L'Orangerie – Menton's Bib Gourmand with a Japanese accent

On a pedestrianised street two minutes from Menton's town hall, L'Orangerie is the table everyone in town already seems to know about, even though the shopfront gives little away. Chef Mitsuyasu Mashita, Japanese by birth, quietly set up here in July 2022 after fifteen years as Bruno Cirino's right-hand man at the two-MICHELIN-starred Hostellerie Jérôme in La Turbie; his wife Yumiko now runs the dining room. The cooking is built on classic Mediterranean and French technique, sharpened with Japanese condiments, seasoning and cuts picked up during those years in La Turbie's kitchen. Less than four years after opening, the restaurant had become one of the best-rated addresses in Menton, and the MICHELIN Guide confirmed it with a Bib Gourmand, the distinction for good quality, good value cooking.

01The room and the setting

L'Orangerie sits in Menton's pedestrianised centre, a short walk from the town hall and its car park, in a dining room that seats around sixty guests, with roughly forty more places on a terrace shaded by an awning that looks straight onto the passing street life.

The terrace, partly covered, is the seat to ask for on a warm Riviera evening, while the single air-conditioned room inside offers shelter when the mistral or the midday sun make the street too bright.

02The chef

Mitsuyasu Mashita spent fifteen years as sous-chef to Bruno Cirino at Hostellerie Jérôme, the two-MICHELIN-starred restaurant set in a converted refectory of a former annexe of Lérins Abbey in La Turbie, a short drive from Monaco.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner; closed Sunday and Monday.

That training shows in the discipline of the cooking, but Mashita folds in his own origins too: small Japanese touches, condiments and techniques woven into otherwise French dishes, a habit he has spoken about in interviews since opening. His wife Yumiko runs front of house, and together they have built L'Orangerie's reputation on consistency rather than spectacle.

03The cooking

The kitchen works with ultra-fresh, locally sourced produce bought through short supply chains, turning out dishes such as artichoke hearts à la barigoule with prosciutto crisps, salmon tataki with marinated vegetables, and sirloin steak lifted with yuzu kosho.

Signature plates change with the seasons: beef cheek braised in red wine and scented with sansho, Japanese pepper, crispy sesame pork belly finished with a black rice vinegar sauce and lentils, and a foie gras terrine that Mashita prepares by hand every week using liver from Maison Andignac, a producer he has worked with for fifteen years.

04What to order

The à la carte three-course menu (starter, main, dessert of your choice) runs to a red pepper mousse with seafood tartare, pumpkin cream soup with croutons, or a wild mushroom risotto, followed by roast duck breast with foie gras and plums, and finishing with a chocolate terrine, apricot and honey ice cream.

For the full picture, the Menu Dégustation du Chef is ordered for the whole table together: an amuse-bouche, four courses and a dessert or cheese plate that might run from salmon tataki with Japanese rice and marinated vegetables through to a summer fruit parfait with mango, melon, orange, crumble and a yoghurt-lemon sorbet.

05When to go and booking

L'Orangerie opens for lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00 to 13:30 and 19:00 to 21:00, and closes all day on Sunday and Monday, as read on the restaurant's own site in October 2026.

In the same month, the three-course Menu L'Orangerie was listed at €39 and the Menu Dégustation du Chef at €75, with a €10 supplement for guests who choose the foie gras terrine or the sesame-crusted tuna. The tasting menu is ordered for the whole table together, so settle on it with your dining companions before you sit down.

06The neighbourhood

Menton calls itself the cité des citrons, the lemon town, and its gastronomic reputation is dominated by Mauro Colagreco's three-MICHELIN-starred Mirazur, perched above the sea on the Italian border. L'Orangerie sits at the other end of the spectrum: an unpretentious, pedestrian-zone address that has carved out its own following without a view of the Mediterranean, built instead on a chef's long apprenticeship and a weekly-made terrine.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.