Pasta house: Warung Pasta, tastefully located in a large house at Jalan Ganesha 3, off Jalan Juanda, provides a perfect stop during a shopping trip.

There is something quite amusing about the name of the Italian restaurant Warung Pasta, with its cute juxtaposition of the Indonesian word for "eating house" with the name of the famous Italian noodle. But amusing or no, the name makes it clear what's on the menu in this pleasant eatery.

Warung Pasta in Bandung sits in the middle of the city's parking pandemonium and shopping struggles. Bandung at the weekend increasingly resembles Jakarta on a weekday, with major thoroughfares backed up and smaller roads all in a snarl as motorists try - and apparently fail - to find a shortcut. Many of the guilty parties have made the toll-road trip from the capital too, betrayed by the "B" on their license plates, come to crowd Jalan Juanda, the main road running from the center of Bandung to its surrounding hills, known for its plethora of factory outlets.

Any attempt to brave the hubbub and hustle and bustle of weekend shopping deserves some rest and restoration. So if one were to turn left into a small road about halfway up Jalan Juanda, in the middle of a sprawl of factory outlets, one will enter a more relaxing, tree-lined area.

This is Jalan Ganesha, and at number 3 sits Warung Pasta. Although within view of Jalan Juanda this restaurant, set up in what must have once been a pleasant and large single-story house, can seem almost a world away. Not too long ago, this area would have been exclusively residential area, but the booming factory outlets have pushed the houses away, although the residential feel is still apparent here.

As amusing as the restaurant's name are the names of the dishes, providing a kind of theme to the place. Consider, for example, "Chunky Beef", "Seafood in a Pool", "Sunny Sunrise", "Boyz 2 Men" or "Penalty Kick". Some of these are fairly self-explanatory - chunky cuts of beef or seafood in a choice of pasta, for example. "Sunny Sunrise" turns out to be a combination of a tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

"Penalty Kick" gets its name, somewhat tenuously, from the meatballs in its sauce - a cute play on "ball" and hence the football. "Boyz 2 Men" is a beef dish whose name seems related only insofar as it is a quite flavorsome dish that might challenge a boy to become a man in consuming it.

Such cute and amusing names could become a little irritating if you don't know what you're actually ordering. But the saving grace is that the food is consistently good.

Something as simple as lasagna, here known as "Creamy Meat", is flavorsome with a smooth texture.

The house specialty drinks also have unusual names, but these tend to reveal immediately what the blends are.

For example, you can order Mangoberry, Lemon Mint Splash or Lemon Froze Tea. The two lemon-based drinks come with quite a tang. For a somewhat smoother and perhaps better accompaniment for a plate of pasta is the Banana Blue. Not sure what that might be? A combination of a banana with blueberries - and a certifiable delight.

Delight pretty much sums up the Warung Pasta Bandung dining experience. The dishes are light and yet satisfying and the d*cor is simple and appropriate. Much of the original floor plan of the residential house has been left in place, with the use of the original glazed dividing panels retained and subtle lighting (hanging lampshades).

So if you need a break during all that shopping to prepare yourself for the next round, Warung Pasta provides a welcome refresher, with its slower pace - although its free Wi-Fi and laptop-using diners proves you're not far from modernity.

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