What Happened to Napoli's?

In the past, I have written glowing reviews of Napoli's restaurant at 61st and Memorial.  The first few times we ate there, the food was nothing less than spectacular.  But, times (and probably chef's) change.  We ate there a few weeks ago and I was treated to a Chicken Marsala with red sauce.  It wasn't what I was expecting and I didn't care for it.  I can't remember what Sheila had, but she wasn't particularly happy either.

We had dinner there again last night.  As usual, their bread was superb.  So was the Calamari appetizer.  We split an entree of Chicken Piccata. Sheila or I's home made Chicken Piccata is much better.  The sauce was thin and lacked character.  The pasta just kind of laid there.  The meal was edible but I wish now we had just ordered another order of Calamari and skipped the entree altogether.

And, to add to the lackluster ambience of it all, there was a strange video of a stencilled representation of Marlon Brando playing the the Godfather on one of the TV monitors with Italian music playing in the background.  I like Italian music.  However, the playback unit wasn't working properly and it would skip annoyingly enough that it attracted my attention every time it did.

On a good day when one of the younger brothers of this family is cooking this Napoli's can turn out a meal that is something to be remembered.  Unfortunately, the last couple of times we have been there, we got a meal that was better forgotten.