Zuma Cannes

The Restaurant

Zuma needed a location on the French Riviera worthy of a brand that has rewritten the grammar of Japanese dining in London, New York, Dubai, Miami, and Hong Kong. It chose the Palm Beach. The circular Art Deco folly at the tip of La Croisette, first opened in 1929 as Cannes's answer to Monte Carlo, and reimagined over the decades as everything from a casino to an open-air concert venue. The result, delivered in 2023, is the first Zuma in France and arguably the most ambitious expression of the format to date: a 400-cover restaurant with a main kitchen, a sushi counter, a robata grill, a private dining room, and a terrace facing the full arc of the Cannes bay with retractable sails that respond to the Mediterranean weather rather than fight it.

The cooking is Zuma's familiar contemporary izakaya. Designed for sharing, engineered for drinking, and executed to the brand's characteristic precision. The robata grill delivers the signature miso-marinated black cod wrapped in hoba leaf, spicy beef tenderloin with sesame, red chilli and sweet soy, and baby chicken with green chilli and lime. The sushi counter turns out a Cannes-exclusive menu: otoro sliced with smoked tomato dashi and oscietra caviar, a toro maki that has become a regional signature, and the kind of uni selections that remind you Zuma started life as a destination for serious Japanese food rather than a scene restaurant that happened to serve it.

The scene, of course, is non-negotiable. Resident DJs play into the evening, the cocktail programme is run with the same discipline as the kitchen, and the terrace is where a significant portion of the Festival de Cannes industry now takes its after-screening dinners. Expect to spend €180-€250 per person before cocktails. Expect to photograph the food before eating it. Everyone else will.

Best Occasion Fit: Team Dinner

Zuma is engineered for groups. The menu is built to be shared. Robata platters, signature maki sets, tempura flights, a dessert cart that works for tables of ten as easily as tables of four. The acoustics are kind to conversation despite the DJ. The private dining room seats up to twenty-four and comes with its own robata view. If you are hosting a team in Cannes. A company offsite, an investor summit, a Lions-week client dinner where you have twelve people to feed and only one shot at impressing them. This is the table. Book the terrace in summer. Book the interior when the mistral picks up. The service is choreographed for groups and the sommelier knows which sake pairs with which chef.

It also works unusually well for birthdays. The energy is celebratory without being frantic, the cocktails arrive with spectacle, and the kitchen will quietly produce a dessert with a candle if asked. For impressing a client unfamiliar with Japanese dining, Zuma is the bridge: recognisable enough to feel safe, sophisticated enough to signal taste.

What to Order

Start with the thinly sliced seabass with yuzu truffle and oscietra caviar. A dish that has been on the brand's menu long enough to be considered canon and is prepared here with the local produce that justifies the detour. The wagyu tartare with avocado and lotus root is the most photographed starter on the Riviera for a reason. From the robata, the miso-marinated black cod is the decision a first-time guest should not try to overthink. The Cannes-exclusive otoro with smoked tomato dashi and oscietra is the dish that separates this Zuma from its siblings elsewhere. Finish with the warm chocolate fondant with green tea ice cream. It survives photography, and it survives sharing with strangers at an adjacent table. Reservations should be made at least two weeks in advance during festival season.