Nice for Two, After Dark

Aurèle Gasperoni cooks a solo tasting menu in the Petit Marais, and the room is small enough that dinner feels personal. The cooking is creative without showing off, the kind of progression that gives a couple something to talk about between courses. A natural date-night choice for anyone who wants ambition at human scale.

Two sisters run this refined Franco-Japanese kitchen in the Carré d'Or, and the result is quietly intimate. Plates are precise and delicate, the pace is unhurried and the mood leans toward couples rather than groups. One of the gentler special-occasion rooms in the city.

A Tokyo-style tavern from one of France's sushi champions, dim and close and built for two at the counter. Order the omakase, let the sake pairings carry the evening and watch the knife work up close. Intimate in the way only a great sushi counter can be.

Julien Pilati cooks a seasonal, organic menu in the former Pure & V space in the Carré d'Or, an intimate room that suits wine lovers and slow dinners. The kitchen is precise and the list is thoughtful. A quiet, grown-up choice when the night is about the two of you.

Mediterranean dining on a rock-pillar former diving platform, with the sea on every side. Come for sunset, order drinks before the table and let the setting do its work. It is the once-a-trip table that earns the cliché honestly, best booked for a clear evening.

Art-deco fine dining over the water at the foot of Mont Boron, polished but not pompous. The terrace is made for an apéritif as the light drops, and the kitchen holds its end up. A special-occasion room for a couple who want the Riviera at its most cinematic.

Wood-fired Mediterranean fish on the Cap de Nice rocks since 1936, where a long seaside lunch slides easily into the afternoon. Grilled fish, lobster and bouillabaisse arrive with the sea right there. Less candlelit than sun-soaked, but romantic in its own unhurried way.