Riviera Restaurants: L’Ecole de Nice

Travellers love Nice for its reliable sunshine, handsome 19th Century architecture, lively street life, great museums and palm tree-lined beach. Unsurprisingly, the city has also become popular with young chefs looking to open their own restaurants. The new table everyone’s talking about is L’Ecole de Nice, opened last year by Michelin-starred, Japanese-born chef Keisuke Matsushima. What draws the crowds is the arty, stylish decor – the walls are hung with works by the likes of Arman, César and Pignon-Ernest – and the excellent, market-driven cooking of young Japanese chef Yoshinobu Seki, who trained with Matsushima.

The menu changes regularly, but runs to witty, delicious riffs on Niçois classics with an intriguing Japanese sensibility. I was impressed by Seki’s impeccable rendering of one of the city’s great gastronomic classics, les petits farcis (stuffed baby vegetables), along with his succulent flank steak with an onion sauce that was inspired by pissaladière, the open Niçois tart of sautéed onions, anchovies and black olives, served avec polenta fries; and a clever reworking of tourte aux blettes (Swiss chard pie) as a dessert, served with vanilla ice cream. The rosemary- flavoured runny chocolate cake is outstanding, too.

L’Ecole de Nice. 16 Rue la Buffa, 06000 Nice. +33 4 93 81 39 30. Closed Sundays. Average à la carte €25.

Originally published in the August-September 2013 issue of France Today

Alexander Lobrano’s book Hungry for Paris is published by Random House. Find Hungry for Paris and more in our bookstore.