Imagine all your wildest, childhood dreams mixed with the finest food you would possibly ever taste. Stop. You’ve just imagined the La Rotonde at The Negresco Hotel, Nice. This little slice of wonder is situated on Nice’s seafront promenade with gorgeous views out to sea. One of two restaurants at the Negresco Hotel (which I might add does divine cocktails and definitely worth a splurge one night to experience the place) the La Rotonde is set out like a fairground carousel, complete even with carousel horses. Did I just enter Disneyland on the South of France?
When we headed to Nice in July we knew we would have a wealth of places to eat & drink (to be honest, that’s pretty much all we did for the 3 nights and 4 days we spent there.) but wanted something a little special for one of the nights we were there. We were tasked by a travel currency operator (for legal reasons, they cannot be named as they do not want to be included after the sad attacks that happened back in July shortly after we returned home. But, I wanted to mention this to you to keep the integral honesty alive on the blog) to enjoy as many luxury experiences as we could for 200 euros. La Rotonde was high on my list to try because I knew it was just the right amount of decadence without breaking the budget too much.
It’s safe to say that Mr C & I always stick out like a sore thumb whenever we go places like this. He orders a beer & I order a rather vulgar cocktail or some nature. Trust me, shouting “Can I have a Pornstar Martini” somewhere like this you’d probably have the whole restaurant turn around and stare at you. So instead, I went for the Royal Negresco and it looked like the whole contents of the local greengrocers had been plopped on top of it, but ten out of ten for creating a seriously delicious drink. We looked through the menu and bamboozled mainly as a lot of it was in French (which is obviously what you would expect, you know, in France.) We managed to work it out though. We both decided on the seafood starter, the Fraîcheur d’avocat et crevettes roses aux agrumes which roughly translates to avocado, shrimps and citrus fruit and it was pretty darned good. It was quite a heavy starter which surprised me but that wasn’t going to stop me wolfing down my steak frites.
I feel like Steak Frites or Mussel Frites is a rights of passage whenever you head to France. This slice of fillet beef did not disappoint either and my instruction of rare steak was noted and cooked just the way I like it. Yes, you can see a little bit of blood oozing out of it. I sadly stupidly didn’t get a photo of Mr C’s fish dish of pan fried seabass fillet. You can watch my vlog here (where you’ll see the dish)
Okay, I may (or may not) have filled myself up on steak, but that didn’t mean I was going to miss out on a pudding. No sirree. Creme Brulee was on the menu and to be quite frank, mama was not gonna miss out on one of her favourite deserts of all time. We decided to share so we didn’t look like major piggies. It came with pistachio ice cream too and complimented the sugary desert. Of course, Mr C is never done unless he samples an espresso or black coffee. Even though it was a small cup he made me a try a little and suffice to say, it was pretty darned tasty. Suitably stuffed the sun had gone down and we were ready for our walk back to our apartment (read: roll back to the apartment.)
This place is filled with wonder and a feast not only for the appetite, but for the eyes as well. Yes, there may be creepy dolls, mannequins and statues round every corner (I’m not kidding you, the hotel has one of the biggest art collections in the area, it’s like a freaking museum in itself.) If you want to do something special at one of the top hotels, without breaking the bank too much (they even have a 3 course set menu for 39 euros per person too) I would highly recommend coming here.
Have you ever been to the Hotel Negresco? Do you think you’ll head here if you travel to Nice?
