Nice: Tartiflette for lunch at Chez Véro

We landed in Nice just in time for lunch, so after a short stop at the hotel, we hurried out to find a place to eat. We walked by a small bistro in the neighborhood, and when I saw that they had tartiflette as the dish of the day, I insisted that this was where we were going to have lunch.

Tartiflette is a French dish with lots of melted Reblochon cheese, potatoes, bacon and onions and it tastes great. It was a French classmate who introduced me to the dish many years ago, but Polle had also tasted tartiflette back when he was working in Istanbul and sharing an apartment with two French colleagues.

The name of the restaurant, where we had lunch, was Chez Véro, and when we entered, we were greeted warmly by a French lady. In the open kitchen, a man was busy cooking, and I think they might have been a married couple. They did not speak much English, and we did not speak much French, but we managed to order food and “une grande bottle of Pellegrino” without any problems. The atmosphere in the restaurant was super cozy, a bit like having dinner at a friend’s place, and the restaurant seemed to have a good share of regulars.

An elderly French woman was busy reading the newspaper a few tables away from ours, and I don’t think she noticed that we entered the restaurant. At one point, she finally looks up from her paper, and realize that we were sitting there, close to her, so she raises her glass (of red wine of course) and shouts out a warm and heartfelt “Bon Appétit”! Welcome to Nice 🙂

Chéz Vero, 126 Av. de la Californie, Nice