Come On! Italy is a mid-range Italian-style eatery located in the web of alleys behind the Sogo department store on Zhongxiao East Road (忠孝東路) that specializes in thin-crust pizza and pasta dishes.
The restaurant’s decor veers towards the simple — unadorned white walls — with cozy flourishes. Its large and homey plush sofas upholstered in gray and emerald and large cushioned chairs are ideal for whiling away a few hours with friends.
We ordered the spinach and cheese pizza (NT$220) and spaghetti with chicken and four cheeses sauce (NT$300).
I picked the set meal (add NT$80), which includes soup or salad, bread roll, drink and dessert, with the pasta because the kitchen didn’t have the ingredients to make the caprese salad (NT$120) I originally wanted. The extra expenditure wasn’t worth it.
The pumpkin soup was a bland concoction sprinkled with dried parsley. Adding some apple or ginger might have given it depth. The disappointing first course was offset, but only slightly, by the whole wheat bread that had just come from the oven. I left it on the plate until the pasta arrived.
The creamy sauce was an ambrosial mix of Parmesan, mozzarella, Gorgonzola and ricotta. Its lack of oiliness and robust flavor suggested that the chef emphasized the cheese rather than cream or butter as the sauce’s primary ingredients.
Topped with ricotta, garlic and a slightly spicy pepperoni that I ordered as an extra (NT$50), and a rich and piquant tomato sauce, the thin-crust spinach and cheese pizza was significantly larger than expected.
This dining experience ended, however, as it had begun, with a blunder — this time in the shape of dry and crumbly chocolate sponge cake that had been in the cooler a little too long.
For the price, Come On! Italy is worth a visit. But avoid the set meal as it only detracts from what the restaurant does right: pizza and pasta.
In a strange omission, no wines are to be found on the menu. My server said, however, that customers would not be charged corkage if they brought their own.
Note: Some menu prices on Come On! Italy’s Web site have not been updated.
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