11 of the best restaurants in Nice

Times

20-05-2025

Nice has every ingredient to make it ripe for culinary exploration. A mountainous backdrop frames verdant landscapes of lemons, olives and tomatoes; right in front of the city, a turquoise bay opens to Mediterranean waters for the freshest sea bass and red mullet. The same geography has hooked ritzy travellers since Queen Victoria first visited nearly 150 years ago. Fine dining blossomed around the clientele. Le Chantecler in the landmark hotel Le Negresco, for example, won its first Michelin star back in 1980. The Tourteaux brothers behind Nice's most experimental restaurant, Flaveur, learnt their trade amid a constellation of famous chefs. Indeed, the city is somewhat of a training ground for culinary greatness.
But it's not all starched white tablecloths and lengthy multi-coursers — Nice flavours are so sublime that some locals want cuisine Niçoise to be inscribed by Unesco. Must-eats include socca (chickpea flatbreads) and daube (beef stew). Look out for Cuisine Nissarde stickers that certify authenticity. This means a restaurant won't sully your niçoise salad by adding cooked potatoes or green beans. These restaurants — timeless to new, budget to bacchanalian — sum up Nice's sensational dining scene. Bon appétit.
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£££ | BOOK AHEAD | BAR | Best for the ultimate voyage gastronomique
This is the aforementioned top restaurant in Nice's landmark hotel. Le Negresco has welcomed history's greatest guests — the Beatles, Princess Grace of Monaco, Sophia Loren — and dining in Le Chantecler amid its 18th-century decor proves you are truly somebody. Back when the restaurant earned its first Michelin star, this gilded salon was more knowing and stuffy. Today, under the patronage of young chef Virginie Basselot, it's engaging and experiential. Basselot is known to race through France on her Triumph motorcycle to seek out the best wild asparagus and Var oysters for her menus. Stroll around the hotel post-service to see artworks spanning the centuries collected by Jeanne Augier, Le Negresco's former owner and a pal of Picasso and Cocteau, or book a room for post-prandial respite. Basselot also presides over Le Negresco's newest establishment, the Beach Club, which serves lunches of sharing dishes, fresh fish and surf 'n' turf, beside the lapping waves. ££ | Best for convivial breakfast and lunch
Walking into Marinette is like being welcomed into your rich Riviera auntie's private home — jam jars are filled with fruit pressées, patterned tiles adorn the floor, and original wooden beams hold up the ceiling. Breakfast platters are made to be shared. Think caramel and peanut pancakes, or homemade granola bowls. Lunch follows the same pattern. Dishes such as crispy crevettes (prawns) with dips, or ceviche of tuna, avocado and passionfruit, are plonked onto big wooden tables outside or served to comfy banquettes. In a rush? Browse the marble-topped counter overflowing with oven-fresh brioche, vegetable tartines and berry pastries. Eat your purchases on the pavement chairs outside, or carry them a few minutes' walk to the beach.
restaurantmarinette.fr
£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for intimate, experimental dining
The chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen has spent over a decade fusing flavours from his native South Africa (vetkoek dough balls and biltong air-dried meats) with resolutely local ingredients (tiny black olives and red mullet). Even the bread comes from Bordonnat, Nice's best bakery, around the corner, with oils sourced from the olive oil emporium Oliviera in the old town. The end result is a Michelin-starred culinary adventure. At dinner only, just 20 lucky guests are seated in an intimate salon illuminated by flickering candlelight. Van der Westhuizen studied food photography during an internship at Elle magazine so knows how to present his symphony of sweet, sharp, smoky and sophisticated courses. Can't get a table? At the same address is Le Bistro de Jan — with its glorious, thoughtfully priced mains such as truffled-chicken pie.
janonline.com
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for authentically prepared seafood
Le Bistrot du Port has been a Nice stalwart since 2000 by honing a singular USP. Serving the freshest seafood right by the port, overlooking the fishing boats that landed the catch. The chef-patron José Orsini learnt his trade alongside the Michelin-starred superchef Alain Ducasse, yet his mains are minimalist takes on southern French classics. The likes of roast monkfish spiced with Corsican figatellu sausage, or sea bass fillet with cep mushrooms are emblematic. Thankfully the bargain lunch menu — featuring dishes such as home-smoked salmon and a zinging aïoli, plus a pitcher of wine, and espresso — democratises great cuisine. The outdoor chairs parked underneath an awning won't win any design awards (the focus here is fine food and punctilious service), although the interior is more formal.
@le_bistrot_du_port_nice
£ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for heritage flavour
One of Nice's original restaurants, on a street that's four centuries old, Chez Palmyre has been serving classic local cuisine since 1926. The decor has changed little — wood panelling is paired with rough stone walls, while the retro countertop is reminiscent of cash payments in the old franc. The three-course set menu promises a bona fide taste of Nice as-was: beignets de sardines (fritters); tripes à la niçoise (offal stew); stuffed encornet (squid); ratatouille conjured from Nice's Libération market. It only took a near-century for Chez Palmyre to translate its menu into English — making this an unpretentious gem of a restaurant.
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££ | BAR | Best for a relaxed taste of la dolce vita
Rome comes to the French Riviera in the guise of this oh-so-fun Italian restaurant in the beating heart of Nice. Purple splashes of bougainvillaea and great golden lemons dangle above diners, who recline on funky upholstered chairs alongside sun-kissed Italian art. Lazy days kick off with steaming macchiatos from the Marzocco coffee machine and jam-stuffed croissants. At lunch and dinner, start by sinking an Aperol spritz, split a spaghetti cacio e pepe, then go halves on a French steak laden with parmesan and rocket. The prices would shock a Roman — however, Gina takes pride of place on Place Masséna, a see-and-be-seen address, so meals (aside from the weekday lunch set menu) aren't cheap.
restaurantgina.com
£ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for the city's finest pizza
It's no exaggeration — when Les Amoureux opened its shutters in the Noughties, the algorithm gods briefly declared this cult pizzeria the best restaurant in France, and the formula continues to work. The Neapolitan husband and wife team of Ivan and Monica use traditional skills to produce their sublime evening-only service. Monica kneads then bakes the bubble-crisp dough, which she tops with ingredients from Campania's countryside — including cime di rapa (a slightly bitter brassica) and fennel-infused spicy sausage — while Ivan acts the genial host, passing pitchers of inexpensive chilled wine between tables. There's no sensation here, no Instagrammable gimmicks — just heart, heritage and smile-through-mouthfuls flavours. Book ahead on Facebook Messenger, or join the disorganised throng who are turned away, disgruntled, having failed to make a prior reservation.
@lesamoureuxpizzeria
£ | Best for Nice's signature dish
Socca is an unleavened, pancake-style bread made with nothing more than chickpea flour, olive oil, salt and water. Nobody does this Nice specialty better than 1930s institution Chez Pipo. Their version, baked in a blisteringly hot oven, arrives nutty, smoky and dusted with black pepper. It's ordered to be ripped apart by casual diners with a chilled half litre of Côtes de Provence rosé. No eating utensils are required for most of the remaining local classics: pissaladière (caramelised onion pizza), pistou (vegetable soup) and pan bagnat (essentially aniçoise salad packed inside a crusty bun). Decor is as pared down as the prices, which start from a few euros per portion.
chezpipo.fr
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for a Gascony-inspired meat feast
The chef and front-of-house duo Jean-Michel and Marie hail from Gascony, a region fuelled by duck fat and red wine. Their intimate restaurant distils the fullest flavours of southwest France. Jean-Michel concentrates his ancestors' cuisine around crispy, unctuous duck, with his à la Périgourdine recipe a triumph of herbs, foie gras and yet more bird. Sides include generous servings of duck-fat-fried potatoes — weight-watchers beware. Finish with a Floc de Gascogne aperitif fortified with armagnac brandy. Refreshingly, La Route du Miam ('the tasty route') is sited near Nice's locals-only market, Libération, from where many of the ingredients hail.
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££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for local cuisine in timeless surrounds
Acchiardo in the old town is staffed by its fourth generation of chef-owners, whose aptitude for local soul food and convivial service is unsurpassed. Eat like (great-great) granny once did on dishes such as stuffed vegetables and local rockfish; steaks and grilled Mediterranean fish are another house speciality. The atmosphere is timeless, as one might expect from the location on the original street, Rue Droite. Stone walls feature black-and-white photos that showcase Nice of yesteryear. Authenticity is everywhere, as diners chase pastis with jugs of house rosé as the decibels rise through each service.
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£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for inventive Michelin-starred dining
When dining at double Michelin-starred restaurant Flaveur, a dozen adjectives spring to mind —ambitious, revolutionary, inventive, bold. Diners will not taste dishes like parsnip mousse topped with tobiko flying fish eggs anywhere else. That's because the chef-patron brothers Gaël and Mickaël Tourteaux lived a culinary childhood in the French Caribbean before cheffing — from their mid-teens — alongside the finest names in French gastronomy. Since 2009, they have perfected their skills in the same 20-cover temple of food. Today, Flaveur has become a pilgrimage for pioneering epicureans in search of Willy Wonka creations with zany titles like Iodine and Spices (a seafood starter) and Meeting of Two Terroirs (a rare synthesis of Piedmont beef and green curry). Strap in for a flight of foodie whimsy.
restaurant-flaveur.com
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