Emporietto is an italian restaurant in Hauts Pavés, Nantes.
Editorially verified August 22, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Signature dishes: Seasonal Italian plates, Artisan Italian produce
Tip: The evening menu runs €45 for three courses while lunch starts at €24; the room closes for the whole weekend.
Address: 27 Rue Adolphe Moitié, 44000 Nantes
One of the few Nantes rooms that prints beurre blanc nantais on the carte rather than making it on request, poured over filets de bar at €28.50.
Signature: Souris d'agneau confite, Filets de bar au beurre blanc nantais
Tip: The name is the lamb, but the sauce is why you book: order the filets de bar. Dinner only on Tuesday and Wednesday, with lunch added from Thursday.
La Cigale has faced the opera on Place Graslin in Nantes since 1895, an Art Nouveau brasserie of tiles and gilt classed a historic monument in 1964.
Signature: Seafood platters, Choucroute de la mer
Tip: Open from breakfast to past midnight daily; the tiled front room built by Émile Libaudière is the one to sit in, not the annexe.
Lulu le Bistrot is Ludovic Pouzelgues's relaxed second room on the Île de Nantes, bistro classics and Vendée snails under six-metre ceilings.
Signature: Oeufs mimosa, Sole meunière, Gâteau nantais
Tip: The €25 lunch is the value play; the house closes for summer congés from 15 August to 1 September.
Le Petit Boucot seats just 24 covers in the Graslin quarter of Nantes, working a weekly-changing card of creative plates built on seasonal produce.
Signature: Weekly changing market card
Tip: Reservation is effectively mandatory at this size; dinner only happens Friday and Saturday.
L'Éphémère runs organic, zero-waste bistronomy on Rue Maréchal Joffre in Nantes, a chef, pastry chef and mixologist trio behind the €25 menus.
Signature: Zero-waste seasonal plates
Tip: The three-course menu costs the same €25 at lunch and dinner, unusual for the level; cocktails are taken as seriously as the food.
SAIN is the café, canteen and grocery of brothers Samuel and Josselin in Nantes, cooking from their family's organic market garden in Guérande.
Signature: Farm vegetable plates
Tip: The grocery shelves sell the farm's vegetables, eggs and preserves to take home; natural wines pour by the glass.
