The Solo Scale:
In August 2025, I took a European trip for a milestone birthday. As a result, one of my goals was to truly live large and celebrate and try as many Michelin star restaurants as I could. Because I was still mindful of budget, I picked one-stars and I stayed on the lower end, but that still led me to a fantastic number of options. On my first night in Nice, France, I read my reviews and picked Onice as the first Michelin experience in the gorgeous coastal town.
This was a fantastic choice. I was staying closer to the beach, so getting to the harbour meant either a longer walk or getting acquainted with the tram. I did the latter and got to see Garibaldi Square before walking down toward the harbour. My reservation was on a Wednesday night in August and while the upstairs area is very compact and full, I dined in the basement area where it was only myself and two other tables.
With the tasting menu, you have the option to select either the five course or seven course option (with the cheese plate acting as an extra course, if you select it). I chose the seven course and played it by ear on the cheese, but everything was so amazing that I already knew by the second course that I would also be adding that to my meal.
As always, the staff will begin you with your choice of water (still or sparkling). For anything out of a bottle, it is an extra charge, though you could always ask for tap. At Onice, a lot of the staff actually are Italian given the proximity, which was a nice treat to have a little more Italian conversation despite being in France.
Given that I was in a celebratory mood at all of these dinners, I also ordered the wine pairing to accompany the seven courses.
As always with these reviews, the likelihood is not that you will get these exact dishes. However, the review will help to show how they prepare their food to give you a good idea of what to expect from the talented kitchen.
The Amuse Bouche
To begin, the amuse bouche offerings did not disappoint. They did exactly as intended and set the tone for the meal about to come. The first of these bites was a whitefish, yuzu, and trout roe tartelette which had the best balance of salt and fat. Of all the amuse bouche bites, this was my absolute favourite.
Next is an eggplant cream breaded ball, served with fresh tomato on top. There were notes of smokiness on this and the freshness of the tomato popped. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of eggplant, so while it was tasty, it was still a second string amuse bouche for me.
Then came comte cheese crackers with whiskey gel, cherry gelee, and puffed rice rolled on the outside. The cheese on this was incredibly strong and it overpowered the other flavour elements, even the cherry & whiskey.
To wrap it all up, there was a small bowl of clamato with a tabasco finish, made with fresh tomatoes from their garden. You truly could taste the freshness of this little drink and the spice level was not too aggressive.
First Course
With the first course, a Chapoutier wine is the pairing. This is a perfect start as it’s light and bright on the tongue with a mineral aftertaste. This first course is the “Ororo Tartelette”, focused on local zucchini slices inside an incredibly thin tartelette that was rich and buttery.
What you notice first though is the smell. The Buddha lemon at the base brightened it up. It’s helped by the miso and fatty tuna to cut the acidity. The tart also had stracciatella cheese that made it incredibly creamy. The fresh dill & basil smelled so fresh that it made me feel like I was back in my grandmother’s garden.
With all that said, combined, this was a knockout favourite. I absolutely could have eaten three of these in the same night.
Second Course
Prior to the food itself arriving, there’s wine and bread to be had. The wine is a Chardonnay from Argentina (Casadena Alta). It had a clean and fresh taste that helped cut through the acidity of the impending dish.
There’s also a local bread, enhanced by two servings of olive oil. Both of them are Italian, with one being from the Umbria region (where the chef is from) and the other from the North. The bread is sourdough from a local Nice bakery. Given that I encountered very similar bread at another restaurant, I suspect this bakery is working with multiples in the area. However, the bread was fantastic with heavy notes of sourdough, especially in the crust. The dual olive oils is a nice play on what you usually get.
For the dish itself, this is cuttlefish served with fresh herbs and lardo. However, the lardo is an extremely subtle taste that doesn’t overpower. Plus, the verjus sauce gives it a really nice acidity. Paired with the freshness of the herbs, it cuts the bitterness from the lettuce on the side. The herbs are bright, with hints of mint, and a fantastic balance!
Third Course
The next wine is a white Tuscano that paired well with the pasta. It’s a bit of a heavier taste that lingers on the tongue, but works well with the dish.
What is that dish? It’s one of my favourites of the evening, even though it features an ingredient I’m not super fond of. This is a pasta dish made to look like a crown with eggplant, cheese, beurre blanch, and parmesan. It’s essentially eggplant parmigiana in a pasta (which is why I was reticent because I’m not the biggest fan of eggplant). However, I adored this. The pasta itself tasted a bit like the crispy lasagna corner pieces, which are my absolute favourite. Plus, there’s a basil oil to complement the sauce, and a tomato powder to mimic the tomato sauce. The pasta, of course, is homemade.
If I had any notes, a little more acid would have elevated it beyond perfection. Even as it is, it’s an 11/10 for this dish and the eggplant wasn’t too strong at all.
Fourth Course
The wine moves on to a dry Riesling, which is dry to help cut the aromatics in the next dish. The next dish is a local whitefish, Mediterranean caught (this is in the sea bass family) and marinated in seaweed. It’s served with a carrot and fermented pear curry sauce on the side, plus some crispy beans from the local market. The fish absolutely needed the sauce. Unfortunately, it was a touch dry on its own, but it’s a perfect pairing.
Normally, yellow curry isn’t my favourite. Here it was absolutely delicious, so my taste buds were more than ready to make the exception.
Fifth Course
This is the part of the dinner when the wines move from white to red, starting with a San Giovese Syrah that has a lot of nice and spicy notes.
This goes with a lamb leg that’s a medium rare cook, which has been slow grilled. This might look a little rarer than you might like (even I was a little dubious). However, the render on this was awesome.
Plus, it comes with two delicious sauces and a steamed brioche bun with some cooked spicy lamb inside. The two sauces are mint oil and fresh herbs with creams and the lamb jus as your second. In addition, there’s some zucchini, rice and little dots of robiola (a cheese) and black cabbage.
Sixth Course
With the red meat done, you can either move on to desserts or opt for a cheese course. I went for the cheese. What I also liked about Onice is that if you order the cheese course, there’s also a supplementary wine with the pairing. That’s a tawny port, which was strong enough to burn my eyes a little with each sip. That made it a nice pairing for some strong cheeses.
For this cheese course, it was a fantastic assortment, with four French cheeses and one Italian. From the back of the picture to the front, they go: two Goats’ Milk cheeses from near Cannes (the first being a fantastic pair with honey), and the second enclosed in ash. The third is robiola in fig (amazing with the lemon confit), then Sheep’s Milk from South of Corsica and finally blue cheese.
Also amazing is that they bring a little fresh salad to go with this, which is such a nice touch. Cheese can be so rich and strong, so having some fresh vegetables to go with it was amazing. This is my favourite cheese plate of any fine dining I’ve been to and I highly recommend opting in for it.
Seventh Course
This dish had a great throughline between the drink and the dessert. The drink is a prosecco made, and with it is a coulis of ripe peaches and a sorbet that’s made out of the same prosecco you’re drinking. It’s a little on the nose and easy to simply use the same drink, but you know it’s going to pair well. To tamp down the sweetness of the dessert, the drizzle on top is olive oil and basil. The “sauce” around the sorbet was raspberry and peach and wasn’t overly sweet, but it did overwhelm the very light sorbet. This was probably my least favourite dish of the whole night, but only because the prosecco sorbet was fully overwhelmed.
Eighth Course
There’s one more fruit-forward dessert in the mix. This comes with another drink which really brings a stronger flavour than the course before with a 10-year aged Madeira. This came with an apricot carpaccio on top of almond, with an almond foam on top of a very floral lavender ice cream.
The dreamiest component of this was the almond cream at the bottom. I’m not a huge apricot fan, but I really loved the presentation here. Plus, the flavours balanced a lot better, which made it a huge improvement on the dish before.
Mignardises
Lastly, there’s a handful of sweet treats to round out the menu. A single slice of watermelon that’s dusted in lime and salt, a soft madeleine with mascarpone dusted in summer fig powder (which had the most amazing soft and chewy texture), a pate de fruits that was strawberry red pepper and actually had a hell of a kick and to round it out, a sea salt caramel truffle.
It’s a lot of little bites, but a perfect and very sweet end to the meal.
To Go
After you pay your cheque, there’s one last little treat — a hazelnut pound cake with sea salt dusted on top. It was a great little breakfast treat to have on hand the next morning.
For my first night in Nice, this was an absolute dream of a dinner. The ingredients were so fresh, the dishes were amazing, and I loved chatting with the service staff and even some of the other diners about some of our future dinner plans. It got me to Old Nice and close to the port and let me explore the city upon my arrival.
Dine there and see for yourself if your experience was just as amazing as mine!
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