Nice & the French Riviera Travel Guide
Eating in Nice
What to eat in Nice and how to eat it well — socca, pissaladière, pan bagnat and the real salade niçoise, the Cours Saleya market, local wine from Bellet, and how to avoid the tourist-trap terraces.
Nice has its own cuisine, and it is not quite French. For centuries the city belonged to the House of Savoy and looked toward Genoa and Turin rather than Paris, and its cooking — cuisine nissarde — is a Mediterranean blend of Provençal and Ligurian traditions: olive oil instead of butter, chickpeas, anchovies, chard, fresh herbs, vegetables cooked slowly in the sun. It is cheap, honest food, much of it eaten standing up, and it is one of the great pleasures of a visit. Here is what to eat and how to find it.
Socca. The city's signature street food is a thin, crisp-edged pancake made of chickpea flour, water and olive oil, baked on a large round copper plate in a very hot wood-fired oven, then scraped out in pieces and eaten hot, with plenty of black pepper. It is the taste of the old town: buy it from stalls on and around the Cours Saleya and in the old-town snack bars, and eat it on the spot. It is naturally vegan and gluten-free.
Pissaladière and pan bagnat. Pissaladière is a thick bread base topped with onions cooked down to sweetness, with black olives and anchovies — sold by the slice in bakeries. Pan bagnat is the salade niçoise in a round bun soaked in olive oil: tuna, egg, raw vegetables, olives, sometimes anchovies, and no mayonnaise. Both are perfect picnic food for the beach or Castle Hill.
Salade niçoise, properly. The real thing is a salad of raw vegetables — tomatoes, small purple artichokes or fava beans in season, radishes, peppers, spring onions — with hard-boiled eggs, tuna or anchovies (traditionally not both), black olives and olive oil. Purists insist on no cooked vegetables, no potatoes and no green beans. You will see every variation on menus; the simpler, the more authentic.
Petits farcis, beignets and tourte de blettes. Petits farcis are small vegetables — tomatoes, courgettes, onions, peppers — stuffed with a mixture of meat, breadcrumbs and herbs and baked. Beignets are fritters of courgette flowers or vegetables. The tourte de blettes is a surprising sweet tart of Swiss chard, raisins and pine nuts, sometimes dusted with sugar. Look for a "plate niçoise" or "assiette de spécialités niçoises" to try several at once.
Daube and ravioli. In cooler months, look for daube niçoise, a slow-cooked beef stew in red wine, and the ravioli made from its leftovers, a reminder of the Italian connection. Gnocchi, often served with daube or pesto, is another local staple. Soupe au pistou, a vegetable soup with a basil, garlic and olive oil sauce, is the summer equivalent.
Markets. The Cours Saleya market, Tuesday to Sunday in the morning, is the place to see what the region grows: flowers, citrus, olives, tapenade, local cheese, honey and seasonal produce, with stalls run by local growers alongside traders. The Libération market, north of the centre, is where locals shop and is less touristy. On Mondays the Cours Saleya hosts an antiques market instead. In Antibes, the Provençal covered market on Cours Masséna is a highlight; in Menton, the covered Halles du Marché sells lemon specialities.
Wine. Nice has its own tiny appellation, Bellet, from vineyards on the hills above the city, producing whites from the local Rolle grape, rosés and reds in very small quantities; try it in local restaurants and wine bars. Elsewhere on the coast, Provence rosé is the default drink of summer, and the monks of the Lérins Islands off Cannes make wine on Saint-Honorat.
Sweets and ice cream. Nice's confectioners sell candied fruit, a tradition of the region, and chocolates; the old town's ice-cream counters on Place Rossetti are famous for their long lists of flavours, from classic to eccentric. Menton's lemons appear in jams, liqueurs, tarts and sorbets.
Fine dining. The Riviera has an extraordinary concentration of Michelin stars. In Nice, Le Chantecler at the Negresco is the grand historic table. In Monaco, Le Louis XV - Alain Ducasse at the Hôtel de Paris holds three stars. Château Eza's terrace restaurant, with its Michelin star and its view, is one of the most spectacular lunches on the coast. In Cannes, La Palme d'Or at the Hôtel Martinez carries a star. Book well ahead, and consider lunch, which is often better value.
How to eat well. Avoid the most prominent terraces on the Cours Saleya and the Promenade, which trade on location; walk a few lanes back into the old town or toward the port. Look for the "Cuisine Nissarde" label, which the city awards to restaurants serving authentic local dishes. Lunch menus (formules) are the best value. Restaurants keep set hours — lunch roughly noon to two, dinner from about seven-thirty — so plan accordingly; outside those hours, street food is your friend. Service is included in French bills; rounding up or leaving a little extra for good service is appreciated.
A food walk. For a guided introduction, several companies run food walks through the old town, combining socca, pissaladière, olive oil, cheese and Bellet wine with history. They are a great way to start a trip and to get recommendations for the rest of your stay.