French food culture: Eating out in Nice, France | French Riviera Travel Guide

Do you know the feeling? You open a menu and you don't understand a thing and then the waiter comes and goes Anya and I will help you out today and We'll also tell you what else you need to know when you want to eat in a French restaurant Because there are some pretty special customs Taking their time and enjoying a good meal is one of the things the French are truly amazing at So you should definitely try to get a feel of that when you're here and Before we take you out. Let's have a quick look at some interesting facts Restaurants serve meals at specific times only Lunch is between 12 and 2 p.m. Dinner usually between 7 and 10 p.m. If you're hungry in between there are always bakeries around fast food places, or you check out a brasserie The French try not to snack Instead, there are three meals that are taken very seriously the petit-déjeuner the déjeuner and the dîner For kids, there's also the goûter, a cookie break at 4 p.m. Right before dinner you often have an apéro in France, a drink along with chips and olives Now join us at one of Nice's oldest and most authentic brasseries Galio at the entrance to Nice's old town between Place Saint-François and the Promenade des Paillons Here food and drinks are served all day long. So you could even start your day with a breakfast at this place But just something to drink at any time of day is fine, too. I go for a typical French lemonade Orangina Sweet but refreshing and so tasty and no day without a coffee for Anja And if you order a coffee, don't forget to ask for verre d'eau, which means glass of water You won't believe it, but it's for free. Speaking of free water in France You can always order a carafe d'eau, a pitcher of tap water, for free. It's the law Now, let's jump into the menu and get something straight The French word menu That you would read menu Means a special combo. In this case a combo for 29 year 90s Which consists of a starter, these are different starters, a main dish And a choice of three desserts in this case. In general, it's worth getting a menu, a combo It's cheaper than going for several separate dishes and it's fun because you get to try different specialties Most French restaurants have a dish of the day on offer Often written on a slate and it's always wise to go for one of those as they are usually very reasonably priced At Galio's, and that's pretty typical, they offer special lunch combos Monday through Friday So there's les formules déjeuner, that's the combo for lunch. In this case, we have two different ones one for 19.90 and one for 23.90 and the difference is you can either have a Starter and the main dish or a main dish and a dessert or a little bit more expensive, all three of them Starter, main dish, dessert. Often it's even in English and French Most restaurants and brasseries have special offers for kids too, a so-called menu enfant And the children's combo often is only for children up until 12 years old If you don't want a combo, you can also have a starter just like that Les entrées means starter and there's a huge choice of starters. One very Typical starter would be les petits farcini soixante Which is stuffed vegetables By the way, if you'd like to find out more about food specialties in Nice, check out this video And now for the main dish. If you're looking for something typical, you can always go for l'adobe niçoise Which is stewed beef, in this case with red wine sauce and raviolis Les garnitures means side dishes Usually the main dishes are divided into fish and meat. They don't do that at Galio's So let's have a quick look at the menu at the brasserie Félix Fort, just across the road Let's check this menu So here's Côté terre, which means meat Côté mer, which is all about fish and seafood Côté des pâtes, which are pasta Partager means to share And where's the vegetarian dish? Oh wait, there's at least a pasta dish Pasta with basil and parmesan, but it's not very common to have a separated vegetarian category So don't look out for that. It won't happen. You just have to read between the lines and find your vegetarian dish When you've finished your meal and would like to pay the bill, here's what you say What is really good in France, you can always pay by credit card There's one more peculiarity you need to be aware of in France Don't be surprised that you have to call the waiter if you want to pay So then either you wave your hand like this and then he will come and sometimes you even just have to go to the counter to pay You don't have to leave a tip, pour boire, in France Since a service fee of 15% is already included in the price of your dish But if you're happy with your experience at a restaurant or a bar, it's common to leave a few coins when you go Either on the table or in the little plastic bowl that holds your bill You can't be friends without having tried a café gourmand And now you want to know what a café gourmand is. This is a café gourmand It's a perfect dessert or a great afternoon snack for those of you with a sweet tooth You'll get an espresso and samples of three or four typical desserts like a scoop of ice cream, tiramisu, chocolate mousse Or in this case a crème caramel. The price is usually around 10 euros So when you're in a French restaurant, there are a few words you have to know. First and most important one is bonjour When you come into a restaurant, say bonjour, which is hi, hello And actually no matter where you go, the first word is always bonjour Really you have to do that. Otherwise, you're not polite Even if you want to ask a question and you'll start excuse me, excusez-moi That's not good. You start with a bonjour, excusez-moi Excuse me, that's the the proper way to do it. In the evening you switch to bonsoir Instead of saying bonjour, but still means hi. And if you'd like the check you can ask l'addition s'il vous plaît And surely you want to be polite, so you need to know merci, which means thank you And when you're all done and you want to go home, you say au revoir, which means bye-bye We know there's still this urban legend that French people don't speak other languages, but this is literally not true So don't be worried. They will understand you and they will try their best to speak in English with you. And speaking about cliches If you're looking for frog legs, don't expect to find them here in the south of France Honestly, i'm not sure i've ever seen them on a menu If you liked our video Why don't you subscribe to our channel and you'll get to see many more stories from the French Riviera