CombatCritic's TravelValue™: pizza

CombatCritic™ ... World traveler - 42 countries and counting; Military Leader - Four combat operations; Amateur chef; Published author and producer - over 4 million visitors on seven platforms! Yelp "Black" Elite '14/'15/ '16/ '17/ '18/ '19 / '20/ '21/ '22 / '23 / '24; TripAdvisor ¨Local Guide¨, Zomato "VERIFIED CONNOISSEUR"; Booking.com "GENIUS"; and Foursquare "INSIDER". On the Front Lines in the Battle Against Mediocrity - Follow Me To TravelValue™ ... That's A Freakin' Order!

Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Seville, Spain: Very Good Pizza, But A Bit Pricey ... Nearly A TravelValue!

Il Ristorantino Dell' Avvocato

Calle Regina 6 Las Setas De Sevilla

41003 Sevilla, Spain

IlRistorantinoDellAvvocato

Prices: €€€€

Vera pizza Napolitana (real neapolitan pizza)? Piu o meno, si, buonissimo!

I do not offer praise easily, but this place was almost the BOMB! The service was excellent and the starter, pizza, and tiramisu delicious, but prices were high and servings a bit small.

The Chianti Classico was decent and the price (€14), cheapest on the menu, was fair. A small bottle of San Pellegrino (frizzante - €3) was about the same price as I would expect from a liter bottle.

The arancini and other mixed, fried starters (€7) were different than I have ever had in Napoli, but, top-notch, even though we only got one of each, six in all.

Salcsiccia é Friariielli pizza (€14)

My Salcsiccia é Friariielli pizza (€14 - €6 more than in Napoli) was as good as any I have had in Naples, but the outer crust was a bit too thick, limiting the amount of ingredients on the pizza itself (mozzarella, sausage, and friarielli (broccoli rabe sauteed in olive oil and garlic). Not the best value ... BUMMER!

Esagerata pizza (€22)

My wife's 'special' Esagerata pizza (€22) with mozzarella, peppers, sliced potatoes, onion and sausage came covered with an infusion of smoke that was quite an extravaganza. She is Sicilian, raised in Napoli, so she knows good pizza and was extremely pleased with her selection. However, we were not told the price and €22 for an individual pizza is quite extreme, so they lose a bomb there, and, I am being generous. Was it €8 better than my pizza? No, it was not.

The Tiramisu (€6) came deconstructed in a cup as our server poured a bicchieri of espresso napolitana on top ... YUMMY! The only downside, beside the price, was that the serving was a bit smaller than we had hoped, so my wife and I had to battle over the last bite, she won (happy wife, happy life!)

Tiramisu (€6)

We were offered limoncello after the meal, but it was not clear if it was offered, free of charge, like many Italian restaurants. They brought us a digestivo, amaro, in the end, so it was a decent conclusion to our meal, but I would have preferred the limoncello.

We would have paid far less than €40 for a similar meal in Napoli,, so the €66 price tag was a bit extreme, but we enjoyed the meal nonetheless, after all, we were in Seville, not Naples.

CombatCritic Gives Il Ristorantino dell' Avvocato 8 Bombs Out Of 10 With Little Room For Improvement ... More Bombs Are Better!

Eight Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "What-The-Fuck ... Over!"

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Another Review of the Day (ROTD) ... HOOAH!

Friday, March 31, 2023

Tournai, Belgium: Mama Mia, Vecchia Napoli Is 'THE BOMB' ... HOOAH!

Vecchia Napoli

* Italian, Pizza *

Rue de l'Yser, 7500

Tournai, Belgium

Facebook - VecchiaNapoliRistorante

Phone: +32 466 28 81 35

Prices: €€€€

It was a windy, chilly day in Tournai, a beautiful city, just across the French border in Belgium, on the river Scheldt.

My wife, a Sicilian who grew up in Napoli, spotted this place as we were roaming around Tournai looking for a place to have lunch that would allow my service dog, Kemper, to join us. They were happy to have us and treated Kemper like a king, giving him cookies and petting him as they walked by.

Modern inside and tastefully, yet simply decorated, there is a huge wood fired oven just inside the door where delicious, authentic pizza napolitana is made. The staff are very kind and efficient, making our meal all the better. As soon as we sat down, we were greeted and given a small complimentary triangle of warm ciabatta topped with chopped tomato tossed in EVO and herbs.

We started with some house red wine (€8/50 cl) and an Affettati Mixte (€15), a huge, generous wood platter filled with a tasty variety of Italian salamis and hams. Along with the fresh bread, it was a delightful start to our meal.

My wife dislikes tomatoes, so she ordered the Pizza 4 Formaggi (€14), topped with a little cream and an abundance of mozzarella, gorgonzola, emmental, parmigiano, then topped with a little EVO. She does not hand out praise easily, especially when it comes to pizza, but she gave it two thumbs up ... Mamma Mia!

I went with my favorite, Pizza Diavola (€13.50), coming with tomato sauce, mozzarella, slices of salami, and olio piccante (EVO infused with red chili peppers). Like my wife's, the pizza dough was thrown and perfectly baked in the neapolitan way, the only difference from pizza in Naples being that the cheese and toppings are more abundant here. It was delicioso ... OOH-RAH!

Santo, the owner, hails from Pompeii - a relative suburb of Naples - and was extremely nice, making us feel very welcome while he manned the pizza oven and delivered food.

Our feast was a relative bargain at €53.50, considering prices in all of the other restaurants we saw in Tournai were quite high with lunch entrees mostly starting at at around €17.00 ... WTFO!

CombatCritic Gives Vecchia Napoli A Stellar 10 Bombs Out Of 10 And A Spot On My 'WALL OF FAME' ... HOOAH! 🇺🇸

Ten Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians:

HOOAH!: "Phonetic spelling of the acronym HUA, which stands for 'Heard Understood Acknowledged.' Originally used by the British in the late 1800's in Afghanistan. More recently adopted by the United States Army to indicate an affirmative or a pleased response." - Urban Dictionary

"The Department of Military Science and Leadership, University of Tennessee claim HOOAH 'refers to or means anything except no' ... Regardless of its meaning ... the term is an expression of high morale, confidence, motivation and spirit." - WarChronicle.com

"The U.S. Air Force stole 'HOOAH' from the Army because we were part of the Army until 1947 and rather than waste a bunch of time coming up with something new and unique like "ROO-YAH" or "HAL-A-LOO-YAH", we said 'screw it, let's go with HOOAH' ... thanks Army ... HOOAH!" - CombatCritic
Read More Reviews By CombatCritic:

Yelp "BLACK" ELITE '14 / '15 / '16 / '17 / '18 / '19 / '20 / '21 / '22/ '23 ... 10 Years Running ... HOOAH!
Over 1.4 Million Views A Year

Read Chris S.'s review of Vecchia Napoli on Yelp

Zomato - #1 Ranked "VERIFIED" CONNOISSEUR (13) - Over 4 Million Review And Photo Views ... And Counting - #1 Reviewer in Portland, Oregon!
Tabelog - Official Judge - "Silver"

Booking.com - Frequent Traveler "Genius"

Google Maps - "Top Photographer" With Over 3 Million Views!

... And Don't Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube and our sister channel, CombatCounselor Chronicles, with Over 1,250 Subscribers and 1,000,000 Video Views ... HOOAH!

Menu

Title: Tournai, Belgium: Mama Mia, Vecchia Napoli Is 'THE BOMB' ... HOOAH!

Key Words: Tournai, Belgium, Vecchia Napoli, pizza, Italian, pasta, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, business, review, Yelp, Zomato, TripAdvisor, Google, Facebook

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Alvor (Algarve) Portugal: Pizza, Pasta, Meat, Fish, Or Salad, You Cannot Go Wrong At Pizzeria & Trattoria Napoli

Pizzeria & Trattoria Napoli

EM531 1 5a

8500-013

Alvor Portugal

Phone: 937 696 093

Prices: €€€€

Our doggy has cancer, so he needs a CT scan in Portimáo every 3 months, so we stop by Pizzeria & Trattoria Napoli for lunch while he has the procedure and wakes up.

I found out that their 'winter' hours (likely October through April) are different from my last visit in August, so we had to wait an hour until 12pm when they now open for lunch. No biggy!

I brought my wife this time as she recently returned from Napoli, the city in Italy, where she has been taking care of her mom. Gianluca greeted us once again and the two of them chatted in Italian about Napoli, his hometown, while I sat there and picked up some of the conversation ... Italians talk too fast for me to catch everything.

As it was one of the rare warm, sunny days in the Algarve, NOT, we sat on the patio. The service was fast and friendly and the food, once again, delicioso ... Mama Mia ... HOOAH!

I knew how big the portions were, so we did not go nuts with the antipasti, ordering one Bruschetta (€5) and sharing the four pieces, one with tomato, two with marinated, grilled melanzane (eggplant), and the other with melted gorgonzola and parmigiano. Very nice.

My wife had the Fettuccine (€14) in a gorgonzola and rucola pesto with pancetta, mushrooms, onion, and walnuts. It was superb!

It is not easy finding weal dishes anymore, so I got the Veal Parmigiano (€11) with a side of spaghetti tossed with their wonderful ragù instead of the chips (aka fries) and side salad, which was huge. The large cutlet was coated with breadcrumbs and perfectly fried, then topped with ragù, grated parmigiano, and fresh mozzarella (upon my request) before being baked until melted. I was in heaven.

One of the great things about Napoli, beside the excellent food and fair prices, is the fact that they are very willing to work with you on substitutions. My wife hates tomatoes - yes, she was born in Sicily and grew up in Naples - so they altered the normal bruschetta toppings. The veal parmigiana comes topped with parmigiano, not mozzarella as I became accustomed to in the US, but Gianluca did not flinch when I asked him if could add it and did not even charge extra.

Gianluca's dad came out after our meal and reminded me about my promise to bring him some Antico Toscano cigars, made famous by Clint Eastwood in his 'spaghetti' westerns like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which were actually filmed in Italy. I promised to bring some cigars from Ayamonte, Spain (much closer to where we live than Alvor) where I buy my Toscano cigars and much cheaper than in Portugal, but I forgot ... OOPS! I will try to remember next time.

In a nutshell, excellent, authentic food at very reasonable prices with great, friendly service, that's amore, I mean Pizzeria & Trattoria Napoli ... OOH-RAH!

CombatCritic Gives Pizzeria & Trattoria Napoli A Very Rare 10 Bombs Out Of 10 And A Spot On My 'WALL OF FAME' ... More Bombs Are Better!

Ten Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians:

HOOAH!: "Phonetic spelling of the acronym HUA, which stands for 'Heard Understood Acknowledged.' Originally used by the British in the late 1800's in Afghanistan. More recently adopted by the United States Army to indicate an affirmative or a pleased response." - Urban Dictionary

"The Department of Military Science and Leadership, University of Tennessee claim HOOAH 'refers to or means anything except no' ... Regardless of its meaning ... the term is an expression of high morale, confidence, motivation and spirit." - WarChronicle.com

"The U.S. Air Force stole 'HOOAH' from the Army because we were part of the Army until 1947 and rather than waste a bunch of time coming up with something new and unique like "ROO-YAH" or "HAL-A-LOO-YAH", we said 'screw it, let's go with HOOAH' ... thanks Army ... HOOAH!" - CombatCritic

MENU