Restaurant – Bar Express (Monaco)

Monaco is not a really large, in fact you can visit the whole country and see its major tourist attractions in one whole day. It can get really expensive in Monaco so my suggestion if you are on a budget and want to visit this place either get a hotel in a main French City nearby like Nice, Antibes or Cannes it’s just a short drive away. For us we stayed in Cannes and just planned a day trip to Monaco so our only expenses would be lunch and the attractions.

We came there around 9AM parked in the basement parking near the casino and took a bus towards the palace, first thing you will notice about this place it’s that it’s really clean and lots of fancy cars. There is no traffic and I guess our travel time was only 15 minutes, as we board down the bus at Avenue des Pins at the back of
Conseil National de Monaco you will notice the streets are spotless, walls are graffiti free and looks freshly cleaned and painted. We just followed the people through the alleyways going to the direction of the palace, as we walked we noticed a lot of small shops and restaurants and most probably these are the only ones you will find in that area. There are at least 3 restaurants and several shops, still a bit early to grab something so we strolled and took tons of photos as we walked. From this place you can see the whole of Monaco, Port Hercule on the right and Fontevielle Harbour on the left, Monaco Cathedral is also near the vicinity and in fact its best to leave it as the last destination before you go to lunch because behind it are the shops and restaurants mentioned earlier.

One of the restaurants is called Restaurant – Bar Express our choice for our lunch. There premises is almost outdoor, leaving some tables, kitchen and toilets indoor. There were a few people dining in at that time so there are some seats left for us. They serve pizza and pasta but we had enough of them so we opted for something not Italian.

So we ordered some Cocotte Lotte à la Fondue de Poireaux (EUR 15.90) which is basically monkfish and leeks in creamy sauce. Which I liked very much the only thing is that the serving was really small.

We also ordered two of the Moules à la Marinière, Frites (EUR 12.50), the sauce is just amazing baguettes and that alone would be enough for me. This is really tasty delicious.

And finally my daughter got something more common which is Hamburger, Fries and Gelato (EUR 9.50) on the Children’s Menu, nothing really special on this one.

Overall food was great, nicely located between the back of the Cathedral (you can actually touch the cathedral walls) and the main alley that leads to the palace. The service was great as well but I had seen some reviews online that says the service was so slow, I guess we got there on the right time just before people flock the place.

Restaurant-Bar Express
22 Rue Comte Félix Gastaldi, 98000 Monaco