Mimì alla Ferrovia (The New York Times)

The description of Mimì we’d heard and read has led us to expect great home coocking in squalid surrounding near the station.

I was afraid I couldn’t possibly send the Clintons there, but in fact it is a very large, comfortable restaurant that seats 140, though after dark i would certainly arrive and depart by taxi.

When i saw standard fare like scaloppine al marsala and cotoletta alla milanese on the menu, however, I wondered whether we’d come to the right place.
We eased into the meal with antipasto Mimì: mozzarella di bufala, involtino di peperoni, fried mozzarella, squash blossoms, and more.

The loud southern accent of the exquisite antipasto dispelled any doubt; it was clearly going to be a question of convincing the waiter we were serious.
In the theater that is Naples, you have to know your lines. A food expert in Rome, I announced, told us to come to Mimì for the real Neapolitan coocking (wich was true).

Our waiter, Roberto, took his cue, nodded gravely, and said “pasta e ceci.“. We were off and running. He brought us tasting portions of a creamy chickpea soup with fresh pasta and one of pasta e fagioli-beans-and then a few tiny fried squid.
That was followed by a shared linguine alla Mimì pasta with scampi, shrimp and clams in a sauce of crusched small tomatoes.

We stuck with a fish and ordered grilled squid and a pair of large red mullets in fresh tomato sauce.

The inevitable babà and pastiera for dessert wew accompanied by the house limoncello, the refreshing lem on liqueur of the region.

On a Saturday afternoon, we left Naples and drove about 35 miles around to the other side of the bay to the tip of the Sorrento Peninsula.
Both the restaurants we visited have decorous rooms, so there is no need to challenge the Amalfi Drive after after dinner.

The New York Times Sunday, may 1, 1994