Erik David posted on April 20, 2010 16:27
Napoli's Italian Restaurant
To contrast our visit to Tiramisu, we decided to go to Napoli's, another local Italian restaurant here in Quincy, IL. It is a newish restaurant owned and operated by a genuine Italian family, who I'm guessing are from Naples based on the name of the restaurant, but I can't tell Italian accents apart and I forgot to ask. I believe this is the same family that owns a series of restaurants in Oklahoma and Missouri, which wouldn't surprise me because I think the food was good enough to merit multiple locations.
The inside is much more casual than Tiramisu, Napolis is not trying to be a fine dining establishment. The booth was a bit shoddy, but other then that, the lack of frills didn't bother me at all.
The menu just oozes authenticity, it makes my mouth water just to read over it again. The menu wasn't online anywhere, so we put it up on QuincyMagazine.com (in Napoli's business listing) so you can browse through it anytime you want.
One particular thing I wanted to point out on the menu is the "Dipping Olive Oil." They will bring you out some delicious dinner rolls before your entre, but you must make sure you order the dipping oil to go along with it, because it is too good to pass up. I recently raved about the dipping oil over at Tiramisu, but Napoli's oil just blew my mind and changed my eye. It's got lots of basil and big fresh chunks of raw garlic in it, and paired with the fresh rolls it's one of the best things I've had in a long time.
For my entree I had the Veal Florentine, which was really rich and full of flavor, but a bit disappointing. The cream sauce was really delicious, but overpowering, I didn't get to taste any of the other flavors, such as the veal, which didn't have much flavor to it at all. My dinner mate ordered a chef's special which had sausage, chicken, and penne pasta in a creamy sauce. The sausage was sliced really thin and thus was a tad overcooked, but the dish was really good.
I think overall, Tiramisu had more interesting flavors, but I'd go back to Napoli's before Tiramisu because of that sweet sweet dipping oil.
Here's some pictures of the food: