This is a place that never fails to disappoint. Every time I decide to give the place a chance, I wish I hadn’t. I had not intended to come here today either, but the good restaurants in the neighbourhood were all full.

Rina looks good from the outside. Clean. Chique. “Traditional” design. That’s clearly their business model: look good to invite tourist who happen to pass by. They can get much more business from that than from providing good food or good service.

However, a first warning sign is the waiter whose main task is to stand by the entrance and invite random passers by. In a tourist area, bad restaurants often get more business that way than by providing good food.

The waiter placed me at a table that was clearly visible from the street to give other people the illusion that they had a lot of customers. I promptly got a menu, but no information about the dish of the day. I made up my mind in about ten seconds, and then had to wait for about ten minutes, before the took my order. They did not offer me anything to drink while waiting, so I sat there and became increasingly thirsty. I went for an artichoke salad. It was already clear that they did not know what they were doing, so I did not dare to try any of their wines but instead chose tap water.

The artichoke salad was served with olive oil and vinegar in bottles at the table, but no salt or pepper. I had to ask for that.

The dish itself was very dry. It contained no interesting spices or taste experiences, just cheese, salad, tomatoes and a hint of standard vinegar and oil. The artichokes were stringy and quite difficult to chew.

Once I had finished the salad itself, a waiter rushed up and removed the vinegar and olive oil and the bag with bread rolls, so I would not be tempted to continue with bread alone. I was still chewing on one bread roll.

One waiter came up to me, and I asked to pay before he got the opportunity to offer a dessert or a coffee. He immediately came with the bill and at the same time brought the little machine to pay with credit card, so I was not given much time to sit back and enjoy the finished meal.

I put down the half eaten piece of bread I was still chewing on, when I retrieved my credit card. As soon as I did that, the waiter snatched that piece of bread as well, so I would not be able to finish it.

When I left, I saw one of the waiters follow yet another passer by, trying to engage him in a conversation and trying to entice him to sit down for a meal. I did not say anything. But it will be a long time before I give Rina yet another chance.

Le Médiéval in Tourrettes-sur-Loup is one of those restaurants that has been there forever. According to the waiter, it opened in 1984. The food is very good, and the medieval ambiance is pleasant. It was at this restaurant I got the idea to this blog.

The nice waiter has been there since the place opened, and last time I went, he said they have been looking for someone to take over the place, so they could retire.

If you are in Tourettes and you are hungry, this is a very good place.

If your dream is to have a restaurant on the French Riviera, you could probably do worse than this place.

Address: 6 Grand’Rue, 06140 Tourrettes-sur-Loup

Visited: January 2019

Update November 2019: unfortunately, this nice restaurant has just closed down. I wish the owners good luck with their future projects.

In the middle of the old town of Vence, with its medieval atmosphere and modern art galleries and museums, is the restaurant L’Oulivié. It is very small but has a modern interior which is a nice contrast to the medieval exterior. I have never been disappointed in the food, no matter what I have taken.

The restaurant is cat themed, with portraits of cats on the walls, and a few cats that usually sleep happily in the shade outside, so it may not be good if you have an allergy. For everyone else, it is excellent.

Address: 14 Place Clemenceau, 06140 Vence

Visited: November 2018 and several times before.

This restaurant is far from any tourist attraction in Nice (possibly with the exception of the Russian Cathedral, which is half a kilometre away). Nevertheless, it is one of those seriously good places where one gets very good value for the money.  The waiter/owner (?) is a very nice man who is more than willing to discuss the different dishes on the menu so you get what is perfect for you.

I have never seen the place completely full, but it is popular with the locals, and quite often there are a few tourists who make their way here, so if you walk all the way up here a hot summer day just to try out this place, it may be a good idea to call in advance and ask if a reservation is needed.

Address: 91 Boulevard Gambetta, 06000 Nice

Visited November 2018.

If a new restaurant appears in Nice, one should usually not expect too much. A lot of optimistic people with little experience open restaurants where they have a vast range of things that can go wrong. Bad food (of course), bad choice of wines, beers and other drinks, silly design of the cutlery and plates, warm food served on cold plates, inefficient assignment of waiters to tables and customers, uncomfortable chairs, too hot seating in the summer and too cold in the winter, dirty tables, dirty floors, dirty toilets, toilets with no working locks,… and so on.

Nevertheless, sometimes the time when a restaurant is new is the perfect time to go there. Those are the restaurants where the staff is good at their tasks, but they have not yet learnt where they need to make cutbacks to be efficient. If someone recommends a newly open restaurant, hurry, and try it straight away. In a few months or a year, it may not be as good any more.

Restaurants that have been around for a few years are usually efficient and more than acceptable. However, there are exceptions, and not only when they change chef. There are a few restaurants in Nice I have been to for the first time twenty or thirty years ago which are awful today. Sometimes they once were good. Sometimes they never were good.

Some age with beauty. Some never grow up.

 

To enjoy a good meal, it is good to allocate a lot of time to it. If you are in a hurry, go to a bakery and buy a sandwich.

Even “fast food” restaurants can be slow, if there are long lines, or if the staff is inexperienced, which they tend to be at fast food restaurants.

Bad service can of course be a cause for a slow meal. The waiter is slow to greet you. You are seated, but the waiter is slow to give you a menu. You get a menu, but no information about the dish of the day, which is on a chalkboard which the waiter doesn’t show to you until later. The waiter takes a long time to take your dish after you finished. The waiter takes a long time before coming back and asking what you want for dessert. The waiter takes a long time before acknowledging that you want to pay. The waiter comes with the bill, but not the little machine to take your credit card. And so on. All this can slow down a meal for no good reason.

However, if it takes a long time before the food you ordered is put on the table, that is usually a good sign. Long time often means meticulous preparation. Don’t complain about that. Just enjoy the wait.

On average, an American waiter smiles more, and they are more service minded than a French waiter. If this is important to you, try to find places where the staff is friendly.

However, friendly waiters and good food do not always go hand in hand.

An American waiter is typically paid to smile – this is what the tip is for. No smile, bad tip, little money, bad life. A French waiter typically appreciates a good tip, but they don’t need it to live a decent life. They already have a sufficient salary. Chances are that a friendly French waiter really is happy to see you. They may be proud of their job, their food and they may think you look like a nice person. With a smiling American waiter, it is difficult to tell, whether they care for you at all.

If you are after good food, don’t let a waiter who seems aloof put you off. If everything else looks good, accept that the service is not overly friendly. And don’t enter the first restaurant where the staff looks friendly. They may have no idea about cooking, even if they smile.

And most grumpy waiters can grow friendly, if you are friendly to them.

It may be worth it to come with some generic recommendations how to find restaurants of a certain type – not necessarily good or bad, but just to try to judge the kind of restaurant from the outside.

Translated menus. If the menu of the restaurant is translated into several foreign languages, that typically means “we aim for tourists, who we don’t expect to come back.” Those restaurants are rarely good value for money. Translation into one foreign language can be acceptable. A Chinese restaurant with menu in both French and Chinese is typically acceptable, as the Chinese translation means they expect Chinese customers, who can judge the food.

Pushy waiters. Sometimes there are waiters outside, trying to invite passers by. This is often (but not always) a way of saying “the quality of our food is so bad that we cannot trust that our reputation will bring us customers.”

Waiters who speak English. This doesn’t mean anything, in my experience. Once restaurants may have employed English speaking staff especially to get gullible tourists, but there are now so many people in France who speak acceptable English, that it doesn’t really signify anything.

Waiters who speak Italian. There are plenty of bad Italian restaurants in Nice, but the chance that one gets to a good place goes up slightly if the waiters speak Italian, especially if they speak Italian with each other and the chef.

Textile napkins and white tablecloths. When you see this through the window, it is often a sign that the place is pricy. It can be good and pricy or bad and pricy, but it is not cheap.

Paper napkins. Paper napkins are often a sign that the restaurant is cheap. The food can still be excellent, but often it isn’t.

Location on pedestrian street. Pedestrian streets, shopping areas and other tourist areas are almost never places where one finds restaurants that are good value for money. They can be both acceptable and sometimes even good, but you typically pay more than one should for the food. Of course, if the location is more important than the food to you, it may be an excellent choice.

Location on beach. Beach restaurants are in my experience always overpriced. This doesn’t mean that they are bad (even though some of them are). Some of the beach restaurants in Nice have perfectly acceptable and sometimes good food, provided you can afford it.

What other people eat. It is often good to try to catch a glance of the plates of other guests before entering a restaurant. If what they have looks boring or tasteless, chances are that you also will get something boring and tasteless, even if you take something different.

Who the other customers are. It is difficult to read much into this. A restaurant full of tourists from Europe, America, China, Japan or anywhere else can be very good, if there is some accurate guidebook or a friendly guide or hotel receptionist who has recommended the place. On the other hand, it is also possible that they are gullible tourists who came in from the street. Likewise, a group of business people can be a group that don’t know anything about the region, but it can also be a group paid for by a local business anxious to give a good impression. A restaurant with only local people, who clearly come from the neighbourhood can nevertheless be bad, if they just don’t want to bother walking too far.

This is a restaurant just like restaurants are supposed to be. Good food based on well chosen ingredients and a decent price. Good seasoning, good preparation. Very friendly atmosphere.

Not being directly on the main road, it is slightly off the beaten path, but it is nevertheless very close to the station, a bus stop and an easy walk from well known tourist attractions like Villa Kérylos, the beach and the casino.

Address: 10 Rue du Quincenet, 06310 Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France

Visited in February 2019.

Les Trois Garçons in Grasse is one of those restaurants I just happened to pass when it was raining and it was lunch time, so I popped in mostly to keep dry.

However, it was an absolutely amazing experience. The two course meal was perfect from beginning to end, food which one ordered expecting it to be ordinary turned out to be something excellent.

I did not order a dessert, as I wasn’t that hungry, but I could have done with something with red fruits, and there was none on the menu. I mentioned this to the waiter, who a few minutes later came back with a small cup with lavender ice-cream hidden under a layer of cream and a sauce of red fruits, on the house. The combination was delicious.

Address: 10 Place de la Foux, 06130, Grasse, France

Visited February 2019.