Considered one of the world’s top chefs – a master of French cuisine and a proud Monégasque, here are Alain Ducasse’s picks of the best epicurean experiences to be found in Monaco.
Le Blue Bay
Monte Carlo Bay is a grand resort. In Le Blue Bay, Marcel Ravin explores spices and condiments: line sole with tamarind, sea scallops and galangal, prawns flambéed in old Martinique rum, the island of his birth. Pepper here, licorice and ginger there, cassava and black truffle elsewhere. A crossroad of ideas and oceans, his cuisine was awarded a second Michelin star in 2022.
40 Avenue Princesse Grace
98000 Monaco
The Blue Bay Monaco | Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (montecarlosbm.com)
Le Louis XV – Alain Ducasse
Here I serve my original cuisine – my “Mediterranean”. It was in Monaco that I first understood the spirit of The Riviera and that an exceptional landscape can provide simple and healthy food. Working with chef Emmanuel Pilon, and pastry chef Sandro Micheli, the restaurant continues to assert its modernity and energy. Louis XV is a haute couture address with an artisan spirit.
Hôtel de Paris
Place du Casino 98000 Monaco
Condamine market
The Condamine market is in the heart of the Monégasque people. Between Terrazzani Street and Arme’s Place, the covered market, archways and the outdoor market form a historic and popular place for our authentic national dish – “Barbagiuan”. Market gardeners, bakers, pork butchers, fish merchants and florists offer an identity with a lot of tastes and colours. Created in 1880, this market at the foot of “the Rock” has been sympathetically renovated. This is a famous place with brasseries, wine bars, art of “merenda” (lunch), and Monégasque specialties. You can sit down at the table on the central place surrounded by stylized stalls on an old street façade. Such a typical neighbourhood market, a Provençal village next to the sea port.
15, place d’Armes
98000 Monaco
Maya Bay
Maya Bay provides a pinch of the Far East at Le Roccabella with the sushi bar in the Japanese model of this quite calm place. Their Thai restaurant is also very zen and you enter through an imperial red secret door. Get into kimono and orchid décor to taste the spicy and travelled cookery of the Thai chefs. Let yourself be tempted by the Thai basil cotton candy, childish and light.
24 avenue Princesse Grace
98000 Monaco
La Vigie
La Vigie is more than a restaurant, It is a cape, a peninsula – another world. From the terrace with its majestic Aleppo pines, Monaco with its modernity are kept at bay. You can expect some exotic dishes such as sautéed shrimp in sesame oil, black cod fillet lacquered or grilled scampi brochette. On summer evenings, la Vigie with its blue lines is a wonderful scene, the image itself of a travelling and soulful Riviera.
Monte-Carlo Beach
Avenue Princesse Grace
06190 Roquebrune-Cap Martin
montecarlosbm.com/restaurants-in-monaco/terraces-seaview/vigie/
Il Terrazzino
In this corner of the Place du Casino, the antipasti buffet evokes an Italian feeling, but on the menu by the Neapolitan Raffaele Russo, the food and wine combinations extol the virtues of the cuisine of Campania and Sicily. The arbour-like verandah and the garden fresco which decorates the wall make it a lovely trattoria.
2 Rue des Iris
98000 Monaco
Yoshi
Yoshi, which means kindness in Japanese, opened its doors in the courtyard of the Hotel Metropole. Here Joël Robuchon has created his first Japanese restaurant in the world. This is a novel restaurant with contemporary décor. This restaurant is both original and refined, in the style of “Kaiseki”- the frugal meal served during the tea ceremony. The gastronomy has a sense of another place, another culture, with kombu consommé, Gillardeau oysters in jelly with crispy algae, black cod marinated and cooked or collectors’ sake. There is life beyond sushi!
Hôtel Métropole Monte Carlo
4 Avenue de la Madone
98000 Monaco
Luxury Travel’s pick of newly-opened venues
Pavyllon Monte-Carlo, a restaurant by Yannick Alléno
This restaurant replaced the former La Vistamar at the legendary Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo.
The interiors of Pavyllon Monte-Carlo were created by renowned designger, Chahan Minassian. Patrons can be seated at the main bar that offers front-row seats to the activity of the kitchen; or on the stately terrace of the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, inspired by a Mediterranean garden with views across Monaco’s famous old town, Le Rocher. The menu, designed by Yannick Alléno, menu features dishes made from the finest local and seasonal ingredients.
La Môme Monte-Carlo
Positioned on the roof of the Port Palace Hotel with views across Port Hercule, the elegant interiors of La Môme Monte-Carlo were created by Paris-based interior design agency, Liautard and The Queen. Their inspiration was Grace Kelly in an Alfred Hitchcock classic, using blue and light-coloured tones and warm, soft shapes to create a distinctly feminine space.
The restaurant was opened in 2022 by twin brothers, Ugo and Antoine, founders of the La Môme Group.
The ‘Môme’ name is honour of La Môme Moineau, which was the nickname of Lucienne Suzanne Vreurick, a flower seller in nightclubs in Montmartre and Montparnasse in Paris in the 1920s. She went on to marry a billionaire and owned Villa Bagatelle in Cannes, hosting decadent receptions and glamorous parties.
COYA Monte-Carlo
Bringing the vibrant culture of Latin America to Monte-Carlo, COYA Monte-Carlo specialises in authentic, contemporary cuisine in a menu that blends traditional Peruvian dishes with Japanese, Chinese and Spanish cooking techniques. Cuisine is curated by Chef de Brigade, Victoria Vallenilla, who was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and grew up on the Caribbean island of Margarita. Dine amid bespoke hand-carved furnishings, Peruvian objects de art and contemporary art.
This article was first published in 2016 and was updated in February, 2023.