Le Canon – Introduction

Le Canon in Nice is a great place to find expertly cooked food of great provenance and a stellar list of natural wines from throughout France chosen by owner Sébastien Perinetti.

But it is more than a restaurant, you can also drop in here at any time to buy a bottle or two or three of wine from the well-stocked cellar.

It is quite close to the main action and you can find it by walking a couple of blocks directly away from the Promenade des Anglais in the street next to the Westminster Hotel which is only a block or so from the famous Negresco Hotel.

You will notice the restaurant by the highly coloured tiles that feature on the right side of the entrance.

Le Canon – The food and wine

The chef on each of our visits to Le Canon has been Elmahdi Mobarik who was brought up in Nice and worked at a number of local restaurant before taking on the challenge of working with the freshest of produce.

We have always found his cooking to be clever, incisive and protective of the produce – meaning he doesn’t contort it into something it is not. The food on the plate seems simple, but it is a combination of sourcing the best produce and then clever cooking to reveal but not obscure the flavours.

The menu at lunch is basically a subset of the evening offerings. At our most recent meal we decided to go in the evening to take advantage of the extra dishes, plus the opportunity to relax over one or two bottles from the great wine selection.

From this menu we ordered the tartare of lamb, the soup with the bulots, the filet de mulet with the bean puree and the risotto. Each dish was amazing and we enjoyed them immensely.

The following description of dishes is from a previous meal.

We started with some freshly shucked oysters that were some of the best we have eaten in France. They were quite large and were very briny – tasting of the sea. This was a great start to our meal.

Our next dish was a light stew of very tasty clams cooked with chickpeas – a legume for which the Nicoise have a particular affection. This dish was cooked very precisely with the clams just being cooked through and the chickpeas being soft but not overcooked.

We also shared a lovely dish of veal brains served on slices of cooked apple. The acidity in the apple being a good foil for the creaminess of the brains.

These dishes were washed down with a bottle of Blanc du Casot from Le Casot des Mailloles. This wine was made just south of Collioure by Ghislaine Magnier and Alain Castex and is a particular favourite. They have now sold this estate and are producing wines from a single hectare of vines under the Les Vins de Cabanon label.

A chicken dish saw two large pieces of perfectly cooked chicken of very good provenance served on a bed of creamy polenta surrounded by a deeply-flavoured sauce that was not too reduced. This was a very satisfying dish.

We also ordered a creamy risotto which was made with Carnaroli rice from Riserva San Massimo which is just below Milano in the Pavia district of Italy. This was served with some lovely mountain snails which provided contrast to the creaminess of the rice.

These two dishes paired seamlessly with a Beaujolais wine from Michel Guignier called Oh! This is a light, refreshing wine that does not dominate the food.

We finished the meal with a pot of yoghurt and a slice of chocolate tart that were both delicious but light and ethereal.

We have now visited on a number of occasions and every visit has been a wonderful experience.

You can see their amazing photos on the Le Canon Facebook Page.