La Vague — Restaurant in Nice

Extremely Disappointing Experience - Poor Service and Hygiene Concerns

My wife and I had a reservation at La Vague in Nice at 7 pm. While we arrived slightly early and were seated right away, our experience quickly turned sour. About 15 minutes after ordering, our Caesar salad starter arrived, but to our shock, a large insect crawled out of the food onto the plate. We immediately pointed this out to the waitress, who took it back without so much as an apology. Ten minutes later, we received a new salad, but by that point, the damage was done. It was a highly unsettling and disgusting experience, but in an attempt to avoid making a scene, we reluctantly inspected and ate the new plate.

Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of our poor experience. For our main courses, I ordered the seabass dish, and my wife ordered the octopus. We waited over an hour for our mains, watching as other diners who were seated after us received their food first. It became clear that there was a blatant disregard for our time and possibly favoritism towards other customers. When we finally asked the waitress about our food, she told us it would be five more minutes. However, it took an additional 20 minutes for the dishes to arrive, again without any acknowledgment, apology, or explanation from the staff.

The combination of finding an insect in our food, the excessive wait time, and the complete lack of customer service is unacceptable for any restaurant, let alone one in such a prominent location in Nice. We were deeply disappointed with how we were treated, and I strongly urge others to consider our experience before dining at La Vague. This restaurant failed us on basic hygiene, timeliness, and...

We had snails, pasta frutti di mare and grilled octopus. The snails were quite good (it was the first time for us, so we don‘t have any comparison). The octopus was overcooked (overfried?) and the mussels in the pasta didn‘t taste like fresh mussels are supposed to taste. I think the octopus was not the freshest one as well, so they probably fried it long enough to mitigate any risks of food poisoning. Pasta was overcooked as well, it tasted like you cook pasta to perfection in water but then throw it for five more minutes into the sauce, which gives them a consistency that is simply not enjoyable. The service was good, but we haven‘t gotten any apology for the lack of freshness of the seafood.

I am completely stunned by the overall rating of this restaurant. Maybe we had really bad luck, but I cannot recommend this restaurant, considering the premium prices with under-average quality that we experienced.

Edit: we found out that the restaurant is closed for a few weeks now (holiday?!), so we were probably there on the last day they had opened. I am speculating that they simply didn‘t buy fresh ingredients on the last day they had opened, to reduce waste or sth. That would explain why all other reviews during the season are positive, while our experience was more negative. Anyway, we can just describe what we experienced and I can confirm that we eat seafood often enough to understand what fresh seafood should taste like - this is independent of...

Stopped by here for dinner with my wife and was pleasantly surprised by how good this spot was. Service was "okay" but they were busy.. the reason I gave 5 was because they sat us down with reso and as we were walking out to leave, the waiter went out of his way to make a call to squeeze us in so thank you very much for that.

Seating outside is TIGHT so it made for an intimate atmosphere but thankfully our neighbours were nice so it made for a good atmosphere in my books (i enjoy chatting with strangers over food)

Foods we ordered

Seafood paella - 4/5 This was a very good paella with each grain coated and cooked nicely. The seafood in the dish was delicious (prawns presented weren't as "fresh" as they stuck to their shell and meat was a tad mushy but for one big piece stuck on the dish, I wasn't penalizing the whole dish) but I did find some clams and muscles were quite sandy which made for some tough bites.

Grilled octopus - 5/5 Grilled excellently and delicious. Meat was very tender and the vegetable accompiments were soft and delicious also. A very basic dish done right!

Seafood salad - 5/5 Wife preferred this over her grilled octopus. This was very good and seasoned nicely. Only downside was the prawn once again.

Overall this is a great spot to dine at nearby the coast and I'd highly recommend it to anyone stopping by...