NYKAT Plage Antibes: A New Riviera Dining Experience by the Sea

There is something quietly disarming about arriving at a restaurant and feeling sand beneath your feet before you’ve even opened the menu. At NYKAT Plage, which opened in June 2026 in the heart of Old Antibes, that simple detail immediately changes the pace of the evening. Fine white sand covers the floor, recreating the atmosphere of a Riviera beach just steps from Port Vauban. It is an unexpected detail that sets the tone before the first course even arrives.

Created by a group of restaurateurs who fell in love with the Côte d’Azur and wanted to leave their own mark on the Riviera, NYKAT brings together Mediterranean cuisine, live music and contemporary design in a setting that naturally moves from dinner to cocktails and late-evening entertainment.

The kitchen is led by Head Chef Thomas Vado, whose experience includes W Verbier, Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne and La Table d’Hôte du 22. His menu follows a sharing philosophy, encouraging guests to place dishes in the centre of the table and discover the menu together rather than through the traditional sequence of courses. Focused on seasonal Mediterranean ingredients, the menu is concise, allowing each plate to express its own identity.

We sampled almost the entire menu, and not a single dish felt predictable. One of the standouts was the Gambero Rosso with Granny Smith apple, dill and kalamansi, balancing sweetness, freshness and citrus with remarkable precision. The lamb skewer with Greek herbs, tzatziki, harissa and charred lemon was another highlight, while the cochinita tacos, served on freshly made corn tortillas with salsa verde and pickled red onions, brought unexpected depth and complexity. The Kampot pepper duck, glazed with honey and paired with blackberries and carrot-coconut purée, demonstrated the kitchen’s confidence in combining Mediterranean ingredients with subtle international influences.

Another thoughtful detail is the daily La Criée selection. Rather than listing every fish on the menu, the kitchen works with the daily catch brought in by fishermen from nearby Antibes, inviting guests to ask about the freshest arrivals of the day.

Pastry is not treated as an afterthought. The dessert programme has been created by award-winning pastry chef Manon Gouin, recipient of the 2024 Lebey Prize for Best Chocolate Dessert and the 2025 Michelin x Valrhona Passion Dessert Award. The frosted pineapple with orange blossom offered a fresh and elegant finish, while the warm chocolate mousse with its frozen peanut centre was among the evening’s most memorable courses.

At the centre of the dining room stands a white grand piano, around which the atmosphere gradually unfolds. Throughout dinner, live performances accompany the meal before the evening naturally shifts towards DJ sets. Above the tables, subtle ceiling projections add another visual dimension, recalling the immersive dining concepts increasingly seen in Dubai and Singapore without ever distracting from the restaurant itself.

NYKAT succeeds because it understands that memorable restaurants are rarely defined by food alone. Here, cuisine, music, design and the relaxed rhythm of the Riviera are given equal importance. For a first season, it arrives with remarkable confidence and already stands among the Côte d’Azur’s most interesting new openings.