Bistrot Canaille on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes cooks a rotating seasonal carte, traditional bistro plates reworked with contemporary ideas, evenings only.
Signature: Seasonal rotating carte
Order: The day's chalkboard main; the carte turns over with the season
Peska is a Mediterranean-leaning fish bistro on Rue Saint-Malo in Rennes, Pauline Iafrate cooking sole meunière and marinated mackerel to order.
Signature: Sole meunière, Marinated mackerel focaccia
Order: Sole meunière with fermented rhubarb and fish jus
Chez P'tit Louis hides behind a pale green facade on Rue Saint-Louis in Rennes, checked tablecloths and a €15 to €19 lunch from the Mirlitantouille team.
Signature: Zucchini tempura, Chocolate marquise
Order: Valrhona chocolate marquise with salted caramel to finish
Origines brews its own beer inside the old Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Rennes and serves committed bistro cooking beside the climbing hall, noon until midnight.
Signature: Bistro plates with house-brewed beer
Order: Whatever is on cask from the in-house brewhouse with the day's plate
Breizh Café brings its Cancale-born crêperie group to Place de la Trinité in Rennes, organic buckwheat galettes with the house's Japanese-influenced twists.
Signature: Japanese-influenced galettes
Order: A classic complète first, then one of the Japanese-leaning specials
Œuf runs a light-wood crêperie on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes, organic all-buckwheat galettes through the week and a Breton brunch on Sunday mornings.
Signature: Galette Super Complète, Sunday Breton brunch
Order: The Galette Super Complète in organic 100 percent buckwheat
Bistrot Canaille on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes cooks a rotating seasonal carte, traditional bistro plates reworked with contemporary ideas, evenings only.
Signature: Seasonal rotating carte
Order: The day's chalkboard main; the carte turns over with the season
Café Wunder sits under the Wunder offices near Place Sainte-Anne in Rennes, specialty coffee and homemade sweet and savoury plates in a coworking hybrid.
Signature drink: Specialty flat white
Tip: Weekdays only; it doubles as a workspace, so laptops are welcome as long as you keep ordering.
Monsieur le Zinc runs a two-floor self-service beer wall in a half-timbered house on Rue Saint-Michel, the rue de la Soif of Rennes, pints from €4.
Signature drink: Self-poured pints at €4.50, €4 in happy hour
Food: Boards and bar snacks
Tip: You pour your own from the tap wall with a card; Thursday night is the big student session on this street.
Sunset Café anchors the top of Rue Saint-Michel in Rennes with cheap pints, a 17:00 to 21:00 happy hour and a small dance floor at weekends.
Signature drink: €4.50 pints, €3.50 to €4 in the 17:00-21:00 happy hour
Tip: One of the longest happy hours on the street; come before 21:00 and move down the row afterwards.
Le P'tit Vélo has poured for generations of Rennes students on Place Saint-Michel, two rooms running funk-disco and rock with cocktails until 03:00.
Signature drink: House cocktails across two differently soundtracked bars
Tip: It runs later than almost anything else on the square; the back room is the rock one.
Origines brews its own beer inside the old Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Rennes and serves committed bistro cooking beside the climbing hall, noon until midnight.
Tip: The only beer brewed inside central Rennes; the September beer-and-slam tastings sell out, book via the site.
Chez P'tit Louis hides behind a pale green facade on Rue Saint-Louis in Rennes, checked tablecloths and a €15 to €19 lunch from the Mirlitantouille team.
Try: Bistro set lunch
Tip: Evening plates run €6 to €15, so a dinner of two small plates undercuts most bistros in the old town.
Œuf runs a light-wood crêperie on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes, organic all-buckwheat galettes through the week and a Breton brunch on Sunday mornings.
Try: Organic buckwheat galettes
Tip: The €9.90 galette-saucisse with fries or salad is the cheapest sit-down reading of the city's street dish.
Œuf turns its organic buckwheat crêperie on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes into a Breton brunch every Sunday, €24 with a crêpe cake that changes weekly.
Order: The all-buckwheat Breton brunch with the weekly crêpe cake
Tip: Sunday runs in two sittings at 11:45 and 13:45 at €24 a head; book, it is the city's only galette-first brunch.
Mama Shelter Rennes lays on the city's biggest Sunday brunch above Place de la Trinité, a €42 all-you-can-eat spread with a children's rate at €21.
Order: Work the hot and cold buffets, then the dessert wall
Tip: It is the splurge brunch of Rennes; children four to twelve eat for half, and the rooftop seats are the ones to request.
Le P'tit Vélo has poured for generations of Rennes students on Place Saint-Michel, two rooms running funk-disco and rock with cocktails until 03:00.
Try: Drinks only, cocktails across two rooms
Tip: The last open door on the square most nights; Sunday it winds down at 22:30 like the rest of the city.
Monsieur le Zinc is the self-pour beer wall of rue Saint-Michel in Rennes, two floors of taps you serve yourself by card until 01:00.
Tip: Thursday is the big student night on this street; take the card, pour a half of everything and settle up at the door.
Sunset Café sits at the top of rue Saint-Michel in Rennes, the cheap-pint anchor of the rue de la Soif with a small weekend dance floor.
Tip: The 17:00 to 21:00 happy hour is one of the longest on the street, and the floor only fills after midnight at weekends.
Le P'tit Vélo on Place Saint-Michel is the late-running Rennes student institution, two rooms with separate soundtracks open to 03:00 on Thursdays.
Tip: It runs latest Thursday to Saturday and shuts at 22:30 on Sunday, which makes it the last stop rather than the first.