The Great Parisian Plate Debate

78, Avenue Raymond Poincaré
75116 Paris
tel. 01.44.17.91.92

Like a foolish squirrel dreaming of a ridiculous haul of acorns from a pine tree, so did I naively dream of Paris’ 16eme arrondissement bursting forth with an embarrassingly excessive bounty of restaurants worthy of the Great Parisian Plate Debate. After all, the 16eme has a nice view of the Eiffel Tower, and it is home to the Trocadero neighborhood and Maison de Balzac. But I - like the poor misguided squirrel - was soon disappointed. To be fair I am sure I could have tried a bit harder to track down a unique and shining gem of a café, but as it turns out I merely spent several hours frantically searching for a spot that sounded worthwhile with which to waste Dan’s time on making a reservation. I’m sure the 16eme hosts a wondrous array of restaurants, and I could blame myself for not supplying the required effort. Instead I’ll conveniently lay the blame on my old nemesis, daylight saving time.

Convivium was the evening’s choice, and for anyone already tired of reading I’ll give you all you need to know right here: it is a pricier version of the Olive Garden, but without the endless parade of salad and breadsticks. Now, keep in mind that I say this as a proponent of Olive Garden, despite their absurd television commercials of twelve people gathered around a table laughing uproariously about marinara and manicotti. Few people get that excited about food like this, unless they have just hunted down and mercilessly clubbed it.

I find it difficult to get energized about writing a bad article regarding Italian food. Mostly it is because the majority of experiences can be summed up by saying “I ordered pasta, and they put some sauce on it.” So, in a Great Parisian Plate Debate first (and perhaps a lesson to Dan) I’ll willfully limit myself and avoid going much further with this: I had pasta and it was good. Dan had pasta and he said it was good! The two other people there with us…wait for it…had pasta, and it was good! No major complaints - although there was some subtle whining about the length of time it took to flag down the waiter for the check - and no major victories. The Italian wine was nice enough that we ordered several bottles, which brought the grand total to 165.50€. Not bad for four people who ordered a combined one appetizer, four plats, two bottles of wine, and four coffees.

So, here’s my Convivium advice. If your parents come to visit you and are frightened of tête de veau, bone marrow, crepes, or shrimp you have to pull the head off of, blindfold them and take the metro to Convivium. When you uncover their eyes just tell them you’re at the Olive Garden.

Dan: I’m not entirely sure how Christian’s trying to pin this one on daylights savings time, but he is mostly right when he said that dinner wasn’t terrible.  With the exception of the appetizer platter, a veritable smorgasbord of deep fried goodness, dinner was competent but expensive.

Call me crazy, but for a 20€ plate of pasta, if you’re not going to make the food taste better, at least make it look a little more presentable.  I got the distinct impression that the cook thought he was working for Dans le noir.

My plate had a pile of monotone orange spaghetti slopped on it.  Murking in the pasta were camouflaged chunks of tuna which looked like they could have been ground pork.  Christian’s was barely better with a single limp bay leaf abandoned forlornly atop a small heap of pasta competing for space with what I can only describe as a pseudo-classy  Italian take on the Rochester, NY garbage plate.

But again, it tasted alright.