Colette at Hotel Sezz

The Restaurant

Colette at Hotel Sezz occupies a distinctive position in the Saint-Tropez gastronomic landscape: it is the town's most design-forward fine dining experience, housed in a hotel that Christophe Pillet conceived as a radical alternative to the Riviera's stone-and-tradition palace hotels. The result — ultra-contemporary architecture, curated art installations, a kitchen garden — provides a context for Chef Philippe Colinet's one-Michelin-star cooking that feels genuinely original rather than merely modish.

Colinet describes his menus as a six-act dinner journey, and the structure holds: each course represents a distinct creative proposition, and the sequence builds a narrative that makes the menu as a whole more compelling than any individual dish. The focus is on fresh local ingredients — Saint-Tropez market vegetables at their summer peak, Mediterranean fish, Var olive oil, herbs from the kitchen garden — treated with bold modern technique. A tomato preparation in August might use three varieties, three temperatures, and three textures to articulate what the Var does better than anywhere else in France. The result is cooking that achieves originality through commitment to place rather than imported ideas.

The wine programme is unconventional for a Michelin-starred establishment in the expected way: Provence first, with the depth of a sommelier who has spent years understanding the appellation rather than simply knowing the labels. The Hotel Sezz's pool terrace provides an extraordinary setting for a pre-dinner aperitif that can itself take an hour if the evening is perfect, which in Saint-Tropez in July it reliably is. Prices sit at the accessible end of the starred restaurant spectrum on this peninsula: expect €180–€240 per person before wine, making it the most accessible of the three Michelin-awarded addresses.

Best Occasion Fit: Impressing Clients

Colette offers a specific kind of client dinner that differs from La Vague d'Or and La Voile in a useful way: it is the most modern address on the peninsula's Michelin-starred list, which makes it the correct choice for clients in creative industries — fashion, tech, design — who might find the more traditional formality of a three-star palace hotel unexpectedly constraining. The Michelin star is present and communicates what it communicates; the Hotel Sezz context communicates taste that is independent of the conventional luxury-signalling hierarchy. It is the choice for someone who knows the difference between impressive and ostentatious and wants the former without any risk of the latter.

What to Order

The six-act tasting menu is the only choice, and the wine pairing should be accepted without modification. The tomato act, when in season, is consistently described by reviewers as the most memorable single course — an argument about Provençal terroir made through technique. The fish course typically features the Mediterranean's best seasonal catch; Colinet's relationships with local fishermen produce ingredients that no amount of money can reliably improve. Request a terrace table in advance; the pool terrace at Sezz is among the most aesthetically accomplished outdoor dining spaces in Saint-Tropez, and on a clear night it provides a context for the meal that earns the restaurant its rating independently of the food.