Saturday, March 19, 2016

The Chefs of Napoli III


We attended a birthday celebration last week that was held at the Chefs of Napoli III on Hwy 301.  This is not the first time we have been and have found the restaurant to be consistently good on each of our previous visits.

It is sometimes a difficult task for a restaurant to handle large groups.   My opinion a large group is a party of eight or more.  However, Chefs of Napoli seems to have it down to a science.  They handled groups of 18-20 with ease.  We were 14 for the record. 

They sat us in a private area in the rear of the restaurant that already had a group of eighteen and a group of ten seated.  I was a bit concerned not only for the noise factor but service issues might be headed our way.  However they had three servers and two runners working the room.  Our server greeted us smiling and happy, which I couldn’t understand knowing her tables and the people counts.  She explained the specials and proceeded to take appetizer and salad orders.  The host had brought a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate his wife’s birthday so in the middle of all of this the servers flagged the runner down tells him what she needed and in a matter of seconds 14 champagne flutes appear!  She also tells us the two larger groups are tabbing out and the room will be totally ours in just a few minutes.  Information we all were happy to hear.  Sure enough the groups leave and we are all alone in a large private dining room.  The server closes the door and we feel special.

We order and sit back and enjoy each other’s company as best you can with fourteen people sitting at a long table. In a very respectable time the app and salads are sat and we start to eat.  Tomato soup is my first course.  It was wonderful full of tomato flavor and with bits of bacon offering a nice smoky background flavor.  The wife’s first course a salad, fresh and crisp with the proper amount of nice thick ranch dressing just like she enjoys.

The entrees all come out in a procession of large trays.  All of the food is sat almost at the same time!  Almost impossible but everything was hot and nicely presented.  My entrée was Vitello alla Fiorentina; a wonderful dish of sautéed veal in a spinach and white wine cream sauce, Parmesan cheese with cherry tomatoes.  Perfectly cooked and the sauce was the right consistency not to thick.  You could tell the sauce was made ala minuet as the French say which means in the pan with the food.  The wife ordered Gamberi alla Francese.  Shrimp lightly battered in and egg batter then sautéed   in white wine and lemon.  Great balance in this dish, the shrimp was not over cooked and the sauce a great compliment to the dish.  Each dish comes with a side of pasta and sauce. A very good meal.

As I looked down the table I didn’t see any one who was not enjoying their food.  Again, there were fourteen of us!  We ended the evening with a cake that the servers brought out and we all sang Happy Birthday as the honoree blew out the candles!

As I said at the beginning this is not the first time nor will it be the last time we eat at the 
The Chefs of Napoli III.

The Villages Wino gives the Chefs of Napoli III   ★★★☆

The Chefs of Napoli III


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