Where to eat in Monaco, depending on what you want to spend

I think Monaco eats better than its reputation suggests and worse than its prices do. There are two Monacos at the table. One belongs to the SBM’s grand hotels, with nine starred restaurants in the 2026 Michelin Guide, and the other to the market, the bakeries and the barbagiuans, which is where you really see what Monegasques eat. Here I sort both by budget, with official prices where they exist and the right amount of caution where they don’t.

Cheap eats start on the Place d’Armes

The Condamine market has been trading since 1880, according to Visit Monaco, and the Mairie talks of more than 120 years of commerce. It has butchers, bakers, charcutiers, a fishmonger, greengrocers and florists, plus a food section where Visit Monaco places barbagiuans, socca and pissaladière. Since 15 January 2026 the hall has been closed for 13 months of works, so the stalls now trade from temporary stands on the Place d’Armes itself until it reopens, due in early 2027.

Visit Monaco and the Mairie publish different hours, and I go with the Mairie’s, since it runs the market. The stalls open every day from 07:00 to 15:30, fruit and flower sellers until 12:00, and from Tuesday to Saturday there are evening meals from 18:00 to 23:00 with no booking needed. Everything else in the district is in La Condamine.

The other cheap option is a picnic. The Carrefour hypermarket in the Fontvieille shopping centre also opens on Sundays, though it closes earlier that day, and shares the building with a bakery and a McDonald’s. It isn’t romantic, but with children or on a long day it sorts lunch out without fuss. In Mareterra, the new district between Monte-Carlo and Larvotto, the SBM runs Marlow, a café with Monaco prices to match. Pastries cost €4 to €4.50, salads €21 to €29 and sandwiches and bagels €16 to €35, taxes and service included. For a coffee with a new view, fine; for a cheap lunch, no. More ways to spend less are on my page about Monaco on a budget.

Monegasque cooking facing the Palace

The tourist office names three places on the Rock when it talks about eating in the old town. Castelroc is on Palace Square, under the pines, with a veranda facing the Palace, and the same family has run it since 1953. Its website promises Monegasque specialities and fish, with stocafi as the dish to order, and in 2026 it opens every day at lunchtime only. La Montgolfière, tucked into the old town’s lanes, does traditional dishes with a modern twist, stocafi included. Saint Nicolas, just below the cathedral, changes its Mediterranean menu with the seasons.

If I had to choose one for lunch after seeing the Prince’s Palace, it would be Castelroc, for the setting and for the dish. What stocafi actually is, and what else is worth tasting, is in Monegasque food and what to try.

Which Monaco restaurants have Michelin stars?

Nine, with 14 stars in total, according to the official list in the France 2026 guide, which happened to be presented on 16 March at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. Le Louis XV by Alain Ducasse, in the Hôtel de Paris, has three. L’Abysse, Yannick Alléno’s Japanese at the Hermitage, Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac at the Métropole and Marcel Ravin’s Blue Bay have two. On one star are Le Grill, Pavyllon, Elsa (at the Monte-Carlo Beach, which is in France), La Table d’Antonio Salvatore au Rampoldi and Robuchon Monaco, the only new star of the year. The chef, cooking style, opening days and published price of each are gathered in Monaco’s Michelin-starred restaurants.

Two warnings. Yoshi is still in the selection but no longer has a star, so don’t trust older lists. And there’s no Bib Gourmand anywhere in Monaco; the closest is L’Orangerie, in Menton. If you’re exploring the area, the list grows across the border. Mirazur in Menton has three stars, La Chèvre d’Or in Èze two, and Château Eza, in the same village, one.

Le Louis XV, the star I’d pay for

If I were paying for just one expensive meal in Monaco, it would be the Riviera Lunch at Le Louis XV by Alain Ducasse. You choose a starter, main and dessert from the menu, and the bill comes to €230 a head, or €300 with wine, water and coffee included. It only runs at lunchtime on Fridays and Saturdays. For comparison, the Agape, the shorter tasting menu, goes up to €420, and at dinner, Tuesday to Saturday, a jacket is required in every season.

My fallback if the trip doesn’t include a weekend is Le Grill, on the eighth floor of the Hôtel de Paris, which never closes, with views as far as the Italian coast and a Grand Marnier soufflé that’s been its dessert for ever. Pavyllon, at the Hermitage, also opens daily and works as a counter, which strikes me as the least solemn way to eat at starred level. The other treats with a price attached are in luxury experiences in Monaco.

The Café de Paris, a terrace priced like a theatre box

Opposite the Casino, the Café de Paris serves from breakfast until after midnight and is part of the furniture of the square. Since its refit it has two floors, a modern brasserie downstairs and a quieter room upstairs under a skylight. Its summer 2026 menu already includes taxes and service (15%), and the prices say a lot. Ten chard and parmesan barbajuans cost €19, onion soup €26, a salade niçoise €36, sole meunière €94 and a glass of champagne €25. The full story of the place is on my page about the Café de Paris in Monte-Carlo.

Where I land is this. A coffee or a plate of barbajuans to watch the square, yes. A full meal, only if budget isn’t an issue. For the rest of Casino Square and Monte-Carlo, I’d arrive with lunch already sorted. And if you’d rather have Asian food with a DJ inside the Casino building itself, see the Buddha-Bar in Monte-Carlo. For international names with their own pages, avenue Princesse Grace has Cipriani Monte Carlo, the Italian in the Mirabeau building, and Maya Bay Monaco, Thai and Japanese with no afternoon break, while Fontvieille harbour has Beefbar Monaco, where the brand began.