Cafe Napoli

Cafe Napoli Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant: This Clayton food fortress is a popular spot for power lunches and private meetings by day and southern Italian fine dining by night. Make no decisions until the waiter arrives to discuss the specials, some visible on a tray.

Food & Drinks: Tops among appetizers is the cioppino, full of fresh flavor and a little "pop" from the spicy tomato broth. Seafood and house-made pastas are fresh and expertly cooked --- and both appear together in many of Café Napoli’s best dishes, from capellini Livornese (squid, clams and mussels) to rigatoni cardinal (shrimp and scallops). The wine list leans toward the Italian, naturally, and it has length and depth. Amazingly, despite all the clout seated in the L-shaped room, the staff avoids the air of superiority that such rarefied clients sometime seem to cause. The second generation of the Pietoso family manages the front of the house with the same aplomb as the first. There's a bar with music --- and a nice, long martini list --- in a separate space next door, but the tunes sometimes drift outside to tables on the sidewalk. Also located at 1054 Town and Country Cr., 636-256-9998.