Sinbu-dong pizza restaurant in Cheonan: guanciale pizza, rosé pasta

What to order at Napoli Shinbu, a wood-fired pizza restaurant in Sinbu-dong, Cheonan

I eat pizza pretty often, so I wondered how different an oak-fired pizza could really be. But after eating the guanciale pizza at Napoli Shinbu, I got it.

Real oak-fired pizza really is different.

I had guanciale pizza and rosé pasta at Napoli Shinbu in Sinbu-dong, Cheonan. From the name alone, it's not your usual pasta or pizza place. The chef is a member of the Naples Oak-Fired Pizza Artisan Association and makes everything by hand, so the look and taste stand out. I get why it's a waiting-list spot in Sinbu-dong now. That's why we came early, haha.

Napoli Shinbu location, parking and closing day

• 1F, 46 Bangjugan 3-gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea
• If alley parking is difficult, park near Shinsegae Department Store, a public lot, or the post office and walk across the bridge
• Closed every Monday, haha

Inside Napoli Shinbu: the room and tablet ordering

Walking in, my first thought was 'cute and cozy.' The atmosphere of a dining space matters, right? Napoli Shinbu felt like a comfortable place to sit and wait for food.

You order through a tablet at the table. I didn't expect there to be so many options. It's clearly an Italian restaurant serving oak-fired pizza and pasta in Sinbu-dong, Cheonan, so the menu is different from the start. You can check descriptions for each dish too, so choosing wasn't hard.

While browsing, the name 'guanciale pizza' caught my eye. It looked different from the pizzas I usually order, so I was curious about the taste. Even though we'd also ordered rosé pasta, I found myself waiting more for the pizza to arrive.

They make the oak-fired pizza with Italian Caputo flour and mozzarella, and make the broth and sauces for the pasta in-house too. Maybe that's why the guanciale pizza I had that day left an impression not just from the toppings, but from the dough.

Is Napoli Shinbu good with kids? Seating and baby chairs

A baby chair was available, and there were various table sizes for 2, 4, and 5 people, with a view through the floor-to-ceiling windows, so the space didn't feel cramped.

A cozy yet open-feeling Italian restaurant. When we ordered drinks, they brought them out in such a pretty ice cup. Such a nice touch!

The pickles served on ice at Napoli Shinbu

The pickles tasted different from the usual too. Normally I pick at pickles just to clear my palate between bites of pizza or pasta, but here the pickle itself was memorable. It wasn't strongly sour but still cleaned up the palate nicely, without being harsh.

They served the pickles sitting on ice. It made it easy to take as much as you wanted, and I thought, wow, they even pay attention to a small detail like this. There were sauces available too, but we didn't dip anything and just enjoyed the pizza's own flavor — it felt special.

Guanciale pizza: why the Caputo flour dough tastes different

Taking a bite, it felt different from the pizza I usually eat. Normally with pizza you think of the cheese or toppings first. But here, the baked dough had so much flavor that I fully enjoyed every part of the slice — the topped middle and the crust end alike.

Usually once the toppings are gone, I don't reach for the leftover crust. But the crust of Napoli Shinbu's oak-fired pizza was worth eating too. The dough didn't feel like a mere base for the toppings.

The salty savoriness of the guanciale blending with the dough was also great. From the first bite to the last, the flavor kept evolving rather than staying the same. It was the kind of pizza where finishing one slice made you reach for the next.

You can see what kind of pizza it is from a photo, but the actual taste doesn't quite come through. That's exactly how the guanciale pizza was for me that day. The dough alone was different from what I'm used to!!

How the rosé pasta tastes, and whether to order it with the pizza

The rosé pasta we ordered alongside the pizza is a dish I'd especially recommend to anyone who loves both cream sauce and tomato sauce.

Rosé pasta, soft; pizza, full of flavor.

That's the charm of rosé — the softness of cream with the freshness of tomato sauce added in.

Wrapping pasta noodles in a slice of pizza to eat was delicious! I also dipped pizza into the pasta sauce, haha. The pizza and pasta didn't taste similar or overlap, so switching between them was fun. If you're wondering whether to just order pizza or add pasta too when eating Western food in Sinbu-dong, definitely come to Napoli Shinbu, the oak-fired pizza favorite of the neighborhood~

Why Napoli Shinbu draws a wait in Sinbu-dong

They make the oak-fired pizza with Italian Caputo flour and mozzarella, and make the broth and sauces for the pasta themselves, so once I tasted it, I understood why it's a pasta and pizza favorite with a wait in Sinbu-dong. I stopped by to curb my hunger before an important meeting, but it felt like stepping into a whole new world of good food. When I crave oak-fired pizza, I want to come back here!! Discovering a great restaurant is when I'm happiest, haha.