Napoli, Italian restaurant in Bella Vista, Panama
Napoli is an Italian restaurant in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Panama City, set across two floors with white-clothed tables arranged for sit-down dining. A charcoal oven for pizza and a dedicated pasta area are both visible from the dining room.
The restaurant opened in the 1980s, at a time when Italian cooking was rarely found in Panama City. It has stayed in place ever since, keeping the same cooking methods through several decades.
The menu draws on recipes from different parts of Italy, so dishes from Naples sit alongside those from other regions. The open kitchen lets you watch the cooks at work, which gives the meal a direct and engaging quality.
The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday, and also on Sundays with an earlier closing time; parking is available on Calle I nearby. Because the food is prepared using traditional methods, it is worth setting aside enough time for the meal.
The pasta is made fresh each day using imported Italian flour, a detail that gives it a different texture from pasta made with local ingredients. The techniques used in the kitchen were passed on by Italian cooks who worked there in earlier years.
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