Dinner at East Mamma, Paris

When in Paris, go get pizza, right?  Yeah, an odd decision, but we had dinner plans with a friend's family (including children), so this seemed more appropriate than Michelin style dining.

East Mamma is just basic Italian cuisine, known for  housemade pasta, the pizza, burrata, and  desserts (particularly tiramisu in every variety imaginable, including banoffee, called, I'm not joking, Banofeemisu!).  Well, you know me, I do like my carbs, cheese, and dessert, so, this did sound right up my alley.  Plus, it was a recommendation from a friend and gets great reviews.  Family friendly, afordable, cheesy, sounded like a good choice.

We went.  We dined.  I took notes.  I wrote a blog post.  And somehow ... the post did not save.  And my notes have long since been thrown out.  Thus, today's review is mostly a photo-tour only.  My vague memory is that everything was fine, but not particularly memorable, and that they no longer had the banoffee tiramisu I was so eagerly looking forward to.

The Setting

Oh, another detail that I clearly remember: they do not take reservations.  And are very popular.

Lining Up.

We got there before they opened, as instructed by my friend who recommended it, to find a line down the sidewalk.  Way down the sidewalk.  We took our places, along with the others.

Seating.

We did manage to get in the first seating, once they opened the doors and we all filed in.

Open Kitchen.

The kitchen was open, but we weren't seated near it, so I didn't get to watch the action.

The big buckets of Nutella on the counter were for their Nutella pizza, another signature dessert (besides the tiramisu).  When they serve it, they bring you an entire pail of Nutella and a spatula and you can smear on as much Nutella as you want.

Water Pitcher.

We were given a beautiful water pitcher to serve ourselves from.

Piggy Plate!

Plates were equally beautiful.

Place Setting.

We were provided menus (French only) and silverware with real wooden handles.

The Food

The fairly straightforward menu is all basic Italian comfort food.  Everything is family-style.

Starters

Starters include cheese, charcuterie, and bruschetta.

Bread.

Once we ordered, we were given a burlap sack of bread and our own bottle of decent quality olive oil.

Jambon. 9€.

We selected one charcuterie, some type of ham.  Other choices included bresaola, mortadella, and something truffled.

It came thinly sliced on a plate, alongside the bag of bread.

Grosse burrata crémeuse. 11€.

We also went for one cheese, burrata of course (other choices included several types of mozzarella, ricotta, stracciatella, and parmigiano).  I sorta recall being disappointed by the burrata, but I might be making that up.

It was drizzled with a bit of olive oil and cracked pepper.

Pizza

Pizza is Napoletana style, cooked in a wood fired oven, and ranges from basic marinara (made with San Marzano tomatoes) to a spicy version with n'duja, about 7 options total.

Mammargherita DOP. 12€.

"Mozza di bufala, tomates San Marzano, basilic frais."

We kept it simple with the "Mammargherita", a margherita with buffalo mozza.

Pasta

East Mamma is also known for the pasta, and it is all made fresh daily in house.  Here we also had a handful of options, again ranging from basic tomato sauce to squid ink pasta with calamari.  Pasta is available in two sizes (individual, or for 4 people).

Truefes. 18€.

"Truffes noires d'été de Bologne Crème de mascarpone et petits champignons."
We went for the signature dish, fresh homemade pasta in a rich cream sauce with mascarpone and fresh truffles.  Oh yes.

Desserts

And then, dessert.  I was fairly devastated that the banoffeemiso was not on the menu.  Instead we had regular tiramisu or a lemon version, panna cotta, lemon sorbet, or the aforementioned Nutella pizza.

We tried both varieties of tiramisu.

Limonemisu light. 7€.

"Célèbre tiramisu au citron."

The lemon one came plated, a HUGE slice.  Seriously, it was 3x a reasonable size.

Il tigramisu. 6.5€.

The regular tiramisu was served tableside from a huge bowl, spooned onto our plate in front of us.  At the encouraging of one of my fellow diners, we received an extra scoop.  I kinda suspect that is common practice.

I remember not being thrilled with dessert, but I don't know if I didn't like this tiramisu, or if I was just upset about the lack of banoffeemiso.