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Archive for the ‘Nice Restaurants’ Category

David Faure’s Aphrodite is my go-to spot when I want a truly extraordinary lunch at a price that won’t give me indigestion. I hadn’t been to this restaurant in Nice since it received its first Michelin star last year so I was curious whether the quality was the same as I remembered a couple of years agol. If anything, the restaurant had improved its lunch offering.

For an inexpensive fixed-price lunch (€25), some chefs decide not to exert themselves by elaborate preparations. Not here. We began with a cool amuse-bouche of a delicate mousse punctuated with crispy paper-thin potato slice and a fresh cracker but what followed was a total triumph. Chef Faure has mastered “molecular” cuisine and the entree was a full display of his technique. Fresh peas were surrounded a chunk of quail topped  with a fois gras flavoured ice cream (who would have thought?) and then dressed up with a carrot foam that looked like a flower on the plate. Insane. The main course was a perfectly broiled cod topped with a light bath of savory sauce and complemented by fried radishes. Dessert was an exquisite concoction of violet sherbet, rasberries, mascarpone plus meringue cookies over a rasberry gel sprinkled with vanilla. Mignardises of meringue and rasberry gel completed the meal.

What was great was not only the subtle balance of flavors and the summery coolness but the portions were designed to be just filling enough for lunch without weighing you down. We left neither hungry nor stuffed. It was just right. Everything was just right from the cascading water that formed a backdrop to the enclosed terrace to the carefully chosen paintings inside the formal but cheerful dining room. Aphrodite is clearly one of the best restaurants in Nice. If you can find a better-value lunch in town, let me know!

Sometimes a place is so friendly and nice, you hate to disappoint them with a bad review. Boni at 15 rue Tonduti de l’Escarène has attracted a number of fans ever since the original opened on rue Barla. The Franco-Italian style fits perfectly in our region where there is a constant flow of Italians in and French out. Maybe that was the trouble. The chef seemed to use the names of Italian favorites–antipasti! farfalle!–without remaining faithful to the spirit of Italian cuisine. As the menu was uninspired, the dishes needed that extra something that you find everywhere in Italy. There, an antipasti is composed of  freshly grilled vegetables, fruity olive oil, salty fish, Parma ham. Here, there were a few miniscule slices of raw salmon, an average tomato topped with tuna, some mesclun and a little hunk of Italian cheese. The grilled sea bream worked well but the farfalle with salmon was dry and tasteless. The risotto with asparagus was gloppy–an unforgivable lapse. The apple crumble dessert was OK but nothing special.

The concept caters to the trendy ’sorta tapas’ idea. You can choose 2 or 3 ‘bols’ plus a dessert. In practice, that meant 2 starters, a main course and a dessert for €23. The price was reasonable but the quality was average.

When the weather is as splendid as it has been Nice this Indian Summer, one is tempted to head to an outdoor restaurant to enjoy the burning blue sky. By opting for Don Camillo Creations we clearly prioritized the palate and we weren’t sorry. The €24 lunch menu offered excellent value as it included three courses.

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my pet peeves is snobby chefs that refuse to provide a filling meal. Oh, everything is artfully arranged, but where’s the food?

There was no problem with that at Don Camillo. The entreé was foie gras de canard, a real luxury item. OK, I don’t eat foie gras but the side salad of teeny veggies and small greens was delicious and the waiter was nice enough to give me extra as I sent the foie gras over to John. He did an excellent job of masking his dismay at my rejection and I was careful to extravagantly praise the salad dressing which hinted at sesame and citrus. The main course was chunks of St Pierre fish, another luxury item, served over humble but elegant fresh coco beans. The fish had a thin glaze on one side and was meltingly tender underneath. The light sauce was buttery and herb-scented. Dessert was a poached pear over an ice cream of very intense chocolate and something the waiter said was “macchia”. What is it? Help me out!

Washed down with a glass of excellent white wine and accompanied by amazing little rosemary rolls, the lunch was light but intensely satisfying. I liked that chef Marc Laville decided to offer three courses on his lunch menu rather than following the usual tendancy of offering two courses and an amuse-bouche.

Now, if only he would put a few tables on the beach.

See more on Nice restaurants.

Once again, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of food at a Nice beach restaurant. My dining companion complained of a bad stomach after eating at our usual place (which shall remain nameless) so we decided to try Bambou Beach Restaurant in front of  Lenval Hospital.

As is now typical of beach restaurants, the waiter insisted on speaking English in spite of our best efforts to converse in French. (We’re not tourists, see!). The restaurant bills itself as Specialites de Poissons so we went with the flow and chose the special cold seafood platter. The waiter assured us all was fresh and it was. The platter teemed with mussels, coquilles St-Jacques, shrimp, mussels, octopus and several very large prawns. It was served over a bed of salad greens, tomatoes and yellow squash.

It took us about an hour to get through it all (OK, there was a lot of chatting in between bites) and we were both pleasantly surprised by the quality and the quantity. At €16, we considered it excellent value for money.

Reservations are normally not necessary at Bambou Beach restaurant (tel 04 93 86 64 15; 165 Promenade des Anglais) which is open June to September. There’s only a lunch service but drinks are served all day on the beach.

I had heard that the dining has gotten quite good in the restaurants on Nice beaches. Rumor confirmed. I just had lunch at Lido Plage and was most impressed with the quality of the food and the friendliness of the service.

Lido Plage is slightly west of  Nice’s Old Town, with a menu that spans “Indian Tapas” (didn’t try it but sounds adventurous), sandwiches, the inevitable Salade Nicoise, a handful of pizzas and, my choice, a fritto misto. It was a delicious combination of the kind of omega-3 fish you’re supposed to eat but probably don’t. The sardines and rouget were crisp-fried and accompanied by roasted artichoke heart and courgette. For an additional health boost the salad “on the side” was an enormous tangle of fresh greens.

The comfy chairs and warm decoration made it comfortable to linger and the Mediterranean was just a few metres away. At €19, it was pricey but worth it.