Zuma has taken a commanding position on the waterfront at Palm Beach, the beautifully restored 1929 Art Deco pavilion out on the tip of the Croisette, engulfed by the Mediterranean. It is the brand’s first permanent restaurant on the French Riviera — a large, expensive, and attractive contemporary Japanese room that opened in the spring of 2024 and has been more or less full ever since. 

Already established in London, Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, Miami, Rome and Madrid, Zuma runs to a formula that travels well. Cannes keeps to it — the robata grill, the sushi counter, the long list of small plates. But the sheer scale of the place, the size of that terrace and the view give this address a character of its own. A Zuma ‘pop-up’ has since followed further along the coast, at the Byblos in Saint-Tropez, though Cannes remains the permanent, seasonal, fixture.

A dining room at full volume

Night after night, Zuma Cannes fills with a steady stream of tanned, well-dressed guests, seated either inside – alongside the energetic open kitchen, sushi counter and robata grill – or outside on the vast wraparound terrace, overlooking one of the most jaw-dropping views on the French Riviera.

Despite its size, the restaurant is cleverly divided into distinct spaces, allowing each table to retain a sense of intimacy.

The staff move fast and read the restaurant well; they also genuinely appear to be enjoying themselves. In an operation this size, that is important.

The menu, and what to order

The cocktails come with their own Japanese/Zuma inflections – standouts include the chanko sour and the Zuma negroni with a memorable blue wedge. The food menu is long and easy to graze — snacks and soups, tempura, sushi, caviar, wagyu selection, and seafood and meat off the robata — you can build dinner to whatever appetite, and budget, you walked in with.

But the Signature Omakase menu is a great introduction. At €185 a head, ordered for the whole table, it is not a small commitment, but a generous journey through the dishes that Zuma is known for, among them the caviar topped tuna tartare and lightly marinated black cod in hoba leaf.

The entire menu stays light, refined and exactly balanced from the first plate to the last. Not a single dish disappoints.

The view

Then there is what’s in front of you. The terrace looks straight out over the Mediterranean, the coast bending away around the Bay of Cannes, the Îles de Lérins set just offshore. When the light goes and the water turns dark and lit, there are few better places to be sitting on this stretch of coast.

Zuma has taken one of the best addresses in Cannes and filled it properly — the room loud, the service sure, the food delicious enough to hold its own against the spectacle outside, which is saying something. The view draws your eye on the way in. The restaurant gives you every reason to stay, and to book again.

See more of Monaco Life’s experience in the gallery below. All photos credit: Cassandra Tanti/Nico Timmermans …

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Main photo source Zuma Cannes