Sauge rewrites its whole card every week on Rue Desaix in Nantes, pairing local produce with the flavours its chef picked up while travelling.
Signature: Weekly market menu, Vegetable-led plates
Tip: The three-course lunch runs €25 and evening service happens only on Thursday and Friday, so check the week's posted menu before you go.
Freia cooks in a rooftop greenhouse above the Malakoff car park in Nantes, where Sarah Mainguy earned a Michelin star for plant-led, Nordic-edged menus.
Tip: Annual closure runs 1 to 15 January; climb the outside staircase and follow the lights, or take the lift to the sixth floor.
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.
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.
Le Brocéliande has been Véronique's tiled bistro on Rue Préfet Bonnefoy in Nantes for two decades, natural wine poured across three small terraces.
Signature pour: Panique Générale gamay at €5.50 the glass
Wine focus: Natural wines, glasses from €4.50
Food: Midday bistro formulas, evening plates to share
Tip: Midday formulas run €19 to €24 and evening plates €7 to €18; Saturday opens at 18:00, so it is a night rather than a lunch.
La Maison Café is laid out as a 1970s flat on Rue Lebrun in Nantes, six rooms from kitchen to attic with beer and cocktails at student prices.
Signature drink: Cocktails and beer at student prices
Food: No kitchen
Tip: Each room has its own character, so walk to the attic before you settle; half-pints run about €2.60.
Les Fleurs du Malt puts 30 taps on Allée Commandant Charcot in Nantes and runs table service, so nobody has to queue through the happy hour rush.
Signature drink: 30 taps with regular brewer takeovers
Food: Bistro lunches, charcuterie boards at night
Tip: Tap takeovers hand the whole board to one brewer; sofas and long shared tables make it a group room.
Les Brassés has combined a microbrewery, bar and grill behind the south station in Nantes since 2016, its beer brewed a kilometre off on Rue Bellier.
Tip: The brewer runs a tour on the first weekend of each month; meat comes off a Josper grill rather than a plancha.
Jérôme's bistro on Rue Desaix trades on the plat du jour, generous simmered family cooking at prices that keep the room full every weekday lunch.
Signature: Plat du jour, House desserts
Tip: Dinner happens on Friday and Saturday only, and the kitchen stops at nine; weekday lunch is the service the regulars book.
Les Fleurs du Malt keeps 30 taps and its evening charcuterie boards going until 02:00 seven nights a week on Allée Commandant Charcot in Nantes.
Try: Charcuterie and cheese boards
Tip: The kitchen proper is a lunchtime affair; after dark it is boards only, so eat elsewhere first if you want a full plate.
La Maison Café fills six rooms of a mock 1970s flat on Rue Lebrun in Nantes, with darts and table football between the concerts and the DJ sets.
Tip: Happy hour runs 17:00 to 20:00 Monday to Friday; the attic is the room worth climbing for.