At times, travel attractions you to a great restaurant dining experience. On our travels through Nice, France, we had the opportunity to stop in Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin. It’s always a terrific discovery when you’re able to locate a hidden gem that might be off the beaten path. In this case, our discovery led us to explore one of the largest wine lists I’ve seen in a restaurant in recent years.

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This post is one chapter on a trip to the South of France and Cinque Terre, Italy. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For information on how this trip was booked, please see our introduction. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Restaurant Review: Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin Wine Bar, Nice, France

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After sightseeing around Vieux Nice, it was time to recharge with a few great wines and snacks. With a little advance research, I discovered Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin wine bar near the port of Vieux Nice.

About Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin Wine Bar:

I discovered the Rouge Bar à Vin through the Michelin Guide and it’s related application for iPhone when I was searching for great restaurants in Nice to experience. The Michelin Guide had rated the Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin with a Bib Gourmand, representing good quality, good value cooking.

The Rouge Bar à Vin offers almost one hundred bottles of wine by the glass, along with snacks that are described as being between appetizers and tapas presented either as hot or cold.

With a description like this, it fit the bill for a visit.

Locating the Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin:

The Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin is located just off from the Vieux Port of Nice. It’s tucked away one block off of the harbour. Scrambling down from the Colline du Château, we had no problem locating the restaurant.

The Rouge Restaurant is easy to find on Rue de Foresta in the antiques district. Rouge has a large patio offering outdoor tables, with makes for a collegial environment.

Inside Rouge Restaurant:

While we didn’t sit inside the Rouge Restaurant, the interior of the restaurant is strictly bistro style. The Rouge Restaurant interior showcases the wine fridges, which are some of the most impressive wine fridges I’ve seen at a restaurant.

Despite the simple nature of the restaurant interior, it would mark the foundation for the excellent wines and snacks we’d soon enjoy.

On the Menu:

The menu was approachable and full of all things terrific that you’d expect from a wine bar.

The wine list at Rouge was absolutely massive; consisting of over one hundred different bottles of wine. All of the bottles of wine under 50€ were open for wines by the glass, with pricing at one quarter of the full bottle size per glass. 

The list of wines was completely impressive and the perfect introduction to wines in France.

We started off with a glass each of the Domaine Ray Jane and Michel Laroche Petit Chablis. Both were perfectly crisp and chilled for our minor sweat that we had worked up.

Feeling a little hungry we went with puffed cheese ravioli’s; a great finger food snack.

We followed this with some spinach in pastry. It was presented with a light filo styped pastry with crisp sea salt over top.

The wine and food was so terrific, it was time for a second round. It was Joseph Drouin Macon – Lungy Les Cray and l’Orphelin whites. Both were presented well and fresh.

The cheque was a reasonable 55€ for four wines and two appetizer courses. It was a solid value for the product delivered.

I was really happy with the visit to Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin. It’s unusual to get the opportunity to get so many wines to chose from.

My Thoughts on Visiting Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin:

The Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin was a great neighbourhood bistro offering terrific wines and snacks.

The Michelin Guide gave the Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin a well deserved Bib Gourmand rating for offering excellent value in the category.

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If you have visited Rouge Restaurant – Bar à Vin, did you find it represented a great value dining experience ?

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