The best pistachio pastries on the French Riviera
Pistachio has been everywhere for two years, from cookies to flans, and most versions settle for green colouring and an artificial flavour. The good addresses use real pistachio, often Sicilian, and you can taste the difference immediately.
Four places, in Nice and Antibes. One warning: one of them sells its cookie in a single shop only, which is worth knowing before you travel.
The selection
Pistache - Pâtisserie
A pastry shop by the Port of Nice where the classics are rebuilt around pistachio. What you find depends on the day's display: pistachio flan, a generously filled roll, or the pistachio and raspberry tart, the most balanced of the lot.
Where to get coffee
Lilian Bonnefoi
Worth knowing before you travel: this pistachio cookie is sold exclusively at the rue de la République shop in Antibes. Generous size, whole pistachio pieces and a molten Sicilian pistachio praline centre.
Where to get coffee
Philippe Tayac
A cookie built in layers: dark and milk chocolate, a soft pistachio cream, toasted pistachios and a pinch of fleur de sel. That salt is what holds the whole thing together and stops it turning cloying.
317 Avenue Eugène Donadeï · Where to get coffee
Cookietelier
Thick, soft-centred American-style cookies, made on site. If you find most cookies too dry, this is the address. The Pistachio puts the nut front and centre. The size is not modest, consider sharing.
Avenue Mirabeau · Where to get coffee
Every place in this guide was filmed. Our visits on video and the new openings we test first are on Instagram.
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Frequently asked questions
Why is pistachio everywhere in Riviera pastry?
How do you tell real pistachio from flavouring?
How is this selection made?
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