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France
La Zucca Magica is a little vegetarian haven on the French south coast in Nice, not a country noted for veggie restaurants! It’s a quirky place, every corner is filled with pumpkins, fairy lights and newspaper clippings of the larger than life chef - Marco. The restaurant is quite small and the tables are close together so it’s full of atmosphere and very sociable.
The restaurant only offers a set meal of five courses - you don’t see a menu, you just sit back and enjoy the ride! The selection changes daily as the chef creates inventive and tasty dishes from the fresh produce available with favorites including delicious soups, home made pasta and stuffed peppers, all full of flavour from the addition of local cheeses and fresh herbs.
The meal lasts all night, the service is good and many diners are greeted with a kiss by Marco. The meal isn’t cheap and booking is essential as its always full, but it’s a great choice for veggies and non-veggies alike, a real dining experience!
4 bis, quai Papacino, 06300 Nice, France
+33(0)4 93 56 25 27
www.lazuccamagica.com
Google map: bit.ly/g3GMVM
"La Zucca Magica" (The Magic Pumpkin)is a fabulous vegetarian restaurant in the South of France. Once you've got over the pumpkin themed decor, not really a design dream, you can settle down to an imaginative eating experience. There is no menu, you are served four or five courses of what is on offer that day. Marco, the chef, gets fresh ingredients daily from the local market so wonderful and varied vegetarian food with an Italian slant. The contents of each course delightfully explained by the waiter, in our case a mixture of French, Italian and English, his Welsh wasn't so good.
We went on my wife's birthday, towards the end of the meal the kitchen staff banged pans and sang happy birthday.
You need to book and this can be done easily via their website.
4 bis, quai Papacino, 06300 Nice, France
+33(0)4 93 56 25 27
www.lazuccamagica.com
Google map: bit.ly/g3GMVM
Just north of the main SNCF station is the Place Liberation. It's a pretty if busy traditional square opposite the facade of the old Gare Du Sud (the new station has relocated a few hundred yards west). There's a terrific market that's a lot cheaper than the tourist trap that is the Cours Saleya and there's a proliferation of non-touristy cafes and bars as well as an excellent seafood brasserie on the corner of the Boulevard Jean Garnier. For a taste of real urban France in a city obsessed with bling, it's a real find.
Place Liberation
Avenue Malausséna
The new tram stops there although it's perfectly walkable from the SNCF station.
Google map: tinyurl.com/2vqqhe6
A roast meat restaurant in Vieux Nice: if you're looking for an alternative to pasta, pizza or nicoise cuisine this place will sort you out in no time.
It's a tiny new (opened May 2009) good-looking restaurant/take-away by Place Rossetti offering simply five types of roasted meats, with a choice of either mash, roast potatoes or ratatouille on the side - eat in and you get a mesclun salad included in the price.
We've tried the beef, which is served French-style rare, and lamb so far and they were both delicious: seriously good value at 11euro each. After sharing one generous take-out serving of lamb between two at our apartment rental we were so impressed we went back to dine in the next day.
It's a brilliant concept and a very welcome addition (for carnivores at least) to the Vieille Ville's restaurant scene. Go early if you want the half chicken - or the window seat!
Rossetti - Serie
8 rue Mascoinat (just off Place Rossetti)
Vieux Nice 06300
open Tuesday to Saturday, 12-2pm & 8-10pm
This restaurant was recommended on Been there and we decided to check it out. It's set on two floors and is quite small, but stylish. It's definitely not touristy (at least not when we went in March) but very busy with locals. We were lucky to get a table. Service was great. Food and wine delicious. Not sure how expensive it was as someone else picked up the tab - but I think reasonable.
27, rue de la Prefecture
Phone: +33 (0)4 93 85 29 57
This is a great auberge (hotel-restaurant) just above Nice in a cute little provincial village just one hours drive. But it's worth it. The view is magnificent and so is the food. The french chef really makes you feel how he loves what he does. Everything is homemade with fresh produce, which in the summer, comes from the organic farm which he runs with his english wife. Good value too! Menu 31 and 36 euros. But you must reserve as they're very popular on the weekend and during the summer.
Take the RN202 Route de Digne to Puget Theniers and then turn right across a new suspended bridge. In the centre of the village of La Penne just 13kms from Puget Theniers
Boni used to be located at 21 rue Barla in Nice but has moved to 15 rue Tonduti de l'Escarene - a bit closer to the centre of Nice and easier to access either by tram, bus or car.
The place is great and the decor is superb. The floor staff (Igor and JP) is the same as at the former address. They do speak English
fluently which is a great help if yours is basic.
The food is simple and yet full of flavours, taste and colour. The service is excellent and the desserts are... out of this world.
Boni restaurant
15 Rue Tonduti de l'Escarene, 06000 Nice
Bus N°7: Stop Hospital St Roch
Tram: Stop at Gare routière
Car: Nearest car park Marshall - 1h20 min for free
For quick and tasty street food on the go, try Sur La Pouce.
The moustachioed owner is friendly and chatty - go a second time and chances are he'll remember you.
To get a real taste of classic Nice food go for the assiette Nicoise. It gives you all the classics on one plate: stuffed vegetables, courgette flowers, sardines etc.
On Rue St Francois in the Old Town
It is one of the recommendations on this site: www.nice-city-vacation.com/nice-restaurant.html
This is a fairly new restaurant, at least it wasn't around last time we visited, but we could have missed it. It is on Rue de Prefecture and it serves traditional Nicois dishes.
It is quite small and cosy with some tables outside. It's always busy and we'd highly recommend booking a few days before (we had to try three times before we got a table). It is a much better experience than the tourist trap of the Cours Saleya, and just two streets back.
Rue de Prefecture
The new owners of bar Antoine in Rue de la Prefecture have certainly changed the place; it’s cleaner, more sophisticated and with a less varied menu, but: it is still a very French atmosphere with lovely food and good service.
Try the Parma ham freshly sliced to order in front of you. The duck is good too and the truffle risotto to die for. It’s still one of the busiest restaurants in Old Nice, a place where every other doorway leads to a restaurant, so book a table and enjoy.
Rue de la Prefecture
Oldest seafood cafe in Nice. Eat moules, oyster, lobster and shellfish platters. Wash them down with delicious white wine/whisky.
Plaza Garibaldi
Beautiful restaurant with very nice service and a reasonable price tag. We had oysters which were out of this world.
Oysters were not previously palatable for both my wife and I, but this experience was to die for.
We have not stopped eating them since! So now we are all zinced up and with a few of the shampoo bubbles we have been lifted to a new way of life.
This is an olive oil shop and restaurant in the Old Town of Nice. The owner is one of the most enthusiastic we have ever met. We had no idea how much variety there could be in the taste of the oils and how much the different olive oils can bring out the taste of the food. My advocado starter was amazing and my new hubby also loved his goats cheese starter. I had lasagne and he had rabbit for the main course which were great too. And the tiramisu to polish it all all, fantastic. It's such a friendly place, but we would have never had gone if it hadn't been recommended to us by Matt and Gayle at Nice Pebbles who rented our apartment to us. If you're in Nice, you so must go to Olivieria. It's not to be missed.
Rue de Collet, Vieux Nice
www.oliviera.com
The guidebooks I read before setting off to Nice failed to mention Cagnes. I wanted to go to Renoir's museum so that's why I went. I was very taken with the place. I imagine it's like Brighton was in the 1960s but with a lot more class and a lot more sun. Pay this place a visit. There are restaurants a plenty and they are much cheaper than in Nice yet to the same standard. There are so many children here having fun in the sun too. A very sweet family holiday place which I intend to recommend to my niece's ma and pa.
This is a fantastic restaurant on Rue Lascaris just off the port. It's fantastic and well deserves its Michelin star. The chef is Finnish and it's just a little bit different to the usual whilst still tasting great. The menu changes every day and you can eat outside too.
Rue Lascaris.
www.jouni.fr
Tel: 33 4 9708 1480
This is a fabulous vegetarian restaurant next to the old port. There is no menu to choose from: the Italian chef, Marco Folicaldi, cooks fresh ingredients from that morning's market.
Five courses delivered by friendly waiters who explain the ingredients of each course. Excellent food and wine, a unique restaurant with a great atmosphere.
4 bis, quai Papacino
(Rue de Foresta)
+33 049356 25 27
La Zucca Magica is the best vegetarian restaurant in the south of France. It is located in Nice Harbour.
There's no menu as such - you get 5 small, perfectly prepared and utterly stunning courses: some of the best Italian food you'll ever eat and at a superb price. Unpretentious, delicious and fun. Highly recommended.
If you're approaching Nice Harbour from Nice, La Zucca Magica is on the left, facing the harbour.
Villefranche is a 15-minute ride on the No 100 bus from the Gare Routier.
The views as you leave Nice and curve around the Cap de Nice into the Rade de Villefranche are spectacular.
Loads to do when you get there whatever your tastes. Sightseeing: the Citadel, Rue Obscure, the old Port; culture: four museums/galleries, all free entry; relaxing: two beaches, one coarse sand, the other stony; and loads of bars and restaurants.
There's a food market with local produce on Saturdays, antiques (well bric-a-brac) on Sundays, and above all it's a nice, relaxing, cosy place after the brashness of Nice.
PS don't take a car!
Small, family-run restaurant packed with locals and regulars near the train station with great service, good quality food and large portions.
Makes a change from the tourist traps (bad food and rip-off service) around the pedestrian zone and the flower market/Cours Saleya.
Three-course menus start at €14 (very filling dish of the day); the €26 menu is almost gastronomic (frogs legs, veal sweetbread, foie gras or sole meunière).
A great address!
25 Rue d'Angleterre, between the back of Notre Dame Cathedral and the train station.
Closed on Sunday nights and Mondays.
Tel: 04 93 88 64 48
A fantastic seafood restaurant in the old harbour. The Bouillabaisse is sensational.
They do it in the traditional fashion, with the mixed fish and seafood presented on a platter for your inspection before and after cooking, then served in an exquisite saffron-spiced broth with croutons and rouille. Delicious with a cold, dry Hock.
Sit outside, watch the sun set over the cliffs surrounding the harbour, and imagine you're Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
In the old harbour
Is this your business?Search Been there
