Restaurant Review: Napoli Pizza San Francisco, CA

Napoli Pizza
1045 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA
#415-885-2222

* Eat-in or take-out
* Cash only
* Very little parking on street

Napoli Pizza is another little by-the slice or by-the-pie joint, in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. This is an area well supplied with pizza places, so what does Napoli have to offer that stands out?

First, the ambience. The restaurant is located on Polk Street, right next door to a major homeless shelter, in an area where crack and meth and all sorts of goodies are regularly traded and bartered. The Polk Gulch with it's colorful eye-catching posters of swarthy gay studs is just across the street for your viewing pleasure, and there's often a colorful spanger fellow who parks himself outside this particular restaurant and delivers a stream of insults at any passer-by who choose not to pay to support his habit. Additionaly, this seems to be a popular stretch of town for transvestites dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood looking for dates, as well as plenty of creepy old gay guys trolling for desperate young junkies whom they can pay for a quick erotic encounter.

Next, the prices, which are $2 for a cheese slice and $2.50 for one topping, which does beat most of the nearby pizza places by a couple of quarters. And the pizza itself is quite decent, though the style of preparation is not to my liking (and may not be to yours). It's a fairly thick and doughy crust, and though they serve the slices to you super-hot the cheese barely melts on them. Personally, I like my cheese golden and even slightly overcooked, and the way they do it up here is snow-white style. That is of course a matter of personal preference however. Additionaly they have burgers, calzones, wings and the usual array of sides you would expect from a pizza place.

The restaurant has a grand total of three tables, seating two people each, so I wouldn't make any grand plans for a dinner date. Given the character of the surrounding neighborhood, it's probably better to move along quickly anyway, particularly after dark.