La Salière – Italian lunch on the quay at Port de Fontvieille

On the quayside in Fontvieille, with the boats in front and the Rock behind, La Salière serves Italian classics – antipasti, pasta and pizza – and has been a popular institution in Monaco for many years.

Fontvieille is Monaco's youngest district, built on land reclaimed from the sea since the late 1960s, and the harbour here is calmer and more everyday than Port Hercule on the other side of the Rock. Along the Quai Jean-Charles Rey the restaurants sit in a row with their terraces facing the boats, and one of the busiest is La Salière – an Italian restaurant that has been a popular institution in the principality for many years.

01The terrace and the dining room

The terrace sits right on the quay under red awnings, with the boats in the harbour in front and the Rock behind. This is where you want to be on a sunny day, and these are the first tables to go.

Inside, the dining room is modern and bright, with large windows onto the harbour. It is the better choice when the wind comes in off the sea, or when a conversation needs a little more calm than a quay full of passers-by.

02What to order

The menu is Italian through and through, written in Italian with English underneath. Antipasti run from burrata with panzanella and aubergine alla parmigiana to vitello tonnato, fried calamari with courgette and crisp octopus on a saffron potato cream. A short list of crudi – beef carpaccio, beef tartare with fries, tuna tartare with mango – can be finished with black truffle.

Insider tip

Book by phone at least a day ahead and ask for a table on the terrace.

The pastas are the heart of it: pappardelle al telefono with tomato and mozzarella, tonnarelli cacio e pepe with crisp artichoke, spaghetti with garlic, chilli and a tartare of Mazara del Vallo red prawns, linguine ai frutti di mare and a risotto of the day. Among the mains are lemon veal piccata, the veal escalope Milanese with rocket and cherry tomatoes, a 280-gram Black Angus tagliata and the house smashed cheeseburger.

Pizzas come red or white, from a classic marinara and margherita to mortadella with burrata and pistachio, or ’nduja with yellow and red cherry tomatoes. Two house specials bring black truffle to the table: the Rotolo, rolled with 30-month Parma ham and crescenza, and La Robiola, a stuffed flatbread.

03Around the harbour

Most of Fontvieille is a few minutes' walk from the quay. On the Quai Jean-Charles Rey itself stands a cast of Arnaldo Pomodoro's bronze Sfera con sfera, the same work found in the Vatican Museums and outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Fontvieille Park and the Princess Grace Rose Garden, with Kees Verkade's statue of the princess, lie just above the harbour, and the park also has works by Arman and César. On the Terrasses de Fontvieille are the stamp and coin museum, Musée des Timbres et des Monnaies, and the Monaco Top Cars Collection, the princely family's car collection. Stade Louis II, home of AS Monaco, is right next door.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.