I recently discovered a new pasta restaurant near home called PM Pasta。
As someone utterly powerless against the words ‘newly opened’ and ‘close to home,’ I naturally took the whole family there immediately. Life is hard enough; choosing dinner can be simpler. For a lazy family like ours, being close to home is basically the restaurant world's Michelin one star.
But the moment I walked in, something felt odd. Why did the staff look familiar?
Then I checked the menu, and the food looked familiar too.
At first I reassured myself: relax, pasta all looks roughly alike, and the dish names sound like incantations anyway—herbs, cream, chili, truffle. It would be stranger if I remembered them.
Halfway through the meal, it finally came back to me—
Wait. No. I really have eaten at this place before.
I had visited after seeing it featured on Lo Shih-feng's Bu Wu Zheng YA. I never expected it to move even closer to my home. Well, that settles it: this will probably become our family's safe choice whenever nobody knows what to eat. Our dining philosophy is remarkably consistent:
Good food matters, but proximity matters more.
This time we ordered several dishes to try:
Hot-and-Sour Chili Chicken Pasta | NT$200
I ordered the faintest level of heat, but it tasted nothing like anything so polite as ‘faint.’ It was more like the restaurant smiled and said, ‘Don't worry, it isn't spicy,’ then the chili climbed straight into the passenger seat the next second.
Volcano Prime Diced Pasta | NT$260
My wife ordered this one. Overall, it was fine. The name sounds dramatic, as though the pasta world is about to erupt, but the actual flavor is steady and never too over the top.
Gu Yue Herb Chicken Pasta | NT$220
This is the safer choice: herbs with chicken, a route that rarely goes wrong. It suits anyone who wants no adventure and simply hopes to finish a meal in peace.
Black Truffle Cream Chicken Risotto | NT$200
My mother ordered this, and the rice felt a little firm. Her standards are famously strict, though. She is the sort of person who might taste an elixir of immortality and merely say, ‘It's okay.’ So I was not surprised that she found it ordinary.
Spicy Tomato Diced-Chicken Pasta | NT$200
Tomato and chili make a classic pairing. The tang comes through, and the diced chicken goes down easily. It is the dependable item you can safely entrust with dinner when you have no idea what to order.
We also ordered a few sides:
Plain Fries | NT$85
As long as fries are properly fried, it is basically difficult for them to taste bad. They are the peace envoy of the table, accepted by adults and children without any committee meeting.
Buffalo Wings | NT$170
They are spicy and strongly seasoned. Perfect for pretending you have a heroic heat tolerance while eating, though sooner or later you will quietly start looking for water.
Overall, PM Pasta is the kind of pasta restaurant with consistent flavors, plenty of options and prices that are not outrageous. It is no life-changing institution that makes you stand and applaud before writing the chef a letter. Yet by the standards of ‘near home,’ ‘requires little thought,’ and ‘everyone in the family can find something,’ it is already more than good enough.
For a lazy family like ours, a restaurant's closeness to home is a virtue.
Being close enough to visit often—that is real strength.
