Ian P.
Yelp
After looking into Gérald Passedat (admittedly after watching Anthony Bourdain's trip to Marseille), I was really excited to dine at his restaurant La Petit Nice. Now having dined there, I can say that I appreciated the experience, but ultimately felt like it did not necessarily fit my tastes or quite meet my expectations.
It must be stated up front, that the ambiance of La Petit Nice, was one of the best that I have experienced. The view of Marseille's coast from within the contemporary dining room, that has been designed to maximize this asset, was a magnificent backdrop to our sunset dinner.
After my wife and I were greeted and seated at our table, a waitress wheeled over a dinner cart to our table to offer us any digestifs and/or water, which was a nice touch. A waiter then came to our table to provide us with the menu, which was confusing at first, because I had reserved a particular set menu when originally booking. He explained that we could change our set menu to a different one, which I appreciated from one standpoint since my original booking wasn't my first choice, but I feel like this confusion should have been avoided.
We ended up choosing the Passedat Menu, as we were told this was the best way to experience the best dishes from Chef Passedat. The menu is listed at 250€ without wine and 395€ with wine pairing.
To summarize the various dishes, some of them (Foretaste, Lucie Passedat Sea Bass, and My Sea Garden) were very good. Other dishes (Southern Fishes in Caravan, Relief of Sea Bream, Sea Anemone) had flavors that were too overpowering and unbalanced. For example, the soups that accompanied and were incorporated into the dishes were meant to taste like the sea and were very briny, but almost to the point of being inedible. The Sea Anemone, which was heavily hyped, was also very salty and was a struggle to finish. Also, on a more personal note, there were spices used throughout the dishes like anise, which my wife and I are not the biggest fans of, in quantities that made them less suited to our tastes.
The service at times was very good, but it also stumbled in a couple of areas. The length of time between dishes seemed to be much too long, which caused our dinner to end after almost four hours. The explanations of dishes and wine seemed to be too rushed and curt, and in one case, non-existent. Case in point, I asked the sommelier to give me some information on the digestif that I ordered, but after struggling to explain it to me, said that I should "just try it." I'm sure the language barrier contributed to this situation, but I'm confused as to why he didn't just ask one of the other waiters to assist.
In summary, the experience did not reach the high expectations that I had imposed on Le Petit Nice. While I can appreciate the execution of both the restaurant's ambiance and exquisite dishes, the flavor profiles and service missteps left me with the knowledge that, ultimately, Le Petit Nice is not a restaurant for me.