St. Malo: Restaurant Experience

[Pet Nit Noy]

On a recent cruise, we had a port call in Saint Malo. My husband and I had wanted to go across the peninsula to the oyster beds in Cancale to sample the world-famous oysters harvested there. However, we ended up spending the day in the Old Town of St. Malo, a charming place, and ate our Cancale oysters in St. Malo.

 

In Old Town, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of restaurants so the process of picking a place to eat can be daunting. (The highest concentration of restaurants seems to be just inside the St. Vincent gate.) Even the standard advice to look at the menu isn't tremendously useful since the menus appear to be almost identical.

 

Here are some details that may help visitors choose a restaurant in St. Malo:

 

-- #3 is the rating system for a medium-sized Cancale. #4 is the label for a smaller size oyster. We saw several restaurants offering #4 oysters for not much less than #3 oysters. We saw no places offering #2 oysters and that includes restaurants with posted menus and a fish/shellfish store.

 

-- A galette is the name for a crepe with a savory filling and a crepe only refers to a sweet filling. Furthermore, the galette is made with what I believe is buckwheat flour while the crepe is made with wheat flour. (My French was good enough to know the waitress said two different kinds of flour, but I'm less confident I got the French words for "buckwheat" and "regular" right.) Not many restaurants we saw were offering galettes. Since trying a galette was one of our food goals, we based our ultimate restaurant choice on a place that offered them, Le Crepe Show.

 

The English skills of most folks who interact with the tourist public are quite good. I wanted to practice my French and our waitress wanted to practice her English. We found a happy compromise; the waitress would speak French and if I didn't understand something, she'd repeat it in English. This bi-lingual approach became very important during the explanation why there is no wine made in either Normandy or in Brittany. Happily, the local brew -- cider -- was just delicious.

 

Le Crepe' Show

Place Guy La Chambre

Telephone: 02 99 40 83 72

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Le Crepe'Show. Excellent cooking and friendly, professional service.

[marazul]

I got the French words for "buckwheat"

 

buckwheat = sarrasin

[Pet Nit Noy]

buckwheat = sarrasin

 

Thanks! You've just solved a mystery.

 

When the waitress was talking about the savory and sweet crepes, I heard the word "sarrasin"; however, my head went in a completely different direction.

 

Arezzo is one of my favorite places in Italy, and twice each year this city holds a medieval pageant that includes jousting. The name of the festival is the Saracen Joust. Of course, the Italian word (Saracino) isn't pronounced "sarrasin" but when I heard the full-speed French, I thought of the English word "Saracen" which led to wonder why she was talking about an ancient game from the age of chivalry when the topic was food. Now, I understand.

 

When the food was served, I inferred that the flour was buckwheat by its color and taste -- a conclusion that turns out to be correct.