Kiss Pizza

For some reason, I was feeling nostalgic on the weekend, and thought to return to Kiss Pizza. Everything was terrible. The service was sloooow - they forgot the pizza we ordered, and 40 minutes later, we found out that they substituted the pepperoni with Taiwan sandwich ham (retch). Also the toppings (green peppers, onions) were added after the pizza had been cooked, so they were still cold and crispy and unpizza-like. :s The sauce used in the lasagna had been scorched and gave the whole dish a rancid taste. To give it a real Taiwan flavour, there was generous amounts of corn and Taiwan sandwich ham at the bottom. :astonished: Yuck. The ravioli was undercooked, and not very meaty. Portions were also small. The coca-cola was good. Prices are not expensive, but if you hate what you get, then it’s no bargain, is it. Last time I go there. :imp:
For you masochists, Kiss Pizza is located on Yunhe Street, just off of Shida Road, a little past Longquan Street. Their phone number is 2365-7792. Bring antacid. :frowning:

Got to agree with you! I had a very uninspiring pizza a couple of nights ago. Changed the interior too…more chairs, fewer customers! Blaring teen pop and yapping dogs…I will be bothered to go the extra mile up to Paco’s next time.

not withstanding truth of some of the above, i still hold out for the calzones and the blue cheese spinach pizza or the one with the artichokes on it. the crust is ‘meatier’ than up at Paco’s too. the service can be hit and miss, but if you got a little time and you enjoy the Belgian beers, what the hell.

Today’s Taipei Times had a review of Kiss Pizza - sort of. The history of the place is explained, and items on the menu are mentioned, but it doesn’t sound like the reviewer actually tasted anything. Smart move, IMHO. :raspberry:


Kiss Pizza’s Calzone

Photo: Yu Sen-lun

Doesn’t even resemble a pizza. Looks for all the world like a cornish pastie to me.

Well it is a year since this thread delivered its verdict, so perhaps things have improved?

I’ve been here a couple of times only because my mate’s wife’s school friend is a part owner. They’ve only screwed up our order once, but then again, that 33% of the time. Sorry Mike :wink:

that’s a calzone! looks like a weird one to my NY eyes though. a ny style one is ricotta/mozzarella heaven baked in a shell. they’ll put some sauce in it if you want but i never heard of a meat one! reminds me to get one when i go back this month :slight_smile:

My two experiences: okay food, poor service. I remember asking for an extra plate and the waitress didn’t set it down, she dropped it six inches down onto the table. That was after waiting ~10 minutes for her to come over (there were two other tables occupied).

Uck! She really needs to fix that place up with its peeling wallpaper and tacky decor.
One time, everyone got their food but me. Which is normal in Taiwan restaurants, but after waiting 20 mins longer, I finally asked them where the hell my food was and they’d never made it. Since then, I’ve only been back once or twice.
She has the potential to make that place pretty good as the food can be reasonable. She’d be smart with the lousy service, and crap atmosphere there to just make huge sicilian pizzas and sell slices and calzones in a fast food style instead of thinking she’s a proper restaurant. I miss places like that. Slices~~~~~~~~!!

hey we need a separate thread here bout PIZZA. the food that a lot of us are not far away from.

lets put a list of good pizza places here for the devouring public?

i nominate KISS PIZZA (if its still there that is )

[quote=“The Taipei Times”]Restaurant: Kiss Pizza (吉士披薩)
By Yu Sen-lun
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jun 06, 2003, Page 19

Kiss Pizza’s Calzone.
PHOTO: BY YU SEN-LUN
Situated in the Shihta area, on Yunho Street, Kiss Pizza has been serving foreign students and English teachers for 10 years. The main attraction lies in its coziness, inexpensive prices and chef/owner Jane Huang’s hospitality.

For the past 10 years the red-checker-cloth adorned tables have remained the same, but the menu has been expanded and has become more sophisticated. From a dozen or so different kinds of pizzas to nearly 100 types of Italian dishes, Kiss Pizza presents itself as a standard Italian restaurant.

Its decor may not quite live up to its ambitious menu, but Kiss is now opening a second store at Shinkuan Mitsukoshi department store in the Shinyi district.

Originally Jane Huang learned to make pizzas for her own pleasure, from her brother, who 10 years ago opened a pizza house called Kookies in Tienmu.

“I wanted an easy-listening name and an eye-catching logo, so I called it Kiss,” Huang said, adding she first planned to open the place for a year and then go to China. Having made so many foreign friends, Huang said she is now ready to spend another 10 years at Kiss.

Address: 63, Yun-ho Street, Taipei (台北市雲和街63號)
Telephone:(02) 2365 7792 and (02) 23658102
Open: Tuesday to Friday: 5pm to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday: 11am to 3pm, 5pm to 10pm. Closed Mondays
Average meal: NT$250 per person
Details: Credit cards accepted, menu in both Chinese and English
“I have some American friends who went back to the US some years ago. But whenever they come back, they always bring their wives to visit me, as Kiss is where they dated when they were studying in Taiwan,” Huang said.

Thanks to those foreign friends, who have discussed recipes with Huang, and thanks to Huang’s annual pilgrimage to Italy to polish her cooking skills, Kiss has added some new and popular dishes. They include Calzone, a pizza dough wrapping like a giant dumpling, with choices of fillings such as pesto, vegetable and meat (pepperoni, ham or salami). Pasta lovers should also try the gnocchi with mushroom or tomato sauce, squid ink sauce spaghetti, and spaghetti with anchovies and spicy tomato sauce.

As for drinks, Kiss offers a variety of Belgian beers, including Kriek, Trappist Chimay and Duvel.[/quote]
there also was a small ‘hole in the wall’ pizza place where the food was soo good i caught the european manager of a local five star hotel there regularly. IT was owned by a coupla foreigners. ON a main street in Shihlin, in the night market zone. Anybody know if its still there? Dont remember the name. but brick oven baked pizza . YUMMY.

Another excellent Pizza could be found on the second floor restaurant of the WHITE HOUSE HOTEL. (nice cute love hotel on Chang’an E. Rd, near Zhongshan N. Rd.) anyone know if that is still going well? They had brick oven baked pizza too .

Kiss is horrible. People went there years ago when the only alternative was corn-sprinkled Pizza Hut. The base tastes like crackers (oven not hot enough?). It’s cheap and crappy yet really expensive for what it is.

ALLEYCATS!

Pizza? One word: Alleycat’s. The best pizza in Taiwan. That’s not opinion, it’s fact. :sunglasses:

Great topic, tommy525, but before starting new threads, please do the following:

  1. Have a look at the Index for the best forum to put it in. In this case, it would be [color=red]Restaurants, Bars & Clubs [/color]or Food, no?

  2. Run a search within that forum to see if there are existing threads on the topic, and post in the most relevant of those. In this case, a search for “pizza” in Restaurants shows:

pizza

Best Pizza in Taipei

PIZZA ONLY TOPIC

Looking for GOOD NY style pizza in Taipei???

Perhaps the mods can merge this, and those, too?

[quote=“Buttercup”]Kiss is horrible. People went there years ago when the only alternative was corn-sprinkled Pizza Hut. The base tastes like crackers (oven not hot enough?). It’s cheap and crappy yet really expensive for what it is.

ALLEYCATS![/quote]

Agreed, but it was fun for a moment to recall just how paltry the pickings were before Alleycat’s and other fine eateries came to Taipei.

HG

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”][quote=“Buttercup”]Kiss is horrible. People went there years ago when the only alternative was corn-sprinkled Pizza Hut. The base tastes like crackers (oven not hot enough?). It’s cheap and crappy yet really expensive for what it is.

ALLEYCATS![/quote]

Agreed, but it was fun for a moment to recall just how paltry the pickings were before Alleycat’s and other fine eateries came to Taipei.

HG[/quote]

When I first came to Taipei in 1990, the best pizza was Pizza Hut, and a place called Boston’s. Neither come close to Alleycat’s.

When did DV8 start doing their whacky tuna pizza? It was alright with lashings of tabasco . . erh, if drunk and possibly after nipping out into the traffic for a puff. . .

HG

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]When did DV8 start doing their whacky tuna pizza? It was alright with lashings of tabasco . . erh, if drunk and possibly after nipping out into the traffic for a puff. . .

HG[/quote]

Dunno - I haven’t been inside DV8 since 1990… Liked the place, though.

[quote=“Chris”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]When did DV8 start doing their whacky tuna pizza? It was alright with lashings of tabasco . . erh, if drunk and possibly after nipping out into the traffic for a puff. . .

HG[/quote]

Dunno - I haven’t been inside DV8 since 1990… Liked the place, though.[/quote]

DV8, truly the last man standing. Ah well, then you’d remember Kirby’s, Roxy IV…I like…Talk of the Town…

Wasn’t there like a weird pizza place in a weird looking faux western bldg on Nanking?

I read somewhere that Mama Mia in TuCheng has opened up a Taipei branch. Can anyone confirm this?