Dinner on Mont St Michel

All the restaurants are by the same company. One of those reviews was ours, yes awful. We stayed off island very close to the parking lot, but made the mistake of eating dinner at one of the MSM restaurants. If I were staying on island, I'd bring instant oatmeal, granola bars and buy coffee. Sorry, that I can't offer better options. We seriously asked ourselves, "How can food in France be this bad"?

Go across the bridge and eat at the restaurant at the hotel Hôtel Le Relais du Roy if it's open. We were there before the Covid years, stayed at the hotel and ate at the restaurant. Usually meals in tourist places are pretty poor as you've been seeing in the reviews. Our dinner was a complete surprise, one of the best dinners we had on our trip. I don't know if they've reopened the restaurant; I think the hotel was closed last year.

We ate at the hotel at the top of the island near the Abbey years ago and the meal was fine -- not great, but fine. Typical French formula -- I had lamb -- It was reasonably priced and okay. There was a wonderful view of the bay from the dining room

They're all pretty bad.

Unless you want to leave the rock for dinner, just chalk it up to part of the "experience." I mean, the food isn't horrible, it's just profoundly mediocre and disappointing because it could be so much better if the restaurant managers wanted it to be.

As for breakfast, we stayed there overnight recently with some friends visiting from the States and just had a croissant, juice, and coffee at the bar of the hotel, which was much cheaper than the petit déjeuner offered by the hotel.

@janetravelss44 @bob -- thanks all. Is it possible/easy to walk off the island for dinner? I booked a guided tour of the abbey for 4:45 and after that we are free ... My plan was to arrive late, walk around in the morning, and hopefully avoid peak tourist times. The 4:45 is the last tour, so we will have to get there a bit earlier than planned, but I thought it was better than the 10:15 tour the next morning, in which case we wouldn't leave until almost noon, and we are driving to Amboise that day, so I wanted an earlier start. Anyway, I have no problem walking off the island if it will make dinner digestible. Pastries and coffee for breakfast sounds perfect.

In all honestly, I am dreading this night a bit. The no elevators, no A/C, leave our bags in the car overnight -- all stressful. I weighed the pros and cons, and I felt like this was an experience worth having and the benefit is avoiding the peak tourist times on the island, but I am still not exactly looking forward to it.

As we were told by our local guides, MSM has been a pilgrimage site for a 1,000 years. That is, it has always been a prime destination for travelers and always crowded. The services and accommodations and the schlocky souvenir shops in this amazingly tiny and cramped space, have always been about serving a constant throng of pilgrims, and not about being a comfortable tourist retreat. Knowing that dIdn't make it easier to elbow our way around, but at least we had an authentic experience.

Is it possible/easy to walk off the island for dinner?

Of course. You can walk to the strip of hotels and restaurants off the island, perhaps a bit over a mile. Or, even easier, ride the same shuttle bus you'll take from the parking lot to MSM since it has a stop or two at the off-island hotels. Be sure to check dinner hours; if I remember correctly they stopped serving surprisingly early. And even if you don't eat off the island you ought to go there at nite just for the views; MSM is beautifully lit at nite.

Your arrival time sounds perfect. We arrived around 3pm to our hotel across the bridge (basic motel, but it had A/C and parking), and by the time around 4pm when we took the bus to the base of MSM the crowds on the island were no trouble at all. In the morning around 9am we made another brief visit and then left. BTW on your way to MSM Cancale makes a great lunch stop if you like oysters. They have restaurants, of course, or you could just buy a dozen and eat at the dock. And before Cancale we enjoyed a visit to Fort la Latte.

We did similar to John. MSM was stunning during the "golden hour". We have some lovely pics of the island with fields and sheep in the foreground.

@John, We also stayed off island, about a mile from the shuttle parking lot. I'm not clear if when you are talking about hotels and restaurants off island at the shuttle stops are the ones just over the bridge prior to the shuttle parking lot. If so, we ate at one of those restaurants, same company as the on island restaurants, same menu, same food. Just, to be clear, food was awful, but completely edible.

Thanks everyone. I was just able to make a reservation at Hippocampe off the island at 8 PM. I wanted 7:30, but they said 7 or 8. I am afraid we will miss the golden hour eating at 8, but our slot at the Abbey is 4:45, with a 45 minute tour, and then I suppose we would want to wander the abbey a bit. We'd need to take the shuttle to the restaurant if we took the 7 PM slot. Do you think we could make it to Hippocampe by 7 without unduly rushing at the Abbey? I'm a little torn on what to do. I think maybe the sunset is more important and we should just try to get to the restaurant by 7?

The vloggers Les Frenchies went there recently, you might check out where they ended up eating and staying. I posted a link once and it was swatted down.

I would stick with my 8 PM reservation and arrive early if possible. If a table is available I'm sure they would seat you. If not, you still have your 8 PM reservation. I was at MSM last year. After our visit we drove to Concale (on our way home to Dinan) for oysters and were not disappointed.

@Kay: they ended up giving me a 7:30 reservation. It was very strange, because I originally asked for 7:30, and they said, it had to be 7 or 8. Then I asked for their advice based on my timing issue, and they gave me 7:30. I'll take it!