Salade nicoise is the Nicois raw vegetable salad with tomatoes, anchovies, hard boiled eggs, Nicoise olives, raw red onion, raw green pepper and tuna, all dressed with olive oil and never any cooked vegetable.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Salade nicoise originated as the Nicois fishermen's quick lunch made from the components of the morning market. The Cuisine Nissarde label requires raw vegetables only, no cooked potato or green bean (Escoffier's later version added them) and Nicoise olives instead of black olives. The dish travels well across the city under the same name at Chez Acchiardo, La Petite Maison and Le Safari.
Common allergens: Fish, Egg
Tip from the editors. Do not add lettuce, cooked potato, cooked green bean or mayonnaise; the canonical Nicois version is built on raw vegetables and the olive oil dressing only.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Why locals love it: Family Nicois room on Rue Droite since the close of the First World War, four generations and a single lunch sitting under the family name.
Tip: Book by phone several days ahead for the lunch service; closed Saturday and Sunday.
La Petite Maison in Nice's Carre d'Or has cooked Nicole Rubi's Mediterranean room since 1999, the home of the Nice school of cooking now exported to London and Dubai.
Le Safari on Cours Saleya offers the canonical Nicois lunch since 1972, the Cuisine Nissarde label and pissaladiere on the terrace facing the daily market in Vieux Nice.
Try: Pissaladiere terrace plate
Felix on Avenue Felix Faure runs continuous brasserie service to 01:30 every night in Nice's Carre d'Or, the city's most reliable kitchen for the after midnight crowd with five rooms and a terrace.
Try: Brasserie classics and Niçoise salad
Order: The salade nicoise after midnight or the brasserie steak with frites.
Tip: Last orders 01:00; the kitchen runs through the whole evening without break service.
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