California Pizza Kitchen

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California Pizza Kitchen is a well known classier Pizza restaurant chain from the U.S. offering top notch pies with traditional toppings and daring new concoctions with either normal crust or thin crust. The Taiwanese location in the Xin Yi Vieshow Cinema foodcourt takes that innovation to another realm by offering their patrons the odd choices of Minced Pork Rice Pizza, Oyster Omelet Pizza, and the Boba Milk Tea Pizza. They are mind-blowing pizzas that make you double-take each bite and are very interesting to chew on. However they also have their signature Margheritas and Sicilian pizzas with their thin crust option. No longer are you forced to go to 15 Napoletana and pretend their thin crust pizzas are CPK. You can get the real deal here now...Well, as real as it can get.
Address: 台北市松壽路20號2樓

                 No. 20, Sōngshòu Road, Sinyi District, Taipei

Phone #: 02-2722-8383
Business Hours: 10:00-24:00
Website: http://www.cpk.com/locations/xinyi/

Accepts Credit Cards: yes

Price Range: $$$

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: 4.5 out of 5

Overall: 4.17 out of 5

Side Note: Has unique Taiwanese Style Pizzas and Familar Signature Pizzas

Review

Solo Pasta

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Solo Pasta is a popular Italian eatery in the east district closeby to the Dwun Nan Eslite. According to the 2011 best Taipei restaurant poll by hungryintaipei.com this restaurant is tied for first with Papa Gio for best Italian. Their pasta seem to be on the lighter side and might be more than the denser American-Italian pastas, but they have well cooked pastas and fresh sauces to each dish. Expect to spend around 500 dollars per person if you want to get an appetizer a main entree and a drink. Try this place out if you are looking to enjoy some good Italian food in a cozy setting.

Address:  台北市大安區安和路一段29-1號
                 No. 29-1, Section 1, Ānhé Rd, Daan District Taipei City

Phone #: 02-2775-3645
Business Hours: 11:00-22:00

Website: N/A

Accepts Credit Cards: yes
Price Range:   $$$

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes

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

Rating

Food Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Decor:  4 out of 5
Service: 4 out of 5
Overall: 3.83 out of 5
Recommendation: Light Italian Cuisine.


Review

Pizza Pub 比薩屋

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Address: 台灣臺北中正區忠孝東路一段12號
                 No. 12, Section 1, ZhōngXiào East Rd, Jhongjheng District
Phone #: 02-2321-1818
Business Hours: 11:30-14:30, 18:00-22:00
Website: http://www.sheraton-taipei.com/english/r_pizza.htm

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: 2.5 out of 5
Decor:  3 out of 5
Service: 2 out of 5
Overall: 2.5 out of 5
Recommendation: Don't try their overpriced and bland pizzas

Review

Pizza Pub is a upper-mid level restaurant serving pizzas in a nice dining space. They are located in the B1 level of the Sheraton Hotel in Taipei. The concept of serving pizzas in a homey yet classy pub is a very good idea. However, the restaurant fails to serve delicious pizzas, which leaves you with nothing else to satisfy you besides consuming the unimpressive aura of the dining space. It costs 450 NT for 8 inches of bland, uncheesy dough circles here. The value at the pizza pub is very low and it feels like you are paying a lot for bad food and bad service. I really wanted to like this place, but their core product is just so bad that I can not recommend their pizzas to anyone with a clear conscience. If you have to come to Pizza Pub, try something else instead of their pizza.

Go Go Pasta

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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.

Romano's Macaroni Grill

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Address:  台灣台北市信義區松壽路30號
                地點 03/2011搬到敦化北路民生路口
　　　　No. 30, SōngShòu Road, Sinyi District Taipei City, Taiwan 110 
                Location change to Dwun Hwa/Ming Sheng Intersection 03/11

Phone #:  02-2722-4567
Website: N/A

Price Range:   $$$
Accepts Credit Cards: yes

Attire: casual-semicasual

Good for kids: yes

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

Rating

Food Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Decor:  3.5 out of 5
Service: 4 out of 5
Overall: 3.67 out of 5
Recommendation: Familiar Italian-American Cuisine

Review
Romano's Macaroni Grill is a Italian-American restaurant offering pastas, pizzas, and salads in the heart of Taipei. The entrees all price at around 450 NT. Each person can have a nice meal for under 1000 NT each. The restaurant is currently ending its lease in the NEO19 building in the Hsin Yi district in Taipei. It will be moving to its new location in the Song Shan District at the Dwun Hwa and Ming Sheng intersection. The cuisine at this location is mediocre and does not carry the same quality as the American Macaroni Grill locations. However, the service and atmosphere is very high among the restaurants of Taipei.

Albero

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Address:   台北市大安路一段83巷7號1樓
                  No.7,Ln.83,Sec.1,Da'an Rd.,Da'an District
Phone #:  02-8772-5480
Website: http://zh-tw.facebook.com/pages/Taipei-Taiwan/Albero-Taipei/126285577419928

Price Range:   $$$

Accepts Credit Cards: probably

Take out: probably

Waiter Service: yes

Outdoor seating:  no

Alcohol: yes

Rating

Food Quality: 3.5 out of 5

Decor:  4 out of 5

Service: 4 out of 5

Overall: 3.8 out of 5

Recommendation: Pricey mediocre "Italian Food"

Review
There is a magazine out there called 非凡 or "unique" that periodically recommends restaurants using flowery language and enticing photographs. I must warn the reader that any recommendation received by this entity is empty and meaningless. Under their wordsmithery, I was led to eat what I thought was just a mediocre meal, at a jacked up price. They serve many pastas, pizzas, and entrees, but of a quality that does not seem to match the price tag. Entrees are around 500 NT, pizzas are about 400 for an 8 inch, and pastas are around 350 NT per plate. Each item can be upgaded to a combo for 250 NT, which includes salad, soup, dessert, and a drink. I would not come here again, because there are better places for pizza, pasta, and the like at similar or better prices.

Fat Angelo's

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Address:    台北市信義區松仁路28號

                   No. 28, SōngRén Rd, Sinyi District
Phone #:   02-8729-2741
Website: http://www.bellavita.com.tw/store.php?d=4

Price Range:   $$$

Accepts Credit Cards: no

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: 3.5 out of 5
Overall: 3.83 out of 5
Recommendation: Thin crust pizza in swanky food court.

Review

My newest area of interest is the Bella Vita food court. It is probably the best food court i've seen in Taiwan, and it made me delay the exploration of the Taipei 101 food court, which is very much like all the other food courts around the island. The variety the Bella Vita food court has to offer is wide, and the quality is set at a high bar. I appreciate the different designs put into each restaurant of the food court, so that each space has its own theme.  The first restaurant I tried is Fat Angelo's. It is a Italian restaurant that has a brick oven for their selection of thin crust pizzas (~600 NT for 12"), pasta's (~400NT), or sandwiches (~250NT). The seating is not so comfortable, the decor is quaint, and the service is sort of slow. The seating at this food court is improved if you choose to sit down at "We Share Everything" which is like a posh general dining area, where the servers will order your food at an restaurant at the food court, and bring it to you. But to fully show the theme and surroundings of each restaurant I will insist on being seated at the restaurant space.

FIFTEEN PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA (15 那不勒斯披薩屋)

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Address:    台灣台北大安區和平東路二段118巷4號

                   No. 4-1, Ln 118, Heping E. Rd, Sec 2
Phone #:   02-2377-1142
Website: N/A

Price Range:   $$$

Accepts Credit Cards: no

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes

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

Rating

Food Quality: 4.5 out of 5
Decor:  4 out of 5
Service: 4.5 out of 5
Overall: 4.3 out of 5
Recommendation: Gourmet Pizza in a Cozy Atmosphere

Review

Tucked in a alleyways of the NTU rear entrance restaurant area is a gourmet pizzeria called 15. They serve a wide variety of pizzas ranging from 300 NT to 500 NT, various appetizers at around 200 NT, and drinks at around 100 NT. Their decor is very gastro pubish, with a bartop available to view the pseudo brick-oven pizza making process. Their staff is very friendly, helpful, and prompt. They also welcome silly banter and make an effort to entertain their guests. At the very least, they busted our tables, asked if we needed anything, and responding quickly when summoned. This pizzeria left me with a good impression, and is currently my favorite NTU area pizzeria.

House No. 202 Steak and Pasta

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Address:   台北市汀州路三段202號

                 No. 202, Section 3, TīngZhōu Rd, Jhongjheng District

Phone #:    02-2369-8800

Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/No202-House/126185724096011

Price Range:   $$

Accepts Credit Cards: no

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes
Take out: yes

Waiter Service: yes

Outdoor seating:  no

Alcohol: no

Rating

Food Quality: 3.7 out of 5

Decor:  3.5 out of 5

Service: 4 out of 5

Overall: 3.7 out of 5

Recommendation: Go for quality pastas at a bargain.

Review

Continuing on my quest to find an acceptable pasta spot, I stumbled upon a newly opened restaurant nearby called House No. 202 Steak and Pasta. Their menu consists of many entrees in which you can add a combination of salad, soup, bread, or drink. The entrees range from 140 NT for a plate of seafood spagetti to 260 for steak. They also serve lamb chops and chicken rice, all under 300 NT. The food here is delightful. The portions are just right, the flavors are light and fresh, and the platings are alluring. They offer quality food and drink at an affordable price. This is the type of neighborhood eatery that is worth frequenting.

Discovery 發現義大利麵

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Address:    台北市中正區羅斯福路三段282號 (公館店)

                  No. 282, Section 3, LuoSiFu Rd, JhongJheng District
Phone #:    N/A

Website: N/A

Price Range:   $$

Accepts Credit Cards: idk

Attire: casual

Good for kids: no

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

Rating

Food Quality: 2.5 out of 5
Decor:  2 out of 5
Service: 2 out of 5
Overall: 2.2 out of 5
Recommendation: Lots of noodles for cheap.

Review

Without a kitchen of my own, I must rely on the restaurant world to satisfy all my cravings. I am currently looking for a restaurant around NTU that can whip up various high quality pastas. "Discover Spagetti" is not that sort of place. All I discovered is that you make quite a lot of money selling sub-par spagetti in Taiwan. This store is like the typical cheap pasta joints that litter the city. The upside is that everything is under 130NT, but that is also the source of its downside. They serve spagetti with different ingredients and 4 basic sauces: butter based, pesto based, marinara based, and olive oil based. Each meal comes with bread and corn soup(Falls short from being chowder). Overall, this is a cheap spagetti restaurant geared toward the high school/college students that pack the place up.