Still looking to book an apartment in Antibes?
Here are three rental apartments in Antibes near
La Taille de Guêpe.
RESTAURANT REVIEWS
ANTIBES
• Les Figuier de Saint-Esprit
• L'Auberge Provencale
• Yaka
• La Taille de Guêpe
GOLFE-JUAN
• Tétou
CANNES
• La Guérite
VILLEFRANCHE
• L'Aparte
EZE
• Chevre d'Or
ST-PAUL-DE-VENCE
• Le Tilleul
• La Colombe d'Or
CAGNES SUR MER
• Restaurant Lou Lou
MOUGINS
• A La Table d’Edmund
FURTHER AFIELD
• L'Auberge de la Penne
ROSA’S TIPS
• Making the Most of the Market
• Wine Bars: A Corking Night Out
Looking for restaurants in Nice?
Visit our restaurant guide to Nice on our Nice Pebbles site
La Taille de Guêpe
24 Rue de Fersen, Antibes, 06600
+33 (0)4 93 74 03 58
Flower Cuisine
When staying in one of our holiday apartments in Antibes, you are unlikely to stumble on this fantasitc flowered themed restuarant. Tucked away on one of the quiet roads of the Old Town of Antibes, La Taille de Guêpe is probably only found by locals. The name is a French expression, referring to a shapely, feminine silhouette with a small waist. Though your figure may not be the thing most restaurants want you to think about as they serve you copious amounts of rich food, at La Taille de Guêpe you can eat to your heart’s content without worrying about piling on the pounds. The cuisine is generally light and attention is made to ensure that all the ingredients are good for you.
The most striking thing about this restaurant is the floral theme that is reflected both in the decoration and the menu. The space is small and intimate without being crowded. The décor is bright, fresh and pretty, just like the food. Fairy lights decorate the room, and flowers help create a magical, outdoor feeling. The décor makes the restaurant well suited for a light lunch with the girls, though at night the twinkling of the fairy lights sets a sweet, romantic tone.
The menu fits perfectly around the blooming alfresco décor. There are three menus to choose from that change according to the season. The menu légère, or light menu, serves up the essence of La Taille de Guêpe: simple, healthy food, It consists of a main course and a dessert adding up to less than 550 calories, and it’s not only your hips that will be thanking you: at 14.50 euros for two courses, your purse strings will appreciate it too. We opted for the menu légère choosing the Sicilian lemon chicken, which was delicately flavoured and beautifully presented with fresh vegetables and spaghetti. The meals are perfectly proportioned according to the amounts of protein, starch and vegetables we should be eating. In keeping with the theme of the restaurant, our meal included six different types of edible flowers. It may not be what you expect on your plate, but the flowers really added to the presentation along with the seeds and grains making the dish flavoursome and full of health benefits. The helpful waitress explained which flowers featured in our dishes, so you may want to brush up on your French flower vocabulary if you want to fully understand what you’re eating!
For dessert we chose a ginger panna cotta, which was fresh and bursting with flavour. The dessert was, of course, carefully garnished with another flower. The menu was surprisingly filling and we could barely believe we’d only eaten a 550 calorie meal.
If you’re not watching your waist and want to treat yourself, the menu gourmande features a choice of dishes, including kangaroo steaks and fish, which still have many health benefits without being extremely low in fat. The gourmande desserts were equally tempting and included tiramisu and crème au chocolat.
There is also the option of a three course meal for 26 euros or you can order à la carte, where there is a wider selection of dishes. Ordering à la carte also means that you can go for a light main course, and treat yourself to a richer dessert.
La Taille de Guêpe is a great little spot to savour fresh and original food without doing any damage to your waistline. This place really is refreshingly different from the rest.
– Keely Barrat. If you would like to contact Keely, you can email her at keely@nicepebbles.com.
Rosa says,
Tossing edible flowers into salads or frying them in batter has long been a tradition in Provence. The dish you’re most likely to come across is beignets de fleurs de courgettes, big yellow courgette blossoms dipped into a light batter and fried. Occasionally, you might also see acacia flowers prepared the same way – these have a more pronounced nectar-like taste. Vivid yellow or orange nasturtiums, pale blue borage flowers and the white flowers of wild garlic enliven salads and garnish plates. One chef with a strong penchant for flowers is Mauro Colagreco of the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Mirazur in Menton. Each day, he climbs up to his vegetable and herb garden to pick fresh produce and blossoms for his plates that are presented like contemporary artworks. If you’re interested in learning more about edible flowers you might sign up for a cooking class (in French) at the Atelier de la Cuisine des Fleurs in Tourrettes sur Loup. Run by the Confiserie Florian, which is famous for its candied fruits, the classes have a different theme each month: coming up are violets in March, chocolate in April, roses from Grasse in May and wildflowers in June.