Les Routiers - Paris (75018)

Les Routiers
56 bis, rue Marx Dormoy
75018 Paris
Tél : 01.46.07.93.80
Closed on Sundays










The pitch
As good as ever and we keep asking for more !

The restaurant
It’s been owned and managed by the same couple for 45 years, let’s hope it’ll continue for as long as possible.
Old-school French cooking offering giant portions at very sweet prices. The restaurant is consistently filled with an eclectic clientele of curious food lovers waiting for their dish with joyous appetite.













The meal
Starters
Home-made courgette and tuna tart.
Very good ! Successful mise en bouche ! Over.










Shrimp oeufs cocotte (2)
I didn’t have it this time but know them well : impeccable ! Do you often see oeufs cocotte on menus ? I know I don’t.










Mains
Leg of lamb with braised chicory.
It looks like the real deal and it is !










Veal head with ravigote sauce.
You can start the Queen of the Night aria or some Puccini because this one hit all the perfect notes! Delicious meat, cooked to perfection…










And the sauce, ouch……… a real ‘ravigote’ with capers and cornichons, by the book !










When faced with something of this nature I have to call on La Callas.




Dessert
Home made (obviously…) apple tart










A few examples of dishes on neighbouring tables.
Andouillette to the left, braised ham with apples on the right.










The ‘epicurean’ salad (seriously?!!??)
I suspect that a grumpy vegetarian could take you to court after eating a dish like that.
The neighbour savouring it commented: duck has no cholesterol!
Note : I still hadn’t understood that putting the white balance on ‘sun’ would give me the best light but it was worth leaving the picture so that you could see this.










At the end of shift, when hardly anyone was left, this adorable couple sat to enjoy their nightly digestif.









Verdict
All this made me forget to mention prices. The dishes you’ve seen here were all in the £17 menu (starter-main-dessert).

The Routiers are still on the go ! And in the race more than ever !

(1) Lorry driver (or trucker in the US).
(2) an egg cooked in a little ramequin, on top of other ingredients.






TF1 a fait un sujet sur les restaurants routiers et à cette occasion on y voit mes tours gastronomiques filmés dans le restaurant Les Routiers justement.

716 appeared on french TV in a documentary about the truck drivers restaurants.
You can watch my gastronomic tours filmed at the restaurant Les Routiers.

Pulcinella - Paris (75018)

Trattoria Pulcinella
2, rue Eugène Sue
75018 Paris
Tél : 01.42.23.78.29
Open daily lunch and dinner except sunday lunch











That’s it ! I think I’ve found the good Italian eatery I had been searching for for so long.

2 daily specials + 1 glass of wine + 2 desserts + coffees : €50, 25 per head.
Pizzas : from €8 to €12.

The restaurant
A lively and noisy little trattoria.
You have a choice between nice diner tables and funkier wooden ones that are actually foldable garden tables. And you instantly feel at ease. Thanks to the genuine welcome of the friendly waitress.
There’s two of them here ; her and the chef who cooks in front of us.
He kindly calls out to a punter : "your pizza ? do you want it now or shall I send it after ?"
The specials board is put on our table : "Oggi"












I’m not too sure so I ask for advice, the waitress answers without any hesitation : the linguine al frutti di mare, it’s very fresh ! €16. Done ! My guest orders a gnocchi, tomato, mozzarella and parmesan gratin. €12
Wow, the linguine, amazing. With the seafood I saw myself back in Sardinia : 2 king size prawns, mussels and clams. It wasn’t too filing or packed with sea food (even if the picture might suggest otherwise) nor complicated to eat but it was generous enough. In a word : perfect !
And the patatoe gnocchi, spot on too ! And beautifully tucked under the simmering gratin crust.


















Why stop when things have started so well ?
I had a Panacotta : never seen one like that. No cheesy glass with red fruit coulis here… A Madagascar vanilla flavoured Panacotta on a plate and held with gelatine : to die for !
Next to it, a Cantuccio : cappuccino whipped cream with grilled almonds : oh yeah !




















We finish off with two coffees.
Delicious ! I was as happy as Larry… when he eats in a good Italian.
A little story that says it all : We stayed on for a while and as the place was emptying the cook came to sit with some clients and asked his colleague to bring him a Margarita he had kept on the side. The people at the table were surprised and said ‘but it’s cold’ and he replied « the margarita is the queen of pizzas’
You see what I mean ?

The back story
Why the devil have Italian restaurants become so expensive and trendy ? Italian cuisine is authentic and what goes for crepes (another source of sadness) applies to pizzas : originally a simple affordable specialty. I hear unanimous reviews about Pizza Chic « yes the pizza is at € 16 but it’s very good’. And my Italian friends go nuts: a €16 pizza ! Are you taking the piss ? A friend who’s Dad had a pizzeria in a suburb for many years told him : yes, there were excellent Italian restaurants in Paris in the 80’s.
What do we get today ? Pasta at a starting price of €16 (sometimes flirting with €23) an uber-trendy atmosphere, cash only, meat pretty much limited to escalope.
We’re very far from the trattorias in Italy. I can accept that ingredients are expensive but still, there must be one ! Si I would regularly ask « do you know of a good friendly Italian, not too trendy, that doesn’t murder you with its prices ?

Of course there must be other ones and I’m up for discovering them…but in the meantime, this one…Oh dear !
This one had been recommended by a trustworthy person. When I read the email « i notice that you don’t have an italian on your blog, I have a favourite one in Paris’ I was all ears ! Well, I‘ve been and it was so great that now I have to take people to see if it lives up to its standard on the long run. Because if it does, we’re in for some great times !