Go Go Pasta

Profile

Address: 台北市大安區敦化南路1段233巷15號1樓
                 No. 15, Lane 233, Section 1, DūnHuà South Rd, Daan District
Phone #: 02-2740-1680
Business Hours: 11:45-22:00
Website: http://www.gogopasta.com.tw/

Price Range:   $$
Accepts Credit Cards: yes

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes

Take out: yes
Waiter Service: yes
Outdoor seating:  no
Alcohol: yes

Rating

Food Quality: 4 out of 5
Decor:  4 out of 5
Service: 4 out of 5
Overall: 4 out of 5
Recommendation: Quality pastas with reasonable pricing

Review

Go Go Pasta is a cozy little pasta shop nestled in the busy East District in Taipei. They serve pizzas and quality pastas in their modern wooden dining space. In comparison to the myriad of spagetti shacks and fancy Italian restaurants, this place sits in the upper middle of portion of the spectrum. They have three sauces for their pastas: olive oil, marinara, and pesto. You can order different ingredients that to mix into your pasta, and each plate won't cost more than 200 NT. For an additional 100 NT, you can add 3 items to your meal: a drink, a bowl of soup, and a dessert. A set meal of slightly higher than average quality for this price at such a comfortable dining space is definitely money well spent.

The interior of Go Go Pasta is very sleek and wooden. They use ply wood, so it causes a sort of humble, modern, and smooth look to the restaurant. The operation is efficient, with host in the front, an adequate amount of servers. However, they might have too many chefs working in the kitchen. A good portion of them seemed to be just staring blankly most of the time. I felt like the servers were very attentive to our needs except for when we were ready to order. I had to flag them down instead of being asked by them. Besides that small gruff, they served promptly, cleaned up regularly, and did it with a smile. I got the 200 NT Seafood Spagetti paired with a 2 item 80 NT set, which i chose pumpkin soup and a tiramisu.

 All of the Pasta dishes come with dinner rolls. They taste all right, more flaky than the costco rolls, but they had an ok dough taste. You can smother butter all over it or use their olive sauce that seems to be mashed up olives, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. These made good appetizer and dipping the bread into the soup was delicious too.

I kind of given up the search for good soup, and now I am just grateful for not too watery soups. This pumpkin soup had a hint of the pumpkin flavor, yet it was a little sweet. The consistency of the soup was slightly thicker than the average Taiwanese soup. It is not like a pumpkin purée, but this soup is drinkable.

The marinara based seafood spagetti is what I have been comparing at various pasta joints thus far, so I kept with it and ordered it here as well. This place has got to be the best spagetti version of this so far. Not so much in presentation, because it seems just like a fierce mess sprinkled with garnish, but the food itself was of decent quality. I haven't tried too many pastas in Taiwan so I am not too sure how this would rank in comparison to the more expensive restaurants, but in the small eatery arena, Go Go Pasta should rank in the top 25%. The spagetti noodles were cooked al dente. That is a huge feat in itself because most places in this city tend to overcook their pasta until it becomes too soft for comfort. The marinara sauce was sweet, sourery, sunny, and somewhat frothy. I wouldn't stay their sauce is really fresh because it did not seem to be as juicy and refreshing as straight up marinara. They must had added some starch, and flavorings (MSG?) to conjure up some additional flavor. However, I appreciate the fact that their clams seem fresh, calamari rings are tender, and that they use crab legs in this pasta. This beat out House 202 and Bele'm for sure.

The tiramisu was just blah. It was more cakey, and the coffee and choclate flavors had to compete with a huge layer of cake. It was ok but it lacked the deep cocoa / coffee notes that I would want to get from a tiramisu. This is a Taiwanese bastardized version of a tiramisu, and so you would expect that they tone down the sweetness, cocoa-ness, and coffee-ness to please the majority of the dining crowd. It was not disgusting though, as long as you don't expect a tiramisu, you get a decent little chocolatey cake for dessert. This was a good meal for a price tag of 300 NT. The atmosphere was soothing, environment was clean, and the service was excellent. This place claims the number 1 spagetti place reviewed on this blog for now...