The pizza counters stay busy. Once the lunchtime visitors have gone, the trattorie fill with people from the neighbourhood, and nearby Piazza San Domenico Maggiore adds a contemporary pizzeria and a century-old pasticceria. Everything on our list is a few minutes’ walk from Via dei Tribunali, from fried pasta eaten standing up to slow-cooked ragù.
The short list
7 places, in the order they appear below.
- 1Pizzeria Di MatteoFrittatina and street pizzaWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 2 minVia dei Tribunali
- 2Campagnola 1947Pasta e patate e provolaWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 4 minVia dei Tribunali
- 3JanuariusOctopus alla LucianaWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 2 minVia Duomo
- 4La Locanda Gesù Vecchio Civico 4Ziti alla genoveseWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 7 minSan Domenico Maggiore
- 5Palazzo Petrucci PizzeriaSeasonal pizzasWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 8 minPiazza San Domenico Maggiore
- 6Puok Burger StoreBurgersWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 7 minPiazzetta Nilo
- 7Pasticceria ScaturchioMinisterialeWalk from Via dei Tribunali: 8 minPiazza San Domenico Maggiore
What is Via dei Tribunali like in the early evening?
In the early evening the counter at Pizzeria Di Matteo is as busy as ever, and its fried food is eaten standing on the street. This is the hour to eat on your feet: take something fried from a counter and keep the sit-down meal for later, once the trattorie have their dinner crowd.
Pizzeria Di Matteo has worked Via dei Tribunali since 1936, and the counter rarely goes quiet. Its fried food counter gets going ahead of the pizza oven and turns out the frittatina di maccheroni, fried pasta bound with béchamel and ragù, which never stays on the counter for long and on Saturdays can be gone early in the day. Don’t sit down. Eat it on the street, with a pizza alongside. Bill Clinton stopped here in 1994, but the food doesn’t need the anecdote.
Pizzeria Di Matteo
Hours: Mon–Sat 11:00–23:00 · Sun closed
Address: Via dei Tribunali, 94, 80138 Napoli NA, Italy
Where do locals eat dinner on Via dei Tribunali?
For a proper sit-down dinner, the neighbourhood goes to the trattorie on and around the street. The menus stick to Neapolitan home cooking without reinventing it: pasta e patate with provola, braciola al ragù, ziti alla genovese, octopus braised in a terracotta pot. Book wherever you can. The smaller rooms fill fast, and on most evenings there’s a queue outside at least one of them.
Campagnola 1947 has cooked the same dishes for three generations: scarpariello, paccheri allo scoglio, salsiccia e friarielli. Come for dinner, after the lunchtime rush, when the neighbourhood crowd has the tables. The pasta e patate e provola azzeccata is the one to order.
Campagnola 1947
Hours: Mon 12:30–15:30, 19:30–23:00 · Tue closed · Wed–Sat 12:30–15:30, 19:30–23:00 · Sun 12:30–16:00, 19:30–23:00
Address: Via dei Tribunali, 47, 80138 Napoli NA, Italy
Januarius is a few minutes from the Cathedral of San Gennaro and cooks classic tavern food with precision, in a quietly beautiful room. The test of the kitchen is the octopus alla Luciana, braised in a closed terracotta pot with tomato, olives, capers and garlic. The ziti al ragù and the baccalà with Neapolitan endives get the same care.
Januarius
Hours: Mon 13:00–15:00, 19:30–23:00 · Tue closed · Wed–Sat 13:00–15:00, 19:30–23:00 · Sun 13:00–15:30, 19:30–23:00
Address: Via Duomo, 146/148, 80138 Napoli NA, Italy
La Locanda Gesù Vecchio Civico 4, in San Domenico Maggiore, is a small, rustic and slightly cramped room, and walk-ins often wait even midweek. Order the ziti alla genovese. The long-simmered ragù and the spaghetti alla puttanesca, with a real bite of anchovy and olives, are the other reasons to come. The young staff will steer you to the right dish.
La Locanda Gesù Vecchio Civico 4
Hours: Mon 12:00–15:30, 19:00–23:00 · Tue closed · Wed–Sun 12:00–15:30, 19:00–23:00
Address: Via Giovanni Paladino, 4-4/A, 80138 Napoli NA, Italy
Where can you get pizza near Via dei Tribunali at night?
The area covers both ends of Neapolitan pizza. At one end is the street counter on Via dei Tribunali itself, covered above. At the other is a contemporary sit-down pizzeria on Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, about eight minutes’ walk away, with booked tables, a lighter crust and a seasonal menu. If you want a slower evening with a chair and a plate, go for the second.
Palazzo Petrucci Pizzeria is the pizza side of the Palazzo Petrucci restaurant. The crust is airy with a crisp edge, and the toppings are kept in balance, not piled on. Look past the classics to the seasonal pizzas, which change through the year and show the kitchen at its best. The Cappella Sansevero and its Veiled Christ are a minute away.
Palazzo Petrucci Pizzeria
Hours: Mon–Sun 12:30–16:00, 19:30–23:30
Address: P.za S. Domenico Maggiore, 5/6/7, 80134 Napoli NA, Italy
Is there anything besides Neapolitan cooking near Via dei Tribunali?
For a change of register, there’s a burger counter on Piazzetta Nilo, about seven minutes from Via dei Tribunali. The menu is tight: six sandwiches, changed every month, with locally sourced beef and sauces made in house. It slots easily into an evening in the Centro Storico.
Food blogger Egidio Cerrone started Puok Burger Store, and it had a cult following before the press caught on. The original branch is in Vomero. The Spaccanapoli one is the address to pair with dinner in the old town.
Puok Burger Store
Hours: Mon–Wed 12:00–15:00, 19:00–23:00 · Thu–Sun 12:00–15:00, 19:00–00:00
Address: Piazzetta Nilo, 9, 80134 Napoli NA, Italy
Where to finish the evening with something sweet near Via dei Tribunali?
End on Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, among the best-proportioned squares in the historic centre. A pasticceria has held the corner here for over a century. The classics are babà al rum, sfogliatella and a chocolate medallion made nowhere else, and in summer you can eat them on the stone-paved terrace. Tourists crowd it at peak times. The pastry holds up anyway.
At Pasticceria Scaturchio, the Ministeriale is a dark chocolate disc filled with rum liqueur cream. Neapolitans buy it boxed by the dozen as a gift. The display is fullest earlier in the day.
Pasticceria Scaturchio
Hours: Mon–Sun 08:00–21:00
Address: P.za S. Domenico Maggiore, 19, 80134 Napoli NA, Italy
The places on our list line up naturally across one evening, starting with a frittatina eaten standing up on Via dei Tribunali, moving on to dinner at one of the trattorie and ending with pastry on Piazza San Domenico Maggiore. Book the sit-down places ahead, especially at weekends, and check each card for opening days, because several of these kitchens close one day a week. Everything is within a few minutes’ walk of Via dei Tribunali, so plan the evening on foot.
