Zeffirino – Monaco's Genovese pesto house on rue du Portier

Zeffirino opened on rue du Portier in the early summer of 2024, taking the space once held by Monaco's well-loved Mozza, a few paces from the Carré d'Or. It is the Monte Carlo chapter of a Genoese house founded in 1939 by Zeffirino Belloni, whose pesto drew Frank Sinatra to the original Liguria address and made the restaurant an official supplier to the Vatican. The Principality's version is a partnership between the Belloni family, now in its third generation, and the Giraudi Group, the Monaco-based company behind Beefbar and led by Riccardo Giraudi, himself a native of Genoa. Inside, an open kitchen with its own pasta station sits beneath almond-green walls, brushed brass and black-and-white photographs charting nine decades of family history. There is a piano-bar every evening, and, tucked behind the dining room, Rumore, a vinyl bar that opens after dark. Zeffirino carries no star but is selected in the MICHELIN Guide 2026, recognition of a kitchen built on one unshakeable constant: the Genovese pesto.

01The room and the setting

The Monaco dining room was designed by Humbert & Poyet, the Monegasque firm behind some of the Principality's most photographed interiors. Wood, marble, cane and brushed brass are set against walls painted in a soft almond green, while black-and-white photographs trace Zeffirino's history and its years alongside the Dolce Vita set.

At the centre of the room, the open kitchen and its fresh pasta station are visible from most tables, so the folding of trofie and the pounding of basil in the mortar become part of the evening's theatre. A curved bar, lit low, anchors one end of the room, with a wine cellar built into the space and available for private dinners and events.

02The chef

Executive Chef Thierry Paludetto leads the kitchen. He arrives with experience in Michelin-starred restaurants and two decades spent working with the Giraudi Group, and his brief in Monaco was to build a classic Italian menu around a handful of carefully chosen ingredients rather than complication for its own sake.

Insider tip

Lunch and dinner served daily; book ahead for the open-kitchen tables.

The most demanding dish on his menu is not a pasta but an aubergine course, a reworking of a classic parmigiana built in separate, carefully cooked layers. His own favourite on the Monaco carte is a cherry tomato tart finished with a pesto shortbread, a recipe he created before the Monaco opening and has kept close to its original form.

03The cooking

Every plate still returns to the pesto that made the family's name: hand-picked basil from Prà, aged Parmigiano Reggiano and Ligurian extra-virgin olive oil, dressing freshly made trofie. The menu carries the Belloni archive forward with Trofie al Pesto, a thin, blistered Focaccia di Recco, and Paffutelli alla Frank, the stuffed pasta named for Frank Sinatra, who became a lifelong regular at the original Genoa address after a first visit in 1984.

Lunch runs on a weekly-changing formula of starter, main course and a glass of wine, built for the Carré d'Or's business crowd; the rigatoni gricia, tossed with guanciale, pecorino romano and black pepper, is among the kitchen's quiet successes at midday.

04What to order

Start with the pesto itself, spooned over trofie, before moving to Paffutelli alla Frank or the Focaccia di Recco to share. The aubergine course is worth the wait if time allows, and the cherry tomato tart with pesto shortbread is the dish the chef returns to most often on his own menu.

To finish, the kitchen sends out freshly churned pistachio ice cream with caramelised pistachios, and a dense caramel flan — both regulars on the dessert tray that closes most tables' meals.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list runs mostly Italian with French support, kept in the cellar built into the dining room. At the bar, a Ligurian Negroni — gin, Mancino Rosso and Campari infused with flowers and citrus fruit — sits alongside the house Zeffi' Spritz.

After dinner, guests can move to Rumore, the hidden vinyl bar built into the back of the restaurant, open nightly from 7.30pm with the same food menu, added pizzas, and sets played from vinyl by resident DJs.

06The neighbourhood and booking

Zeffirino sits a short walk from Monaco's Japanese Garden and the boutiques of the Carré d'Or, on a stretch of rue du Portier known for its restaurant terraces.

Lunch is served daily from midday to 2.15pm (2.30pm on Sundays); dinner runs from 7pm to 10.30pm Sunday to Thursday, and to 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations are taken by telephone or online, with the piano-bar beginning as dinner service starts.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.