An apology is in order. When I reviewed the new London offshoot of La Petite Maison in July 2007, I dismissed the Nice original, one of Elton John’s favourite haunts, as an over-priced celeb-magnet that was not worth visiting. Just in case some of you are chasing the last of the summer sun, I can now report that it is.
I’m not entirely sure if it has changed, or I have. My first visit a couple of years ago was so off-putting – short, fat men eating truffles, lobster and caviar, poor service, crappy table - that I paid the bill and left before the food arrived. The tale had a happy ending, because I then discovered the lovely little La Merenda around the corner at 4 Rue Raoul Bosio, but I never did find out what Elton, Roger Moore, Nicolas Sarkozy and all the rest of its starry regulars saw in La Petite Maison.
Now I do. Having eaten well in Nice for a few
days, I felt magnanimous 
enough to risk a return visit for
lunch. A
table on the terrace beckoned, as did the sunny Provencal staples on
the menu: a richly endowed salade Nicoise, golden fried calamaretti
fritti, a crystal clear tuna carpaccio, a tomato salad with creamy
burrata cheese, and an amazingly intense pissaladiere (onion and olive
tart) drenched with Nicois olive oil. This time, it all worked: the
speed, the simplicity, the generosity, the old-but-fast waiter, and the
nothing-is-too-much-trouble attitude. This means I am either turning
into Elton John, or I am finally adult enough to own up that I made a
mistake. Please God, let it be the latter.
Restaurant La Petite Maison
11 Rue de Saint Francois de Paule, Nice Tel: 00 33 4 925959
www.lapetitemaison-nice.com
Excellent that you're adding pics, thank you - they look beautiful, though now I'm hungry, and at 7.21am only barely satisfied with toast.
Posted by: DG | Saturday, 27 September 2008 at 07:22 AM
English food writers still have little knowledge of nutrition. And I do not refer to the pseudo-scientific nonsensical dogma of calories, cholesterol, Mediterranean diets, food pyramids, soy etc. I refer to the science that the mainstream doctors, dieticians, and sports trainers have been ignoring for the last 50 years, that is since the much flawed Framingham study started the cholesterol scare. In this information age, many are now eating for health, as well as taste. That would eliminate the onions, olives and olive oil from Terrys lunch. Maybe a read of the works of Hulda Clark, Robert Atkins, Pearson and Shaw may move the professional foodies in the right direction?
Posted by: ThomasT | Sunday, 28 September 2008 at 12:49 PM
Glad to see La Petite Maison were acknowledged for their improved performance. Like everything human, restaurants can have off days.
To the earlier post:
There is no dispute that many people eat for health but surely a restaurant critic's sole purpose is to talk about the quality experience of the food and restaurant as whole.
If I want to read about nutrition I can easily turn to the health pages of the paper.
Posted by: Gregory | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 10:08 AM
I spent a lunch there with another surgeon, like me, as we were for a few days in the South of France for an international meeting.
I can truly say that people working there have the most horrible manners you can find in a public place.
They're extremely rude, especially if you prefer to speak english and not french, like us.
We arrived and literally no one payed attention to us.
Only after 20 minutes we were able to sit down at a table (about 70% of tables were still empty anyway).
We talked to a french couple sitting close to our table and they told us that even if they liked the food they hated the manners they showed.
We couldn't really understand why this couple was still there then.
For sure I won't be back in a place showing arrogant manners like that.
We tried the day after another restaurant where we invited also others colleagues from Asia: Four Points by Sheraton.
We all were in heaven there! Wonderful wines and delicious thon à la tartare to try!
Very comfortable place, needless to say: our waiter served at our table with the kindest manners. Simply a perfect lunch.
We spent there almost 3 hours!
When we'll be back in Nice we'll surely eat again at Sheraton's restaurant, pas à la petite maison
Posted by: Mark | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 07:27 PM
I was there this summer.
I spent the W-O-R-S-T lunch I EVER had in France in this little crap of place.
The waiter was so RUDE that my husband wanted to leave the place without even finishing the dish we ordered.
When this restaurant will close down, or simply when it will be sold to someone else, me and my husband will open another of ours Cristal bottle to cheers!
Posted by: Sarah | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 07:33 PM
Acceuil inexistant : " table 3, là-bas! ",déjà ça commence bien...
Mais ce n'est rien à côté de la description du tournedos de thon : " Vous voyez un tournedos avec le gras autour et ben c'est pareil." Ah d'accord, ça donne envie...
Les deux personnes derrière nous en étaient réduits à faire le service eux-mêmes : le mari empilait les assiettes sur le côté de leur table...Très classe !
Bref, service lamentable : les plats ne sont pas coordonnés, le vin n'est pas servi, c'est moi qui est fait le service car ils avaient mis la bouteille à côté de moi...Pour une femme cela fait très distingué...Très regrettable car pourtant on y mange bien mais croyez moi ils ne nous reverrons pas.
Posted by: Anniee | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 07:40 PM
la petite maison de nice a good place to go?
pleeeeeeeeease.
la petite maison in london is great but the one in france, pleeeeeeeeeeease.
I ate there last year, I ordered the wine and they didn't even served my wife.
The waiter was extremely rude to us even though we both speak fluent french (my wife teaches FRENCH at the University).
la petite maison de nice a good place to go?
pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease
Posted by: Andrew | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 07:47 PM
La petite Maison has a horrible service: it's just the truth. Everybody just knows that will be treated very rudely there, it's a fact for years and years now.
It's such a shame that a journalist like Durack doesn't keep in mind this.
Such a shame.
Posted by: Michael | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 08:34 PM
Well, I usually go at the restaurant La Petite Maison in London, and I have to say that the food and service are just as great as you can expect from a great restaurant.
I've also been recently at La Petite Maison in Nice, France, and I regretted deeply I went there.
I wasted my time (and money) in a place where you're just arrogantly and very rudely treated.
The worst experience I ever had in a restaurant in 40 years of travels!
I'm still going to La Petite Maison in London and I took there several friends too but the restaurant in Nice is really a DISGRACE, I'm telling everybody I know about it and I'm discovering, just talking by it, even on this blog for example, that many, many, many other people think the same.
As Sarah said, me too I'll cheer up when that BAD MANNERS restaurant in France will be closed or sold.
Hopefully, I'll open a bottle of Crystal too, at La Petite Maison in London!!!
Posted by: Richard | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 11:08 PM
I just read these posts and unfortunately me too, I was unlucky enough to have dined at that place in nice, just last June while on holiday with my husband.
Nobody advised us about the service we were going to try!!!
Just a waste of money. Me and my husband won't go to that place anymore.
The food is ok but nothing particular.
At dinner the place is quite packed and the waiter can't even attend your table.
And when he arrives it's just a momentum.
The service is really something you're not prepared to.
Simply rude. With no reason.
Even if you talk french!
If you're still in time don't waste your money there!
You'll be very sorry otherwise, just like us.
We didn't know about the Sheraton's restaurant anyway (if we knew it earlier, we would have bypassed la petite maison!).
No problem, next holiday in Nice we'll try the Four Point's restaurant, thanks Mark!
When you go at a restaurant you're looking for comfort and good service first, NOT just food in a plate served with bad manners.
My personal rate of La PEtite Maison in Nice: 1/10.
The lowest in my personal list of restaurants!
Posted by: Melanie | Monday, 29 September 2008 at 11:55 PM
I agree with Melanie: NOBODY goes to a restaurant to eat good food and to be treated rudely.
The SERVICE at the table is one of the MOST important thing you can ask for, in a restaurant.
Otherwise you simply would eat at home!!!
If the food is not that good but the service is just perfect, then I'll probably be back the same.
It's the atmosphere of the place and the kindness of the waiters making special a restaurant!
When my husband takes me out for a romantic dinner we don't care about ONLY eating good food, we always choose the restaurants with the best service you can receive.
Surely I won't go back in a place where I could be treated like that, even if it was the only place in the world where I could eat the best caviar!
Thank you for sharing your experience!
If I'll ever go to Nice, I surely won't eat at la petite maison then.
I don't want to place myself and my husband in such a horrible situation.
Here in London we're lucky enough to have a great service at la petite maison!
Enjoy your meal!
Posted by: Laureen | Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 08:53 AM
I've never been at la Petite Maison in Nice but I know very well all the other Petites Maisons in Europe.
The service is quite good, so the food.
A sweden customer of mine told me he was in Nice with his family last July, on holidays.
He told me about the good food you're served there.
Especially the meat.
But he also told me that at La Petite maison the waiter's manners are quite poor and even irritant at times.
He was just left with a very bad impression, so was his wife.
He told me they were even offered free wine when they wanted to leave the place, unbelievable!
Just imagine when I told him we were going to have lunch at La Petite Maison here in London!
I was quite embarassed.
Anyway he accepted to go there after assuring him that I knew the place very well.
I need for my business lunches a place which ensures me and my guests the most perfect service, the food is good everywhere.
I wouldn't ever invite a customer to a place with poor manners.
Are we kidding?
Business is much important than a good steak served with cold service.
Posted by: Bruce | Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 10:49 AM
I cannot believe nowadays we still have bad service restaurants even if of course we're talking about french restaurants.
Too bad.
Posted by: Steven | Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 02:42 PM
My personal experience in french restaurant has always been good. I love french cuisine!
I've never been at La Petite Maison in France anyway.
I can't stand bad manners, just imagine if I'd accept to be served by a rude waiter.
Gosh!
The patron of Le Cirque once said that perfect waiters have to be very gracious to their clients in every situation.
First they have to be gentlemen, second they have to help the client with his needs.
I like the idea of having a gentleman as waiter.
It's very elegant.
I wonder what the patron of La Petite Maison in Nice says to his own waiters then.
Posted by: Nathalie | Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 04:22 PM
I dined there 2 years ago with a friend of mine.
We tried the french cheese with meat, good but we ate much better in other restaurants there in the following days, with similar prices.
Our waiter was only able to ruin our dinner, he spoke to us just like we were only a nuisance to him.
The worst behaviour we've seen in all Nice.
Posted by: Allen | Tuesday, 30 September 2008 at 06:35 PM
Don't go there. I spent my holidays in the South of france last summer and with my husband I ate at La Petite Maison in Nice.
I read very bad reviews about this restaurant and also a few journalists writing about the good food you can find there, we just wanted to try and find out.
Well, our dinner was just spoiled.
Totally ruined by this waiter badly speaking to us for the whole time.
The other dinners we had in other restaurants in the city were just lovely instead! French people are very kind. Only at La Petite Maison you find the french s*** served in nice plates.
Just save your money.
Posted by: Mandy_49 | Wednesday, 01 October 2008 at 09:46 AM
Cuisine pas mal, je n’en dirais pas autant de la patronne...dommage !!!!!!
Le pire restaurant de Nice, à éviter à moins d’être maso.
Posted by: Jacques | Wednesday, 01 October 2008 at 10:01 AM
well, I'd say I'm looking forward to going to Nice inviting there my mortgage holders to dine!
It will be a good chance to get rid of them!
Just a shame I don't like french food.
Posted by: Luke | Wednesday, 01 October 2008 at 03:13 PM
I personally had such a horrible experience in this restaurant.
I went there with my wife last April, on a weekend trip we did in France.
Very unpleasant services.
They don't know how to treat clients.
When you need the waiter, he simply doesn't turn up.
We too anyway, dined later at the Sheraton's restaurant!!!
It's better you book there in advance, the services at the Sheraton's are just lovely.
And you'll easily forget the bad experience at La Petite Maison too!
Posted by: MatthewTRe | Wednesday, 01 October 2008 at 04:21 PM
There are so many lovely restaurants in Nice's Old Town nobody needs to waste their time and money at La Petite Maison (eg Le Safari on the pedestrianised Cours Saleya; better food, better atmosphere, better in every way).
Posted by: Gastroplod | Thursday, 02 October 2008 at 10:20 AM
Me too, I was unlucky enough to go to La petite maison in Nice with a friend of mine, just few months ago, on the worst Friday's dinner I had in my whole life.
I read reviews about the good food you could try there wrote by some journalist, obviously payed by the restaurant, as I found exactly the same rude atmosphere as described by all the people posting their experiences here.
The truth is that this restaurant is just awful, there is no sense of relaxed dining there.
It's all just about poor and rude service.
La petite maison is probably the rudest place you can find in all Nice.
On my next trip I'll surely try LE SAFARI then!
Thanks Gastroplod!
And thank God la petite maison here in London is just lovely!!!
La petite maison in Nice should just close its door WITH SHAME.
Posted by: Elizabeth | Thursday, 02 October 2008 at 02:19 PM
I have just one memory of La Petite Maison in Nice.
I went there for the first time last spring, in May, with a friend. The food was good but nothing you'd die for.
The service was actually not too irritant with us, I'd say simply NOT present. And I'd say that probably it was just our lucky day!
But we were truly disappointed to see what happened to a table close to ours: the waiter treated those two young men, strangers like us as they didn't speak french at all, with the rudest manners.
It was just a disgusting scene to see no respect at all towards other clients.
I thought this restaurant was a quiet and elegant place to eat in, we found out that the truth is rather different.
We left and we weren't even replyed to our goodbye.
I've been there just one time. The first one and the last one.
Posted by: George | Thursday, 02 October 2008 at 02:40 PM
I ate at this restaurant in Nice in July. The worst mistake I did.
The service was quite arrogant you couldn't simply enjoy your meal. The waiter showed no respect to us. Such a shame. You accept to have the wine suggested by the waiter but you're not even told what wine it actually is!!!!!
I left to go to La Merenda!!!!! We found a simple and nice elegant environment at La Merenda and the chef was just sublime.
I'll be back at La Merenda next time!
Posted by: Sally | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 08:24 AM
Having eaten at La Petite Maison in Nice, South of France last Spring - being stupid enough to follow the recommendation of a journalist who never saw what TRULY happens in this restaurant - I have to conclude that this restaurant offers the WORST service I have experienced in eating out over some 30 years and in over 30 different countries worldwide. Reading other diners reviews, nearly all experienced huge delays in being seated (as I did - over 50 minutes in fact) - despite booking (as I had) - were consistently ignored by waiters(as I was), had orders refused as inappropriate or (as in my case) as taking too long to prepare!!! This place sets an entirely new (low) standard. And the experience was not offset by the cuisine which was expensive and barely average.
Posted by: Serjey | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 04:10 PM
I personally don't like this restaurant, I've been there twice in two days as our hotel was just opposite the place. Both times have been rather insignificant as service is concerned.
Just a shame to spend a late dinner in this place with your partner or friends, much better the sophisticated atmosphere of other truly upclass restaurants in the city.
I loved the service at the Beau Rivage restaurant, very relaxed atmosphere.
La petite maison really is "small" compared.
Posted by: DukeStar | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 10:02 AM
Hi, I have to go to Nice (my first time there!) on next wednesday, anybody can suggest me a good restaurant?
I need a very nice environment with high standard service, for a business dinner.
Thank you for your help!!
Posted by: Carol | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 10:39 AM
Terry here. Wow. It sounds like I was lucky on my return visit. Maybe lunch outside is a little more relaxed than dinner inside? Maybe I was more relaxed? Perhaps sitting outside helped? Our old-but-fast waiter was clearly over-worked but had a comment for everybody, leaving several of the French-speaking tables laughing (in a good way). I’ve now had one bad and one good experience, and I’m not going back to stretch the odds any further.
Yes, there are better places to eat in Nice, and there are certainly cheaper ones. I can more confidently recommend the following:
Jouni at La Reserve:
This place is a delight, and perfect for the kind of business dinner Carol was talking about. A lovely Michelin-starred restaurant and bistro on the water’s edge where Finnish-born, French-trained young chef Jouni Tormanen brings a light, inventive hand to glorious local produce while partner Giuseppe Serena runs a tight ship and a buzzy bar.
Palais de la Reserve de Nice, 60 Boulevard Franck Pilatte Tel: 33 (0)497081480 www.jouni.fr
La Merenda:
Former Michelin-starred chef Dominique Le Stanc gave up the big time to open this tiny, no-frills bistro serving classic Nicoise specialties such as tripe stew, stuffed sardines and fried courgette flowers. No telephone, no credit cards, no wine list (just one red, one white and one rose). Those in the know stop by during the day to make a booking.
4 Rue Raoul Bosio, Vieux Nice
Le Grand Café de Turin:
A hustling, bustling seafood café in Place Garibaldi that serves up noting but great platters of shellfish and crustaceans.
5 Place Garibaldi, Vieux Nice. Tel 33 (0)493622952
Acchiardo:
A traditional, family-run cantina in the old town run that is always good value and always packed. Wait for a space to come up on one of the communal tables and go for it. Their Salade Nicoise is a nice mix of things straight from the market, and the tiny ravioli and gnocchi are beautifully made.
38 Rue Droite, Vieux Nice Tel 33 (0)4 93 85 51 16
Posted by: Terry | Thursday, 09 October 2008 at 03:58 PM
Thank you, Terry.
We're in Nice right till this evening, we actually went for our dinner at L'Ane Rouge.
Very good restaurant, great service.
Our french customer loved the place.
We're going back to our hotel's restaurant for the last lunch in Nice, at the Sheraton, then we'll be back in London.
Thank you all!
Posted by: Carol | Friday, 10 October 2008 at 09:29 AM
Awful experience.
I've been there with a french colleague right this week as we were in Nice for an international meeting.
I have to say that we were treated with complete indifference. And we speak excellent french!!
We always are very welcomed in Nice's best restaurants, we're always warmly welcomed everywhere in France but this restaurant touched the lowest levels you can imagine.
Actually we wanted to try a lower level restaurant than those we already knew in the city, I think we found the lowest service restaurant in France then.
Definitely not a place worth a visit.
We really didn't like la petite maison at all.
You just don't feel welcome there.
Don't go.
Posted by: Roland | Friday, 24 October 2008 at 04:20 PM
At birthdays, if the owner doesn't like you, she bring the champagne to the table, pours you a glass and everyone says happy birthday, and as she hands you the glass after the toast she drops it, and it falls to the floor. Then she takes the bottle and sprays it on everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Michael | Friday, 24 October 2008 at 04:54 PM
Obviously, she has some problem
Posted by: Michael | Friday, 24 October 2008 at 04:55 PM
Who would expect the British, not exactly know for knowledge of food or service, to appreciate one of the best restaurants in the world? The fact that bloggers here don't understand the restaurant and prefer the Sheraton hotel says it all. I have a feeling that it was the price that these Independent readers really did not like, particularly with the current devaluation of the British pound. I have eaten at the restaurant many times and the service has been nothing but charming. Perhaps these Independent readers were a bit obnoxious? Not everybody thinks the way you act in Leeds or Birmingham is appropriate......
Posted by: KR | Saturday, 01 November 2008 at 07:16 PM
Just a question - Why is the grammar and syntax of the British (or at least the ones posting here) so awful? Surgeons, teachers and yet all we read is "my husband and me..." and "the worst mistake I did.." etc. It is absolutely disgraceful that adults in a non-third world country are unable to properly communicate. Are grammar and syntax no longer taught in the UK? Perhaps this deficiency is somehow related to the response these bloggers received at Le Petit Mason? You want respect then start by speaking properly. Just a thought........
Posted by: KR | Saturday, 01 November 2008 at 07:59 PM