It’s great having friends who dine out a lot and give you their best tips for great food! Itinéraires was suggested by a friend of ours with high standards, and he was right – it was lovely: the food, the décor, the welcome… even if some of the prices can be a bit of a surprise…

photos : JasonW

We know rue de Pontoise for the beautiful art déco swimming pool and sports club that’s there, known for its extraordinary opening hours (until midnight most nights!). Perhaps after a few lengths, you have the right to treat yourself to a great meal then?

Itinéraires was opened recently by a couple that had a popular restaurant on rue Paul Bert in the 11th arrondissement. Popular… but small. Their new venue has more space and much attention has been paid to the decoration of the place. If you like ‘earth tones’ you’ll like it here. Brown and beige and brown and beige… daring it is not. To be kind let’s say it’s ‘classic’ and ‘tasteful’. Perhaps the idea is to have a neutral setting to put more focus on the food?

(By the way, if our photos look a bit grainy it’s because we really didn’t want to be using our camera’s flash again and again. I find that really annoying in restaurants sometimes!)

We had a prime seat near the bar (dangerously close to the champagne) from where a delicious-looking fridgeload of saucisson sec and legs of ham were hanging. Behind the bar we could also spy – almost hidden next to the alcohol – the little cakes (financiers) that would accompany our end of meal coffee…

We were also right next to the lovely old school ham-slicing machine, branded Simplex (great logo). A wonderful piece of vintage machinery, although as a vegetarian I was quite happy not to see it at work…

Now that we’d taken in our surroundings it was time to peruse the menu. Itinéraires proposes a three-course menu at 36 euros, but several extra options are also available… often at a price. For example, in addition to the starters noted on the board we were told that oysters were available for a 5 euro supplement, indeed of the five starters noted two already had supplements attached. Whilst there’s something enticing about ordering a dish not on the menu, be warned that the price of your meal can very easily start to escalate…

Admittedly everything on the menu sounded delicious, and our waitress was able to explain every accompanying vegetable, every style of presentation, every type of sauce for every single dish – quite a feat!

We ordered (details with the photos below) and decided on glasses of red wine for the first course (very reasonably priced at around 6 euros each) instead of a whole bottle (even if some bottles are not too expensive at around 30 euros).

The wine arrived, and so did the lovely bread!

And just a few minutes later the starters arrived. I had chosen the soft-boiled egg with a creamy Jerusalem artichoke sauce and ‘ail des ours’ (literally ‘garlic of the bears’) which I now know (thanks to Wikipedia) is called Ramsons, wild garlic or… bear’s garlic! This is because bears like the taste of it and have a tendency for digging it up. The leaves look much like Lily of the Valley, but taste a lot different obviously!

As you can see from the photo there was very much more than just that in the plate. Parmesan on the top, a date (?) on the side, and a slice of black boudin that I wasn’t expecting (but why not eh?). The creamy jerusalem artichoke sauce was served piping hot separately in a little pot, and once mixed in with the egg the subtle flavour complemented it perfectly.

The dish was also beautifully presented, as was the other starter ordered: morchella mushrooms in a creamy morchella sauce, served with bacon crisps and… another soft-boiled egg!

If you’ve never had morchella mushrooms, they really have a very particular strong taste, and here they were perfectly cooked, firm, and the creamy sauce had a slighty tange of cheese to it. These two elements mixed wonderfully with the crispy bacon-flovoured bites. Fine cooking and a great mix of subtle tastes.

We savoured our first course as much as possible, even if it’s difficult to eat such nice food slowly! Soon, the plates were empty, as were the glasses of wine. The plates were taken away and it wasn’t long before the main course arrived. We decided on a couple of glasses of white wine for the main course (we’d both chosen fish) including a great Muscat. I always thought the Muscat was sweet, but apparently not.

My fish dish – not noted on the menu – was salmon cooked ‘à l’unilateral’ (i.e. on one side only) served with canneloni stuffed with risotti. The plate was beautifully presented with little touches of colour which turned out to be droplets of cirus sauces to add a little zest to the fish, as well as small dollops of ‘revisited’ hollandaise sauce (as they say at the restaurant) meaning that they have taken the basic recipe and adapted/updated it to their liking.

As you can see, the playe also contained a purée (parsnip I think), foamy ’emulsion’ on the canneloni and large, soft cubes of vegetable (couldn’t work out exactly which one). The presentation was great, and the food wonderful. I’m often worried about ordering salmon in French restaurants because they like to serve it very rare, but here – even cooked just on one side – it melted in the mouth without having that pink aspect that I find slightly offputting. The risotto was creamy, and I thought it a great idea to serve it in canneloni (something that you could do at home to impress guests too!).

My friend had decided on the sea bass fillet served with white asparagus (perfectly cooked) and a creamy parmesan vanilla sauce. Once again the presentation was beautiful.

The courses are quite filling, in fact we were starting to feel full before finishing the main dish. However, no amount of savoury food can sate my sweet tooth, and our minds soon turned to dessert.

I chose the rose, raspberry and pistachio macarons (not to be confused with ‘macaroon’), but – my fault – it was actually just one macaron (whereas I was expecting three). No matter; it was succulent, and smelt and tasted great. What a great combination…

Yum yum! Unsurprisingly, it didn’t last long…

My friend decided on a dessert that was not on the menu, a charteuse soufflet. It arrived and looked (and tasted) very good indeed. Apparently it was a popula choice that night as many more were served to tables all around us. It came served with a dollop of vanilla ice creal that we were instructed to place in the middle. Seeing it melt into the soufflet was quite amusing…

Impressive stuff. However a nasty surprise was waiting for us when paying the bill (as you’ll find out at the end of this article).

We decided to finish off with a traditional coffee, and after telling the waitress that we had been eagerly eyeing the financiers since arriving, she gave a double serving! All the people working in the restaurant are extremely smiley and seem to love their work, which is important in setting the ambience of a place.

Our dinner was nevertheless marred by two problems. Firstly, the bill arrived with a glass of wine marked at 35 euros! An honest mistake but it’s lucky that we checked.

The most dismaying part though was a supplement charged for the chartreuse soufflet. We hadn’t been told about this, and its price was shocking: an extra 13 euros! As my friend had already chosen a starter with a 5 euros supplement, that brought the price of his meal to a whopping 54 euros.

However our overall impression of Itinéraires was positive. Wonderful, inventive food in a neutral setting, and prices that are not excessive – as long as you make sure that whatever you choose isn’t subject to a 13 euros supplement or a 35 euros glass of wine 😉

Itinéraires (map here) is open for lunch and dinner every day except Sunday and Monday. Booking essential!