Les Agitateurs in Nice – Samuel Victori's playful star by the port

Behind a façade of climbing jasmine near the port of Nice, Samuel Victori and Juliette Busetto run a lively one-star restaurant where the dishes have riddles for names and the chef often explains them himself.

Les Agitateurs stands on the corner of rue Bonaparte and rue François-Guisol, in the lively streets just behind Port Lympia. Jasmine and wisteria climb the façade, a rattan bench waits by the door, and inside is a small, smart dining room. The MICHELIN Guide gave the restaurant a star early in 2021, and the 2026 guide confirmed it.

The name is a manifesto. An agitator, in the house's own definition, is someone who innovates, shakes up received ideas and changes habits – and the kitchen takes that literally.

01The founders

Samuel Victori and Juliette Busetto met at the Institut Paul Bocuse in 2012. Both went on to cook with Michel Troisgros in Roanne and with Éric Fréchon at Le Bristol in Paris, and Victori then became second chef to Shinichi Sato at Passage 53 in Paris before the couple opened Les Agitateurs in Nice.

The house has since grown into a small group: the neo-bistro Pirouette, the Asian-Mediterranean Magma and the sunny Cagnard in Nice, and Sous les Pins, the lunchtime café-restaurant among the pines of the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, furnished by Diego Giacometti. Les Agitateurs remains the gastronomic table.

02Riddles on the plate

Victori works only with local suppliers. The MICHELIN inspectors describe flawlessly cooked, subtly seasoned dishes rich in texture – unusual, vibrant, even witty recipes whose names tease the curiosity. Their standout is "What the sea gave us": poached seabass with koshihikari rice, wafer-thin slices of raw turnip and slivers of seaweed, under a beurre blanc made with a bonito dashi. The house sums up its cooking in five words: corsée, animale, acide, iodée, végétale – full-bodied, animal, acidic, briny, green.

Insider tip

Dinner Thursday to Monday, lunch at weekends; book online.

The room is lively and buzzy, with a soundtrack to match, and the service is slick – sometimes courtesy of the chef, who likes to bring a dish to the table and explain how it came about. The menus change with what the suppliers bring.

03Lunch or dinner

There are four menus. At dinner, Premier voyage costs €135 and Horizons infinis €185. On Saturday and Sunday the restaurant also opens for lunch, with a shorter menu at €95 – wryly named "Menu d'affaire ou rien à faire", a business lunch or nothing to do – and Éclat de saison at €145, served only at lunch. The full wine list can be downloaded from the restaurant's website.

04Around the port

Rue Bonaparte is one of the busiest evening streets of the port quarter, and Port Lympia, with its fishing boats and the steps up Castle Hill, is a few minutes' walk away – a good place for a drink before dinner, or a walk along the quay after it.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.