The galette de sarrasin is the savoury Breton pancake: buckwheat flour, water and salt, spread thin on a cast-iron billig and folded around egg, ham and cheese for the classic complète.
Buckwheat reached Brittany in the late Middle Ages and thrived on the region's acid, poor soils where wheat struggled. Because it needs no leavening and no oven, the batter suited a hearth and a flat stone, and it became the everyday bread of the Breton countryside long before it became restaurant food. The split between the savoury buckwheat galette and the sweet wheat-flour crêpe is not universal across Brittany, but it is the convention that holds in Rennes. The complète, with egg, ham and grated cheese, is the reference order against which every crêperie in the city is measured, and the folded four-corner shape that leaves the yolk visible is the standard presentation.
5 editor picks for Galette de sarrasin in Rennes, ranked by editorial score. All Rennes signature dishes · Galette de sarrasin across every city.
Also in: Nantes.
Crêperie La Saint-Georges ★ 4.4
Centre · 11 Rue du Chapitre, 35000 Rennes
Crêperie La Saint-Georges on Rue du Chapitre in Rennes names its 35 galettes after famous Georges, a design-led room in the half-timbered old town.
Bretone ★ 4.4
Colombier · 7 Rue Joseph Sauveur, 35000 Rennes
Bretone serves buckwheat galettes in the mosaic-tiled former home of the Odorico family in Rennes, a Fooding-listed crêperie with a pastel rooftop patio.
Crêperie Sarrasin ★ 4.3
Centre · 17 Rue Jules Simon, 35000 Rennes
Crêperie Sarrasin faces the Halles Centrales in Rennes with galettes rolled from 100 percent IGP Breton buckwheat and largely organic French ingredients.
Crêperie du Pont-Levis ★ 4.2
Les Lices · 6 Rue des Portes Mordelaises, 35000 Rennes
Crêperie du Pont-Levis faces the 15th-century Portes Mordelaises in Rennes, IGP Breton buckwheat galettes at the oldest crêperie address in the city.
Crêperie Ouzh Taol ★ 4.1
Thabor · 27 Rue Saint-Melaine, 35000 Rennes
Ouzh Taol, Breton for at the table, folds burger-galettes and classic buckwheat rounds in a small room on Rue Saint-Melaine in Rennes, best booked ahead.