Restaurant #33: Capricciosa, Taipei

Capricciosa is a popular Italian trattoria restaurant chain in Japan. The first restaurant was opened at Shibuya, Tokyo, in 1978. Since 1991, they started opening some branches in out of Japan, such as in Guam, Korea and Taiwan. I had never been there before, but I found this restaurant at SOGO in Taipei, and I missed Japanese style pasta. So why not?


First of all, I liked their service. They at least try to keep the service quality from Japan. So far what I saw, all waiters/waitresses kept smiling and being friendly. I just hope they walked around more often, so that we didn’t have to wave our hands and ask for a glass of water so many times. The kitchen was opened, so we could see how the chefs worked, which is, I believe, not common in Taipei so it would be fun to see. The décor was simple and neat.

Their pasta menu was various! We wanted to try everything! One plate of pasta is for 2-3 people, so we decided to order one pasta and one salad. As for the price, I thought it was okay. Pasta was between 380 and 460, and pizza menu was a bit cheaper. It is close to Japanese price, so it may be a bit expensive for Taiwanese people. It would be nice to go there for some special events.

Lemon-marinated Grilled Chicken Salad, Cooled with Tomato Salad

Lemon-marinated Grilled Chicken Salad (TW$220) was a simple Caesar salad covered by grilled chicken breast. I thought grilled chicken was well marinated and tasty, but it was small. Caesar salad was used too much dressing and it ruined the natural taste of lettuce. Well, the lettuce did not look fresh, so they needed to use more dressing, I guess. I recommend you the salad at Olive Garden, because it was much better.

Linguine with Smoked Salmon in Cream Sauce

I have told you already that it is difficult to find a good Italian restaurant in Taiwan. This restaurant is Japanese customized, so it is not a pure Italian. However, their pasta was delicious! This time, we tried Linguine with smoked salmon (TW$460), but I also tried several others before. Averagely, their pasta items are tasty and I can recommend it to you. Pieces of smoked salmon was cooked well but was tender.

I am wondering how to make cream sauce pasta in Taiwan, because I have never seen whipping cream in regular supermarket. I tried some cream pasta in other restaurant, but it always taste… different than I have eaten before. If I could buy whipping cream, it would make me much easier to cook Carbonara…

Overall, I liked visiting Capricciosa. Food was great, and the service was friendly. Thank you for reading. (Report: Feb. 21, 2010)

Total: TW$ 748 (for 2 people, including 10% service fee)

Capricciosa: Italian Restaurant
http://www.capricciosa.com.tw/