O'Bergine -- Restaurant Review

32 Rue Tiquetonne 75002 Paris
Tel: +33 9 71 51 12 72
Metro: Line 4 (Etienne Marcel)
Reservations can be made on La Fourchette (The Fork)
Website: https://obergine-restaurant.business.site/

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor

€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)

1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-80); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-90); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (90+)

4.25  - Stars....................................................€€........................................................ 3 - Bell

I love this neighborhood around Rue Montorgueil. The street is called Rue Tiquetonne and it's about as French quaint as it gets.  We went with some friends and decided we wanted to do something other than traditional french, and this fit the bill.

The name is a play on Irish names, which I thought was very cute.

It's a small quaint modest restaurant, it sits maybe 26-people. The maitre'd, Omer as well as the co-owner was very warm and welcoming.

I spoke to Chef Claude and he's from Lebanon so the cuisine is a fusion of middle-eastern and french. We perused the menu, and it had a limited choice of different dishes.  All are prepared onsite.

ENTRÉE

Deconstructed hummus. What a great dish. I've never had a deconstructed hummus. It was interesting. We had a traditional hummus made chickpeas, as well as one made with carrots and sweet potatoes. Keep in mind that hummus is made with sesame paste, tahini, so the added sesame gave the dish a nice textural component.

Personally, I would've loved it served with traditional pita bread,  or a Lebanese flatbread, but it was served with french baguette, other than that it was a good start.

PLATS

Filet of sea bream. This was my favorite dish of the evening. The skin was nice and crispy and the fish very, very tender. The accompanying green asparagus, crunchy mushrooms along with the broccoli and carrots as well as zucchini gave the fish a nice healthy balance. Although you would think that the sesame cream tahini sauce would be too much for this dish, it actually gave it some smoothness. A big hit for me.

O'Bergine Farcie.  This is their signature dish known as "Batenjen Mehchiand" rightfully so.  A delicious farcie (stuffed eggplant) with Lebanese spices and citrus.  What came through on this dish was the scented cinnamon, which is typically used in this region of the middle east. It was a beautiful mix of flavors all subtly blended. A hit.

DESSERTS

Crispy angel hair with cream and ice cream. Using noodles or noodle-like pastry is not uncommon in the middle-east or the Maghreb countries, but I've always had it with loads of honey, which I don't particularly care for, because it's too sweet. This dessert although complicated looking was actually quite a simple dessert and was not smothered in honey. It's mascarpone and mozzarella cream nested (literally) between two crispy angel hair noodles topped with vanilla ice cream. Jack liked this dessert not only for the flavors, but also for the different textural component, so it was big hit.













Crème brûlée- A standard version.

Cheesecake au Labneh- A delicious, more like a cake, cheesecake but made with labneh instead of the traditional cream cheese or cottage cheese.

NOTE: I only reviewed the dishes that I tasted.

SUMMARY

What a great find. Don't be deceived by its size and unpretentious setting, the chef makes some pretty damn good middle-eastern/mediterranean food. I thought all the dishes were excellent. As I mentioned the only thing I thought odd was they did not serve the meal with typical middle-eastern bread such as pita or lebanese mountain bread (khobez).  Would we go back ABSOLUTELY.


For 4-entrées, 4-plats, 3-desserts, 4-glasses of wine, 1-coffee our bill came to 142.50€ or 36€ a person. A very, very reasonable price.