Where to brunch in Nantes: morning spots worth the queue.
Where to brunch in Nantes. The morning rooms worth the queue, and the kitchens still doing it right at noon.
Handy runs an all-day brunch card on Rue Voltaire in Nantes, eggs, pancakes and roasted vegetables with matcha from Anatae poured alongside.
Order: Eggs and pancakes, with the Anatae matcha alongside
Tip: The kitchen shuts Monday and Tuesday, so a Nantes weekend is the reliable window; Saturday and Sunday close an hour earlier than midweek.
Billie's is the Franco-British coffee shop on Quai François Mitterrand in Nantes, weekend brunch of English breakfast and sticky toffee pudding.
Order: Sticky toffee pudding, or the millionaire shortbread
Tip: Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 10:00; portions are deliberately sized to cut waste, so order the pudding separately.
Little Britain Café on Boulevard Auguste Peneau in Nantes serves a Sunday British brunch at €23, with unlimited coffee and a trio of puddings.
Order: The savoury plate of soft-boiled eggs, spinach on brioche and house beans
Tip: Service starts at 11:30 on Sunday and the tea comes from Un grain, Une Feuille; the room is small, so book several days out.
Pilgrim brunches on Sunday from its corner of Place Graslin in Nantes, a €27 sitting in a bistro that cooks à la carte the rest of the week.
Order: The set Sunday brunch, which changes with the market
Tip: Brunch service restarts on 6 September after the summer break, so check before planning an August Sunday around it.
Brunch Brunch on Rue la Tour d'Auvergne in Nantes builds its whole week around one €25 formula: two drinks, a plat, a pastry and a house dessert.
Order: The formula of two drinks, a plat, a pastry and the dessert of the moment
Tip: Weekdays open at 09:00 and are much easier to get into than the 10:30 weekend sittings, which book out days ahead.
Maison Arlot Cheng bakes on Rue La Noue Bras de Fer in Nantes and gives Saturday over to brunch, bakery plates, cakes and coffee at the counter.
Order: A baker's plate with one of the counter cakes
Tip: The Saturday service runs from 10:00 to 14:00 and it is a bakery queue, not a table booking; the adzuki pastry is worth the wait.
Bahia Café brings Brazilian cooking to Rue Louis Blanc in Nantes, and the Saturday brunch runs a tapioca course between the savoury and the sweet.
Order: The tapioca course that sits between the savoury and the sweet
Tip: Brunch is Saturday from 11:30 and Saturday only; the rest of the week the kitchen works feijoada and moqueca instead.
Melbourne Coffee near the Cité des Congrès in Nantes keeps an Australian brunch card on all year, eggs Benedict and toasts from 10:00 to 14:30.
Order: Eggs Benedict off the year-round brunch card
Tip: It opens at 08:00 on weekdays for people working nearby, so a weekday brunch here is far calmer than the weekend one.
GLAZ on Rue Cacault in Nantes gives its Sunday over to a €25 brunch, brioche perdue and tartines from a café that bakes everything in house.
Order: Brioche perdue, in whichever version is on that week
Tip: The formula covers drinks, a viennoiserie, tartines, an egg and a plat; Thursday to Saturday it reverts to a straight café.
Mimosa on Rue Fénelon in Nantes cooks homemade brunch plates from seasonal, local produce every day of the week, pancakes and salmon leading.
Order: Pancakes, or the salmon plate off the seasonal card
Tip: Weekends run three hours longer than weekdays, to 18:00, which makes it one of the few late-afternoon brunch rooms in the centre.
Le Zed République on the Île de Nantes runs a €25 Sunday brunch, from viennoiseries and jam to charcuterie and mini-burgers, bread served à volonté.
Order: The mini-burgers, the house speciality carried over into brunch
Tip: The sitting is a tight two and a half hours from 11:30, so arrive at the start rather than drifting in at midday.
O Deck brunches on a barge moored at Quai Fernand Crouan in Nantes, a Sunday buffet eaten behind glass with the Loire running past the window.
Order: Whatever is on the seasonal buffet, including the vegan desserts
Tip: Ask for a table on the river side when booking; the glazed wall is the whole point of eating here rather than on shore.