Peixes Opéra – Nice's raw-fish bar behind the old Opéra

On the short rue Jacques-Médecin, a few steps from Nice's town hall and the dome of the old Opéra, Peixes Opéra has turned a dinky bistro into one of the busiest counters in the old town. Armand Crespo and Loïs Guenzati opened the restaurant here in 2015, building a menu around fish worked mostly raw and borrowing as freely from Lima and Rio as from the Mediterranean just beyond the door. The room is tiny – blue-and-white tiles, a marble counter for seven or eight, an open kitchen in full view, and a terrace shaded by olive trees that fills within minutes of service starting. It is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, recognition for cooking that trusts the fish itself rather than heavy technique: ceviche, carpaccio, tartare and tataki, shared across the table rather than plated for one. There are no reservations here, and regulars know to arrive early or simply queue.

01The room and the setting

The dining room is barely bigger than a large kitchen: a half-moon marble counter seats seven or eight diners with a direct view of the cooks at work, the walls carrying the blue-and-white tiling of a seafood canteen rather than a formal restaurant. It is clear and friendly, with a white marble counter for seven or eight covers, an eye on the kitchen, tiled walls and a multicoloured stoneware floor, and a terrace lined with olive trees. That terrace, a few tables deep on the pavement of rue Jacques-Médecin, is the seat worth waiting for.

The street itself carries the memory of the restaurant's name: near the town hall and the opera house, Peixes – pronounced "pesh", meaning "fish" in Portuguese – serves fish and seafood as tapas-style dishes in a dinky bistro interior adorned in blue and white tiles.

02The owners

Peixes is the original restaurant, opened in 2015 by Armand Crespo and Loïs Guenzati, on what Guenzati has since built into a small Niçois group. Guenzati, a former chef of brilliant training, became within a few years one of Nice's key restaurateurs, drawn to cooking early and steered almost inevitably towards the Lycée Hôtelier Paul Augier. He trained at the Palais Maeterlinck alongside Laurent Broussier, and at the Bistrot d'Antoine under Armand Crespo – the same Crespo with whom he would later open Peixes. After seven years, Guenzati took over the business alone, since expanding the Peixes name to a second address on rue Bonaparte and a dedicated natural-wine cellar nearby.

Insider tip

No reservations; open non-stop Monday to Saturday, noon to 10pm.

03The cooking

With one foot in South America and the other in the Mediterranean, the menu turns around fish and seafood worked essentially raw, to let the quality of the ingredient speak for itself. The signature repertoire runs to ceviche, carpaccio, fish tartare, tataki and mixed plates of raw fish and seafood. Short supply chains and seasonal produce are the rule, so the menu changes roughly every two months. It is cooking meant for sharing rather than single courses – small plates that move around the marble counter as fast as they arrive from the open kitchen behind it.

04What to order

Past menus have run to bream ceviche with raspberry, beetroot and fried cassava, tuna tartare with wasabi mayonnaise and wakame seaweed, swordfish carpaccio with crab, a yuzu pearl and mandarin vinaigrette, and roast turbot with coconut espuma, tom yum sauce and vegetable spaghetti. Diners also single out a seafood charcuterie board and a surprisingly good bream sausage among the kitchen's more playful ideas. Expect the kitchen's current slate to differ in detail but not in spirit: raw fish, bright acidity, and a Latin American squeeze somewhere on the plate.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list leans heavily on natural wines, Loïs Guenzati's own weakness and one of the clearest signals of the house's philosophy. It is a cellar built for drinking alongside raw fish rather than for ceremony, and the choices rotate as often as the kitchen's seasonal plates do.

06When to go and booking

Peixes Opéra runs non-stop from noon to 10pm, Monday to Saturday. It is extremely popular, and the restaurant takes no bookings, so the terrace is frequently taken by storm. Going early for lunch, or accepting a short wait at the counter, is the realistic way in. The restaurant sits a short walk from place Masséna and the edge of Vieux Nice, on the pedestrian stretch that leads towards the cours Saleya market.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.