Dr V

Review of Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana

This may have started as an Italian family busines...

This may have started as an Italian family business, but now it has nothing to do with ancient and respected Italian traditions of good quality food and hospitality.

The pizza is absurdly overrated. Also, beware of hygiene, or lack thereof. The inside of Pepe New Haven looks like a 1950s American diner, with little or no renovation. The toilets, with high tank and pull chain, are "original" from the 1950s...

Dishes were invented ages ago in other parts of the world, but there are NO DISHES there: the crust is served on a banged-up metal tray, and you must share it with other people at your table.

In sum, this place could never stay open in the elegant city center of Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence or Naples, for that matter. On the contrary, this is what you may find in a bad Autogrill, i.e. a franchise of pizza-places and casual eateries along the highways.

On top of everything else, the servers are rude and unprofessional. We had Nancy, an old lady who sits down with the customers, stretches her legs, puts her feet and dirty shoes on the opposite seat, and talks about her life and how tired she is! If you don't leave a tip, she'll pick a fight with the customers. But there are no tips in Italy when the service is lousy. And if a server behaves so disrespectfully toward the customers, he or she is dismissed in a minute. Her reply? "Then I'm glad I'm not in Italy!" What a stupid thing to say for someone who works in a would-be Italian pizzeria...