The Solo Scale:

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Nice has a number of fantastic restaurants, but there’s a subset that have the extra distinction of earning a Michelin star. When I went to Nice in August 2025, I wanted to eat at as many one-star restaurants as budget allowed. I had three nights and dined at Onice, Les Agitateurs and Restaurant JAN during my time there.

Of those three, I would put Les Agitateurs at the bottom beneath Onice and JAN. It wasn’t a bad meal, but there were several little details that made the night feel a little underwhelming. Some I’ll note in the meal details itself, but overall, the biggest complaint that I had was that the pacing was a little too fast. With fine dining (and especially when you purchase a wine pairing), that’s often the last thing you want. Unfortunately, for me, I felt rushed to finish courses and drinks given that the wait staff kept approaching with more.

I did also have an infant seated right across from me in the restaurant. While I know the restaurant can’t control who dines, it was a bit of an odd experience to be in the direct line of sight watching a baby’s tablet entertainment while I was enjoying my dinner.

Other than that, my other overall issue is that Les Agitateurs doesn’t adapt for your table size. I was dining solo. Even so, I received full portions of certain shared meals, which is a lot of value for money. Unfortunately, I was left wishing for something a little more manageable. That’s especially true when you combine the amount of food and the pace.

It really always comes down to the small touches. With Les Agitateurs, they didn’t clear the cutlery in between courses. It’s a very minor thing, but it does add to the general sense that this is a more casual experience than a more rigorous “fine” one. In addition, a lot of the plateware was plastic. However, there were several finer pieces that were brought out eventually, including a Marseilles knife with the handle made of olive wood.

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Amuse Bouche

In contrast to many other fine dining areas, these amuse bouches are not tasting bites when you’re dining solo. I had the entire portion to myself, which filled me up. That did take away from my ability to enjoy the other courses as much. However, if you’re after value, this is great news as you get a ton of food!

The first piece of the amuse bouche was an onion confit dressed with rosemary, which smelled incredible. The onions were extremely sweet in the best way.

This came with a grignotage (a dip with anchovies). I was super surprised by this one. It was salty and creamy and amazing with the fresh vegetables it was served beside. Both these amuse bouche meals deserve gold stars for their flavour.

Lastly, there was a smaller bite of lamb served with sesame and harissa paste with shredded cabbage on top. The sesame had an excellent punch and this had brightness and flavour, while being the size I would expect for an amuse.

We weren’t done yet. There were three more items to come. The next was a zucchini flower with a surprise inside (fried fish and more zucchini). It had a creamy lemon finish and was a true treat.

Then, the next bite was a potato with mayonnaise and topped with nori. It was nice and smooth, still warm, but did have a touch of a charcoal taste from the presentation.

Lastly, there was a geranium rosewater served with radish and turnip petals, which was a beautiful work of art.

There’s no mistaking that there’s a lot of food. In fact, that’s the chef’s intention. Their stated goal was to fill the table with food and they accomplished it. However, I do wish that some of the portions had been halved or reduced to allow me to have room for the rest of the coming meal.

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Bread Service

There’s more food on the way before we even got to the main courses, beginning with the bread basket. Their bread comes from a bakery in Old Nice that’s known for having a hint of chestnut in the bread. Truthfully, this wasn’t really much to write about. It was good, but didn’t come with any particularly notable oil or butter. Plus, because I was so full from the ridiculous amount of amuse bouche, I mostly left this untouched.

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First Course

Now, we get into the wine pairing and the first course. The wine was a Madame de Selve which was an extremely light wine. It did get a little overwhelmed by the strength of the flavours in the dish, but it was nice to ease into the taste.

In the first course, “Folding” was in two dishes. One was a fig sorbet which was extremely strong with a lot of bitter notes. It balances the richness langoustine bisque, though. There were a lot of lovely fresh herbs in the langoustine as well, but unfortunately it took away from the lobster taste.

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Second Course

For the second course, the wine shifted to a rosé, which brought a few more bitter notes to the dish. It came alongside a “false Nicoise”. This was a fantastic tomato bisque base with fresh vegetables, figs, and egg served alongside and was so delicious. They served a great bread (pan) beside it which had lots of layers of butters and herbs that put the Old Nice bread to shame (unfortunately).  

For me, this was the first standout dish of the night, and a pleasant one to put my mind at ease that there would be some high spots in the dinner.

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Third Course

The next course comes with a unique wine from the Loire Valley, which was extremely light for a red and had a touch of fermentation to it that made it feel almost like a bubbly drink. Truly unique for a red wine and I loved the difference. This goes with a barbecued red mullet with watermelon, cucumber and squid on the side. The sauce atop is a fish sauce and orange reduction.

The watermelon cut through any of the grilling spices really nicely and the sauce was absolutely rich and full thanks to the fish sauce.

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Fourth Course

What I really loved about this course was that they veered away from the wine in the pairing menu and instead served a petite naturale beer, which had fruity tastes and made it taste more like a combination of beer and wine. I loved this bold decision because it’s so different than what most fine dining restaurants would do.

With it came a sea bass with radish on the side, sushi rice, and a butter sauce. This is Japanese inspired as one of the chefs in the kitchen is from Japan and conceived this dish. This one was amazing because it had the perfect combination of textures (amazing crunch with delicate pieces) and flavours.

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Fifth Course

Next we move on to the fifth course — rabbit served with a cooking jus, alongside a side salad of onions, mushrooms, grapes, and green beans. This is paired with a nigrine red wine (nice and dry). While this dish is well made, rabbit is never going to be one of my favourite proteins. It was fighting an uphill battle and this dish was just okay for me as a result. It’s probably my least favourite protein, but I appreciate the swing to something more unique.

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Sixth Course

We now move to dessert, alongside sweeter wines. To begin was a cider brut from Normandy, but I found it a bit too acidic and tart for my liking. It came alongside a yogurt sorbet, raw peach and lime blossom. I really did appreciate the slow transition into the sweets by adding an olive oil component in this dish. That really helped to slow it into the sweets without directly pushing you into eating too much sugar.

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Seventh Course

Next comes a more traditional dessert. This was a pistachio and chocolate mix, with a cocoa dusted tuile on top that you had to break with a spoon in order to access the rest. It had a lot more chocolate than I was expecting given the appearance, but it was a really good dessert, and helped bring things around to the sweeter side after a somewhat acidic and tart dessert.

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Small Dessert Bites

Here’s where I feel again that the quantity of food is fantastic in a group, but probably too much for just me. This next round is a lot of plates of sweet bites after two desserts. For your value proposition? It’s fantastic. For your stomach space? Not so much.

This big serving of desserts is themed around the sea, which makes sense on the Riviera. There’s an “oyster” with lemon and apple, a little almond crusted chocolate made to look like one of the stones on the Nice beaches, a white chocolate lime ganache, and an orange flower with almond and caramel.

It’s a lot of food, but the thing is, it’s all still very good. Some of the desserts even brought a little heat to give it a nice little spicy end.

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Mignardises

After you settle up your bill, there’s one more treat. These are soft and chewy madeleines which I wound up eating for breakfast the next day. They were so spongey and delicious and really helped to deliver on that full experience.

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Overall, of the Michelin dinners I had in Nice, Agitateurs was my least favourite as a solo traveller. Many of the things that I found to be a detriment would be a huge plus if I were there with more people. For me, the size of the portions and some of the pacing was a bit unfortunate, as was the general mood in the dining room that was at no fault of the staff, but other diner behaviour. However, the food was really fantastic and there were no misses, and I loved how adventurous they were with the drink pairings.

I think it’s absolutely worth a try if you’re a group, but if you’re out there solo, I would put this on the second string and prioritize others first. The tasting menu runs 185€ (without wine pairing) for the full “adventure”, but there’s a modified version with fewer courses if stomach space is the concern.

I didn’t opt for the optional cheese course here — I just didn’t think I would have the room, but for 22€, you can also add that to your meal.

Visiting Nice? Try Les Agitateurs for yourself and see if this is one of your favourites!

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