For our second meal in Paris we followed the recommendation of friends who were joining us on this occasion. When asked what we would prefer, we simply told them that we were game for anything and that the choice was entirely in their hands. So they chose an Italian restaurant.

Our first reaction was one of mild surprise, especially as we virtually never eat Italian when in France, probably because we eat so much of it when we are not. But then we thought, why not? This should be an interesting experience and even if we are served with Frenchified Italian cuisine, this would probably result in a very delicious combination.

I must first point out that this was anything but your run-of-the-mill Italian pasta and pizza style trattoria. In fact it very much lies at the other end of the dining spectrum. I would not quite class it as fine dining per se, which is a term I tend to use very carefully and sparingly. But it was very evidently a sophisticated, quality restaurant, tucked away in a tiny quiet street, well off the beaten track, and mainly catering for its own loyal patrons and aficionados.

We were seated in a delightfully secluded alcove-like recess, providing us with a lovely exclusive and private feeling. I also must point out that the service throughout was a remarkable combination of Parisian efficiency and Italian warmth and cordiality.

At first glance the menu proved to be a breath of fresh air. An Italian restaurant with a very limited and focused menu. A lovely and rather rare thing indeed. I always find that as a general rule of thumb, a restaurant’s quality, or at least it’s aspiration towards it, is inversely proportionate to the length of its menu. Similarly, its wine list should be at least ten times longer than its food list. These are all very vast sweeping statements to which countless exceptions abound, however we all know that there is a lot of truth and probability in this reasoning.

If a restaurant can survive and thrive while offering only a tiny menu, then the chances are that the very few dishes available are in all probability simply sumptuous. If the restaurant is a top establishment catering for a knowledgeable and discerning clientele, then it would probably want to offer an excellent choice of wines to match most people’s tastes. The opposite is also just as obvious. When you have a choice of 60 starters, 40 mains, 30 pastas and 25 pizzas, complimented by a total of two wines – red or white, then you know you are in trouble!

Our Italian restaurant in Paris actually turned out to be more of a Sardinian restaurant after all. The chef himself was in fact Sardinian and as could be expected in such circumstances, the menu was greatly influenced by his regional provenance. They had in fact a very interesting combination of mainstream Italian dishes with a good dose of Sardinian specialities. This was fine with us as we are quite fond of Sardinian food and familiar with their dishes.

For starters we had a delightfully tasty vitello tonnato which was very well prepared with paper thin veal topped with extremely tasty tuna paste. We had carciofi alla romana, which were divine, a spaghetti bottarga, which I always find a bit too salty for my personal taste, but which was also thoroughly enjoyed. Also a straightforward and very decent beef carpaccio. All were overflowing with lovely genuine flavours and very well prepared.

Our mains consisted of a vegetarian lasagne di verdura, which boasted lovely silky and subtle flavours, probably the best such lasagne I have ever eaten. Mallereddus, which I personally find to be a rather simplistic dish, but which was also very happily devoured. This is a Sardinian dish consisting of small sized pasta in a rather plain tomato sauce. Frittura di scampi e zucchini, which was a great delight and nicely light and fluffy. Also ravioli di granchio in an unctuous creamy sauce, which had a delicious filling and equally tasty sauce. And a spaghetti vongole which I was told was rather great, both in terms of the pasta as well as the freshness of the clams and accompanying olive oil based sauce.

We had tiramisu and cannoli for desert. Both were lovely, particularly the tiramisu which had all the pronounced expected flavours of mascarpone, coffee and amaretto.

The wine list was exclusively Italian, but featured a very good selection from various regions, with a marked focus on Sardinia. We selected a Sardinian Sella e Mosca Cannonau Riserva to accompany our meal. This proved to be well balanced, smooth and plummy, with very light hints of oak and was a good choice, although rather overpriced at €40 a bottle. We finished off our meal with strettos, grappas and limoncellos, in proper Italic manner.

My final verdict would most definitely be – a very pleasant meal with very good dishes, all prepared in a refined manner, to produce an overall high culinary standard. It was pricey, even very pricey if you would very mistakenly and pointlessly compare this to a good Italian meal in Malta, but yet another very enjoyable dining experience. We ended this excellent evening by complimenting our friends on their fine and well-informed choice of restaurant and for providing us with a new dining insight – Italian in Paris.