Fi'lia, our test of the Pullman Paris Montparnasse's chic and modern Italian restaurant

If you're a fan of Italian cuisine, we may have just the address for you! We're off to Fi'lia, an Italian restaurant located on the second floor of the Pullman Paris Montparnasse, offering a menu of Italian flavours, with a Mediterranean twist. Fi'lia's fourth restaurant, but its first in Europe, after Nassau, Dubai and Miami.

Like its sisters, this restaurant offers simple, freshly prepared cuisine,"and a menu that tells a real story, the story of women through the generations". Once you open the restaurant's doors, you're immersed in a warm, friendly atmosphere that combines the 1930s and Art Deco. The open kitchen adds a little more immersion, offering intoxicating show-cooking.

The menu, created by Ennismore executive chef Sara Aqel and the restaurant's head chef, Alfredo Bellisario, offers Italian cuisine with a hint of Mediterranean influence, in three variations: the nonna (grandmother) with traditional Italian flavors, the mamma (mother) with revisited classics, and the figlia (daughter) with contemporary recipes.

What's on the plate? Iconic dishes, meticulously sourced in France and Italy, such as focaccia with oregano, burrata, antipasti like saffron arancini and various carpaccios. On the main course, of course, you'll fall in love with pasta: pasta with parmiggiana, saffron risotto, carbonara and truffles, quasi puttanesca, gnocchi and caviar... Enough to surprise gourmets and gourmands alike.

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Meat and fish lovers are not left out, as the house also offers some fine dishes, such as grilled sea bream or veal Milanese. And for dessert, the "Fi'liamisu " with its homemade savoiardi cookie, panna cotta or pavlova should delight those with a sweet tooth.

A menu that the editorial team was able to try out. Beyond the aesthetic appeal of the dishes on offer, worthy of a gourmet restaurant, their quality is unequivocal, from starter to dessert. For starters, we were tempted by the burrata with Panzanella cream and asparagus, arugula shoots and Kalamata olive mousse, as well as the arancini with saffron, eggplant, cherry tomato sauce and mozzarella. Two very fine and particularly well-balanced proposals, for a great start!

We then opted for the spaghettone carbonara with truffles, and the saffron risotto. Equally fine dishes, neither too hearty nor too little, with the Mediterranean touch we've come to expect from this type of offering. In terms of revisiting, we're well and truly there, without straying too far from the traditional version of these dishes, the tastes being simply sublimated, for an explosion of flavors in the mouth.

Of course, we ended the meal with a touch of sweetness, with a pavlova and coconut meringue, passion fruit cream, mango and dill ice cream, as well as a panna cotta with seasonal fruit sauce and amaretti crumble. Two surprisingly low-sugar desserts (yes, despite the meringue...), and very subtle, making for a perfect end to the meal. A fine address, to be discovered without moderation! Shall we reserve a table?