Château Eza will always be a special place for me. It’s where my husband and I got married, so returning is never going to feel quite like visiting any other restaurant. We’ve been a couple of times for both lunch and dinner, after our most recent lunch I thought it was a good time to share about this experience and a place that’s very special to us.
This was our third time eating here and on this visit, we came for lunch with my parents. We chose from the à la carte menu and were seated on one of the smaller terraces, separate from the main restaurant terrace. It was much more private and such a lovely place to spend a few hours together as a family.
If you’ve ever been to Èze, you’ll know just how beautiful it is. Château Eza sits high up in the medieval village looking down over the Côte d’Azur. No matter how many times I’ve seen the incredible view, I’m mesmerised as much as the first time when we viewed it as a possible wedding venue.
There’s something incredibly calming about being up there too. Fine dining can sometimes feel quite formal, but at Château Eza, sitting outside above the sea, the whole experience feels much more relaxed. It’s peaceful, unhurried and the sort of place where you quite happily lose track of time over lunch.
We decided to order from the à la carte menu rather than have the tasting menu, I really enjoyed this as it meant we could choose exactly what we fancied. We all chose different meals so it was nice to talk about each of our dishes together.
I started with the roasted octopus with satay and corn cream with smoked whisky. I love octopus and this was such an interesting combination of flavours, it’s actually my favourite course I had previously when we went for dinner the day after our wedding. The satay brought richness to the dish, while the corn added sweetness and the smoked whisky gave it something a little different.
For my main course, I chose the roasted pigeon with cocoa crumble, beetroot tatin and sweet potato cream. Pigeon is something I only have when I see it on a fine-dining menu, and I loved the combination here. Cocoa crumble with pigeon might sound unusual, but alongside the sweetness of the beetroot and sweet potato, it really worked. It was rich, but not so heavy that it felt too much for lunch.
For dessert we all chose the banana with crunchy peanut biscuit and lime sorbet, it was honestly one of the best desserts we’ve experienced. Banana and peanut is always going to be a combination I love, but it was the lime sorbet that really balanced everything out. It brought a sharp freshness to the dessert and stopped it from becoming overly sweet.
There’s another reason eating at Château Eza feels personal to us. Chef Justin Schmitt was also the chef for our wedding here, which makes coming back and experiencing his food again even more special. He works only with seasonal produce which is something I really love about the restaurant.
The menu changes with the seasons, so there is always something new to try when you return. For me, it keeps the restaurant feeling fresh rather than coming back and seeing the same dishes each time. Although, I was very happy to see the octopus dish on the menu again.
Fine dining is something I genuinely love and I’ve been fortunate enough to eat at many one, two and three Michelin-starred restaurants over the years.
One of my favourite things about fine dining is seeing how different chefs approach ingredients and flavours. Two restaurants at the same Michelin level can give you completely different experiences, which is part of what makes it so interesting. However, I don’t think the number of Michelin stars alone determines how memorable a restaurant is.
The food is obviously important, but for me the setting, service and atmosphere all play a part too. I want to leave remembering how somewhere made me feel, not just what was on the plate.
I can’t talk about lunch at Château Eza without mentioning the view again, because it really is a huge part of the experience. Sitting on our own little terrace away from the main dining area made this visit feel particularly special. We had more privacy and could just sit together as a family, enjoy the food and look out over the Mediterranean below us.
I know I’m never going to be completely impartial when it comes to Château Eza as I got married here, Chef Justin Schmitt cooked for our wedding, I’ve eaten here before and after the restaurant received its Michelin star. There are so many memories attached to the place that walking back through Èze and arriving at Château Eza will always bring some of those feelings back which adds to why I love it so much.
Rather than Château Eza being somewhere that exists as one memory from our wedding, we’ve continued to come back and experience it at different times in our lives. This time it was a long lunch with my husband and parents, sitting together on a private terrace overlooking the Côte d’Azur. That becomes another memory attached to the place and I can’t wait to take our little boy in the future too.
Considering this was my third time, I think the answer is fairly obvious. I’ve eaten at Michelin-starred restaurants where the food has been technically incredible, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the restaurants I find myself wanting to return to. Château Eza is somewhere I will always return to.
Part of that will always be sentimental, but I also genuinely love the restaurant. I love that the menu changes with the seasons, I love discovering what Chef Justin Schmitt is doing differently each time we visit, the incredible view, and I love that the atmosphere still feels so calm.
Lunch at Château Eza isn’t just about what we’re eating, it’s walking through the little streets of Èze, returning somewhere that holds so many memories for us, sitting above the Mediterranean with people I love and having nowhere else I need to be for the next few hours.
Rebecca x
