Last year, Naples Ristorante E Bar in Downtown Disney began opening for breakfast. Each time I visited the Disneyland Resort, I would walk by the restaurant and my mouth would water at that breakfast menu posted outside.
Since I typically travel by myself, I knew I needed an extra mouth to help me sample a few of the items off the menu, so it took me a while to be able to make my breakfast dreams a reality. Recently, I was finally able to coerce a friend into joining me for breakfast at Naples Ristorante.
We arrived at around 10:00 am, hoping to make this meal more of a brunch. We were seated inside, just to the left of the main entrance. We almost felt like we were out of the way and sometimes forgotten.
We didn’t ask for a table on the patio, nor were we asked what our preference was, but their patio is beautiful and might’ve made for a nicer dining experience…at least aesthetically.
The breakfast menu features some classics like French Toast, Biscuits & Gravy, Breakfast Burrito, Buttermilk Pancakes, and standard bacon & eggs. Entree prices range from $18 to $23.
I’m a sucker for Avocado Toast [$19], so that was my selection. I also opted to add an egg for an additional $4.
My first disappointment was that the restaurant doesn’t offer poached eggs, which would’ve been my preference for avocado toast. Instead, I ordered my egg over-medium. Surprisingly, the egg was served on a separate plate, forcing me to complete my own meal.
The dish features ciabatta toast topped with smashed avocado, marinated mozzarella, heirloom cherry tomatoes, oregano, basil, and a balsamic reduction.
Aside from the standard fried egg, this was a beautiful dish. There was a thick layer of avocado and plenty of mozzarella and tomatoes, so the dish was definitely filling.
It was, however, very bland. I attempted to season it myself with salt, pepper, and red pepper flake from the table, but was afraid to add too much of anything and risk making the dish entirely inedible.
This may have been one of those cases where you build up a dish in your mind and it could never live up to your expectations.
My friend ordered the Calabrian Chilaquiles [$21], which included tortilla chips, Calabrian Sauce, parmesan, sour cream, a fried egg, and parsley.
My first thought when looking at that picture is that there are a lot of red onions in there for it not to be mentioned in the menu description.
The sauce was good, and just a bit spicy, but my friend was hoping that the chips would have a few crispy edges. I was also a little surprised with the portion size for $21, given it’s just tortilla chips.
To share, we got an order of Waffled Potato Sliders [$22], which were made with shredded hash browns dropped into a mini waffle iron…which makes for a great start so far.
The official description is bacon, egg, Fontina cheese, and avocado mash sandwiched between waffled potatoes with Calabrian pepper aioli.
Despite being a bit on the pricey side, these were actually delicious. The hash brown waffles were seasoned well and perfectly crunchy. Although I didn’t taste much of the aioli, the rest of the fillings balanced nicely with the waffle.
If I found myself eating breakfast at Naples again, I would get this dish again (or at least find someone to share it with).
In addition to the mostly lackluster food, we also found the service to be wanting. As I said earlier, we felt like we were forgotten a lot. We weren’t really checked on after the food was delivered and the drinks were not refilled. The restaurant was not busy enough for the server to be overwhelmed.
I am curious about the rest of the breakfast menu at Naples, but it may be a while before I decide to give this prominent Downtown Disney restaurant another try.
