There are restaurants in Monaco that come and go with the seasons — new concepts, bold rebrands, names that generate queues for a month before quietly fading into the Principality’s relentless churn of reinvention. And then there is Rampoldi.

Tucked into the Carré d’Or at 3 Avenue des Spélugues, a short walk from Casino Square and the Hôtel de Paris, Rampoldi has been feeding Monaco’s elite since 1946. It has outlasted trends, recessions, pandemics, and the kind of seismic social changes that have transformed Monte-Carlo from a post-war playground for the discreet super-rich into the global spectacle it is today. This year, it turns 80 — and by any measure, that is worth talking about.

Princess Grace is said to have been a regular. Sir Roger Moore reportedly dined here during his Monaco years. Prince Albert II and his circle have continued the tradition in more recent decades. The walls, deliberately bare of photographs and memorabilia, keep their secrets well.

A new chapter, the same name

When Antonio Salvatore took over Rampoldi in 2016, he faced a challenge that would give most chefs pause. The restaurant already had a name — a real one, weighted with almost half a century of history and expectation. In Monaco, where restaurants typically reinvent themselves every three to five years just to stay relevant, longevity of this kind is both an asset and a burden.

“Any chef with ambition wants to have their name known, to imprint their personality into the identify of a restaurant. So it was a challenge taking over Rampoldi, because the restaurant already had a strong name.”

Salvatore — a Michelin star chef originally from southern Italy, who now heads five restaurants across Monaco and New York through his MC Hospitality Group — chose not to fight the name but to inhabit it on his own terms. The restaurant was closed for two years for a full restoration, reopening with the same discretion, the same elegant atmosphere, and a kitchen that quietly elevated everything without making a noise about it.

“I wanted to make something like me – with the name Rampoldi, but with my style, my identity,” reveals the chef. “My team helped me to build this, my guests helped me to build this. It is not because Rampoldi has been around for 80 years that is inevitably successful; it is how you continue the name; it is the relationships you build.”

The secret is not what you think

Ask Antonio Salvatore what has kept Rampoldi alive for eight decades and he does not reach for mythology.

“The secret to success, for me, is to understand guests and the city in which we are located; to use quality products and work with the seasons; and to always be innovative in our approach. Even though we are a classic restaurant, we still need to be fresh and regularly offer something different, in order to be appreciated by our guests.  

“And be humble. Remember, nothing is eternal.”

That philosophy extends to the kitchen itself, where simplicity is treated not as a limitation but as a discipline. “It is possible to do gastronomy with one tomato and one mozzarella — but it is important you choose the right product,” Salvatore says. The menu follows the seasons, drawing on Mediterranean and Italian tradition with French influence, with signature dishes ranging from vitello tonnato and octopus carpaccio to handmade pastas and salt-crusted fish. The slow-cooked beef cheek is still to die for.

The interior is deliberately timeless — Art Deco glam, no photographs on the walls, a level of discretion that feels increasingly rare in an age of Instagram dining. It is a place where prominent guests can eat without spectacle, where the focus remains resolutely on the table in front of you.

The team behind the table

If the kitchen is the engine, the staff are the soul. At Rampoldi, 70% of the team have been in place for nine years or more — an almost unheard-of retention rate in the restaurant industry, and one that Salvatore considers central to everything the restaurant has achieved.

“Success is built on a team, not on an individual,” he says. “Some guests come two, three, four times a week. They know the staff well, they have seen them grow up, they are like family.”

But Salvatore is clear-eyed about the complexity of managing long-serving staff in a business that demands consistent performance. “Every staff member needs to perform like it is their first day on the job. But people grow up, their lives change — what you are doing in your 20s you are not necessarily doing in your 30s. But a restaurant is a business — so we need to have staff with longevity but also with ambition.”

The result, on the floor, is a team that moves with the confidence of people who know exactly where they are — but treats every new guest as though they are the most important person who has ever walked through the door. “I don’t care if you are wearing Chanel or H&M — you are coming to my restaurant and you shall be treated like a star,” says the chef assuredly.

It is a philosophy that sounds simple. The execution, night after night, is anything but. “It’s not easy — because we do this every day, every hour. Guests feed off our energy, but people get tired. It’s not easy to give energy to this table, then that table, all day, every day. But we have to. This is our job.”

Classics never die

Monaco is changing. The Principality that once drew the discreet wealthy is now a destination for a broader, louder kind of visibility. New restaurants open constantly — bold, global concepts chasing a younger demographic. Salvatore watches all of it with interest.

“Simplicity is the power behind elegance,” he says. “Don’t forget, when Balenciaga arrived in Monaco a few years ago, there was a line around the corner to get in. Today, there’s not. Chanel, on the other hand, is always busy and always in demand. That’s the difference between the classics and trends, classics never die.”

He welcomes competition — more restaurants, he argues, bring more people, and more people eventually find their way to Rampoldi. But he is also candid about what he believes Monaco risks losing in its pursuit of globalisation. “Monte-Carlo specifically should be reserved for glamour — established institutions, authentic, chic brands. We have to look at Monaco like people on the outside do: rare and beautiful, like a Picasso painting. Today, we are thinking too much about globalisation and we are losing a little bit of our true selves, our legend and legacy, forgetting what really gives Monaco that allure.”

The authenticity of Monte-Carlo, he believes, is the product — and it needs protecting. “If you want to feel like you are in Dubai, go to Dubai. If you want to feel like you’re in New York, go to New York. People want to come to Monaco for the authenticity of Monte-Carlo.”

For Salvatore, that authenticity is also something worth exporting. Through Rampoldi’s two New York restaurants, he sees himself as something of a culinary ambassador — carrying the values and identity of Monaco to an American audience that may never set foot in the Principality.

Eighty years, and counting

This year’s anniversary will be marked with a celebration bigger than the 75th — itself, by all accounts, a memorable occasion. The details are being kept close, but what Salvatore will say is simply that everything at Rampoldi is done with intention.

And after the celebrations? There will always be small adjustments over the years to come — subtle upgrades, quiet refinements — because a restaurant that stands still eventually stops. But the changes at Rampoldi have always served the institution rather than replaced it. The soul of the place, the thing that has drawn generations of Monaco’s most discerning diners back to the same tables decade after decade, remains intact.

And the secret to his own longevity within it? He smiles. “I work with passion — I come early in the morning and leave late at night. I live in my own little world.”

The legends of Monte-Carlo are few, carefully guarded, and not easily replaced. Rampoldi is one of them — and, thankfully, it has no intention of going anywhere.

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