Boy, things change a lot if you don’t go to a specific building for a while. For this business lunch, the person I was meeting suggested Trattoria da Cibo. I said “Oh sure, the pizza is good there,” and he said “No, that’s the pizza place. This one is separate but on the same floor.” I was confused because it wasn’t there when last I visited, but on the other hand the French place Quatorieme (14eme), which I liked a lot but won’t link my review since it’s gone, has become an ethnic place with huge statues calling itself “Thong from Bangkok”. I kid you not.
I also kid you not, Trattoria da Cibo was mediocre – both flavor and value. The mixed starter was marginal, with some cheap ham on salad, some fried bits, and some pretty good Italian-style pickles. The main was a letdown – I negotiated to get the seasonal special cold pasta included in the course when the waiter was very hesitant about it, then it wasn’t good. Just poor tomato sauce, weak sauce:pasta ratio, little spicing, and some tomato slices that were on the far edge of the ‘ripe’ range. The ‘dessert’ was a further letdown, being only a small cube of banana bread. Coffee was pretty good. Seriously, if you’re going to charge a genuine ‘lunch course’ price (Y1900), you should make it a real course. They’re in a different direction, but some standouts on this scale for me are Bistro Ishikawa Tei and Bistro Marsanne.
At least I didn’t have to pay, eh? Geez, this group has sooo many restaurants in it. Some good!
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