24 Best Restaurants in Nice and the Eastern Cote d'Azur, The French Riviera

Chef Justin Schmitt earned a Michelin star just seven months into his tenure at the restaurant in the Château Eza hotel—a testament to his inventive approach to gastronomy. Inspired by nature (all dishes include a hint of green, his signature stroke), his travels, and his love of cycling through the region’s landscapes, Schmitt’s dishes are a celebration of Mediterranean flavors, and his seafood-centric creations, like roasted satay octopus with whiskey and sweetcorn (a must-try), blend artful presentation with culinary mastery. The intimate 50-seat dining room, perched 1,400 feet above the Mediterranean, features floor-to-ceiling windows that open in summer, offering a semi-alfresco experience with jaw-dropping vistas.

At this restaurant, beach club, and bar, the highly talented Colombian chef Juan Arbelaez, infuses South American–inspired dishes with Mediterranean flavors. Savor lunch over sharing plates amid the vibrant bougainvillea and the lovely sea views. The cocktails delight, especially the signature Copal Picanté—a spicy mix of Mahani Mezcal, chipotle, St. Germain, lychee, cucumber, and honey. Don't feel like leaving? Rent a sun lounger and spend the day, and, on Saturday, stick around until 8 pm to enjoy "House is ok" music. Don’t miss the spectacular Sunday brunch (€55) with live piano performances.

The food might be a bit overpriced, but where else in the world could you eat in a dining room under a Picasso, on a terrace beside a ceramic Léger mural, or next to a pool amid an idyllic garden with a Calder sculpture? The quirky but unpretentious Provençal menu has hardly changed over 50 years—the hors d’oeuvres de la Colombe (basket of crudité and hunks of charcuterie), salmon quenelles, and Grand Marnier soufflé flambé are as acclaimed as ever. If you can't afford a room at the world-famous hotel but still want wonderful Instagram moments, a dinner here does the trick.

Chef Jean Imbert celebrates his two great loves, gastronomy and cinema, at this Michelin-starred restaurant named after the highest award bestowed at the Cannes Film Festival. On the menu, which is designed like a film script, locally sourced seafood such as John Dory, spiny lobster, and scorpion fish have pride of place. A three-course seasonal tasting menu is priced at €140; five-courses is €220. The priceless memorabilia on display includes Leo's Wolf of Wall Street sunglasses, Harry Potter scripts, and Robert De Niro’s boxing shorts from Raging Bull.

Nestled on a charming cobbled square beside a babbling fountain and adorned with pastel blue shutters, La Place de Mougins offers the quintessential area dining experience. Each month, chef Denis Fétisson, a Marseille native, expertly showcases regional flavors on a creative menus of dishes that highlight a produit à l'honneur, that is to say, one seasonal ingredient, such as truffle, foie gras, or asparagus. A standout is the Gourmandise à Mougins tasting menu (€85) featuring Fétisson's renowned Golden Egg with ossetra Kaviari caviar.

Christian Morisset’s Michelin-starred restaurant is named after the 50-year-old fig tree that, along with a canopy of vines, shades the private courtyard. This is one of the region's best restaurants, and the haute-cuisine chef bases his scrumptious set menus on what's available at the daily market. Yes, it's pricey—à la carte is around €70 for a main, and don't choke when you see a €3,900 bottle of 1990 Château Lafite Rothschild on the wine list; like everything else on the menu, it's there for a reason.

Chef Mauro Colagreco—who learned his craft in Latin America before working with the likes of Bernard Loiseau in Burgundy and both Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse in Paris—helms this innovative establishment, which has garnered three Michelin stars and is frequently cited as the world's best restaurant. Colagreco is one of the young chefs whose style has been dubbed la jeune cuisine—for him, the plate is a palette, and each of the ingredients, which are often gathered from the on-site vegetable garden, has its precise place and significance. The airy dining room overlooking a cascading garden and the sea on Menton's outer edge is the ideal setting for Colagreco's expressive (and expensive!) cooking; the nine-course €450 menu featuring roots, leaves, flowers, and fruits is particularly intense. In 2023, a glassed-enclosed kitchen was added, as was La Puerta, a space adjacent to the restaurant that offers a more intimate experience. Can't get a reservation? Don't fret. Colagreco is also at the helm of Casa Fuego, an Argentine asado (grill) restaurant, and La PecoraNegra, an artisanal pizzeria.

Judging by the crowd of regulars flocking to his restaurant, Daniel Desavie has built quite a reputation for his classic Provençal dishes—hardly surprising given that he was trained for 23 years by the late Roger Vergé at the famous Moulins de Mougins. Try the half lobster with cranberry beans and wild mushrooms salad in herb vinaigrette before tucking into thinly sliced beef with truffle coulis. If you want to add wine, a sommelier will help you turn your classic meal into a masterful one. There are splendidly set-priced lunch and dinner menus at both the restaurant and his more relaxed Le Bistrot, which features a weekly market offering. 

Long a showplace for Riviera luxury, the Negresco is replete with Régence-fashion salons decked out with 18th-century wood boiserie and Aubusson carpets. Its main dining room, the Michelin-star Chantecler, has been playing musical chefs for the past few years and currently features a new-generation culinary artist, Virginie Basselot, and her selections of impressive haute cuisine. In the cave, there are 15,000 bottles (if you're counting).

When chef Jean-Paul Battaglia decided to set up shop in Cannes, gastronomes were delighted, and he does not disappoint—so much so that it’s not uncommon for tourists to eat here more than once during their stay. The roast beef is succulent, and the spicy lobster has just the right kick. L'Affable is always packed (and often noisy), so reservations are essential. Note that dinner service is a €55 fixed-price menu with lots of tempting choices, ditto for lunch (€28 and €33).

This is a place to linger over warm lobster salad or sole meunière in butter with almonds while watching the world go by. The food is tasty, but the fabulous setting of this veritable institution is reflected in the prices (and the occasional attitude from the servers). The seaside restaurant opened in 1938, and proprietor Germaine Halap soon became a second mother to American naval officers and sailors who came into port. A movie has been made about "Mère Germaine," and excerpts from the book Mother of the Sixth Fleet were published in Reader's Digest.

This Michelin-starred hotel restaurant—a marvel of light and color—has been a crown jewel of the Mediterranean since it opened in 1880. Chef Julien Roucheteau uses fresh Mediterranean ingredients in original takes on classic dishes like langoustine tails roasted in hazelnut butter, and the four- (€195) and six-course (€255) set menus are a better value than ordering à la carte. The chandelier-bedecked salon is lined with bay windows that offer views of a watery nirvana. Reserve well in advance in summer, and, if you can swing it, spend a night at the hotel if only to use the seaside pool. 

Chef Jêrome Cotta knows what it takes to earn restaurant acclaim, and his originality and attention to detail are reflected in creations like mille-feuille of foie gras caramelized with maple syrup; fig marmalade flavored with port wine, cranberry, and red-currant jelly; and cod fillet cooked in frothy butter, shallots, and cocoa beans stewed with bacon in a fine truffle bouillon. It's easy to run up a bill of €200 per couple with drinks here, but the panoramic views, especially upstairs, from the Art Deco building jutting over the sea cannot be faulted. It's also the site of one of the city's most stylish bars.

For more than 50 years, celebs have vacationed at Hôtel Cap-Estel along Èze's seaside, enjoying its private 5-acre peninsula with all-encompassing views of the Mediterranean and its restaurant. The dishes are worthy of the location, made using local seafood and produce and featured on à la carte and four-, five-, or seven-course set menus, including a vegetarian option.

This restaurant, steps from the Hotel Beau Rivage and with an outdoor terrace, focuses on the preservation of French cuisine. The sommelier amazingly seems to know your order before you do; a decent bottle of red will set you back around €50. The service is friendly enough, and the food is elegantly presented. 

If you're tired of choosing from complicated menus, visit this long-popular restaurant in Le Suquet, where you only have to decide what kind of meat you want. Every dinner starts with a gigantic basket of whole raw vegetables—to be cut up and dipped in a selection of sauces—and grilled bread, and then come the generous servings of meats (there's also a vegan menu). Prices start at €109 for the traditional set three-course menu and go up to a sizzling €490 for the Japanese Wagyu Beef option. With a low, wood-beam ceiling and only a few tables (draped in pink), Le Maschou (meaning "small pretty house") is a favorite during the Cannes Film Festival, when the 60-day matured prime rib is as hot as the red carpet.

In an intimate space on a tiny street, just behind Cours Saleya, this restaurant has a chalkboard menu of dishes that showcase the natural skill of chef Aurélien Martin. The choice of market-fresh seasonal cuisine is easy, as there's one four-course menu for lunch and either a four- or a five-course menu for dinner.

When Hell’s Kitchen presenter and chef Arnaud Tabarec left to open Beam! in Toulon, Lori Moreau stepped in at this trendy restaurant occupying the fifth floor of a former post office (now the Five Seas Hotel) with fabulous views over Le Suquet. She shortened the menu, but there is still a good selection of fish and vegetarian dishes, as well as beef and chicken options. There’s also a stellar brunch menu if a lazy Sunday appeals.

In 1954, French resistance hero Camille Rayon built a restaurant between two stone fishing huts from the early 20th century, and today it is a Michelin-starred institution and part of the Relais & Chateau Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel. Although beef is available, chef Nicolas Rondelli's menu emphasizes fish, and all dishes are complemented by produce from the nearby hills and wines from a formidable list that includes a 2018 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault at €2,400 a bottle. Stunning, albeit pricey, desserts, give you an excuse to linger as the sun sets over the Îles de Lérins and the Estérel. The more affordable beach restaurant is open for lunch, and from June through September, dinner.

Chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen is the first South African to be awarded a Michelin star, which he earned within two years of opening his namesake restaurant in the port. Because of this, it can be tough to get reservations to sample a menu that might feature such innovative dishes as veal cheeks, potatoes dauphinoise, potato puree, trumpet mushrooms, foie gras, and lavender mayonnaise. For the record, the bread, ice cream, and sorbet are all homemade; the eggs and milk are organic; and Jan Hendrik grows his own vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

It's hard to believe that this tranquil island is only 20 minutes from Cannes by boat, and that it's the location of a scenic, 19th-century restaurant run by monks from the Île St-Honorat monastery alongside chef Mathias Metge. You're here for the views; although the menu focuses on very fresh grilled fish, prices seem aimed at the stars (literally), and service reflects a "we're the only restaurant on the island" attitude. There is a vegan option, and cheeseburgers also on the menu.  Take the opportunity to sample the wines, liqueurs, and eaux-de-vie that are produced by the island's busy monks.

In a city where style often wins out over substance, food lovers treasure this Suquet eatery run by Noël Mantel, who, among other top-notch jobs, worked with Ducasse at Louis XV in Monaco. The contemporary setting harmonizes with the exquisitely detailed Mediterranean cuisine on the seasonal menus.

For more than 50 years, celebs holidayed and dined at Cap Estel in Èze, a private 2-hectare peninsula with all-encompassing views of the Med. And now, with chef Patrick Raingeard, whose produce comes directly from the hotel’s garden, the dining here can’t get any better. Start with the asparagus salad with creamy cauliflower and wild truffles, followed by the Charolais beef fillet à la Parillada in a “Los Lobos” red-wine sauce served with a potato-and-truffle cake. Finish it off with a banana soufflé. Vegetarian options are also available. Lunch set menus are a good value.