Napoli In Bocca Restaurant

Pizza is good if you like it with a thick crust. Sometimes I feel they could be more generous with toppings, especially with seafood. The gnocchi rosa is always tasty. Staff are not friendly, don't expect good service.

So what happens when it's nearly 10pm before your Saturday night event finishes and you have a craving for pasta? After a quick search of Zomato I was delighted to discover that Napoli in Bocca in Haberfield was open til 11pm so headed straight there from Sydney Olympic Park.

When we arrived, there were no longer any diners in the restaurant but the pizza chefs out the front were still pumping them out for takeaway and pickup. Staff happily took our orders and it wasn't long til we had our Margherita pizza and Gnocchi Rosa to takeaway. The plump, potato dumplings are soft and light and arrive in a rich Napoletana sauce with a hint of cream. A bonus is that the takeaway prices offer a decent discount on dine-in.

How did this restaurant get a 4.0 rating? Extremely disappointed with the food and service here. There were quite a few of us but that shouldn't excuse the service. No drinks arrived to our table for at least an hour. Not even some water. Garlic pizza arrived and was dry and burnt. The antipasti platters had small amounts of cold cuts that were straight out from a packet. The ham was a thick as my palm. The calamari were cold and needed salt. The penne Napoletana had a nice flavour but the pasta was over cooked and soft. The fettuccine bosciaola was OK. It has more flavour but again the pasta was not aldente. The spaghetti vongole was over cooked and I kept crunching on grits of sand! The pizza was average. The sauce was not cooked. There are plenty of other Italian restaurants that 'do it better' in Haberfield.

We ordered take away and the pizzas were awful. Seriously awful. I would never get food from here again. I would never go to the restaurant and I would actively discourage others from going. Do yourself a favour - go elsewhere!

A classics in Haberfield. Pizza is great, all the traditional toppings you expect. Gnocchi with pink sauce is the best dish at this restaurant.