Vincent Croizard

Vincent Croizard, Nîmes: The Verdict

At the €€€ price point, Vincent Croizard is the most compelling case for creative cooking in Nîmes. Two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) and a 4.8 Google rating from nearly 700 reviews put it ahead of most creative kitchens in the city on both critical and popular measures. If you ate here once and want to know whether to return — yes, and with higher expectations than your first visit warranted. This kitchen rewards repeat attention.

The Room

Vincent Croizard occupies a townhouse address at 17 Rue des Chassaintes, in the residential fabric south of Nîmes' Roman monuments. The physical scale appears deliberately contained — this is not a sprawling brasserie but a room where the cover count is kept low enough to maintain kitchen focus. That spatial restraint matters: seating arrangements at this kind of venue in the French south tend toward close-set tables that make conversation effortful on busy nights. Booking a table earlier in service, before the room reaches capacity, gives you better control of the experience. The architecture of the building , a mid-city address rather than a converted farmhouse or grand hotel , keeps the atmosphere grounded and somewhat informal compared to the dressed-up dining rooms you find at Jérôme Nutile or Rouge.

What the Kitchen Does

The cuisine classification is Creative, which in the Michelin framework means the kitchen is working outside strictly codified regional or classical traditions. At the €€€ tier in a city like Nîmes , not a primary French fine-dining destination in the way Lyon or Paris are , that label signals something specific: a chef making deliberate technical choices about composition and ingredient treatment rather than defaulting to the safe southern French repertoire of daubes and brandade.

Two Michelin Plates in succession is a reliable signal of consistent technical execution. The Plate is not a star , it marks a kitchen that Michelin considers worth knowing about, with cooking that is judged good without yet achieving the precision-at-every-element standard that earns a Bib Gourmand or star. For a creative restaurant at this price in a mid-size southern city, it represents a meaningful credential. For context, creative kitchens operating at comparable ambition levels in the south of France , Mirazur in Menton, or further afield, Quique Dacosta in Dénia , show what the category looks like at its ceiling. Vincent Croizard is not operating at that altitude, but within Nîmes it is setting the standard for the creative format.

If you visited once and ordered conservatively, the instruction for a return is to trust the kitchen more. On a second visit, the tasting menu format (if offered) will show more of what the kitchen is doing technically than ordering à la carte. Creative kitchens at this credential level are built to be read as sequences, not individual dishes.

When to Go

The optimal window is a weekday dinner in the autumn or spring shoulder season , September to November or March to May , when Nîmes is past the summer tourist peak and the city returns to something like its normal rhythm. Summer in Nîmes runs hot in both temperature and visitor volume, and the Feria de Nîmes (typically May and September) draws large crowds that affect booking availability across the city. Midweek bookings at lunch give you the quietest room and, in French kitchen culture, often the most focused cooking. Avoid Friday and Saturday evenings if a relaxed pace matters to you.

Booking

Booking difficulty here is rated Easy. The Michelin Plate recognition has not yet translated into the weeks-out lead times you deal with at Michelin-starred venues. A week's notice is typically sufficient for a weekday table; weekend evenings may require slightly more. That accessibility is genuinely useful , it makes Vincent Croizard the right answer when you want a credentialed creative meal in Nîmes without the planning overhead that comparable cooking requires in larger French cities.

Practical Details

How It Compares

See below.

Pearl Picks , More Nîmes and Beyond

• Our full Nîmes restaurants guide
• Skab (Modern Cuisine, Nîmes)
• Duende (Modern Cuisine, Nîmes)
• Aux Plaisirs des Halles (Traditional, Nîmes)
• Bras in Laguiole , creative cooking at a higher level, worth the detour from Nîmes
• Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona , creative format with more ambition, if you are travelling
• Troisgros in Ouches
• Arpège in Paris
• Flocons de Sel in Megève
• Paul Bocuse , L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges
• Our full Nîmes hotels guide
• Our full Nîmes bars guide
• Our full Nîmes wineries guide
• Our full Nîmes experiences guide

FAQ

What are alternatives to Vincent Croizard in Nîmes?

For creative cooking at a higher price point, Rouge (€€€€) is the closest peer and worth comparing directly if budget is not the constraint. For modern cuisine with more formal service, Jérôme Nutile (€€€€) is the main competition. If you want to spend less, Aux Plaisirs des Halles offers traditional Nîmes cooking at €€. For a modern midrange option, Skab and Duende both represent the city's broader creative-leaning scene.

Is Vincent Croizard good for a special occasion?

Yes, at the €€€ tier with two Michelin Plates and a 4.8 Google rating, it delivers the credibility a special occasion requires without the €€€€ outlay of Jérôme Nutile or Rouge. The contained room size adds to the sense of occasion. For a milestone dinner where you want serious cooking at a price that doesn't require justification, this is the right call in Nîmes.

What should I wear to Vincent Croizard?

No dress code is listed, but at the €€€ Michelin Plate level in a French city, smart casual is the safe default , no shorts or sportswear, but a jacket is unlikely to be required. In Nîmes, this tier of restaurant is not as formally dressed as equivalent venues in Paris. If in doubt, observe what the room looks like on the venue's own social channels before you go.

How far ahead should I book Vincent Croizard?

Booking difficulty is rated Easy, so a week's notice handles most weekday tables. For weekend evenings, aim for two weeks out to be safe. During the Feria de Nîmes (May and September) and peak summer months, add buffer time , the whole city's dining inventory tightens considerably during those periods.

Can Vincent Croizard accommodate groups?

No seat count or private dining information is available in the current data. Given the venue's mid-city townhouse address and the typical scale of Michelin Plate restaurants at this price tier in France, large group bookings (8 or more) should be confirmed directly with the restaurant before assuming availability. Smaller groups of 4 to 6 are standard for this format and unlikely to present a problem.