La Table d'Élise – Breton tides meet Riviera sun in Monaco

On a quiet corner two streets back from Monaco's Japanese Garden and the Grimaldi Forum, La Table d'Élise occupies a modern dining room built to hold up to eighty guests at once, panelled in oak with notes of soft green, yet it rarely feels crowded. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a distinction the house has now held for three consecutive years, including the 2026 edition. The address is unapologetically about the kitchen: at its head stands Jean-Luc L'Hourre, a Breton chef and Meilleur Ouvrier de France who cooked in some of France's most decorated houses before settling in Monaco. His cooking stitches together two coastlines – the iodine-sharp shellfish of his native Brittany and the sun-ripened vegetables, herbs and olive oil of the Mediterranean south – built on precise technique rather than theatre. An eighty-cover main room, a sixteen-seat private salon, free two-hour parking at the Grimaldi Forum, and an adjoining late-night address, Le Duke, round out an evening that can start with langoustine and finish with a cocktail next door.

01The room and the setting

La Table d'Élise sits a short walk from Monaco's Japanese Garden and the Grimaldi Forum. This swish, fashionable brasserie welcomes diners in a spacious modern interior with an open kitchen that puts on quite a show. Inside, the main room runs to eighty covers in oak and soft, vegetal green, lit for comfort rather than drama; set slightly apart, a sixteen-seat private salon handles the private dinners and professional gatherings the main floor cannot accommodate discreetly.

02The chef

Jean-Luc L'Hourre is Breton by birth and by palate. He has held 3 Michelin Stars during his career and was elected Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) in 2000 — a craftsmen competition held in France every four years. With experience in some of the world's most reputable establishments such as Taillevent, Georges Blanc and La Tour d'Argent, Chef L'Hourre has been starred three times in the Michelin Guide.

Insider tip

Lunch formula €32 weekdays; reservation required; free two-hour parking at the Grimaldi Forum.

Since 2013, he worked at the Marinca Hotel & Spa in Corsica having previously been at Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon. He later ran the kitchens of the Conrad Bora Bora Nui in French Polynesia and of Jacques Chibois's Bastide Saint-Antoine above Grasse, before arriving at La Table d'Élise, where, within his first year at the stove, Gault&Millau judged that he offers precise and masterfully executed seasonal cuisine that blends Breton regional traditions, Mediterranean flavors, and Italian influences.

03The cooking

The kitchen's logic is geographic: fish and shellfish meet seasonal vegetables, and meats are finished with gentle spice and scented oils, so that Atlantic freshness and Mediterranean warmth sit on the same plate. The result, as Gault&Millau put it, is that the plates are beautifully presented, the cooking is spot-on, and the overall experience is quite compelling.

04What to order

The weekday lunch formula, at €32, runs through dishes such as fried soft-boiled egg with sweet potato purée and black garlic foam, or cod brandade on toasted rye. Further up the card, the Menu Senteurs (€68) opens with langoustine ravioli and petits pois in a tarragon-scented consommé, while the Menu Tout Morilles et Asperges (€88) pairs morels stuffed with a langoustine mousse to lobster and green asparagus, and follows with a farmhouse chicken ballotine dressed in truffle, pistachio, vin jaune sauce and white asparagus meunière. The Menu Entre Mer et Océan (€98) sets gambero rosso carpaccio against a blue lobster macaroni timbale, then offers bar fillet studded with summer truffle or red mullet under the salamander; dessert runs to a Menton lemon soufflé with limoncello sorbet, or a reworked strawberry tart. The Menu Dégustation, from €138, leaves the choices to the chef, with the sommelier on hand to match each course to a glass from the restaurant's own wine list.

05When to go and booking

In October 2026 the restaurant lists lunch from 12.00 to 14.00 and dinner from 19.30 to 21.30, with the €32 lunch formula available Monday to Friday only. Reservation is described as obligatory, and two hours of parking are free at the Grimaldi Forum or Portier car parks nearby. Afterwards, La Table d'Élise points guests next door to its own bar, Le Duke, for a cocktail before the night continues.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.