The 2015 opening from the team behind East Mamma on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Ober Mamma is a handsome addition to the Big Mamma group of Italian trattorie. Owners Tigrane and Victor have managed to repeat the success of their first restaurant with this Oberkampf hangout.
The restaurant is beautifully designed and reveals more exciting décor the further in you go. Past the azure tile façade, you reach a room decorated with fine mouldings and a stunning marble counter. A long wood-lined corridor hung with raw prosciutto and lined with bottles of wine then leads you to the kitchen and a second dining room with a glass wall.
Fashionable Spritz and authentic Lambrusco (a chilled sparkling red wine) flow here, although the food menu isn’t entirely traditional. There are secondi piatti (beef tagliatta, octopus navarin), but no primi piatti as such. We have no real issue with this, it’s just the pasta dishes, which usually constitute ‘first courses’ on the other side of the Alps, are served in a saucepan here and enjoyed as main courses (due to their sheer size). Watch out if the squid takes your fancy, as they soak it a little too generously in the fish ink. But definitely go for the Neapolitan pizza, delicate in the centre with a thick and gooey crust, a simple ‘Mammargherita’ (€12) or a Regina Wild pizza with fresh truffles (€15). From the dessert menu, the panna cotta has just the right consistency and comes surrounded by baked apricots and sprinkled with biscuit crumbs.