Restaurant in Nice, France
Starred dining in Nice, away from the tourists.
ONICE holds a Michelin star (2024 and 2025) and ranks #661 on OAD's Top Restaurants in Europe, making it the strongest case for a serious dinner in Nice. Chef duo Florencia Montes and Lorenzo Ragni run a seasonal modern cuisine kitchen at €€€€. Book four to six weeks ahead minimum; summer availability is tight.
ONICE holds a Michelin star — earned in both 2024 and 2025 — and sits at #661 on Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in Europe ranking for 2025. For Nice, that is a meaningful credential. The city has a credible fine dining circuit, but a consecutively starred address at this price point (€€€€) is not something you walk into on a Tuesday. Getting a table here requires forward planning; treat it like any other starred room in a city where serious kitchens fill quickly during the Côte d'Azur high season.
Book as far out as possible if you are visiting in summer. If your travel dates are flexible and this meal matters to you, the shoulder seasons of April-May and September-October are your practical window for both availability and the most interesting produce on the plate.
ONICE is based at 5 Rue Antoine Gautier in the eastern quarter of Nice, away from the tourist-heavy Promenade des Anglais corridor. The spatial register at this kind of modern cuisine address in France tends toward the intimate and considered: expect a room designed to hold attention without theatrical distraction, where the table is the focal point rather than the décor. The kitchen team led by Florencia Montes and Lorenzo Ragni operates in a format that supports the meal itself, which means the physical experience is concentrated and deliberate. For a special occasion dinner , anniversary, significant birthday, business meal where the setting signals seriousness , the intimacy of a room like this works in your favour. It removes the noise problem that plagues larger rooms and keeps attention on the food and the conversation across the table.
ONICE operates in the modern cuisine register, meaning the kitchen works from seasonal produce rather than a fixed, year-round card. That has a direct implication for timing your visit. The Côte d'Azur growing calendar is one of the more generous in France: early spring brings artichokes, peas, and asparagus from the arrière-pays; summer moves into tomatoes, courgette flowers, and Provençal herbs; autumn shifts the kitchen toward game, mushrooms, and the first truffles from Périgord and the Var. A December or January visit catches the kitchen at its most truffle-forward.
The practical upshot: there is no bad season to visit, but there is a leading season depending on what you want. If you want the kitchen working with peak Mediterranean produce, book for late May or early October. If you want a richer, more earth-driven menu, November through January puts you in the right window. Avoid mid-July to mid-August if booking difficulty is a concern , availability tightens and the city is at its most crowded.
Because specific current dishes are not confirmed in the available data, the safest approach is to arrive without fixed expectations about a particular plate. Let the kitchen's current menu lead. At a Michelin-starred address with a duo of chefs building a menu together, the coherence of the full sequence is typically stronger than any individual dish taken in isolation. If the kitchen offers a tasting menu format, that is the intended way to experience the cooking here.
A €€€€ rating in Nice places ONICE at the leading of the local market. The question is whether the Michelin star plus OAD ranking justifies that spend against alternatives in the same city. Compared to [L'Aromate](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/laromate-nice-restaurant) or [Le Chantecler](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/le-chantecler-nice-restaurant), ONICE offers a different proposition: a contemporary kitchen run by two chefs with a shared creative vision, rather than a legacy fine dining format. For diners whose reference point is modern European cooking at this level , think [Mirazur in Menton](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/mirazur-menton-restaurant) up the coast, or [Flocons de Sel in Megève](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/flocons-de-sel-megve-restaurant) in the Alps , ONICE is positioned well below those in price while operating in a comparable idiom. The value case is real. You are not paying Paris prices for this calibre of cooking.
The 4.6 Google rating across 250 reviews is a reliable signal of consistency at this level. Starred kitchens with scores below 4.3 tend to reflect a gap between the critical acclaim and the actual guest experience; 4.6 suggests the room delivers on what the star implies. That is a practical data point worth taking seriously.
ONICE works well for a serious dinner for two. The combination of intimate scale, starred credentials, and a seasonal menu gives the meal a defined shape that a special occasion needs. It is a stronger choice for a couple than for a large group, where the logistics of a small fine dining room become harder. Solo dining is possible at a starred address in France but depends on seating configuration , see the FAQ below for detail on that question.
If you are building a wider Nice itinerary around this meal, the [Our full Nice restaurants guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/nice) covers the full range from casual to formal, and you can pair it with [Our full Nice hotels guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/hotels/nice) for accommodation positioning. For pre- or post-dinner drinks, [Our full Nice bars guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/bars/nice) is worth a look, as is [Our full Nice experiences guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/experiences/nice) for broader trip context.
Booking difficulty at ONICE is rated Hard. No phone number or booking URL is confirmed in the current data, which means the most reliable route is via third-party reservation platforms (TheFork, Resy, or similar) or by contacting the restaurant directly once you have confirmed current contact details. Do not leave this to the week of arrival. For summer dates specifically, a four-to-six week lead time is a minimum. The shoulder season gives you more flexibility, but this is still a small room with a growing reputation.
| Venue | Price | Michelin Stars | Booking Difficulty | Leading For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ONICE | €€€€ | 1 Star (2025) | Hard | Modern seasonal tasting, special occasion |
| L'Aromate | €€€€ | Check current status | Moderate | Modern cuisine, city-centre location |
| Le Chantecler | €€€€ | Check current status | Moderate | Classic grand dining room, hotel setting |
| Chabrol | Check | None confirmed | Easier | French bistro, more casual format |
| L'Alchimie | Check | None confirmed | Easier | Contemporary, accessible price point |
If the modern cuisine format at ONICE appeals and you are travelling more widely in France, [Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/allno-paris-au-pavillon-ledoyen-paris-restaurant) and [Troisgros - Le Bois sans Feuilles in Ouches](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/troisgros-le-bois-sans-feuilles-ouches-restaurant) sit at the leading of the country's modern canon. For regional France at a similar creative register, [Bras in Laguiole](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/bras-laguiole-restaurant) and [Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/auberge-de-lill-illhaeusern-restaurant) offer strong alternatives. Closer to Nice on the Riviera, [Mirazur in Menton](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/mirazur-menton-restaurant) is the obvious regional benchmark. For international modern cuisine with a comparable experimental sensibility, [Frantzén in Stockholm](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/frantzn-stockholm-restaurant) and [FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/fzn-by-bjrn-frantzn-dubai-restaurant) are worth knowing. You can also explore [Our full Nice wineries guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/wineries/nice) for regional wine context to pair with the kind of cooking ONICE is doing.
ONICE operates on a seasonal modern cuisine format, meaning the menu changes with produce availability rather than running a fixed card year-round. There are no confirmed dish details in current data, so the safest approach is to go with whatever the kitchen is running at the time of your visit — that is the format a Michelin-starred seasonal kitchen is built around. Ask at the time of booking whether a tasting menu or à la carte option is available.
Booking is rated Hard, and neither a phone number nor a direct booking URL is confirmed — plan to pursue a reservation well in advance, ideally via a third-party platform or direct email. ONICE sits at 5 Rue Antoine Gautier in eastern Nice, away from the Promenade des Anglais, so expect a quieter, more local setting than the tourist-heavy waterfront. The Michelin star (held in both 2024 and 2025) and the OAD Top Restaurants in Europe ranking (#661, 2025) signal serious cooking, not a tourist-friendly crowd-pleaser.
Michelin-starred modern cuisine restaurants at this price point (€€€€) are generally counter or small-table formats that can accommodate solo diners, but ONICE's seating configuration is not confirmed in available data. For solo dining at this level in Nice, call ahead or enquire at booking to confirm the setup — if counter seating is available, it typically works well for one.
Flaveur and L'Aromate are the closest like-for-like alternatives in Nice at the starred or near-starred level. JAN offers a distinct chef-driven format with a strong local following. La Merenda is a sharply different proposition — no reservations, cash only, traditional Niçoise cooking — suited to those who want the city's culinary identity at a fraction of the price. Pure & V is the plant-based option for diners with dietary requirements.
At €€€€, ONICE sits at the top of the Nice market. A Michelin star retained across 2024 and 2025, combined with an OAD Top Restaurants in Europe ranking (#661, 2025), makes the spend defensible for a serious dinner occasion. If you are comparing it against other €€€€ options in Nice without equivalent credentials, ONICE has the clearer case. If budget is the deciding factor, Flaveur or La Merenda offer strong cooking at lower price points.
For a Michelin-starred modern cuisine kitchen run by Florencia Montes and Lorenzo Ragni, the tasting menu format is almost certainly how the kitchen expresses itself most fully — that is the standard model at this tier. Specific menu structure and pricing are not confirmed in current data, so verify the options at booking. At €€€€, if you are committing to a single serious dinner in Nice, the tasting menu is the format to choose.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
