Naples is the street food capital of the Western world. Not a metaphor. A pizza a portafoglio (full margherita folded in quarters, eaten walking) costs €1.50. A frittatina di pasta (fried ball of leftover pasta with béchamel) costs €2. A cuoppo di mare (paper cone of fried seafood) costs €5. A sfogliatella (ricotta-filled shell-shaped pastry) costs €2. A complete lunch of all four costs €10.50 and is better than a €50 restaurant meal in any other city. This tour walks you through Spaccanapoli and the Quartieri Spagnoli — the two streets where Neapolitan street food reaches its highest expression. Full Italy street food →
Plan my Naples food tour →Stop 1 (9am): Sfogliatella at Pintauro (Via Toledo 275, since 1785). The sfogliatella riccia — 200+ layers of crunchy pastry filled with ricotta, candied orange, and semolina. €2. Hot from the oven. The crunch-to-cream ratio is the test: if the layers shatter when you bite, it's real. If it's soft: wrong pastry, wrong shop. Pintauro has been getting it right since 1785.
Stop 2 (9:30am): Pizza a portafoglio at Di Matteo (Via dei Tribunali 94). The portafoglio: a full-sized pizza margherita, folded twice into a quarter, wrapped in paper, eaten one-handed while walking. €1.50. This is the most efficient meal in Italy — 800 calories of dough, tomato, mozzarella, and basil for the price of a bottle of water. Clinton ate here in 1994 (photo on the wall). Also get the frittatina (€2) — a fried ball of leftover pasta. The ultimate Neapolitan recycling.
Stop 3 (10:30am): Cuoppo at Fiorenzano (Piazza San Gaetano / Via dei Tribunali). The cuoppo: a paper cone of mixed fried everything. Cuoppo di mare (fried shrimp, calamari, anchovies, €5) or cuoppo di terra (fried vegetables, crocchè potato, melanzane, €4). Eaten standing in the piazza. The cone is the plate. The street is the dining room.
Stop 4 (11am): Pizza Fritta at Zia Esterina Sorbillo (Via dei Tribunali 35). Fried pizza: the dough is stuffed with ricotta, provola, cicoli (pork cracklings), sealed, and deep-fried. €3-4. The first bite releases steam. Be careful. The second bite releases enlightenment. This is the pizza that poor Neapolitans invented because frying was cheaper than owning an oven.
Stop 5 (11:30am): Babà at Scaturchio (Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 19, since 1905). The babà al rum — a small yeast cake soaked in rum syrup until it's a sponge of booze and sugar. €1.50. The babà is Naples' answer to the question "what if cake were drunk?" Also: ministeriale (chocolate and rum pastry), the house specialty since 1905.
Stop 6: Taralleria Napoletana (various, Quartieri Spagnoli). Taralli — crunchy baked dough rings flavored with almond, pepper, or lard. €1/bag. The Neapolitan walking snack.
Stop 7: Pizzeria Sorbillo (Via dei Tribunali 32). Gino Sorbillo — the most famous pizzaiolo in Naples. The margherita (€5): San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, Vesuvian basil, extra virgin olive oil. 90 seconds in a 450°C wood-fired oven. Queue: 30-60 min at lunch. Worth it. Or try L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele (Via Cesare Sersale 1 — only 2 pizzas: margherita €5 or marinara €4. Since 1870. Eat Pray Love was filmed here).
Stop 8: Granita di limone (any bar on Via Toledo). Lemon ice from Amalfi lemons. €2-3. The coolant between fried things.
Stop 9: Pastiera at Pasticceria Attanasio (Vico Ferrovia 1-4, near Stazione Centrale). Pastiera napoletana — ricotta, grano cotto (cooked wheat), orange blossom water, candied fruit. The Easter cake that Neapolitans eat year-round. €3/slice. The most complex pastry in Italian cuisine.
Stop 10 (evening): Friggitoria Masardona (Via Giulio Cesare Capaccio 27). THE temple of fried food. Pizza fritta, crocchè, arancini, frittatine, zeppole — everything fried, everything €1-3, everything perfect. Open late. The midnight fried-food cathedral.