It has to be said, Paris has more than its fair share of Italian restaurants, some of them great, a lot of them less than great. Some however have been around for years and fill up every night with regulars, or by word of mouth. Casa Bini is one such place, and we were curious to understand the reason for its success….

In a quiet street in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Casa Bini has a rather understated facade and an even more neutral interior, with brown floor tiles and tones of brown and beige everywhere else. If you’re looking for interior design with a little flair, or even a touch of colour, you’re out of luck. However the customers seem to like it – when we arrived the place was heaving with people from the neighborhood, which we believe is always a good sign.

There are only two small rooms to dine in, and they fill up fast, but thankfully the noise level didn’t seem excessive, and we were quickly made comfortable.
The menu changes daily (!) and you can observe the kitchen at the back of the main room. You can tell that ingredients are fresh and that everything is cooked to order,  not in advance.

Prices are pretty standard for the area – expect to pay between 20 and 30 euros for one of the daily specials, with first courses perhaps a little too pricey, with soup costing 11€ and buratta 29€.

Despite this, we decide to check out the courgette flower fritters (very difficult to find here) which turned out to be beautifully crispy and crunchy, and sutffed squid and potatoes which went down a treat. All this was washed down with some reasonably priced wine that was served with delicious little olives for those who preferred to wait for a main dish.
Onto the main courses then… Despite being the house speciality, the carpaccio with candied red cabbage and parmesan was deemed ordinary and disappointing (not quite sure what happened there – perhaps just bad luck?).

Better luck was had with the pasta dishes – the linguine with tomato and basil were like something your grandmother would make with tomatoes fresh from the garden, adding a little sugar and onion, and the last two dishes both involved mezzi paccheri pasta, sort of short tubes that flatten slightly when cooked but are great hosts for whatever sauce they are served with.

The version with pumpkin and gorgonzola seemed very short on gorgonzola, which we thought was a real shame, but otherwise it was pretty tasty. The other dish with rocket pesto, sun-dried tomato and ricotta was an original mix and pretty flawless.

When tim came for dessert, we decided we couldn’t leave without sampling the house tiramisu. Unfortunately it was just creamy and bland, proving that tiramisu should probably be avoided at most restaurants. Our other dessert – dry biscuits and a glass of liqueur – was much the better option. In fact it was absolutely amazing! How can something so simple be so good?!

Casa Bini deserves its reputation for tasty food, even if certain dishes might not be quite as great as you would expect. We’d just advise you take special care choosing your dessert.

In any case, with a menu that chooses daily, you can go back time and time again, never get bored and always try something new. We intend to do just that sometime soon.

Casa Bini (here) is open every day for lunch and dinner

Tel. : +33 (0)1 46 34 05 50

Official site: casabini.fr

To check out all our photos of Casa Bini, click here.