La Maréa – the fishmonger's table above La Figueirette

Above the cove of La Figueirette, where the corniche road bends between Théoule-sur-Mer and Le Trayas, La Maréa looks straight across the water to the ochre rock faces of the Estérel massif. The address has sea water in its blood: the restaurant was founded in the 1950s by a local fisherman, and La Maréa's own history dates its establishment to 1969 under Maison Cervera, a family of fishmongers who have stayed close to the trade for fifty years. Jérôme Cervera, himself a former fishmonger, and his wife Marie now run the house behind a panoramic dining room and a terrace set above the beach and small port. It is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, recognised for seafood of real freshness and an attentive, bright service, cooked today by chef Bruno Tenailleau, previously of the Hôtel de Paris in Saint-Tropez.

01The room and the setting

The dining room is built as one long panoramic hall facing the Mediterranean, its glazing framing the beach and small port of La Figueirette below, with a terrace extending the room towards the water. The kitchen keeps a lobster and crayfish tank in full view, so the crustaceans that go into the bouillabaisse have barely left the sea. The restaurant is fitted with air conditioning and wheelchair access, with its own car park in front; the house also mentions arrival by boat or even helicopter for those coming from along the coast.

02The chef

Behind the stoves is Bruno Tenailleau, a chef equally at home with pastry as with fish, who previously ran the kitchen at the Hôtel de Paris in Saint-Tropez and before that worked at Le Magellan. He now cooks for a house whose own account traces its line back to 1969, when Maison Cervera, a family of local fishmongers, first established the address as a specialist in fish, shellfish and crustaceans. Jérôme Cervera, a former fishmonger himself, and his wife Marie have spent recent years turning that inheritance into the elegant seafood table it is today.

Insider tip

Open Wed–Sun (closed Mon year-round); car park on site; reachable also by boat.

03The cooking

The kitchen favours short supply chains: oysters come from the Boutrais family, French oyster farmers since 1999, and sea bass and sea bream arrive from AquaFrais, Mediterranean fish farmers for thirty-five years who have supplied La Maréa since 2020. Dishes reward that sourcing with simplicity - a lightly seared red mullet dressed in fruity olive oil and seasonal vegetables, a Mediterranean fish soup finished with saffron rouille and croutons, or the restaurant's own bouillabaisse dégustation, built from fish, shellfish, rouille and croutons.

04What to order

On the à la carte read via the restaurant's menu in October 2026: Ostra Regal oysters from the Boutrais family (six pieces, €35), Oscietre caviar from the French house Sturia (10g, €48; 30g, €145), Label Rouge Scottish salmon smoked over beechwood in house with blinis and crème fraîche (€26), and a crudo of Cannes-farmed sea bass with autumn truffle (€28). Among the mains sit a crisp catch of the day with lobster jus and girolles (€38), a John Dory fillet cooked at low temperature with verbena and a vanilla-infused olive oil (€49), and the Bouillabaisse dégustation "La Maréa" (€59). To finish, there is a baba "La Maréa" with Diplomático rum (€17) or a milk chocolate Givara dessert with raspberry and dark chocolate crisp (€18).

05When to go and the neighbourhood

The restaurant's own site lists service from Wednesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, and Sunday for lunch, as read in October 2026; in July and August it opens from Tuesday evening through Sunday. The address sits on the Avenue du Trayas, on the stretch of Corniche d'Or between Théoule-sur-Mer and Le Trayas, looking down on the little bay and port of La Figueirette with the Estérel's red rock behind - a quiet, villa-lined piece of coast rather than the Théoule seafront itself, with the nearest railway halt at Le Trayas.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.