Bistros, trattorias and the everyday places where Nantes actually eats.
Bistros, trattorias, taverns and neighbourhood rooms: the mid-tier places where Nantes actually eats.
Readers of Big City Nantes voted this Bouffay crêperie the city favourite for 2025, galettes built on butternut cream, burrata or guacamole.
Signature: La Belette galette with butternut, feta and spinach, Burrata galette, Guacamole galette
Tip: This is the second room, opened in July 2024 a few doors from the original on Rue de la Juiverie; neither takes bookings.
Trading since 1948 beside the Sainte-Croix belfry, this crêperie spreads over three floors and fills its galettes with scallops and smoked trout.
Signature: Scallop galette, Smoked trout galette, Truffle ham galette
Tip: The chef's galette comes in a meat-free version with Espelette butter and six-month Ossau-Iraty, and the cider list runs to Fouesnant bottles.
Running since 1976 and rebuilt for its fortieth birthday, Heb Ken grinds through galettes at lunch and turns into a tea room every afternoon.
Signature: Buckwheat galettes, Salted butter caramel crêpes, Gâteau nantais
Tip: No reservations are taken, so the queue outside at 12:30 is normal; the homemade chocolate spread crêpe is the one regulars order.
Facing the Château des Ducs de Bretagne, this crêperie lists 128 galette combinations across two rooms and a terrace built for the castle view.
Signature: Buckwheat galettes, Sweet crêpes, Ice creams
Tip: Opening from ten in the morning makes it one of the few galette addresses in Nantes that works for an early or very late lunch.
One of the older galette houses on the pedestrian lanes of Bouffay, generous plates of buckwheat with artisan ciders and a small street terrace.
Signature: Buckwheat galettes, Sweet crêpes, Artisan cider
Tip: It serves seven days a week, which in this quarter is rarer than it sounds; Sunday evening is the calmest sitting.
Voted fourth best crêperie in Nantes by Big City readers in 2025, a small Grétry room doing classic galettes plus odder seasonal combinations.
Signature: Seasonal buckwheat galettes, House sweet crêpes
Tip: Saturday runs straight through from noon to ten, which makes it the easy fallback when the Bouffay crêperies are queueing.
Sixth in the 2025 Big City Nantes crêperie vote, Mamie Nénette drops the lace-curtain look and pushes galette fillings well past ham and egg.
Signature: Creative buckwheat galettes, Sweet crêpes
Tip: It closes Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan around that; the Rue de la Juiverie block holds four crêperies within sixty metres.
Named by Nantais voters among their favourite crêperies, this Sainte-Croix corner keeps the griddle on from eleven in the morning to eleven at night.
Signature: Buckwheat galettes, Sweet crêpes, Bolée of cider
Tip: Continuous service every day of the week makes it the reliable late galette in the old town when kitchens elsewhere have shut.
A small Rue Voltaire crêperie a short walk from Place Graslin, named by Nantais voters among the city favourites and pricing most plates under €10.
Signature: Buckwheat galettes, Sweet crêpes
Tip: Service windows are short and it shuts at nine, so treat it as an early dinner rather than a late one.
Founded in 1986 in the historic centre of Nantes, Le Bouchon spreads several dining moods around a walled inner garden screened from the street.
Signature: Seasonal bistro plates
Tip: There is no Saturday lunch service; ask for a table in the courtyard garden rather than the front room when the weather holds.
Open since 2024 on the gastronomic stretch of Rue Copernic, Melon works as bistro and wine cellar with over 200 grower bottles on the shelves.
Signature: Seasonal bistro plates
Tip: The room seats 32 with 20 more on the shaded terrace, and the cellar list is drinkable at retail plus corkage.
A long-standing table on Rue de la Juiverie in the old town, traditional French cooking in a narrow room that turns two short services a day.
Signature: Traditional French plates
Tip: Dinner starts at 19:15 and the kitchen closes at 22:00, so a late booking here means eight rather than nine o'clock.
Chez Maman plays the family-lunch songbook in the old town of Nantes, roast meats and hachis parmentier lightened a little, served every day.
Signature: Hachis parmentier, Sunday roast plates
Tip: Bookings are taken by telephone only, between 11:30 and 15:00 and again from 18:30; groups go through the contact address.
Macoha faces the Loire from the north quay of the Île de Nantes, a brasserie room that runs later on Friday and Saturday than most of the island.
Signature: Brasserie plates
Tip: It shuts Sunday and Monday, which catches out visitors doing the Machines de l'Île at the start of the week.
Elodie and Fabien cook a card that changes every week on the Quai de Malakoff, then flip the room into a living-wine bar with tapas after six.
Signature: Weekly lunch card, House tapas boards
Tip: Lunch runs €19 for a plate up to €25 for three courses; evening service is boards and glasses rather than a full menu.
Casa Cruz cooks Portuguese street food on Rue Maréchal Joffre in Nantes, chicken grilled to order with house frites and local baker's bread.
Signature: Grilled chicken, House frites, Fresh steak haché
Tip: It only opens Wednesday to Sunday and lunch is the busier service; takeaway orders go through the operator's own ordering page.
Sen's works the Vietnamese canon from a small room off Rue Sainte-Croix, pho bo and bun cha Ha Noi alongside plates of assorted spring rolls.
Signature: Pho bo, Bun cha Ha Noi, Assorted spring rolls
Tip: The kitchen runs a shorter summer timetable, so ring ahead in August; evening service ends at half nine sharp.
A few steps off Place du Commerce, Atlas serves home-style Moroccan cooking, a spread of couscous and tagines plus charcoal grills, halal and vegetarian.
Signature: Couscous, Tagines, Charcoal grills
Tip: It is one of the few kitchens in central Nantes open both services every day, including Sunday evening.
Chaiyo has held its corner of Rue Armand Brossard for years, cooking Thai and Lao dishes for a room that fills fast on Friday and Saturday nights.
Signature: Thai curries, Lao-influenced salads
Tip: Sunday is lunch only and Monday is closed; dinner service does not begin until half seven, later than most of the quarter.
Between the cathedral and Place Saint-Pierre, Nota Bene bakes a pizza pitched between Roman and Neapolitan on organic flour and natural leaven.
Signature: Pizza between Roman and Neapolitan, Truffle pasta, House tiramisu
Tip: It doubles as an Italian grocery, so the burrata and tartufo pizzas use the same stock sold over the counter.
A neighbourhood pizzeria on Rue de Coulmiers where every pizza has a vegetarian alternative and the desserts come out of the same small kitchen.
Signature: Zuccosa pizza with butternut cream, House desserts
Tip: August brings a reduced timetable with evenings only and Mondays closed, so check before making the trip that month.
Pinocchio has kept a steady following on Rue Saint-Léonard in Nantes, a straightforward pizzeria whose card stretches to strawberry and parmesan.
Signature: Pizza thon, Pizza fraise parmesan
Tip: Lunch windows are tight, roughly two hours, and the kitchen shuts Sunday and Monday; reserve for Friday and Saturday evenings.
An all-day room near the Tour de Bretagne that opens at eight in the morning and keeps going past midnight, French comfort cooking throughout.
Signature: French comfort plates, Small plates to share
Tip: Sunday is the closing day; the kitchen shows best in the middle of the week, before the late-night bar trade fills the room.
A bistro on Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville that runs later than most of Bouffay, lunch on three days and a kitchen open until two on Friday and Saturday.
Signature: Bistro plates, Fish of the day
Tip: Tuesday and Wednesday are evenings only; if you want the midday card, come Thursday to Saturday.
Beau Rêve cooks Egyptian food on Rue Léon Blum in Nantes, a rare thing in the city, with a vegetarian Isis menu of mezze and a main at €18.50.
Signature: Menu Isis végétarien, Egyptian plat du jour
Tip: Weekday lunch brings an Egyptian plat du jour in meat and vegetarian versions for €12.50, cheaper than the evening menus.