Robuchon Monaco in Monte-Carlo – French classics and a first star

On the Esplanade du Portier, a restaurant in Joël Robuchon's name serves French classics with the famous mashed potato beside every main course. Robuchon Monaco won its first MICHELIN star in March 2026, less than a year after it opened.

In March 2026 the MICHELIN Guide held its ceremony for France and Monaco in the principality for the first time, at the Grimaldi Forum. One of the new stars that evening went to a restaurant a few hundred metres away: Robuchon Monaco, on the Esplanade du Portier, which had opened less than a year earlier. It was the only new star in Monaco this year, bringing the principality's total to fourteen.

The restaurant bears the name of Joël Robuchon, who died in 2018 and remains, by his group's count, the most-starred chef in the history of the guide, with 32 stars in 2016. It is the most formal of three Robuchon addresses in Monaco, alongside Le Petit Café and Le Deli.

01A tribute, not a museum

Robuchon Monaco revisits the classics of French cooking with a contemporary touch rather than reproducing the master's dishes. The MICHELIN inspectors note that his influence remains discreet – with one exception. The famous Robuchon mashed potato, the dish critics once called an emotional experience, is served with every main course.

The kitchen is led by head chef Jonathan Larrieu, who has run it since opening day, working alongside the chef and restaurateur Izu Ani. The project was conceived by the entrepreneur Manal Arman. "This star consecrates a powerful ambition: to make the Robuchon name shine in Monte-Carlo," Larrieu said when the star was announced.

02The room and the terrace

The restaurant sits on an esplanade overlooking Boulevard du Larvotto and the Japanese Garden. Behind a black façade, a terrace furnished in rattan leads into a dining room designed by Francis Sultana, with green banquettes and chairs and a marble floor. In the evening the atmosphere changes: the restaurant plays music and describes the mood as festive – this is a starred table where people are expected to enjoy themselves.

Insider tip

Dinner Tuesday to Saturday; the terrace serves a €60 lunch and a Sunday brunch.

03What to order

Starters include snails from Callas in parsley butter, warm white and purple asparagus with sauce maltaise, a yellowtail carpaccio with citrus and pink pepper, roasted langoustines with black truffle mousseline, and king crab with caviar in a lobster jelly. The richest is Osciètra caviar with poached, chilled langoustines and a reduced nage.

The main courses are French cooking in its classic register: a Mediterranean sea bass baked in a salt crust, which can be served with caviar, a free-range chicken with morels and vin jaune, a beef fillet Rossini with sauce Périgueux and a blue lobster with a minestrone of young vegetables. Two dishes are made for sharing: a wood-fired leg of milk-fed lamb and a 1.4-kilo Wagyu tomahawk grilled over embers with sauce bordelaise.

Desserts include a strawberry pavlova, chocolate profiteroles with cocoa nibs, a chocolate and coffee tart soufflé and a tarte Tatin to share. The Menu Robuchon gathers the house classics in six or seven courses, from an asparagus velouté and the king crab to the sea bass with caviar, the beef Rossini or the chicken, Brie de Meaux and the pavlova.

04Lunch and Sunday brunch

The gastronomic restaurant is a dinner affair, but in daytime the terrace runs as La Terrasse par Robuchon Monaco, with a lunch menu at €60. On Sundays from noon to four, the terrace hosts a brunch with a live DJ set. The Grimaldi Forum, the Larvotto beach and the Japanese Garden are all within a few minutes' walk.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.