Restaurant in Nice, France
Natural wine conviction, vegetable-forward Nordic plates.
Pure & V is the right choice in Nice if natural wines and Nordic-influenced vegetable-forward cooking are your priorities. Sommelier Vanessa Massé's natural wine program is among the most focused in the city, and chef Pinja Paakkonen's Michelin-trained kitchen delivers dishes with real conviction. Ranked by Opinionated About Dining in both 2023 and 2024, it is easy to book and open most evenings plus Sunday lunch.
If you are a wine-forward diner who wants natural bottles chosen with real conviction alongside food that treats vegetables as a serious main event, Pure & V is the right table in Nice. This is the restaurant for the explorer who has already worked through the city's French classics and wants something that feels more like Copenhagen than Côte d'Azur — Nordic discipline applied to Provençal ingredients, with a wine program that drives the experience as much as the kitchen does. It also works well as a destination for a significant dinner: a milestone birthday, an anniversary, or a trip built around eating well rather than eating familiarly.
Sommelier Vanessa Massé built Pure & V's identity as much as any chef. Her focus is natural wines — genuinely sought-out bottles, not a token section on an otherwise conventional list. For a diner who uses the wine list as the first filter when choosing a restaurant, that orientation matters: you are not working against the room here. The pairing logic runs through the whole menu, which means vegetable-forward dishes get matched to wines with the texture and acidity to hold their own. If your priority is a deep, conventional cellar with blue-chip Burgundy poured by the glass, this is not your room. If you want a sommelier who has an actual point of view on natural producers and can walk you through it, this is one of the stronger options in Nice for that experience.
Chef Pinja Paakkonen trained in a Michelin-starred kitchen in Denmark before arriving in Nice, and that background shows in the menu's architecture. Dishes documented from the kitchen include roasted fennel with a sauce fermented from white asparagus and fresh dill oil, quail cooked whole with smoked beurre blanc, and a bavarois with camomile and satsuma mandarin. The throughlines are fermentation, restraint, and a vegetable-first hierarchy that is more Nordic than Niçoise. The sourcing is careful , the emphasis on provenance is built into how the menu is described, not added as an afterthought. This is not a French kitchen that has imported a few Scandinavian techniques; the logic runs deeper than that.
The restaurant occupies two floors. The ground floor, decorated in cool tones, is where the full menu runs. Upstairs, Pure & Vins offers a simpler menu in the evenings only , useful if you want the wine experience without committing to the full kitchen output, or if you are eating earlier in a short trip. The price range sits at €€€€, which positions it alongside the other serious kitchens in Nice rather than as an outlier.
Pure & V was recommended by Opinionated About Dining in its Leading New Restaurants in Europe list in 2023 and ranked 549th in OAD's Leading Restaurants in Europe in 2024. A Google rating of 4.2 from 283 reviews suggests consistent delivery rather than occasional brilliance. For context on where this sits in the wider French dining conversation, the Côte d'Azur's most decorated table is Mirazur in Menton, about 30 minutes east. Pure & V is not competing at that level of formal recognition, but it is doing something different: a neobistro format with a wine-first identity that the three-star circuit does not replicate. If you want the contrast of what France's most technically ambitious kitchens look like, Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen or Troisgros are the reference points. Pure & V earns its place by being genuinely singular in its category within Nice rather than by chasing that tier.
Pure & V is open Tuesday through Saturday from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM, and on Sundays for both lunch (12:30 PM to 2:30 PM) and dinner (6:30 PM to 10:30 PM). It is closed on Mondays. Sunday lunch is worth flagging as a specific occasion: it is the only midday service of the week, which makes it a natural anchor for a longer weekend in Nice. Booking difficulty is rated as easy, meaning you should be able to secure a table with reasonable notice rather than weeks of advance planning. The address is 7 Rue du Lycée, 06000 Nice.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty | Leading For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pure & V | Neobistro, Nordic | €€€€ | Easy | Wine-led dinners, vegetable-forward menus |
| Flaveur | Modern French, Creative | €€€€ | Moderate | Creative tasting menus, local recognition |
| Les Agitateurs | Creative | €€€€ | Moderate | Avant-garde formats, adventurous diners |
| L'Aromate | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Moderate | Classic fine dining reference in Nice |
| Le Chantecler | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Easy | Grand hotel dining, formal occasion |
Pure & V sits within a genuinely interesting dining city. For the full picture, see our full Nice restaurants guide. If you are building a longer stay, our Nice hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the rest. For other ambitious modern kitchens in the south of France and beyond, Mirazur in Menton and Flocons de Sel in Megève are worth the trip. If Nordic-influenced precision at the tasting menu level is what you are after in a different context, Atomix in New York City is the international reference point for that format done at the highest level. For classical French cooking that anchors the tradition Pure & V is consciously departing from, Auberge de l'Ill and Bras are the comparative benchmarks. And if you want to understand where the most rigorous seafood-led cooking sits globally, Le Bernardin in New York City remains the clearest standard.
At €€€€ pricing, Pure & V delivers value if the Nordic-vegetable format is what you are after , the OAD ranking and the kitchen's Michelin-trained background (chef Pinja Paakkonen worked in a starred Danish kitchen) support the price tier. If you want a more classic French tasting menu at the same price point in Nice, Flaveur or L'Aromate are closer to that format. Pure & V's tasting menu earns its price specifically because the wine pairing with Vanessa Massé's natural wine selection adds a dimension you will not get elsewhere in the city.
For creative modern cooking at the same price tier, Les Agitateurs and Flaveur are the closest peers. If you want something more formally French, L'Aromate and Le Chantecler cover that ground at €€€€. If budget is a factor, La Merenda is the honest answer for Niçoise cooking done well at €€. Pure & V's specific combination of natural wine focus and Nordic kitchen logic has no direct equivalent in Nice, which makes it worth booking if that profile fits your priorities. See the full Nice restaurants guide for the broader picture.
Yes, subject to the usual considerations at a €€€€ neobistro: the solo spend is the full menu price without a companion to split bottles with, which raises the total. The wine-by-the-glass options from Vanessa Massé's natural wine list make solo dining more financially manageable. The cool-toned, relatively compact ground floor format is better suited to solo or paired dining than to groups. If solo dining at this price tier feels like a stretch, the upstairs Pure & Vins with its simpler evening menu is a more affordable way to access the wine program without the full kitchen commitment.
The menu's vegetable-forward architecture means plant-based and vegetarian diners are genuinely well-served here , this is not a kitchen that treats vegetables as a side note. For specific dietary restrictions (allergies, intolerances), contact the restaurant directly before booking. No booking contact details are currently listed in our database; check the venue's own website or a booking platform for current contact information.
There is no confirmed bar seating in our current data for Pure & V. The two-floor layout , ground floor for the full menu, upstairs Pure & Vins for a simpler evening menu , suggests the more casual upstairs format is the closest equivalent if you want a lighter, less formal experience. If counter or bar seating matters to you, confirm directly with the restaurant when booking. Booking difficulty is rated easy, so getting a table through normal channels should not require a workaround.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure & V | Neobistro - Nordic, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Easy |
| Flaveur | Modern French, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| L'Aromate | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| JAN | Modern French, Modern European, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| La Merenda | Niçoise, Provençal | €€ | Unknown |
| Les Agitateurs | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
Comparing your options in Nice for this tier.
The menu is built around vegetables as a primary focus rather than an afterthought, which makes it more accommodating than most €€€€ restaurants for plant-forward diners. The kitchen sources ingredients carefully and structures dishes with vegetable-led logic, so pescatarian and vegetarian preferences fit naturally into the format. Confirm specific needs when booking, as tasting menu formats at this price point generally require advance notice for substitutions.
Yes, and it is a practical choice for solo diners. The ground floor format at Pure & V suits counter or small-table solo visits, and the evening-only simpler menu upstairs at Pure & Vins offers a lower-commitment entry point if you want to eat without committing to the full menu downstairs. The wine program, led by sommelier Vanessa Massé, rewards solo guests who want to engage with natural bottle selections.
At €€€€ pricing, it is worth it if you are there for both the wine program and the food together. Chef Pinja Paakkonen trained in a Michelin-starred kitchen in Denmark, and the vegetable-led menu reflects that discipline. If you are primarily a meat-focused diner or indifferent to natural wines, the value case weakens — Pure & V is built for diners who want both sides of that equation working at once.
Flaveur and JAN are the closest comparisons at similar price points — both run tight, chef-driven menus with strong ingredient focus. L'Aromate leans more classical French if you want technique without the Nordic framing. La Merenda is the right move if you want to spend a fraction of the price on honest Niçoise cooking. Les Agitateurs sits in a similar modern register to Pure & V and is worth considering if the Nordic angle is not your priority.
The venue data does not confirm a dedicated bar seating option at Pure & V. What is documented is a two-floor format: the ground floor restaurant and Pure & Vins upstairs, which runs a simpler menu in the evenings. If bar-counter dining is important to you, contact the venue at 7 Rue du Lycée directly to confirm current seating arrangements before booking.
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