We all know that, even the little birds know it too – Paris is always a good idea. If not the best. You just simply can’t get enough of that city – it always shows you something new and always takes you to the places you haven’t seen before. This is an opening article to my “Paris series” from my last visit to Paris this fall. The story behind this one is quite funny as I wasn’t planning on writing an article about Italian food scene in Paris – no, I was planning to write one about traditional French food places in Paris. But then I spontaneously ended up eating in probably best Italian restaurants ever and I thought to myself: Why not writing an article about how to eat like a proper Italian foodie in Paris?
First one worth a visit is going to be Pink Mamma, “just another” trattoria from a Big Mamma group of restaurants and Italian products, such like Ober Mamma, Est Mamma, Mamma Primi & Biglove. You will find Pink Mamma in Pigalle (no surprise, Pigalle and Abbesses are my favorite parts of Paris). When you approach this place, you will immediately fall in love with the cutest 4-floor pink building. The only thing you might not like is going to be the queue you are going to see in front – trust me, I started to question my decision to come here to eat as well, as it can happen that you are going to wait for your table for around 45 minutes. But hey – we all know what does the good old Q mean – it means some food porn is about to happen. This also means this is the time for you to get properly excited. When you finally get inside you are going to love what your eyes see – interior of this place is so warm and welcoming, please consider the fact that every single floor has a different charming interior story for itself. If you get the top floor booking, I promise, glasshouse is going to take your breath away.
I would say now – on to the important stuff – the actual menu, but for me the extremely important part is the interior itself and here in Pink Mamma they absolutely managed to surprise me and to make me feel comfortable and interior gave me the at home feeling. Secondly, the service can take the leading role so quickly and here it definitely did. First of all the waiters are Italian and that was amazing because that made me feel at home even more, since I live on a border with Italy and I missed that Italian charm. Being in Paris, you will must probably be in a situation where you will have difficulties because French expect you to speak French even if you actually don’t speak a single word of it. But here you can as well throw a little bit of your Italian skills.
We got to food part, the most important one. In Italian restaurants I will always have pizza first as I rarely eat pizza, but when I do, I get really fussy about it. As well, I got a recommendation to try their pizza and that was absolutely the best thing I could do, because this was the best pizza of my life. All of the ingredients in Mamma restaurants are quite simple and imported directly from Italy – like fresh homemade pasta, basil, truffles, mascarpone, burrata, but what makes a difference is an Italian charm they got influenced by. I would say do not miss out this place if you are looking for a simple and authentic Italian cuisine while in Paris.
Photographed by: Ivana Pirizovich, Crave Food in Style, The Food Parisian, Not Your Typical Frenchy, Elie Yobeid