Le Séjour Café – a Breton family's sitting room in the Carré d'Or

On rue Grimaldi, in the gilded core of Nice's Carré d'Or, Le Séjour Café opened in 2012 under Renaud Geille, a Breton restaurateur who had already built a following in the city with Les Viviers and Le Bistrot des Viviers, which he ran from 1998 until selling them in 2006. His daughter Marina, who had worked in communications, pushed for an address of her own; together with her parents and, in time, her brother Robin, the family turned a former African-art shop into a room built around books, family photographs and found objects rather than any obvious restaurant signage. The kitchen works from a short, daily slate menu built on seasonal market produce, backed by a wine list drawn from established and emerging growers across France. It is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, recognition for a kitchen the inspectors judge worth seeking out even without a star attached, and for a family whose combined decades on this coast show in the detail rather than the décor.

01The room and the setting

The identity here was never meant to be a conventional dining room. Early accounts of the place describe a convivial apartment lined with shelves of books, bibelots, family photographs and souvenirs picked up along the way, with the open kitchen tucked at the back of the room so the pass can be watched without any clatter reaching the tables.

Later visits found the collection had grown: framed images of Churchill and the Rolling Stones hang among the bookshelves, and the terrace outside is scented by orange trees rather than traffic. The loft-style decor was put together by Marilène Geille and her daughter Marina, which locals point to as the reason the address reads as distinctly feminine among Nice's bistros – intimate rather than staged.

02The chef

The stoves have passed through several hands since 2012. For a stretch the kitchen was run by Nicolas Mendjisky, who had spent thirteen years working alongside chef Christian Plumail before taking charge of Séjour's Mediterranean repertoire.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner; book ahead via the restaurant's own website.

In the Gault&Millau guide's 2026 assessment, the kitchen is credited to a chef known as "Miss Soukaïna", continuing a style the guide calls distinguished bistronomy built on a menu that stays interesting and convincing on the plate.

03The cooking

The cooking leans on the market rather than on fixed formula: a short chalkboard menu changes with what arrives that morning, everything from the ice cream to the stock made in-house. Past menus have run from a black truffle scramble and lobster risotto to roast sea bass with fennel and lacquered pork with creamy polenta.

The 2026 Gault&Millau review singles out Breton scallops, a calamari and artichoke risotto, and black Angus beef cheek with polenta as current points of interest, alongside what the guide calls professional service and prices that are not cheap but are well justified for the experience.

04What to order

Regulars across several years of reviews return to the same handful of dishes: the lobster risotto, built on arborio rice, parmesan and a cream base, is consistently cited as the dish most worth ordering, alongside lobster linguine when it appears on the slate. Foie gras maison and tuna carpaccio are the usual openings, with a lemon soufflé or a Grand Marnier soufflé to close.

05Wine and drinks

The family treats the wine list with the same seriousness as the kitchen: bottles are chosen from vignerons who are already well established as well as names only just emerging, assembled to show off the range of French terroir rather than default to the obvious Provençal rosé.

06When to go and booking

Le Séjour Café is open Tuesday to Saturday, with lunch served from 12.00 to 13.30 and dinner from 19.30 to 21.30, according to the restaurant's own website in October 2026. Tables can be booked directly through the site; given the room's size and its following among both residents of the Carré d'Or and visitors, booking ahead for dinner is the safer approach.

07The neighbourhood

Rue Grimaldi sits in the Carré d'Or, Nice's compact grid of belle-époque buildings a short walk from Place Masséna and the shopping streets that run down toward the Promenade des Anglais. The Geille family's footprint extends along the same pavement: Robin Geille later opened Mon Petit Café a few doors along, turning this short stretch of rue Grimaldi into something of a family enclave.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.