Paris Food : O.O.B.A.T.Z
Personal review of a relatively new Pizza Place in the 11th Arrondissement
“What should we do for dinner?” our every Saturday’s elephant in the room. Roaming around in the 11th, the fear of walking into a hungry pack of Samba wearing influencers makes this question harder than you think. Last Saturday we took a gamble and went to a quite buzzing place sans reservation, O.O.B.A.T.Z.
Sitting at the window, we looked at the menu with 6 different pies available. The shorter the menu the tougher the choice. Flush your pizzas down with a wide range of red, white and orange wine, all natural and super healthy ;) there’s also Gin Tonics and Negronis for people who like their drinks the Kevin James way, short and strong. We went for a Rhubarb Spritz avoiding ethanol that night, combatting our prior night’s sins. The hardest part was choosing between the different pies, do you go Margarita in order to have a reference? or pepperoni? Knowing that salami combined with dough and cheese is known for its high ROI for every calorie spent on it. After long consideration, pizza number two with potatoes and confit lemon was chosen, as well as a nightly special that’s a surprise. We also got a salad as a palette cleanser, which was as worthy mentioning as a kamikaze pilot that survived war.
The potato and lemon confit pizza came out first, expecting it to be soft, neapolitan style dough. I was aroused by the non-existent flop, the chef must have mixed up his viagra and yeast baggies. Peeking at the pies bottom, I detected a Pizzaiolo’s Olympus: Leopard spotting. The toppings all mingled beautifully, the potato flavor was amplified by the dill and tartness of the lemon, pleasing our german-austrian palette as much as they could in a pizzeria (scary threesome). A great light start to our pizza night, with some not so traditional and unexpected flavors. At that point we were already pleased with our choice of winging it on a Saturday and coming to O.O.B.A.T.Z. The bar was set high after that first round.
The Carte Blanche being served to us this evening was inspired by the roman pasta dish, all’amatriciana. The fatty notes of the guanciale, the richness of the wine and the black pepper’s kick, were beautifully balanced by the tartness of the zesty ricotta. I have to admit that we are quite some ricotta addicts, consuming it daily— one of the better white substances to be addicted to imo. Truly an exquisite bite of food.
Taking it light on that Saturday we avoided the desert section, although the thought of something sweet seemed amazing after that umami bomb of a pizza.
After all this was an absolute amazing dinner, incredibly good pizza, nothing fancy, nothing extra just straight to the point. It is now part of our chill dinner rotation.