La Table d'Antonio Salvatore – a cigar cave turned Michelin stage

Rampoldi has fed Monte Carlo since its founding in 1946, a few steps from the Casino de Monte-Carlo in the Carré d'Or, and it was long the table of choice for Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace. Down a flight of stairs inside that institution, in what used to be its cigar lounge, chef Antonio Salvatore opened a room of only fifteen seats in the summer of 2020 and named it La Table d'Antonio Salvatore. Within months the kitchen earned the restaurant its first distinction from the MICHELIN Guide, awarded in 2021: it holds One MICHELIN Star, won by Monaco's only Michelin-starred Italian chef. Salvatore built his menu around what he calls 'New-Monegasque' cooking, a fusion of his Italian upbringing and French technique, shaped by years working in London and the Canary Islands and in Moscow before Monaco became home in 2016.

01The room and the setting

La Table occupies the basement that once served as Rampoldi's cigar cave, reached by a private staircase below the main dining room. The conversion kept an Art Déco sensibility and added multimedia lighting effects, building an intimate, almost theatrical atmosphere around a room that seats only fifteen guests at a time, making it one of the smallest dining rooms of its distinction on the Riviera.

The address itself is part of the story: Rampoldi stands in the Carré d'Or, steps from the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Opéra and the Hôtel de Paris, in a district built for exactly this kind of evening.

02The chef

Antonio Salvatore grew up in Basilicata, in southern Italy, and left home at fourteen to study at hotel school before working his way through kitchens in London and then at Juan Pablo Felipe's Michelin-starred El Chaflán in the Canary Islands. A spell in Moscow followed, running Nino Graziano's restaurant Semifreddo-Mulinazzo, before an offer brought him to Monaco in 2016 to take over Rampoldi, a restaurant that had stood closed for four years after a change of ownership.

Insider tip

Steps from Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Opéra and Hôtel de Paris; book via rampoldi.mc.

He reopened the dining room and, in the summer of 2020, carved La Table d'Antonio Salvatore out of the old cigar lounge as a showcase for his own cooking, separate from the brasserie upstairs. Four months later it brought Rampoldi its MICHELIN Star. In 2026, the year Rampoldi marked its 80th anniversary with Prince Albert II among the guests, Salvatore turned 40 and completed a decade at the restaurant's helm, having since taken the Rampoldi name to New York in 2023 alongside Casa Limone and the Atlantic Grill.

03The cooking

Salvatore describes his style as 'New-Monegasque', a deliberate blend of genuine Italian cookery with refined French technique, built from his own travels and his long residence in the Principality. Ingredients are drawn heavily from the coast on either side of Monaco, from Menton and San Remo through to his native southern Italy, and the kitchen's signature dishes have included bottoni di vitello tonnato, a twelve-hour kid goat, and a chocolate dessert built on texture alone.

On the current à la carte, that philosophy plays out in dishes such as Bottoni di Vitello Tonnato, roasted veal with tuna sauce, smoked bell peppers and caper powder, or Bianco e Nero, 'Spillo' squid over trombetta courgettes and fermented garlic with a lemon zabaione and salmon roe.

04What to order

Starters lean on contrast and precision: Danza del Gambero pairs red shrimp with a tomato and Candona strawberry emulsion, buffalo mozzarella and basil, while Carne da Amare sets a meat tartare against Oscietra caviar, Parmigiano chips, green apple sorbet and mustard. Terra Nobile, duck and foie gras ravioli with morels and roast pigeon, and Rosso di Sanremo, a San Remo red shrimp soup with fresh tagliolini and Bronte pistachio, show the kitchen's range between richness and the sea.

Among the mains, Guancia in Doppia Consistenza braises cow's cheek alongside its own raw tartare with saffron rice chips and black garlic, Zafferano e Roccia pairs saffron-scented red mullet with chickpea and cannellini bean purées, and a Carnaroli risotto, Riso dal Sottobosco, is finished with seasonal mushrooms and summer truffle.

05The neighbourhood

Rampoldi sits in the Carré d'Or, Monte Carlo's dressiest quarter, within easy walking distance of the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Opéra and the Hôtel de Paris. It was a regular haunt of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace, and the tie to the Princely family endures: Prince Albert II attended the restaurant's 80th anniversary celebrations in 2026, greeting chef Salvatore and his team in person.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.