COSI O COSI
No. 155, DunHua S. Rd., Sec 1
(02) 2771-5883
Lunch 12 pm-2:30 pm,
Dinner/ 6:30-11 pm ( last orders 10:30 pm)
kid friendliness: high chairs available, pretty friendly service
$$
Visit reviewed: 11/21/2007
Original review: 5/18/2006 and 3/27/2005 here
Deciding to eat at Cosi O Cosi on a weeknight, I was honestly surprised to find it so packed. We ended up on the 2nd floor for the first time, which was at first HOT near the ovens and kitchen, but much cooler once they opened the windows to the patio. It also felt a bit more romantic at night on the 2nd floor with the dimmer lighting somehow.
I still love the crostinis which include 2 slices each of olive tapenade and bruschetta on thick slices of toast, and the clam linguini which I said in my original review is "simple, but flavorful." I still think the best way to go is to do family style with a group of friends so you can sample everything.
The pizza hit the spot. Thin crust with a variety of topping selections- we went for the artichoke, mushroom, ham and mozzarella. I liked the tangy-ness of the artichoke to cut the grease of everything else. We also tried the calzone which was a puffed up huge balloon that quickly deflated when you cut it. Something about it - maybe in comparison to the pizza, or in comparison to the yummy calzone from Bellini Bellini, we were a bit underwhelmed. So stick to the pizzas here.
There's also daily specials and a short menu of tapas. The menu is in English and Chinese with mostly pizzas and pastas at $260-$420 NT, with a few salads, appetizers and desserts available.
9 comments:
The worst part of using stumble upon before lunch is finding blogs like yours, I am now really hungry!
How do I subscribe to your blog?
You should take a peek at mine and then I can easily find yours :-)
Big fan of your blog first of all so thank you!!
My friends and I are pretty big foodies, and Italian is one of my favortie cuisines, but I have to be honest my visit cosi-o-cosi was really really dissapointing. The pizza and pasta were bland and I think they just skimped out on toppings. For casual italian I really recommend the Italian Job on Lishui, casual honest italian done right, would love to see your review on it!
The best part of Cosi o Cosi for us are the pizzas and the tapas. There's one tapa that we especially like that has beef and mashed potatoes (sorry, I can't remember what it's called).
The pastas are decent, but I wouldn't go there just for that.
I've never tried the crostinis - will have to try it next time we go!
kevin d: hi! thanks for reading!! i guess you can subscribe through google reader or just check back.
dlin: THANKS! yeah, i have had some average visits w/ cosi too in the past, but my recent ones have been good (that's why it's a general recommend rather than a strongly recommend). i haven't been to Italian Job yet, i will have to make a visit. hope to hear from you again.
emily: the one steak tapa I tried once was good, but i found it too pricey for the portion!
I think the pizza we had one time that we really liked was called the Melanzana, or something like that. It was a vegetarian pizza with eggplant, I remember. That was super tasty! I thought the other pizzas we've had at Cosi o Cosi were good, but not great.
The one time I went to the Italian Job I thought it was decent...and reasonably priced.
Written Jan. 7, 2008 - repost from comments of original review
I'm a fan of 'hungry in Taipei', but I'll have to strongly disagree with blogger's opinion on Cosi o Cosi. We ordered a penne with asparagus, mushrooms, and chicken; the chicken was tasteless, the portions were insufficient (especially the asparagus, which seemed like one stalk of asparagus cut up into 4-5 pieces), and the entire dish seemed utterly unappetizing. The flavor was off or bland, or rather non-descript. Even on my worst days I can make better pasta. We tried to tell them that the no. of ingredients was insufficient, but our Chinese was .... equally insufficient.
The pizza (for us, artichokes, mushrooms, ham, and cheese, tomato sauce) was better, but still rather ordinary. All the ingredients were retrieved from cans (though hungry-in-taipei's already noted this), but the pizza was not particularly fresh, and none of the flavors really jumped out at the patron. In fact I think dried basil was overused as a topping.
Someone's gotta tell Taiwanese people that this isn't pizza, whether Italian or New York or California! And the prices are relatively extraordinary (about $400 NT per pasta or pizza). It's not as if they couldn't cut up some fresh mushrooms and use those. A strong 'stay away' and 'not buy'.
By the way, the house wine for $150 NT tasted rather piss gross.
By the way, the street no. of this restaurant is No. 155, not No. 55.
hubert: sorry you didn't find the food to your liking-- i don't know if i'd call it "authentic" italian, but i like the flavors of the food usually. i can see what you were saying about the chicken/aspargus pasta- sometimes the toppings can be on the skimpy side
hubert: thanks for catching the typo! i've corrected it.
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