Em Sherif – Beirut's table set inside Monaco's Belle Époque palace

Em Sherif Monte-Carlo occupies the ground floor of the Hôtel de Paris, the Belle Époque palace that has stood on the Place du Casino since it opened in 1864, and for one season each year it turns one of Europe's most French addresses into an outpost of Beirut. Founded in the Lebanese capital in 2011 by Mireille Hayek, the Em Sherif group chose Monaco for its first European restaurant after a residency at Harrods in London, setting up inside the hotel on 2 April 2022 alongside a café and a sea café. Mezze arrive in waves, grills are chargrilled to order, and the room runs on live percussion, a saxophonist or a DJ set drifting in from the terrace over the Mediterranean. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, one thread in the increasingly eclectic weave of restaurants now sharing the Hôtel de Paris with three-starred Le Louis XV and two-starred neighbours. What distinguishes Em Sherif is its refusal to behave like a hotel restaurant at all: this is a family table from Beirut, transplanted whole, loud and generous, onto the Place du Casino.

01The room and the setting

The restaurant sits on the ground floor of the Hôtel de Paris, with a terrace that looks out over the Mediterranean and, beyond it, the roofs of the Casino de Monte-Carlo. For 2026 guests reach it through a new entrance on Avenue de Monte-Carlo, a small but telling sign of how established the address has become within the palace.

The atmosphere is built for noise rather than hush: live music and DJ sets run from Friday to Sunday and nightly throughout July and August, and a Chicha Lounge Bar extends the evening well past dessert. In a city built on French gastronomy, the warm, lively ambiance that greets guests here, with live DJ evenings and sweeping sea views, is deliberately its own thing.

02The chef

At the stove is Yasmina Hayek, daughter of founder Mireille Hayek, who has led the kitchen since the restaurant's opening day in April 2022. A graduate of the Institut Paul Bocuse, she went on to work under chefs Mathieu Pacaud and Jean-François Piège before a stage with Rasmus Kofoed at Geranium in Copenhagen, an unusually Nordic line on a Lebanese chef's CV.

Insider tip

Seasonal, open April–September; book ahead for the terrace, especially during Grand Prix week.

She has not run the pass alone: in an earlier season she was joined by chef Ahmad Kadaouih, also from Lebanon, working alongside the brigade of the Monegasque palace. The partnership between a family recipe book and a professionally trained French-system kitchen is the engine of the place — Yasmina Hayek's cooking carries both her classical training and the culinary memory of her Lebanese roots.

03The cooking

The menu runs on the logic of Lebanese mezze: a crowded table of small hot and cold plates before anything resembling a main course arrives. The hummus, made from chickpea purée, tahini, lemon and extra-virgin olive oil, and the muttabal of flame-charred aubergine with tahini, lemon and pomegranate, are the constants diners come back for, alongside spiced batata harra and grilled halloumi with roasted tomatoes.

Each season brings new grills: 2026 introduced Le Lobster, skewers of marinated blue lobster tail with a fennel condiment, Lahmeh Black Angus, marinated Black Angus beef skewers with a zaatar chimichurri, and Shawarma Lahmeh, a confit lamb shank served with artichokes and coriander. Earlier menus have featured fattet kraydiss, sautéed prawns cooked with yogurt and kadaif, alongside kharouf, a confit lamb shank, and farrouj, a marinated cockerel.

04What to order

Start with the hummus and muttabal, then let the table fill with batata harra and grilled halloumi before the grills arrive. For dessert, the Baklawa Em Sherif, a crisp pastry built around a medley of pistachio, remains the house signature, alongside Meghli, a spiced rice-flour pudding topped with nuts, and a more modern Coconut Riz bi Halib finished with mango, passion fruit and a cardamom sorbet.

05Cocktails and drinks

The bar leans into the same Beirut-meets-Riviera idea as the kitchen. The Beirut Mule mixes rum, arak and citrus; Oasis on the Rock combines gin, green tea, ginger and verbena; and the Rose Royale pairs Champagne with St-Germain, lime and rose — each available in an alcohol-free version too. For something gentler, order the white coffee, simply hot water scented with orange blossom, the way it closes a meal in Beirut.

06When to go and booking

Em Sherif Monte-Carlo runs a seasonal calendar, typically open from spring through the end of September, and 2026 is its fifth year on the Place du Casino. Dinner service runs daily from 7.30pm to 10.15pm, stretching to three sittings — 7.30pm, 9.30pm and 11.30pm — during the peak of July and August.

The dress code is casual chic and shorts are not permitted; dogs are not allowed inside the restaurant. Reservations are essential, particularly for a terrace table during the Monaco Grand Prix or high summer.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.