Archive for the ‘Nice Restaurants’ Category
October 27th, 2009 | 
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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.
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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.
Tags: 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.
“La Reserve”, the lushly praised (and lushly expensive) restaurant shepherded to Michelin stardom by Finnish chef, Jouni Tormanen, is in bankruptcy proceedings. Despite an unbeatable location overlooking the sea, the two-tier restaurant was hit hard by the recent economic crisis despite having opened a lower-priced “bistro” on the ground floor.
On a recent visit, we found the “gastronomic” restaurant upstairs was closed for the winter, probably in an effort to cut the massive overhead that running this establishment entailed. Although the €25 two-course lunch was not expensive, the portions were miniscule, like a parody of nouvelle cuisine.
Celeb-chef Jouni has left the scene pending appeal but the restaurant remains open. The current holding company is presenting a new prix-fixe menu running from €30 to €65. Perhaps the new management will push up the calorie count over the ‘lean cuisine’ level?
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Maybe it’s unfair, but I always assume the worst about any place with an ideal location along the Promenade des Anglais. How could it be good value when it’s right on the tourist trail? Sarao has proven me completely wrong.
Not only is it well-located but the interior is spacious and tastefully decorated in warm, Mediterranean colors. The wood floors are polished to a sheen and the lighting is cheerful. How could the food be good?
Well it was. The inventive menu is designed to satisfy a wide range of palates, including non-meat-eaters such as myself. The emphasis on Spanish-style tapas allows you to nibble on a wide range of snacks or dig through a full meal, depending on your appetite. We sampled fried calamari rings, Spanish tortilla, stuffed mushrooms, mussels, fish cakes and fried potatoes. All were delicious. We choose an excellent Spanish red wine to wash it all down. Best of all were the reasonable prices. Sarao looks upscale but is not a budget-buster. Adding to the ambience was live music. The manager informed us that the violinist fiddling away was world-renowned. Unfortunately he was stuck with a mediocre group and a dreadful singer. At least the volume was not set to maximum.