Restaurant in Collioure, France
One Michelin star, hard to book, worth it.
La Balette holds a Michelin star for 2024 and 2025, making it the only serious creative-cuisine destination in Collioure. Chef Oli Marlow's €€€€ tasting menu draws on the Roussillon coast and Catalan borderlands with genuine technical ambition. Booking is hard — plan four to six weeks out — but for a food-led journey through southern France, it is the region's most compelling argument for a detour.
Imagine arriving on the Port-Vendres road as the afternoon light drops low over the Roussillon coast, the air carrying salt and the faint warmth of garrigue. That sensory preamble matters here because La Balette is a restaurant shaped by its setting: a Michelin-starred creative kitchen operating far outside the Paris circuit, in a town better known for Fauve painters than fine dining. The verdict is direct: if you are travelling in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and creative cooking at a serious technical level is what you want, La Balette is the booking. It holds a Michelin star for 2024 and 2025, sits in the Remarkable category, and carries a Google rating of 4.8 across more than 1,200 reviews — a volume of feedback that is unusual for a restaurant of this type in a small coastal town and that makes the score credible rather than cosmetic.
Chef Oli Marlow leads the kitchen. The cuisine is classified as creative, which in practice means a menu that treats the Catalan borderlands as a larder rather than a postcard — the terroir of the Côte Vermeille, the fishing boats a short distance away, the vineyards that produce Collioure AOC and Banyuls, all filtered through a kitchen with clear technical ambition. This is not the kind of cooking where the setting is doing most of the work. The Michelin recognition across two consecutive years reflects consistency, not a single strong season.
For the explorer traveller , someone who treats a meal as a reason to make a journey rather than an afterthought to one , La Balette positions well. The comparable reference points in France's southern creative cooking tier include Mirazur in Menton and, further inland, Bras in Laguiole. La Balette does not carry their biographical weight, but it is operating with the same logic: a singular location, a defined regional identity, and cooking that has earned external validation. At €€€€ pricing, you are in the same spend bracket as those rooms.
For parties considering a private or semi-private experience, La Balette's setting on the Port-Vendres road outside central Collioure gives it a spatial quality that a village-centre restaurant cannot offer. The property has room to breathe. That matters when you are planning a significant meal for a group , whether a celebration dinner, a wine-focused event tied to the nearby Banyuls and Collioure appellations, or a corporate table. The quality of the main-room experience is what earns the star; the question for private dining is whether that same kitchen focus and service attention transfers to a separated space. Based on the consistency of the public review record (4.8 across 1,240 reviews is not a score sustained by poor group-event execution), the answer appears to be yes , but you should confirm private dining availability and format directly when booking, as specific configuration details are not published.
If your group is wine-led, this is a more compelling argument for La Balette than for many starred rooms at comparable price points. Collioure and Banyuls are among the most distinctive AOC designations in France, producing fortified and dry wines from Grenache on schist slopes that have almost no equivalent elsewhere. A creative kitchen in that geography, at this level, paired with a private table, is a specific kind of occasion that Paris restaurants at the same price tier , however technically superior some of them may be , cannot replicate.
The optimal window is late spring through early autumn, when the Roussillon coast is at its warmest and the surrounding terroir most legible on a menu. Summer peak (July and August) brings the heaviest tourist traffic to Collioure, which means both higher demand for the restaurant and a more crowded town around it. The shoulder periods , May, June, and September , give you the climate without the volume. Midweek visits tend to be easier to secure and allow the kitchen to work at a less pressured pace. If you are combining the meal with time in the Banyuls vineyards or exploring the coast toward the Spanish border, September is the clearest argument: harvest season adds a layer of context to anything you order from the local wine list.
For regional comparison at the same culinary level, the creative cooking tier in southern France also includes La Table du Castellet in Le Castellet and, just across the border, Quique Dacosta in Dénia and Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona , both worth knowing if you are building a longer itinerary through the western Mediterranean.
Booking difficulty is rated Hard. At a one-star restaurant in a small town with international draw, this is expected , demand routinely exceeds cover availability, particularly in peak season. Plan four to six weeks ahead at minimum; earlier is better for weekend tables or private dining requests. There is no published online booking method in the venue data, so direct contact with the restaurant is the safest approach. Hours are not published, so confirm service times when you reach out.
Price range is €€€€. At this tier in France, expect a tasting menu format as the primary offering. For broader context on eating and drinking well in the area, see our full Collioure restaurants guide, our Collioure bars guide, and our Collioure wineries guide. For where to stay, our Collioure hotels guide covers the options. Locally, Le 5ème Péché and Mamma at Les Roches Brunes are the other named options in town for evenings when La Balette is not the plan.
The broader French one-star creative tier that provides useful calibration includes Arpège in Paris, Flocons de Sel in Megève, Troisgros in Ouches, Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, and Les Prés d'Eugénie in Eugénie-les-Bains. La Balette is not competing with that historical weight, but it is earning its place in that company on current form.
Quick reference: Michelin 1 Star (2024, 2025) | Creative cuisine | €€€€ | Google 4.8 / 1,240 reviews | Chef: Oli Marlow | Booking: Hard, plan 4-6 weeks ahead | Collioure, France.
There is no confirmed bar-seating option in the available venue data. La Balette operates as a formal restaurant at the €€€€ tier, and the format is almost certainly structured around reserved table dining. If bar or counter seating matters to you, confirm directly with the restaurant before travelling.
At €€€€ pricing with a Michelin star held across two consecutive years and a 4.8 Google rating from more than 1,200 reviews, the tasting menu format delivers consistent value for what you are paying. Chef Oli Marlow's creative approach to the Roussillon terroir gives the menu a regional specificity you will not find in a Paris room at the same price point. If tasting menus are your preferred format and the Catalan borderlands are part of your itinerary, this is worth the spend. If you are looking for a more flexible à la carte experience, confirm format options when booking.
No dress code is published, but at €€€€ and Michelin-starred level in France, smart casual is the floor. For an evening reservation or a private dining event, err toward smart. Collioure is a coastal town, not a formal city, so the overall register is less stiff than a Paris grand table , but this is not a place to arrive in beach clothes.
Specific dietary policy is not published. For any allergy or dietary requirement, contact the restaurant directly when making your reservation , ideally at the time of booking rather than on arrival. A kitchen operating at this level typically accommodates reasonable requirements given advance notice, but the creative tasting menu format means substitutions need to be agreed in advance.
Yes, with the right expectations. The combination of Michelin-starred creative cooking, a distinctive coastal setting outside central Collioure, and a 4.8 public rating makes it a strong choice for a celebration dinner, anniversary, or significant group meal. The private or semi-private dining setup strengthens the case for occasion dining specifically. Book as far ahead as possible , Hard booking difficulty means last-minute availability is unlikely for peak dates.
At €€€€, La Balette is at the leading of the regional price tier. The Michelin star (two consecutive years), the Remarkable category designation, and the volume and quality of public reviews justify the spend if creative cooking at a serious technical level is what you are after. Compared to Paris restaurants in the same price bracket , where you are paying a location premium on leading of the food , La Balette offers a more distinctive setting and a clearer regional identity. Worth it if you are making the journey for the meal; harder to justify as an afterthought to a beach holiday.
Within Collioure, Le 5ème Péché and Mamma at Les Roches Brunes are the named local options at a lower price point. For the same creative-cuisine tier in the wider region, Mirazur in Menton is the most prominent comparable in southern France. Across the Spanish border, Quique Dacosta in Dénia and Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona operate at a similar or higher level for a comparable spend. See our full Collioure restaurants guide for the complete local picture.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| La Balette | €€€€ | — |
| Plénitude | €€€€ | — |
| Pierre Gagnaire | €€€€ | — |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | €€€€ | — |
| Kei | €€€€ | — |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | €€€€ | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Bar seating details are not confirmed in available venue data, and La Balette's format as a Michelin-starred creative restaurant on the Port-Vendres road outside central Collioure suggests a structured dining experience rather than a casual counter option. check the venue's official channels before assuming walk-in or bar access. Given the Hard booking difficulty rating, arriving without a reservation and expecting flexibility is a risk not worth taking.
For the format — creative cuisine rooted in the Catalan borderlands, delivered by chef Oli Marlow with a Michelin star held across both 2024 and 2025 — the tasting menu is the point of the visit, not an upsell. If you want a la carte flexibility, this is not the right restaurant. If you are committed to a set progression, the Roussillon setting and the kitchen's classification make the case clearly. The price range sits at €€€€, so go in knowing the commitment.
No dress code is specified in the venue data, but a one-star Michelin restaurant in the south of France at the €€€€ price point sets an implicit standard. Smart dress — not black tie, but nothing you would wear to the beach — is the practical call. Collioure is a coastal town, but La Balette is not a casual seafront bistro.
Dietary accommodation details are not listed in the venue record. At a Michelin-starred creative kitchen, advance notice of restrictions is standard practice and expected to be taken seriously — but confirm directly when booking, not on arrival. Given the Hard booking difficulty, your reservation communication is the right moment to flag any requirements.
Yes, with the right expectations. A Michelin star (retained in both 2024 and 2025), a creative kitchen under a named chef, and a location on the Roussillon coast outside Collioure make this a destination with clear occasion weight. It works best for two people or a small group who are aligned on a long, structured meal — not a group looking for flexibility or a loud celebratory atmosphere.
At €€€€ with a Michelin star held consecutively in 2024 and 2025, La Balette is priced where you would expect a recognised one-star in a desirable coastal location to sit. The value case is strongest if you are travelling to the Roussillon coast specifically and treat the meal as the anchor of the trip. If you are weighing it against a Paris one-star with easier logistics and a broader dining infrastructure around it, the destination overhead is real — factor in that Collioure is a small town, not a city with backup options.
Collioure does not have a deep bench of Michelin-level alternatives — La Balette is the standout in that specific town. For creative fine dining at a comparable level in France without the coastal destination overhead, Paris one-stars like Kei offer more accessible logistics. If the Roussillon terroir and setting are what you are after, La Balette has no direct local equivalent at this tier, which is part of why its booking difficulty is rated Hard.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
