La Grotte & l'Olivier — Restaurant in Nice

We have been regular visitors for 3 years and we genuinely thought that this was one of the best restaurants in the region. Recently the level has drop to bottom levels. Not sure if it’s the management, the chef, or both. Most recent and last (as we are not testing back —- have plenty of other places to go) experience: booking for 4 people at 9pm. We left by 9:50pm, not because we were in a rush, but the waiter seemed to be in a rush for us to go and force us order before we even finished our previous meal or pay before finish dessert. He Did not offer us the option to get an aperitif, but he did to the table next to us. Our sparkling water came warm, not in the fridge, and no ice provided. No little bowl provided for the olive pips, bread was stale and not anymore homemade, as they used to do. Our mains arrived in 5 minutes!!! 5 minutes for 3 beef tagliatas and 1 fish dish (plus fries). Meat was disgusting, lowest quality possible, like dogs dinner. Fish was DISGUSTING, frozen red mullet, felt you could get food poisoning. And they decided to bring all dishes with cold potato wedges, without telling us first (but said they run out when they came to serve us) that they didn’t have anymore fries. Bare in mind that we had ordered fries (not included in one of the dishes and had to pay for that). Before we had finished our mains, we were pushed to order the next meal. If it wasn’t for our guests, we would have left by the time they came to force us to have what they had “chosen” for us.

Finally, Baba au limoncello served on a flat big plate, dry as hell. Tart tatin with uncooked pastry and soaked in olive oil. All the years we have been there we had the kindness staff serving us. The guy served us this LAST time was totally unprofessional. Won’t be...

How the mighty have fallen!

After having many delicious meals at La Grotte over the past 4 years, we were shocked at what has happened to the restaurant when visiting yesterday.

The problems are in three main areas:-

Staffing- waiters were pushing us to order and speed us up. This is despite sitting at 8.45pm. In total we were out in 50minutes.

Food- significant drop of quality, over cooked steak, no chips (“run out”). Instead served roast potatoes which we soggy and soaking in oil. Bread which used to be delicious and home made. Was now heated up frozen rolls. Clearly not anywhere near the quality of previous visits. The Baba desert was simply awful. The Baba was dry and lying on an alcohol bed, but clearly had never been near alcohol before making it to the plate.

Bland, and underwhelming experience. Maybe the manager or chef has changed. But, I won’t be rushing back as there are plenty of much better choices in the area.

As they say in Lonely planets,” good places go bad, and bad places go bust”. Come on La Grotte, pick...

Expensive for what it offers. Side dish of french fries, tiny tiny portion, 5 euros! Orange juice 5 euros. The tuna was ok but the ratatouille that goes with it far from acceptable. Otherwise friendly staff great location, nice ambiance but stick to Pizzas and less soft drinks! A bill for 1 person: 1 tuna, 1 portion of french fries side dish, 1 coffee, 1 orange juice, 1 sparkling water 39.30 euro. For 40 euro per person, without dessert, starter or 🍷, you'd better go to Monaco. Now for the chef: since I work as a guide I have been everywhere in the region. Please visit la Taverne Provençale in Gourdon and try their tuna or even in Contes, closer to you, Au Contes est bon, where they don't even pretend to have good quality food. You should learn some more and revisit your recipes, especially the ratatouille, such a shame! You can start by simply choosing fresh, better...