Night 34th is one of those secret places that only the locals know about. Tucked away in a side street off a small road in Keelung City is this unassuming pasta restaurant that uses fresh seafood taken straight from the local fish market to cook delicious bowls of remarkably good pasta. Not only do they cook every dish fresh in front of you, but they also have a good wine selection that can pair with your bowl of pasta, too.
It is long known that Italian cooking uses simple, unadulterated, fresh ingredients to bring about dishes that are packed with flavour. Night 34th in Keelung takes this Italian ideal and uses it in their cooking. The simplicity in the cooking is there for all to see in their open-plan kitchen-bar area, and the expedition of each dish proves the freshness in which each pasta dish is cooked with. Flames leap up and flavours pulse through the air as each dish is cooked to order. But is it really worth the trip out of Taipei?
You could definitely pair Night 34th with a day trip around Keelung. Check out the post below for more information on what you can do with just 24hrs in Keelung.
Keelung City – A fast 24hr foodie tour of surprising keelung, Part 1
Table of Contents
Where is Night 34th?
As you walk from the harbour down XiaoYi First Road (孝一路), around equidistance between Zhong 3rd Road and Zhong 2nd Road, you'll see a small alleyway on your right. You'll notice a floor projected orange encircled '34' advertising the restaurant. Walk down there.
As you continue to walk down, you'll see what looks like a house on the left side - that's Night 34th. It's a little bit more difficult to find than your classic places that have signs hanging over the roads luring you in. But that makes it all the sweeter when you do find it.
For what to do when you walk in, you absolutely must check out my previous post entitled 3 Fast Tips on How to Order in Taipei Restaurants like a definitive pro!
3 Fast Tips on How to Order in Taipei Restaurants like a definitive pro!
The Menu
The menu is well put together, with 6 main areas to it:
- Pasta dishes - 麵食
- Main dishes - 佐食
- Soup dishes - 湯品
- Rice dishes - 飯食
- Alcohol - 酒飲
- Non-alcoholic drinks - 涼飲
Some of the classic dishes you may want to order on the menu could be:
| English | Chinese | Pronunciation |
| Shrimp spaghetti (white wine butter sauce) | 白酒奶油鮮蝦義大利麵 | bái jiǔ nǎi yóu xiān xiā yì dà lì miàn |
| Seafood spaghetti with basil | 塔香海鮮義大利麵 | tǎ xiāng hǎi xiān yì dà lì miàn |
| Seafood spaghetti (pesto sauce) | 松子青醬海鮮義大利麵 | sōng zǐ qīng jiàng hǎi xiān yì dà lì miàn |
| Drunken mushroom spaghetti (vegetarian) | 酒醋野菇義大利麵 | jiǔ cù yě gū yì dà lì miàn |
| Fisherman's special seafood spaghetti | 漁夫海鮮義大利麵 | yú fū hǎi xiān yì dà lì miàn |
| Mentaiko salmon spaghetti | 明太子鮭魚義大利麵 | míng tài zǐ guī yú yì dà lì miàn |
| Spicy garlic sirloin steak flat noodle spaghetti | 沙朗牛排蒜辣細扁麵 | shā lǎng niú pái suàn là xì biǎn miàn |
I will forgo the explanation of soup or rice dishes here, as you should be getting the pasta. However, if you wanted to add a bottle of either white or red wine, then go with:
- White wine - 白酒 bái jiǔ
- Red wine - 紅酒 hóng jiǔ
What We Ordered
There's something mildly mesmerizing about twisted balls of fresh pasta, sitting and waiting to be mixed with a few simple ingredients to take on their flavour. Although it is much more than this, I do appreciate pasta for the vessel that it provides. It's chewy, it's stringy, and it is able to simultaneously absorb some of the flavours that it is paired with, whilst also retaining its integrity as a stand-alone flavour.
Each dish was cooked in one of these scorching hot pans within their open-plan kitchen. Either tossed up with a spoon of cream, tomato, or basil sauce, seafood would be stir-fried and pasta tossed in to absorb some of the flavours as they melted into each other.
Seafood spaghetti with basil - 塔香海鮮義大利麵
Twisted to perfection, the spaghetti was served looking beautiful, surrounded by clams, shrimp, squid, and plenty of basil sauce. I personally try to avoid white sauce due to the high butter or cream content that it tends to have. I love both butter and cream, but in a sauce on my pasta, there's just something about the richness that I don't quite enjoy. I am more here for the fresh pop of basil flavour that comes from pesto or a tomato-based sauce, as it tends to cut through any richness a little better.
The spaghetti was cooked nicely al dente (read here for a better description of al dente that I could ever write), and as you can see there is plenty of seafood on the plate, too. As it was all cooked in the same pan, each and every clam, shrimp, squid ring, and every single strand of spaghetti is coated with the delicious basil flavour that has been allowed to mix with the seafood flavours. It has created a deliciously sweet sauce that pops with fresh seafood flavours at each bite.
White wine and clam spaghetti - 白酒蛤蜊義大利麵
There's something about that twirl of spaghetti in a pan as it drips with the cooking juices.
Plated up, though, it looks infinitely more delicious. Especially with those fat clams bulging with freshness on the side of the plate.
The pasta was similarly very well cooked and had taken on lots of the white wine and fresh seafood flavours as it was cooked.
Those clams though. You can see the different patterns of the clam shells, meaning that these are not just one type of clam. This allowed for an excellent balance of flavour, with some being sweeter than others, while some brought more of a fresh seafood flavour than others.
One thing is for sure, though, they were plump and packed full of fresh seafood flavour. If you are already a fan of clams, then you're likely to enjoy this dish a lot. But, similarly, if you aren't a fan of clams then this could be a dish to try in order to cultivate that new love for this simple and inexpensive seafood.
The bottom line
Is it worth it? I think if you are in Keelung, then yes it is worth it. Conversely, if you are looking for a date night drive out of Taipei then it's also a place to consider. Pair it with some of the great gifts that I recommend on my other post abut 24hrs in Keelung, and you'll like it that little bit more.
Which dish do you most recommend? I think that the pesto seafood spaghetti is excellent value for money as you get a variety of seafood. However, the variety, increased quality, and quantity of clams in the white wine clam spaghetti is possibly quite difficult to beat.
What would you order next time? I will probably go for the Spicy garlic sirloin steak wide noodles next time. I like spicy food. I like garlic. I like steak. I like flat noodles. In fact, the only reason that I didn't go for it this time was because I had seafood on my mind.