It’s not often that I find myself recommending a restaurant where the food is “good” but not “great,” but hear me out.
I was talking, recently, with a fellow restaurant reviewer, and we began talking about the risks of becoming too pretentious in this job. After all, a calssic bistro may be “just fine” to me, but it may have just the ambiance that a first-time visitor to Paris was looking for. A crêpe may be “nothing special,” in my mind, but be just the easy, inexpensive pick-me-up a visitor needed between two museums.
This Italian restaurant in the 6th arrondissement is not the place I would cross Paris for if I had a craving for Italian food. It is, however, the place I would cross Paris for to enjoy Italian food on a beautiful outdoor terrace, set just below street level, steps away from the Saint-Germain market.
The food isn’t bad. It’s actually pretty good, albeit pricey.
The menu is dominated by pasta, ravioli, and gnocchi, though it’s completed with a few meat or fish mains, like the tasty pesto-topped swordfish above.
That said… that’s not why I go.
It’s just hard to top finding a space away from the crowds where you can linger over the sunset, offset by fairy lights through the trees.
Marcello - 8, rue Mabillon, 75006