Dining in Nice

Nice's cuisine is a reflection of the city's 300 days of sun a year: olive oil, garlic and lemon. But also a vast selection of all kinds of vegetables: aubergines, tomatoes, vegetable marrow, and lots more. If you put all this in a frying pan with olive oil, it makes ratatouille. Put it in the oven and you have a tian (au gratin). The city's own traditional take-away food is la socca - a kind of pancake made from chick peas. Some say it has a salty, bracing taste. Others say it tastes of old socks. This does not stop a new generation of playful chefs who have started to prepare Provençal cuisine nouveau. Bon appétit!

Chantecler-La Rotonde
Chantecler is Nice's culinary and cultural heritage flagship on the beach promenade. The restaurant is like the hotel, overblown and extravagant - bordering on kitsch. It also has a low-price back pocket, "La Rotonde", with market decor, where you can eat lunch for a mere €30.

Le Grand Balcon
Fusion food on your plate, beautiful people on the seats and their portraits on the walls. All in a red, intimate atmosphere. Tajine containing fish and crab, eggs and foie gras together with other fancy ingredients.
Address: 10, rue Saint-François-de-Paule
Phone: +33(0)493626074

Sapore
Pick and choose from lots of small, delicious tapas-style dishes. Décor in stylish metal and light-coloured wood. The chef has been trained at some of the Riviera's most highly-regarded kitchens.
Address: 19, Rue Bonaparte
Phone: +33(0)492042209

People
1970's décor. Classic French cuisine - lots of duck with fig preserve, foie gras .... And the local artists have gone to town on the walls.
Address: 12, Rue Pastorelli
Phone: +33(0)0493850843

Le Grand Café de Turin
A genuine 1900's brasserie, with everything that the shellfish enthusiast could dream of - above all heaps of oysters. Lightning fast waiters, as you would expect at a place like this.
Address: 5, place Garibaldi, in the northern part of the Old Town.
Phone: +33(0)493622952

Le Gésu
In the centre of the maze of small streets in the Old Town, beside a small square. Simple but good Provençal food. Good value. The local football team adorn the walls.

Cours Saleya
The largest square in the city, and the historic centre. Perfect at any time of day, for a coffee or lunch, beneath what used to be Matisse's balcony.