Bistrot Gourmand — Restaurant in Nice

Ever so often, a restaurant can truly be called Crème de la Crème, and for our travel through Paris and Nice this past week, Bistrot Gourmand is truly the best restaurant we've had in France.

Tucked in a relatively quiet street (for Nice anyways), Bistrot Gourmand can easily be missed unless you happen to notice 1,100+ highly rated reviews that this gem of a restaurant has garnered. But if you do make it here, you will be treated to not only a culinary euphoria, but also a delightful, memorable service courtesy of the staff led by the Maestro himself, the manager Alex.

To start, we noticed that the ambience and the music curated by Alex are different from all the other restaurants we've been to in Paris, Nice, and Monaco.

There was an intimate feel that is countered by his fun eclectic musical taste that somehow works together with Alex's charm and bravado to entertain us and other tables (the other two parties were also on first name basis with Alex, as they were returning patrons of the restaurant).

After having our orders taken, we were then surprised by our lovely waitress with an off-the-menu presentation of an amuse bouche to whet our appetite for what's to come. It was refreshing and playful.

If there was a slight blemish with our meal, it was the Gaspacho de Courgettes (courgette gazpacho with soft-boiled eggs, basil hollandaise, and crispy onion). For my taste, it was a little too polite in flavor and needed the side of housemade brown bread with its slight saltiness to assist it. It was still good, but I would like just a bit more.

The good news is that from here on everything it was smooth sailing across our Côte d'Azur of an experience. The wine of choice was Château Malbec Bordeaux, a fantastic red wine with a delicious initial taste and smooth satisfying finish. It was versatile and complimented everyone's dishes.

And speaking of dishes, I had the exquisite Linguines à La Crème et Truffe d'été (Linguine with cream and truffle and).

Don't let the short description fool you because this dish was heavenly, the kind of dish that makes you close your eyes just you can further savor the delicious flavor and balance of the pasta, the buttery truffle, and surprisingly light Crème sauce that was not heavy on the oil. I simply couldn't get enough with every bite and this is without a doubt my favorite dish from my time in France!

If you enjoy beef tartare, you'll definitely enjoy the Tartare de Boeuf, as "prepared with a knife, potatoes with Provencal herbs." Our lovely waitress took tableside center stage as she mixed various ingredients from raw egg and minced raw beef to herbs and Worchister sauce with ease and precision to create a delicious, savory dish full of bold flavors that you can distinctly taste each individual flavor.

Finally, the main event arrived upon us as Maestro Alex rolled out his cart to create our dessert, the Crépes Suzette, façon Bistrot Gourmand. This was worth the ticket going in, as the spectacle elevated our dining experience to another level.

Pulsed by a mix of a lively music that started with the Rocky theme, Alex really put on a show with panache and enthralling commitment. It was truly a fun spectacle that is best experienced in person. The best part was that the Crépe Suzette was truly magical in its taste. There was sweetness and slight nuttines that paired well together.

Since Tour de France 2024 is only a few days away from its Stage 21 finish at Nice, I can confidently say that Bistrot Gourmand is THE summit finish, the culinary highlight of our travels in France. It was the best way we could've ended this last week in France, and it is now the standard that we will judge our foodie experience going forward as we embark into Italy for the next 2 weeks. Florence and Rome have a lot to live of up to now!

In the mean time, for any future visits back to Nice, we will definitely dedicate at least one or two dining experience back at Bristot Gourmand.

Chapeau Alex and the staff, and hats off...

To sum it up: Le Bistrot Gourmand is an excellent restaurant with interesting, well composed and delicious food, tasty wine, a friendly atmosphere and professional service.

On my last evening in Nice I decided to go to the little exquisite Le Bistrot Gourmand right in the centre of the city. I liked the light and simple yet sophisticated interior. The eccentric lamps added to the otherwise modest atmosphere.

The service at Le Bistrot Gourmand was very attentive and friendly.

I started the evening with a crisp white wine with an interesting, distinctive taste. The waiter recommended a Muscadet from the Loire Valley and I was very happy with his choice. I looked it up on the wine menu afterwards, and I think it was Domaine de la Haute Févrie "Les Gras Moutons" - AOC Muscadet Sevre et Maine. If you like fresh and mineralic whites, this could be one for you.

Unfortunately, I did not find a started that suited my taste, but anyway, I received lovely crispy bread with a green dip to go with my wine while waiting. Surprisingly, another pre-starter came up soon. It was a tomato soup and a white fish soup. Usually, I am not the biggest fan of fish and I said to the waiter earlier, that I do not like fish, so bringing me this is either stupid or brave. I count it as brave, because I must admit that I actually liked it. The fish soup, it was more like a mousse I would say, did not taste too fishy and the cold tomato soup went nicely with it.

After the mandatory bread - without butter or olive oil - I got my main course. A fillet of beef with vegetables, caramelised rosemary potatoes and "Bordelaise" red wine sauce. The dish was nicely presented and perfectly cooked. My steak was medium, beautifully pink, and tasted excellent. It might actually have been one of the best steaks I ever had. The red wine sauce was not overpowering, but enriched and supported the taste to the meat. The vegetables were okay, I would even go as far to say that some actually tasted quite nice, and I do not often say this about greens. The rosemary potatoes were delicious, with a bit of spiciness and they tasted great in combination with the sauce.

For dessert, I ordered the jardin de fruits rouges - a great dish with red berries, almond biscuit, red fruit jelly and basil, combined with a strawberry basil ice cream and a bit of crunch. It was an exceptionally light and clever dessert with different textures. Adding basil to the mix ensured that the dessert was not too sweet, but really refreshing.

Another surprise followed with a little post-dessert composition of a tiny bit of lemon tart, I think, a nice raspberry marshmallow and a brittle.

Finally, I even ordered a coffee. They serve Nespresso, not my favourite kind of coffee, but okay.

Also, they have free wifi in the restaurant, a little detail that can be useful if you want to plan the next day, or just read the news or whatever.

At some point during my meal at Le Bistrot Gourmand, the chef David Vaqué walked through the restaurant and asked diners if they enjoyed it. I think this was a great touch and just underlined the quality of this place.

All in all, Le Bistrot Gourmand is a restaurant in Nice worth checking out. After my visit, I read that it gained a Michelin star a few years ago and lost it in the 2014 update. Well, I think it deserves one, but what do I know? Michelin-starred or not, I enjoyed it there and can only...

This restaurant really mastered the art of faking a fine diner in front of inexperienced tourists. Luckily I am not one of them so I decided to stand up and make my story heard. I made reservation through The Fork but when I arrived at the restaurant, the manager could not find my reservation. When I told him I made my reservation through The Fork, he said “oh I don’t check the online system while I am at work”. Great way to greet your customer and kudos to your efforts to cover up your mistake. Well…however you do your job is none of my business but if the way you do it negatively impacted my experience, you better consider improving it. It’s 2021 already. The food was mediocre if not terrible. In all fairness, the starter foie gras and the cheese platter before dessert were all fine, but the credit should only go to their procurement decision maker unless the restaurant produced those cheese in their kitchen. The main course duck breast did a great job solidifying my doubt over the restaurant after my initial interaction with the manager - the meat was very chewy and tough and the overall balance of taste was unimpressive. Now the dessert pushed everything to a whole new level. It was a soufflé that’s supposed to be drizzled on top alcohol and then lit on fire - a way that elevates the overall presentation and gives the top part a slight burnt and crispy texture. But the lady who served my soufflé was so careless that she poured excessive amount of alcohol on my soufflé so the whole thing was burning for 5+ minutes and continuing. The body of soufflé was all soaked in alcohol, which not only ruined the dessert but also later gave me a migraine as what she poured was damn strong alcohol which I guess one can later recycle it as COVID-19 hand sanitizer. So I sat there pondering how I should communicate this to the restaurant. Credit to the manager, who though did not impress me well with his customer greetings but did try to be observant and asked me if everything was okay. I told him about the soufflé and he offered to get me another dessert. I had quite a night so I turned down his gesture. There then came the lady, the master soufflé ruiner and supposedly hand sanitizer expert (a joke this is). She routinely asked me if everything was fine. I confessed that this meal did not impress me especially the duck breast and the soufflé. She said “well I tried the duck breast yesterday and it was all fine.” Great. I admire your bravery in confronting and subtly questioning your customer in the era of social media and I responded “well yesterday before I arrived in Nice, it was all sunny but today it was rainy. I guess I am after all not as lucky as you are”. She then left...