Restaurant in Monte Carlo, Monaco
New Michelin star, still bookable. Act fast.

Elsa earned its first Michelin star in 2025 under a creative cooking designation, placing it among Monte Carlo's most closely watched new addresses. At the €€€€ price tier on Avenue Princesse Grâce, with a Mediterranean room facing the sea, this is a reservation worth pursuing now — before demand catches up with the recognition. Book four to six weeks out minimum.
Elsa earned its first Michelin star in 2025, which means you are in a narrow window where securing a table is still possible without a months-long wait. That window will close. At the €€€€ price tier on the Principality's most competitive dining corridor, the question is not whether Elsa is worth booking — a Michelin star in Monaco, where the bar is demonstrably high, answers that — but whether you are planning far enough ahead to actually get in. Book as early as your schedule allows, treat this as a hard-to-get reservation, and plan your visit around the timing advice below.
Elsa sits on Avenue Princesse Grâce in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the address that runs along the water's edge between Monaco and the French border. The physical setting does real work here. The room faces the Mediterranean, which means that at lunch, and in the golden hour before dinner service, the light comes in hard and warm off the water. If spatial context matters to you , and for a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant, the relationship between the room and the sea it draws from is not incidental , then the timing of your visit affects the experience in a material way. A summer lunch reservation, when the Riviera light is at its most direct, gives you a different room than a winter dinner. Both are worth considering across multiple visits; they are genuinely different experiences in the same space.
Because Elsa earned its star under a creative cooking designation, this is a kitchen operating with a menu that evolves. Michelin's creative cooking category signals a chef working outside fixed regional tradition, which means what you ate in spring is unlikely to be on the table in autumn. If you are the type of diner who plans multiple visits to a restaurant you trust , and at the €€€€ price point in this part of the world, that is a reasonable approach , the argument for returning is built into the format. First visit: anchor yourself in the room, understand the kitchen's baseline, and let the tasting progression tell you what direction the cooking is going. Second visit: use that knowledge to make specific choices, whether that means requesting a counter position if one exists, asking the sommelier to work with the Mediterranean wine producers the kitchen favours, or timing your arrival for a service where you can take your time. Third visit, ideally in a different season: the difference in what the kitchen is working with across the growing calendar on this coast is significant enough to make a return in late winter or early spring a different meal entirely.
For explorers who treat dining as fieldwork rather than occasion, Elsa's creative designation is a signal that the kitchen is worth tracking over time. A venue that holds a Michelin star on creative grounds in 2025 is at an inflection point , the cooking is sharp enough to be recognized, and still developing enough that early visitors are seeing something in formation. That combination is relatively rare at this price level on the Riviera.
The practical case for a spring or early summer visit is direct. The Côte d'Azur growing season peaks between May and July, which means the produce arriving at a Mediterranean kitchen on this stretch of coast is at its most varied during those months. The room's relationship to the sea and the hillside behind it also plays better in the shoulder season , June and September avoid the peak Monaco summer crowd while still giving you the warm-weather version of the room. If you are visiting Monte Carlo specifically for dining, pairing Elsa with one of the longer-established Michelin addresses nearby makes logistical sense; see the comparison section below for where Elsa sits relative to those options. For context on the broader dining picture, our full Monte Carlo restaurants guide maps the territory.
Treat this as a hard booking. A new Michelin star in Monaco generates international reservation demand immediately. There is no phone number or booking platform listed in our current data, so your starting point is a direct search for the restaurant's booking channel , check the restaurant's own website or use a reservations aggregator. Aim for at least four to six weeks out for a standard weekend dinner, more if you are targeting a specific date in high season. If your dates are flexible, a Tuesday or Wednesday dinner service typically carries less competition than Friday or Saturday at a newly starred Monaco address. The Google rating sits at 4.6 from 103 reviews, which is a useful early signal that satisfaction among guests who have dined there is high even before the star landed formally in the 2025 guide.
If you are building a trip around the Riviera's Mediterranean cooking, these venues are worth knowing alongside Elsa. On the Italian coast, Caracol in Bacoli and Cannavacciuolo Countryside in Ticciano represent two different registers of southern Italian Mediterranean cooking. For the French side of the border, Bessem in Mandelieu-La Napoule is a nearby address worth tracking. Further along the coast, Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton in Saint-Tropez operates at the ceiling of Riviera fine dining. In Monaco itself, Beef Bar Monaco covers a different occasion entirely. And just inland, Hostellerie Jerome in La Turbie is worth the short drive for anyone spending multiple nights in the area. For Spanish Mediterranean cooking, Beat in Calp and La Brezza in Ascona round out the wider regional picture. See also our guides to Monte Carlo hotels, Monte Carlo bars, Monte Carlo wineries, and Monte Carlo experiences.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elsa | Mediterranean Cuisine | €€€€ | HIGHLIGHTS: • 1 MICHELIN STAR 2025 • CREATIVE COOKING; Michelin 1 Star (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Hard | — |
| Pavyllon, un restaurant de Yannick Alléno, Monte-Carlo | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Alain Ducasse- Louis XV | French - Provençal | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — | |
| Blue Bay Marcel Ravin | Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| L'Abysse Monte-Carlo | Japanese | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| La Table d'Antonio Salvatore au Rampoldi | Italian | €€€€ | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
How Elsa stacks up against the competition.
Elsa holds a 2025 Michelin star under a creative cooking designation, which typically means a kitchen with the technical range to adapt to dietary requirements. check the venue's official channels when booking to flag restrictions in advance. No specific dietary policy is published, so confirm at reservation stage rather than assuming flexibility on the night.
Elsa is on Avenue Princesse Grâce in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, a strip address that does not suggest a large-format dining room. At €€€€ pricing with a Michelin star, this is almost certainly a compact, precision-focused space. Groups of more than four should contact the restaurant early and ask specifically about table configuration; assuming a large group can be seated without advance coordination at a newly starred Monaco address is a risk.
A creative-cooking Michelin-starred restaurant at €€€€ is a solid solo format if the focus is the food rather than the social occasion. Without confirmed counter or bar seating details, solo diners should book a standard table and note that Monaco dining at this level is typically service-forward enough to make solo visits comfortable. Call or email ahead to confirm solo seating options.
At €€€€ with a 2025 Michelin star and a creative cooking designation, Elsa is priced in line with the top tier of Riviera fine dining. The case for booking is strongest right now: a newly starred kitchen before international demand fully locks out availability is the moment to go. Compared to Alain Ducasse's Louis XV, which carries the weight of a longer legacy and higher profile, Elsa offers access and momentum that the more established addresses cannot.
Book immediately. A first Michelin star in Monaco triggers international reservation demand fast, and the window where tables remain accessible without a long wait is narrow. Four to six weeks ahead is a reasonable minimum; if you are planning a summer Côte d'Azur trip, secure the date before you book travel. This is not a walk-in venue at this price point.
No dress code is published, but a €€€€ Michelin-starred address on Avenue Princesse Grâce in Monaco sets a clear expectation: dress formally. Monaco dining at this level draws an international crowd that trends toward smart evening wear. Arriving underdressed at a newly starred room in one of Europe's most formal principalities is not a move worth testing.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.