Sapori di Napoli

There are a couple major culinary battles going on these days. One is for burgers, for which I find Bocado to be the undisputed champion. The other is for pizza, for which I side with Antico in midtown. Coming in second is Double Zero in Sandy Springs.

I had heard about Sapori di Napoli (saporidinapolipizzeria.com/, located on Church Street in Decatur, just a short skip away. And one early Friday night when I lucked out leaving early, we headed over around 6.30 to catch the early crowd.

The setup is easy. Go in, order, pay, and they bring you your food when it's ready. There is a nice greeter at the door who also helps with delivering food and checking on tables. There are tables inside and outside on a small patio. They have their own free parking in one of the worst laid-out parking areas I've ever seen. But it's free in Decatur. The vibe itself is nice, though service is a bit weird. The staff seems on the younger, more awkward side, but they are nice and they seem to try. They have several wines by the glass, but I opted for a San Pellegrino aranciata. Josh got a peroni.

To start, Josh got the arugula salad. It came with a very sweet too-thick balsamic vinaigrette. I think it was a struggle for him to finish. Next time, Josh mentioned, he is going to ask for a lighter vinaigrette.

I ordered the bruschetta, which I thought was kind of overpriced at $9, but I wanted to see how it turned out. And we learned that it was four pieces with a side salad (lighter dressed than the arugula salad). Each could have been about four bites, or maybe three. One was a caprese style, tomato and mozzarella. Another was mozzarella and then topped with prosciutto afterwards. It was also good and well-balanced. Third was an eggplant one which had very soft, well-cooked eggplant, not greasy at all, though a little lacking in salt. Better too little than too much though, of course. Lastly, a mix of roasted red and yellow peppers which were very good. And you know that I don't like crappy roasted peppers. So I'm not sure that I would order it again, but it wasn't bad.

As with all new pizza places, we got the margarita. It has san marzano tomatoes, bufala mozz, and basil. The flavor was good; the balance was good. It turned out to be quite tasty. The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was how blond the bottom was. You can see how it was only moderately charred in the picture.

So it's still third on my pizza list. But 10 minutes from home? Yeah, definitely worth a trip.