Dinner at Donna Teresa, Naples (March 6, Cont'd)

On our third night in Naples, we decided to venture farther afield in search of dinner. Through Chowhound, we’d heard of a small osteria in the Vomero neighborhood called Donna Teresa. The reviewers praised the food (classical Neapolitan) and the value (our bill came up to 13€ a person, including full bottles of mineral water and the house red wine). For us, that’s an impossible combination to resist.

The first challenge was getting there. As we’ve mentioned, we decided to stay close to the Napoli Central train station for its convenience. Vomero, however, was pretty much halfway across Naples. To get there, we needed to take the Naples metro (Metronapoli) two stops, and transfer to a funicular that would drop us off just a couple of blocks east of Donna Teresa. That seemed easy enough, until we got to the train station and couldn’t figure out where/how to buy our tickets. None of the ticket machines were marked for the Metronapoli. The tourist information office was closed, as was the tabbachi (a tobacco shop, which in Naples also sells metro tickets – who knew?). Eventually, after thoroughly exploring every option on the ticket machines and examining the station map several times to make sure we hadn’t missed any secret Metronapoli ticketing offices, we procured two tickets from the Trenitalia ticket office. Oddly, even though Trenitalia operates the Metronapoli, it is apparently the Metronapoli ticket vendor of last resort; when we asked the customer service representative at the Trenitalia office, her first suggestion was to go to the tabbachi, even though she was seated right next to the agent who sold us the tickets.

Further, because the train schedule displayed at the station was not exactly a model of clarity, we had to fall back on the universal gesture of pointing at a train and saying the name of your intended destination in a questioning tone. It worked yet again, thanks to a helpful Italian commuter, and we were soon on our way. When we got off at our stop (Montesanto, if anyone’s interested), another helpful local gave us directions to the funicular station, and in approximately half an hour from the time we boarded the Metronapoli, we were seated at a small table in Donna Teresa. The restaurant itself was cosy – eight or ten tables jammed right up against each other – and when we arrived a little before 9pm on a Tuesday night it was about a third full, with a good mix of both locals and tourists.

Perhaps the biggest issue we faced that night was a language barrier. Everything was conducted in Italian, and ordering was based not on a menu, but on a series of binary questions that began as soon as we sat down. Water, wine, or beer (okay that one was trinitary), and red or white wine? Pasta or soup? Meat or fish? Fruit or tarte? Part of the problem here was that our limited Italian allowed us to understand generally what was offered, but we couldn’t really grasp the specifics, e.g. what kind of meat or fish, how it was prepared, etc. But we did the best we could, and there weren’t really any surprises.

We began by electing for a bottle of water and the house red (there was no wine list offered, which leads me to presume that the wine selection was limited to the house white or red). The house red was a little rough, but still good – certainly worth the few euros it cost. We ordered both the pasta and the soup as the primi (first course): the pasta was penne in a basic tomato sauce, the soup was macaroni and spinach. Both were good and hearty, but neither was mind-blowing. Next, we both ordered the fish fry for our secondi (second course). This was probably a mistake since it meant we didn’t get to try the meat dish, but I think we were both hankering for some fish instead of meat. The fish ended up being fried sardines. The sardines were served with a little bit of salt, and they were fresh, tasty and infinitely more delicious than their canned cousins. On the side, we were served some grilled vegetables - broccoli, mushrooms, and eggplant. Ultimately, while the sardines were good, they were not really worth writing home about (notwithstanding the fact that here we are blogging about it). Lastly, we both had the tarte for dessert. Again, tasty, but nothing worth raving about – it would probably have improved with some ice cream, but that wasn’t an option proffered to us.

Primi: Macaroni and spinach soup on the left,
penne pasta in a tomato sauce on the right.

Secondi: Fried sardines.

Broccoli, mushrooms and eggplant - because it's good to
have a balanced meal!

Dessert! If it looks a little bare, that's because it
could have used some ice cream on the side.

Dinner ended just slightly less than an hour after it began. This was a blessing in disguise, as the funicular stopped running at 10pm. We had originally resigned ourselves to catching a cab and haggling with the driver over the fare, but thanks to the brevity of dinner, we were able to retrace our steps to get back to our hotel (with less excitement than it took us to get to dinner!).

Overall, our dinner at Donna Teresa was decent but nothing special. We can’t argue with the value of the meal for the money spent (a three course sit-down meal for two, with wine, in Italy for 26€? Sweet!), but after factoring in the time it took us to travel there and back, we both agree that we probably wouldn’t do it again.  There probably were other osterias closer to our hotel that offered comparable food, perhaps for a couple more euros. In short, Donna Teresa:

Is recommended if:

•          You’re staying close to Vomero;
•          You can speak more Italian than just a few basic phrases; or
•          You’re just looking for some simple, hearty Italian food at a compelling price.

Is not recommended if:

•          You’re staying more than fifteen minutes away;
•          You can’t really speak Italian; or
•          You’re looking for one of the best Italian meals you can find, and are willing to pay for it.

For someone living closer to Vomero, Donna Teresa certainly would be worth a visit, particularly if he or she spoke functional Italian. But while we appreciated the down-to-earth atmosphere, good cooking, and reasonable prices, Donna Teresa probably isn’t a place we’ll return to if we ever find ourselves in Naples again.