Le Cosmo — Restaurant in Nice

On a sun-drenched February day, I found myself in this tranquil brasserie, feeling like I'd stumbled upon a secret the locals would rather keep to themselves. Villefranche-sur-Mer exists in that perfect Riviera sweet spot – beautiful enough to make your Instagram followers seethe with envy, yet somehow overlooked by the masses who flood its flashier neighbors.

The soupe de poisson maison arrived – that "maison" qualifier always a gamble – but here, gloriously, indicating a chef who understands that fish soup should taste of the sea's depth rather than merely its salt. It was profound, complex, the kind of soup that makes you fall silent mid-conversation, causing your dining companion to ask if everything is alright. It was more than alright. It was the kind of soup people write sonnets about, if people still wrote sonnets.

Service came in the form of a waitress with the patience of a saint, navigating my French – a language I massacre with the confidence of a man who once spent a weekend in Paris – with gracious attention. There's an art to making a customer feel understood rather than merely tolerated, and she had mastered it.

For the main event, moules frites with cream sauce – a deviation from the more common marinière. The cream brought a luxurious richness to the proceedings, coating each mussel in a sauce worth sopping up with every last frite. The mussels themselves were plump, briney declarations of the Mediterranean's generosity.

Time, that most vicious of dining companions, cut short what could have been an all-day affair. The greatest compliment one can pay an establishment is the genuine regret of departure, and I felt it keenly at Le Cosmo. As I reluctantly vacated my chair, I realized I had experienced that rarest of pleasures – a meal that enhances rather than merely accompanies a beautiful day.

In a region where dining disappointments can lurk behind picture-postcard views, Le Cosmo delivers that most elusive of combinations: food that lives up to its setting, service that enhances rather than distracts, and an atmosphere that makes you plot your return even as you're...

I was there with my boyfriend (he is Asian) to eat lunch, was about 3 pm. The waitress said the kitchen is closed. I know in France is normal for the restaurants to close at lunch time, so I said is no problem, we will drink some coffee. We didn't received any menu,I couldn't see what they have to offer and how much everything costs, so we ordered coffee and a big bottle of water. Then she said we can order only pizza and salad. I said no thanks, is no problem, we will just drink something and that's it. We waited a little long for our drinks to come. When the waitress brought our order, she brought, of course, Evian water which is really expensive. Meantime, others customers arrive at the restaurant, they seat at a table und they receive cutlery and of course the menu so they could order food, not only pizza and salad like the waitress told us. In like half an hour the terrace was full of people and all of them received menu, cutlery and food. My boyfriend took this a little bit personally and said that because he is an Asian they didn't want us to serve. Was the baddest...

I am travelling alone - and so I eat alone. Sometimes in life restaurants don’t value you as much if you arrive a single. This was my experience here. I arrived and was seated at a nice table closest to the ocean. A few minutes later my server (the guy with the face tattoo) arrived and said, you can’t sit you here, this table is reserved at 830. So he moved me to a table behind a planter around 745. About 5 or 10 minutes later they moved another couple who had already been seated elsewhere in the restaurant into that table (that was ostensibly reserved for someone else for about a half hour later and was the given reason that I had to move). There was no reserved sign on the table, a woman who seemed to be running the show has seated me, and they shortly afterward filled the table they were supposed to be saving for 830. I can only conclude my server lied to me, thinking that desirable table should go to a couple and not be wasted on me. The service from him was in no way good. He was avoiding eye contact with me (or any contact) after his lie became obvious. It was...