Aaron V.
Yelp
The worst thing about our dinner at L'Atelier was that it came on our last night in Nice -- we might've eaten there every night had it come up earlier in my restaurant searching. It could be that the name, which essentially means "shop" and is common in many business names, and the location, a bit away from the restaurant-heavy areas of the city, make it harder to find online.
Since we had an early flight out the next morning, we were out to get dinner relvatively early, and arrived just a few minutes after their dinner hours began as the evening's first patrons. We had sought out various niçois dishes during our trip, but hadn't had socca yet. L'Atelier takes a unique approach to the regional specialty, using it as a base on which to serve a variety of toppings. Unlike the socca that some restaurants make in a large pan and split into smaller servings, these are individual-sized. My wife and I ordered the Thai beef and the bresaola and mozzerella, and split them. They were superb. I preferred the bresaola a bit, if only because it was more unusual for me. The ingredients were fresh and delicious all the way around.
They had an extensive dessert list, from which we ordered chocolate and raspberry crepes. This was a dish of three small crepes with chocolate filing, folded into triangles and covered with raspberries and sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or gelato perhaps) and a pinch of coconut sprinkles on the side. Also delicious.
The service was great as well. Our server answered whatever questions we had about the menu and happily tolerated my weak French. She recommended wines for us from their extensive selection, as well. Not long after we arrived, the rest of the restaurant began to fill up, and it was mostly full by the time we left. It isn't very big -- maybe 10 tables -- but our server was handling the whole place, and two chefs were running the entire kitchen. Nonetheless, she was very charming and helpful, and provided a great night to end our trip.