Address - 5-6-24 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062 Opening hours - Open from 11:30 to 2:00 (LO) and from 6:00 to 10:00 (LO) Map - See directions. Telephone - 3797-3790 Menu - In Italian, English and Japanese CC - OK

I had found Napule's address in a newspaper my girlfriend reads and decided right away to go. In spite of what many Americans believe, pizza was born centuries ago in Naples and therefore eating in a pizzeria called "Napule"* seemed the right thing to do.
In the alley next to Spiral Building and next door to Ghungroo, Napule was very easy to find. At the second floor of a small building, it's not very large, but cozy, fairly elegant and quiet enough. Definitely pleasant the atmosphere, further improved by homemade bread and Southern Italian-style pretzels already on the table.
The menu begins with a list of the available sets. For 3300 yen you can have appetizers, a pizza, dessert and coffee.The other two sets go for 5800 and 6500 yen respectively. The sets, mind you, are MUCH cheaper (they start from 1300 yen) at lunch from Monday to Friday, a real bargain.
You can of course also order à la carte choosing from many moderately priced antipasti, pasta, meat, fish and pizza dishes. Between the four of us we had mixed appetizers, three different types of pizza, chicken "alla diavola", grilled sausages Neapolitan style, two different salads, three desserts and coffee. Everything was good, but not excellent. I don't consider this opinion final, because Napule's menu is definitely long and intriguing enough to deserve a second and a third visit, but what I had this time didn't particularly shine. In particular, I would still prefer to have pizza at "La Befana" and desserts at Taverna.

How to get there:

Stand in front of the Spiral Building in Omotesando, then turn right on the first street to your left and you will immediately see Napule's sign in front of you.

* "Napule" is just the Neapolitan spelling of the name "Naples".

November 25, 1999