Les Ambassadeurs in Monaco – two stars in the Métropole's gilded room

At Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo, Christophe Cussac has brought a name from the 1920s back to life as one of Monaco's three two-star restaurants: Mediterranean cooking built on three flavours per plate, served in a room of bronze, ivory and gold by Jacques Garcia.

Les Ambassadeurs is a short walk from Place du Casino, inside the Métropole, a Belle Époque hotel that dates from 1886. The name goes back to the 1920s, when the hotel's restaurant received aristocrats and diplomats from around the world. The hotel's gastronomic restaurant had been closed since 2019 when the name returned in July 2023, and the MICHELIN Guide awarded it two stars at its first appearance, in March 2024. The 2026 guide confirmed both.

This is not a restaurant for a quick bite before the casino. It is a long dinner in a formal room, with trolleys for bread, cheese and desserts – and a chef who has spent more than two decades in the same building.

01Jacques Garcia's room

The interior is the work of Jacques Garcia, who redesigned the entire hotel. In the dining room he used the palette he is known for – bronze, ivory, warm yellow and gold – with deep velvet armchairs and round tables dressed in white. There is a private salon for small parties, and a Chef's Table in the kitchen itself, where a handful of guests eat beside the brigade and watch the service unfold.

Front of house is led by Marco Tognon, who received the MICHELIN Guide's Service Award in 2026. The hotel describes the standard it aims for as "excellence in simplicity", and the MICHELIN inspectors single out the slick, seamless service.

02The chef and his rule

Christophe Cussac has cooked for more than 40 years. He worked at Jamin, Joël Robuchon's restaurant in Paris, and with the Troisgros family in Roanne, then ran the kitchens of the Abbaye Saint-Michel in Tonnerre and La Réserve de Beaulieu. He has been at the Métropole since 2004, first alongside Robuchon and now under his own name.

Insider tip

Dinner Thursday to Monday; elegant evening attire required.

His guiding principle is easy to state and hard to keep: three flavours per plate, so that each ingredient can be tasted for what it is. The MICHELIN inspectors describe cooking that moves between classic French dishes and more modern recipes, with the Mediterranean as the common thread. Cussac puts it more simply on the hotel's website: "My cuisine is, above all, a cuisine I love. I make dishes that make me hungry."

03What to order

The menu comes in three parts. The à la carte opens with dishes such as lobster lasagna with tarragon, spinach and spianata, a Vialone Nano risotto with Imperial caviar, and petits farcis – Nice's stuffed vegetables – with pork shank. Among the fish are John Dory and artichoke in a coriander broth and a sole with Menton lemon butter for two; the meats include squab with lettuce and creamy parmesan, milk-fed lamb cutlets with thyme and tangy chickpeas, and a milk-fed veal chop with chanterelles for two.

The second part, Fines Bouchées, is a list of smaller plates – marinated sardine with Imperial caviar, fennel and Menton lemon, sea-bream tartare with a Kristal caviar cannelloni, frog legs with sweet garlic and parsley – which makes it possible to build a meal of several courses without committing to the full tasting menu. The third is La Dégustation, served to the entire table.

Bread is baked in-house and arrives on a trolley. Desserts are by pastry chef Patrick Mesiano, who received the MICHELIN Guide's Passion Dessert award in 2024: a trolley of tarts and sweets, a lemon tart with basil sorbet, smoked chocolate, and a Grand Marnier or coconut soufflé that takes 20 minutes, so order it early.

04Before and after

The Métropole is built for a whole evening. The Lobby Bar is the hotel's meeting point from morning until late, and down by the Odyssey pool, designed by Karl Lagerfeld, the Odyssey Restaurant serves Mediterranean cooking by the water. Place du Casino, the Casino de Monte-Carlo and the Opéra are a few minutes away on foot, which makes Les Ambassadeurs an easy dinner to pair with a performance – provided the soufflé is ordered in good time.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.