Saint-Malo Restaurants

The restaurant is outside of the town of St Malo and on the beach front, about 10 minutes walk from the ramparts. The restaurant is run by an extremely pleasant man who is super efficient and welcoming. The food is great, particularly the pizzas which are not for the faint hearted! The pasta dishes are well prepared and presented. The wine is reasonable i.e. a bottle of Muscadet is 14 Euros.

Favorite Dish: The Pizzas are all excellent. The fish soup is outstanding. The pasta dishes are also exceptional.

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My travel companion and I decided to try the restaurant of the Hotel Antheus called Club A. When we arrived at the hotel earlier we saw a group of French people having late lunch at the restaurant (it was Easter Sunday). There were also a few French couples there in the evening too and we considered it as a good sign: if the locals like it, it must be very good.

I tried to see whether there were any reviews of this restaurant online - either in French or English, but didn't manage to find any. Despite that we decided to go ahead and try it - and it was definitely worth it. The food was absolutely gorgeous. It's proper French cuisine, but also has a quirkly element to it, as the dishes are presented in a less traditional way.

It was Sunday so they were only offering set 3 course menus for 22 euros. I don't often eat dessert so I thought it was a bit silly there wasn't a two course menu available, but then took some cheeses for dessert anyway.

The food was very, very good. I had fish and scallops to start with and then two kinds of fish (salmon and another, white fish) for a main course. I struggled to understand most dishes on their menu, which was only in French so I asked the waiter kindly explain to me what the dishes included, so I was happy to make my choices.

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The owners of this charming little restaurant opened in 2005 really know how to make a lovely seafood dish. It is located outside the popular and also more touristic old city (intra muros) and it is not growded by tourists. They specialise in seafood and their typical dishes include risotto de la mer (seafood risotto), moules marinières (mussels) and paëlla de la mer (seafood paella). Their scallop carpaccio (a starter) was so delicious I still wonder where I could get something similar in the UK.

Mains are between 9 and 15 euros. Starters about 4.50 euros.

The restaurant is rather small as there are only 20 seats, but they do welcome groups as well although it is perharps best to phone them in that case.

Opening hours are from 9am to 9pm everyday except Monday in hors-saison.

The menu is in French although the chef does speak English so don't be put off by that as this is a really lovely restaurant and the food is lovely.

Me and my partner paid less than about 56 euros (+ the tip) and we had a shared starter, two apperitifs, two mains, a bottle of lovely bottle of Haute Poitoi Sauvignon (it had won a gold medal in 2009), two coffees, one ball of ice cream and an alcoholic drink to go with the coffee.

Nothing special about this creperie: the service was really poor and the owners do not seem to enjoy working there, they even refused to serve some customers before 10pm when it clearly said that it was open until 11pm! The food was average. Would I go again? No!

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Le Café de Saint-Malo is a popular café and restaurant located in one of the most bustling parts of Saint-Malo’s historic walled city (Intra Muros). It is located just inside the town’s ramparts, close to the Porte St Vincent and La Grand Porte entrances to the city, and is surrounded by competing street cafes, boutique hotels and souvenir shops.

While Le Café de Saint-Malo is famed for its good value seafood dishes (most of the outdoor tables were full of diners tucking into oysters, shrimps and fish when I passed by in the evening), I actually visited the café for a Sunday morning breakfast during my stay in the city in June 2008.

The café offers dozens of outdoor tables, sheltered beneath a red canopy, with great views of the adjacent ramparts, and also has a large interior with a dining room capable of holding many more diners.

Le Café de Saint-Malo was fairly quiet on the Sunday morning that I visited and I had no problem getting an outdoor table. This would not have been possible the previous evening, when all the prime street-side tables were occupied and people were having to wait for vacant tables.

The breakfast menu consisted of various continental breakfast combinations. The simplest and cheapest option was a croissant with a hot beverage for around 4 or 5 Euros, while other options including fresh fruit juice, toast, cheese, bacon and eggs were more expensive.

I splashed out and paid 9.60 Euros for the Grand Formule breakfast – the biggest option on the menu. This included:

- a glass of fresh orange juice (small, but refreshing);
- a choice of hot beverage (I ordered coffee, but was given a hot chocolate, with an accompanying biscuit);
- a croissant;
- a stick of white crusty bread, with butter, red currant and strawberry jams;
- a slice of toast;
- bacon (3 or 4 small pieces of thin, lightly cooked bacon);
- eggs (3 fried eggs, with runny yolks).

As with many of the restaurants and cafes in the touristy heart of Saint-Malo, the food was a little overpriced, but it was good quality and I certainly enjoyed it.

A popular café in the heart of Saint-Malo. The seafood is apparently very good – the breakfasts definitely are! Recommended!

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The streets of Saint-Malo’s old town (Intra Muros) are lined with outdoor cafes and ice cream parlours.

During a visit to the city in June 2008, I sat at one of the outdoor tables at ”Captain Ice” Glacier – Salon de Thé on a sunny Saturday afternoon to enjoy a sweet treat after a day of sightseeing.

Captain Ice is located on Rue Jacques Cartier, at the foot of the city’s famous walls and just a few steps away from “La Grand Porte” – one of the main entrances into the walled city.

The menu contains a huge array of ice cream flavours, including a variety of lavish sundaes (some of which contain alcohol) and refreshing fruit flavoured sorbets. Choose from flavours as diverse as cookies and kiwi, coffee and black cherry…and hundreds more!

As well as ice creams and sorbets, Captain Ice also offers a selection of cakes, as well as a good choice of coffees, teas, milkshakes (available in the same flavours as the ice creams), fresh fruit juices and soft drinks.

Prices are pretty steep and clearly aimed at the hordes of tourists that pass by each day. Many of the ice cream sundaes were priced well above 8 Euros, while even a couple of scoops of ice cream were around the 5 Euro mark.

I opted for:

Tarte Citron Meringuee - Cost: 3.60 Euros

A reasonable sized slice of lemon meringue pie - thin pastry, not a great deal of lemon curd and a lot of crispy meringue. Far from the best lemon meringue pie I’ve ever had, but it was ok. Tasted more like a mass-produced store-bought pie than a homemade one.

Jus d’Ananas - Cost: 2.70 Euros

A small bottle of pineapple juice.

One of a number of outdoor cafes/ice cream salons beneath the walls of Saint-Malo’s Intra Muros. A pleasant place to enjoy dessert while watching the world go by – but expect tourist prices!

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The old town (Intra Muros) of Saint-Malo is littered with small cafes and restaurants; whichever road you turn down you will be likely to find somewhere offering food and drink – be it a plush restaurant, an outdoor café, a pizzeria or an ice cream parlour.

After a morning’s sightseeing on my first day in Saint-Malo in June 2008, I was ready for some lunch. On a sunny afternoon, many of the cafes with outdoor seating were full, so I ventured down a shaded side street and stumbled upon Le Medieval.

Le Medieval is located on Rue Herse, next door to an Irish pub, and offers a large choice of snack foods and light meals.

The menu consists mainly of sandwiches, burgers, kebabs, frites, salads and hot and cold drinks. There is no dining area as such, but there are half a dozen chairs at the bar where you can sit and enjoy your meal. Others choose to take their snacks away with them. There were no other customers at the time of my visit, so I ate at the bar while listening to the background music.

Free wi-fi access is available inside the snack bar.

I opted for:

Croque Monsieur - Cost: 4.50 Euros

A cheese and ham toasted sandwich, with a portion of salty frites and a side salad. The cheese was unmistakably French – a tasty white cheese, melted both inside the sandwich and all over the top of it. The ham was thin, but tasty.

Also on the menu, but slightly more expensive, was Croque Madame. I didn’t know how this differed from a Croque Monsieur, so I played safe and stuck to what I knew. My subsequent research informs me that a Croque Madame is a Croque Monsieur with a fried egg on top.

Bottle of Fanta Orange - Cost: 2.00 Euros

A friendly little snack bar in the heart of the Intra Muros – mainly serving sandwiches, kebabs and burgers.

This restaurant provided my wife with and myself with an entrecote steak which must have been sliced with a bacon slicer! My wife asked for medium rare and was given a well done steak. She complained to the waiter who proceeded to use my wife's knife and fork to cut the steak in the hope of finding some part of the steak which was not well done. I immediately requested the bill and our table was joined by a person who I believe was either the owner or head waiter. She told the waiter to change the steak with another. The replacement arrived and was marginally better.

I suggest any visitor to St Malo avoids this disgraceful restaurant and their appallingly behaved staff.

Favorite Dish: None