Our Via Napoli dining review looks beyond pizza. We explored whether the Filetto di Manzo entrée is a good use of a dining package.
Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria, located at Epcot’s Italy Pavilion, is a solid option for pizza enthusiasts. Known for its wood-fired pizzas, crafted and baked in ovens named after Italy’s famous volcanoes, Etna, Vesuvio, and Stromboli, Via Napoli offers a truly immersive dining experience. The vibrant, open dining room features rustic décor and large communal tables, perfect for families and groups. While pizza is the star, the menu also features classic pastas, salads, and desserts, such as tiramisu. For guests seeking a flavorful, sit-down meal during their World Showcase adventure, Via Napoli delivers a slice of Naples in Orlando.
If you visited Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria at Epcot without ordering pizza, did you really go? For guests using a dining plan or dining package, this becomes a practical question. When on those plans, pizza does not make good economic sense.
We have visited Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria several times in the last few months. Our most recent visit involved a dining package. This meant ordering a pizza to share made little sense. With a dining package, the entrée credit is for one individual pizza, and a large pizza would require two entrée credits. With many other things on the menu at Via Napoli, we decided to branch out. In doing so, we found something on the menu that we had not noticed before (or had forgotten about), the Filetto di Manzo. However, it made for an interesting Via Napoli dining review.
Via Napoli Dining Review
The Filetto di Manzo entrée costs $49. The menu description reads “two medallions of beef filet grilled to your liking, served with fingerling potatoes, baby carrots, green beans, topped with rosemary butter.” For reference, fingerling potatoes and green beans are standard side dishes at Via Napoli, which can be ordered separately. Also, our server did not ask how I wanted the beef medallions cooked, so we were confused about “to your liking.”
Filetto di Manzo
Filetto di Manzo is an Italian term that translates roughly to “beef fillet” or “beef tenderloin” in English. It refers to one of the most tender and prized cuts of beef. In Italian cooking, this cut of meat often comes grilled or pan-seared to medium-rare or medium to preserve its tenderness.
On this visit, this entrée came very well prepared. The presentation was also quite good. Still, it failed to live up to the almost $50 price tag. Considering several other Walt Disney World table service restaurants serve a far better version of similar dishes for only a little bit more money, this did not impress.
Like previously stated, the preparation was excellent. However, the quality of the starting ingredients betrays this dish. A chef can only do so much with inferior-quality produce and beef. Based on our dining experience, that became the only possible conclusion as to why this dish failed.
Based on this, we cannot recommend paying full price for this entrée. However, if you feel the need to order the most expensive entrée for an Epcot dining package, the Filetto de Manzo fits that request. In fact, considering the price of our dining package, this entrée and dessert cost the exact amount we pay to have reserved seats at an Epcot concert.
For us and this Via Napoli dining review, we recommend getting a dining package elsewhere. Then, on another Epcot visit, make an advanced dining reservation to try the pizza at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria. We hear some consider Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria at Epcot to be one of the top two pizza restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort.
For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon Eastern Time. As always, eat like you mean it!
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