Nilli's Pasta & Pizza

I’ve had several posts waiting to go up…I’ve just been lazy.

So we’ll start off with Nilli’s Pasta & Pizza. This isn’t a bad place to get some pasta or pizza…as you might expect. When looking for this chain, look for “Pasta & Pizza” in large letters – it took me a year of eating here at the branch by Samsung before I realized that it actually had a name. A few months ago, to my delight, they opened a branch in Yeongtong across from Homeplus. If you’re leaving Homeplus via the front entrance, cross the road diagonally to the right and it will be on that block (on the road that runs in front of Homeplus).

The Yeongtong location hasn’t been too busy when I’ve went in for dinner or lunch, which is a good thing since they don’t have a whole lot of space inside.

The prices are pretty typical for an Italian place in Korea. Pasta dishes will typically be between 9000 won and 13000 won (add about 6000 won if you want to make it a portion for two peeps), while the pizzas will run between 12500 for a margherita to 15000 for a gorgonzola. Sodas will be the typical (approx.) 2000 won that you find at Korean restaurants; however, you can get a basket of garlic bread (2 pcs.) and a soda for 3500, I think.

Speaking of the garlic bread – this is probably my favorite thing at Nilli’s because…wait for it…it’s not sweet!! Yup, at least as far as I can tell, it’s not that sweet garlic bread that so many places try to pass off on you. Granted, it is possible that my taste buds have been ruined after 4 years of living in Korea, so you’ll have to let me know if it tastes sweet to any of you.

Nilli’s offers red sauce pasta and cream sauce pasta dishes. The only pasta that I’ve tried has been the cream sauce ones (and non-seafood). The cream sauce really doesn’t have any flavor – it’s just plain white sauce. Luckily, they do season the chicken and such that they put in the pasta, but other than that there isn’t a lot of flavor to the sauce itself.
The chicken and mushroom pasta:

The pizzas aren’t bad – I’ve tried several of them (margherita, rucola, gorgonzola, etc.). They’re good for sharing with a friend as an appetizer but not really as a meal by themselves if you’re hungry. The crust is super thin and so are the toppings.
Here’s the gorgonzola pizza, which is a sauceless pizza with bleu cheese crumbles and white cheese that comes with a honey and garlic dipping sauce.

Overall, I quite like Nilli’s since it’s not very busy most of the time and the garlic bread is good. There are a couple of other places in Yeongtong (like Basta Pasta) and a new one in the Yeongtong Park area (haven’t tried this one yet), but I think I prefer Nilli’s over Basta Pasta because they seem to not be as awkward around foreigners.