Le Petit Nice Passedat is a Michelin 3 star restaurant/hotel in Marseilles, and a Relais et Chateau property. It has been owned by the Passedat family for 3 generations, and is currently under the helm of chef Gerald Passedat. One comes here to enjoy the vast bounty of the Mediterranean Sea, and what a bounty it is! There are several things to know about Le Petit Nice. The first is that the menu is all fish and seafood. Meat and fowl do not occupy any place in the kitchen. The second is that cream and butter are not used in the cooking, and a minimum of sugar in desserts. As our four hour lunch demonstrated, a three star meal can be enjoyed immensely without feeling bloated at the end. The third is the amazing wine list and sommelier service. Not surprisingly, the list is heavily tilted toward whites, with an amazing selection of white burgundy. If grand cru white burgundy is your pleasure, be prepared to pay in the four digits. If there is a disappointment, it is that the list is composed mostly of recent vintages. I had the pleasure of dining here when it was a two star, and the list then had a wide selection of older vintages. Alas, it has been picked over. On my visit last month, two sommeliers worked the room, both of whom knew the list inside out, and both of whom provided knowledgeable and gracious service. One of them always appeared to pour just when our glasses needed lubrication. We drank the 2009 Coche Dury Meursault Genevrieres, a tasting note of which can be found in Wine Talk. The sommelier suggested she decant it, and good thing it was, because the wine was singing after two hours.
The restaurant is perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. In warmer weather, one can dine on a terrace with a view of the sea that is unparalleled. The terrace is where many diners repair for coffee after their meals. Two staff members were stationed outside the entrance to warmly greet the customers. The only other 3 star where I have seen this is at the estimable Troisgros. A nice touch. Three of us were shown to a corner table with sweeping and dramatic views of the Mediterranean. Every seat in the dining room has commanding views of the sea, but as we sat in the corner, ours was a panoramic view.
The guest is offered a choice of five menus plus a la carte. We chose the Menu Passedat, a ten course affair with extras at the beginning and end. Service was efficient and warm, the formality of which depended on the guests. As we chatted up our server, he returned the favor by providing casual but no less highly competent service. Warm breads are brought to table with two ramekins of olive oil. One, from Nice, was flat, but the other, from Tuscany, was all that Tuscan oil can be. Spicy, with flavors redolent of grass and artichokes. If there was a nit about the bread, it was that the crust on the small baguettes was spongy rather than crusty.
I cannot offer any photos of each plate, but I can say this. Every dish was executed to perfection in terms of taste and texture. Plating is beautiful, and someone in the kitchen has an exquisite eye for color in how fish is presented with vegetables. As a card carrying Cantonese, fish and seafood is in my DNA. At Le Petit Nice, the denizens of the sea could not have been cooked more perfectly, all the better to draw out their freshness, flavor and texture. Two plates stood out. The first was a dish of five slices of raw tuna that tasted of the sea. A few drops of olive oil were all that was needed. Arranged at the top of the plate was one slice of mullet that was smoked in beechwood. We were advised to eat the mullet after the tuna, and shockingly, it actually cleansed the palate! Then we were advised to follow the mullet with a glass of celery broth, which shockingly, cleansed the palate again! Brilliant!
The second plate was their signature dish, Sea Bass Lucie Passedat, created to pay homage to the chef’s grandmother. A square of sea bass was arranged with strips of zucchini on top, on top of which was placed a disc of black truffle. It was steamed in a pool of tomatoes, coriander, basil, fennel and olive oil, a sauce that is Provençale if ever there was one (minus the coriander, of course). The zucchini and truffle provided the textural crunch to the meltingly tender bass, and the sauce provided the intense flavor that simply elevated the taste of the bass. By the way, the chef offers his version of Bouillabaise, which must be reserved in advance. The last savory course was a taste of bouillabaisse. It was apparent that every one of the fish that went into this plate was cooked separately. The soup they swam in was intense, and tasted of lobster shells that must have been cooked and reduced for hours. If there was a nit, it was that the soup could have been hotter.
The cheese trolley overflowed with what must have been 50 or 60 cheeses, all served at the optimum temperature and ripeness. While I did not have any, the expression on my friends faces betrayed their delight as they performed their Gallic duty at meal’s end. Desserts are fruit based, their flavors enhanced by fruit reductions and liquors.
One final note. Le Petit Nice is located in a tough section of Marseilles, itself a rough and gritty city. If you are driving, you must navigate an impossibly narrow lane to reach the parking lot of the restaurant. If you are halfway down the lane and a car should be heading in the opposite direction, there is going to be a headache. You will take your chances if you park in the street, so better to pray and navigate the lane to park in the restaurant’s lot. Once there, a valet will take care of the rest. Better still, take a cab to and from the restaurant, and avoid taking a stroll after your meal. In fact, you won’t need a stroll because the meal is so light there is little to walk off.