France - Paris
Indoors or out on the terrace, this Italian restaurant with its warm, chic setting offers an exceptional moment, whether you're dining for two or more.
In Paris, Italian restaurants tend to resemble one another. And yet, it's sometimes enough to venture into uncharted territory to discover some real hidden treasures. This is obviously the case at Aglio e Olio ("garlic and oil"), the two essential ingredients of Mediterranean cuisine that you'll find in almost every Italian dish.
At this Italian cantina, open since 2019, chef Andrea Maggi offers a multitude of transalpine dishes inherited from his childhood memories and his mother, which will delight your taste buds.
It was the four-course menu that caught our eye (only available in the evening). And we're not done being surprised! Indeed, one of the special features of this menu was that we didn't know in advance which dishes we were going to be served: the selection was made by the chef himself.
Without further ado, we began our appetiser tasting with a "Trippa alla romana", delicious pork tripe bathed in a tomato sauce, sprinkled with parmesan and mint, inspired by the mamma.
We continued with the "primi piatti" mezze lune, chèvre, crème de zucchini à la menthe and vierge. Good food and good humour guaranteed!
As for the main course, the chef selected for us beef onglet with white asparagus, accompanied with panisse fries and cacciatora sauce. A devilishly melt-in-the-mouth meat that we savoured to the last bite!
And to round off dinner, we saved a little room for the gelatin-free rhubarb panna cotta, a delicious and comforting dessert.
A pretty corner of Italy in Paris. An Italian nugget to try this summer!
Tanja AKSENTIJEVIC
Aglio e Olio
5, rue Guillaume-Bertrand, Paris 11th arrondissement