage.

An old favorite. Happy hour is great. Their house wines do the job and have great prices on carafe’s and half-​carafes. Mussels are delicious; spaghetti night is a steal, the seafood salad is killer. Canneloni is my favorite entrée. They have tons of specials each night. The chocolate Italian cream cake is not to be missed, in my opinion. There are two private areas you can reserve for more intimate dinners. The blue room seats only 2 and feels scary because I“m clumsy and there are breakables everywhere. The other room (i think it’s called the wine cellar?) is a bit more spacious, seats four, and I prefer it. Bön Appetit!

OK, people. I read several reviews. None of the recent ones did this restaurant justice. Granted, it was a Sunday night and not a lot of restaurants were open, but this turned out to be the perfect choice. We had two vegetarians in our group. One said the spinach lasagne was the best she’d ever had. The other had the buffalo mozzarella ravioli special, equally delicious. I had the shrimp amaretto, which was incredible, very original. Our server, Melanie, was the perfect blend of personable and professional. The house wine in carafes were also a wonderful addition. Finally, although we were stuffed, we shared the crême brûlée special of the evening. Unusual and delicious.
My only caveat was to avoid the booths if you have more than two people. They are true throwbacks to the day when people were smaller. A table might be more comfortable.
I would recommend this restaurant without reservation.

Honestly I only eat at Naples every three or four years mainly to see if it’s improved. It never does. And that’s unfortunate because from what I hear, it has a loyal following. It has a great location It has history. It’s been a fixture in Bearden for decades. The sauces are over prepared to the point they only taste like a thick garlicy soup with no distinct favors. The pasta was mealy. Tonight I had spinach lasagna. There was something green between the pasta that was the consistency of guacamole and tasted only of garlic. The bread, which should be the best in an Italian restaurant, was disappointing. The lasagna was $ 14 with only bread. I didn’t finish it and it wasn’t worth bringing the remainder home. This could be a great restaurant with fewer, taster items made with fresh ingredients. So sad.

Food was ok. Far from true italian. Two issues i had. First — the waiter asked «would you like shredded parmisian cheese or crushed red pepper». Me i like both. Two containers, that looked to be from pizza hut. In two glass containers were my parmisian and crushed red pepper. Second — the crème brûlée was chocolate pudding. Something like jello pudding cups. I love pudding (not seven dollars worth). But still good. Just not crème brûlée. Want real italian, go elsewhere.

Visited Naples 02÷12÷15 after many years of being away. The restaurant looks exactly how I remember it, which may be part of the problem here. I can appreciate the «Old World «charm but when that charm is covered in a layer of dust I take notice.
We were seated at a booth. As we were awaiting our dinner, I noticed the «back splash» had multiple dried droplets of food/​drink on the entire thing. Then I started looking around, there was a decorative wire rack/​display on the wall above our booth that had empty wine bottles throughout. It was absolutely covered in dust, the wine bottles had no sheen left to them due to the accumulated dirt.
The little lamp at the booth, look under the shade where the bulb goes in and it was filled with dust and dirt. The place is just dusty and a bit dirty as well.
The food was fine and the service was OK, but a little slow.
As busy as this place is, and as long as they have been in business, there is no excuse to not do an occasional spring cleaning. I dust my little doodads, Naples, you need to get this place cleaned up.
We do not plan on going back.

Casual laid back atmosphere… Would be a great place for a first date. Food was fantastic… highly suggest the veal Marsala, but this is one of those places that you simply can’t go wrong. Also, Naples is a landmark in Knoxville– been in business for over 60 years! I’ll definitely be back.

We love Naples. From the red and white checked table cloths to the consistently delicious food. Service is always friendly and thoughtful as well.

Naples is an interesting place– it’s the type of place you might imagine your grandparents going on a date to in the 50s. It’s intimate while still being family friendly and not too fancy. The kind of place you can either dress up with a big carafe of wine or down with an iced tea.
As for the food, it’s decent Italian! It’s got a solid list of staples and then some plates with a bit more flourish. We started with the spanakopita which didn’t exactly thrill me. They had kind of a dusty finish in the filling. The bread and herbed butter was great though! For my dinner I got the scampi amaretto– big juicy shrimp with fettuccini in an amaretto cream sauce with crushed almonds on top. It had just the right hint of sweetness and creaminess. Definitely a new favorite! I ate too much of it though and didn’t save room for their awesome cannoli. Don’t make my same mistake, save room for dessert!

The way I see it, there are two ways you can look at Italian food. At the best of times, it can be the most extravagant cuisines, with flavor profiles and ingredients to die for. In most of America, though, Italian food is a nice plate of pasta that you were too lazy to make at home. I think you can probably see where this review is going.
The highest praise I can sing for Naples is for its bread. Delicious, with a pretty solid olive oil option to pair it with. At other restaurants you’re supposed to not eat too much bread to save your appetite for the entrée, but here I would just say go for it.
The Caesar salad was pretty bland and just a dash on the oily side… it was probably the low point of the evening. The scampi was sort of redeeming, but there were some notable nitpicky faults swimming about, For one, the shrimp were overcooked. Not to the point of being inedible, but certainly enough to notice, which is unfortunate because it seemed like really decent product. The sauce and the pasta were really nice, but the plate was quite literally weighed down with sundried tomatoes. I like sundried tomatoes as much as the next person, but there is such a thing as balance.
Naples has a pleasant atmosphere, but one can do better.

It’s kind of a funny place.
The ambience is a bit confusing. Kind of a combination supper club/​picnic feel.
The food is just okay, but also confusing. Ordered gnocchi as an appetizer. No idea what it actually was — definitely not potato dumplings.
We all shared several dishes. The sweet potato and crawfish ravioli was good, but you couldn’t taste the crawfish because of the sauce it was drowning in.
Had another dish that was mushrooms, some greens, and risotto. Couldn’t taste anything because it was drowning in a white sauce.
Service was pretty good.

This is a great Italian family restaurant. The décor is traditional for an Italian family restaurant and Megan provided some of the best service I’ve had — very attentive without over attention with anticipation of what I needed when I wanted it. The minestrone soup was the best I’ve had and the Tiramisu was the best I’ve had since South Philly about 25 years ago — it was almost perfect. The pasta was properly prepared. All in all a great experience — I will definitely be back next time I’m in town!

First off, I’m no expert on Italian food but I know what I like. I actually liked the booths and dim lighting where we were seated and the tableclothes were cool. It had a retro 50s vibe to me (and at a place like this, it’s part of the experience) like something from the Honeymooners. Yes, it looks old and a little run down (but by NO means was it dirty or anything just kinda old in a good way not like it’s falling apart).
My problem was the food. I think it’s decent but overpriced for what it is. So I’m assuming I’m paying for the ambience.
I thought the ‘Maryland Style Crab Cakes’ sucked, but I’m FROM Maryland (and used to crab when I lived there) so I can’t really fault an Italian joint in TN for them, at least they HAD crabcakes.
The salad and lasanga were good. Our waiter was very polite and friendly and helped explain several menu items that I had no clue what they were. He was spot on with the refills as well.
BTW, if you watch the specials and hit it right (usually early in the week) it’s quite possible for a couple to eat for under 30 bucks. It’s also easy to spend twice that, but I can spend 30 bucks at Huddle House and Naples is so much cooler.