MSM / St Malo hotel restaurant recommendations

We ate at La Ferme Saint Michel Restaurant in MSM (not on the island) and had a wonderful meal.

There are lots of seafood options in Saint-Malo. I was on a Road Scholar tour in May and the guide recommended we not eat at any of the restaurants right beside the gates. He suggested the better restaurants were a street or two or more inside the city. I'm vegan so skipped the seafood and had a wonderful meal at Le Penjab the night we were on our own. You might not be in the mood for Indian food, but it was delicious!! It is a very small restaurant with maybe 10 tables?

As a group we also ate at Le Chateaubriand inside the walls and at La Table d'Henri just a block or so outside the walls. The group seemed to enjoy the food more at La Table d'Henri and the service was certainly better. Several chose to go back there on our free night.

We stayed 3 nights at the Hotel Oceania Saint-Malo which was well located as the 1st hotel outside the walls. The breakfast room had gorgeous views of the beach/sea/islets. It's not a Rick Steves type hotel if that's what you are looking for as it's a chain but the rooms were very nice and spacious and the staff were very helpful. Breakfast was a nice buffet.

I loved Saint-Malo! I hope the weather is nice enough for you to walk out to the islets when the tide is out and also to walk the city wall. I loved looking over the wall into the swimming pool that is completely covered when the tide is in.

Wondering if your stay at Hotel Oceania Saint-Malo included your visit to MSM. If not, did you stay on the island and what was your lodging? Was it one you would return to?

On the Road Scholar trip we stayed 3 nights in Saint-Malo and did Cancale and MSM as a day trip.

Previously I did the Rick Steves Paris and Heart of France tour and we stayed on MSM at Auberge Saint Pierre. This hotel has several buildings and I was in a building up the street and thru an archway and up another path. My room was OK but not really anything I would recommend. It was clean, there was wifi, otherwise, not much. I think the people in the main hotel had more interesting rooms. I also travel solo and get the single supplement so sometimes those rooms are not the best in the house. I did have a nice view out the window of the flats or water, depending on the tide, lol. I will also tell you that I am not the biggest MSM fan so that may color my opinion. As a group we did eat at a good restaurant on MSM and I believe it was the restaurant at Hotel La Croix Blanche.

I had dinner at Le Relais du Roy where I was staying and it literally was one of the best meals I've had in France, a complete surprise since restaurants in touristy places usually count on a captive clientele and offer mediocre food. Note that at any restaurant in the area you need to be seated around 7pm, they don't stay open late. After dinner take one of the frequent trams back across the bridge to enjoy MSM all lit up, maybe walk around it a bit, then return to Dinan. As a bonus if you make a dinner reservation you can park in their lot close to the bridge rather than the ordinary lot; see http://www.le-mont-saint-michel.com/en/parking

I have stayed at the Hotel de l'Univers in Saint-Malo. It's a modest 3-star hotel smack dab in the center of town. It's nothing fancy, but it was clean and the lobby/breakfast area had a nice feel to it. The bar also is really old world.

There was a kind of neat place on the wall over the ocean in St. Malo. I can't recall the name but it's fairly centrally located over the beach. I had a crepe and soda but they have a menu. The inside of the building is charming, go up the stairs to the top - if just to have a look. I ate at a table out front. Their prices were high but less than outrageous.

I really wanted an omelette in MSM but the price was outrageous. An omelette ranges from 35 to 50 euros.

I also want an omelette in MSM but now may have to rethink it. Where did you stay when you were there?

We drove from Bayeux and spent the day in St Malo. We followed Rick’s tip on parking and it was so easy. We had a few hours to walk the walls and walk out to an islet, walking amongst locals who looked like they were going to look for clams or mussels. We ate inside the walls at La Brigantene and had delicious galettes (buckwheat crepes). Our Normandy guide also suggested we have ice cream at Sanchez- the long line was a good indication of how good it was!

After St Malo, we drove to MSM and stayed at Relais du Roy which I recommend. Unfortunately, unlike Bill G, we didn’t have a chance to try their restaurant because we arrived around 8 pm and we wanted to catch the tram to MSM right away to see the sunset. The restaurants on MSM were booked so we ended up just eating whatever snacks we had on hand for our late dinner that night when we got back to the hotel. We definitely should’ve planned that better! The next morning we got up early because we had an abbey tour booked. I’ll never forget working my way up there in the rain. I can’t remember what we did for breakfast but I know there’s a grocery store across the hotel that had a gift shop and patisserie as well and we picked up a picnic there as we were leaving MSM to drive to Paris that day.

No, MSM will not be crowded in early December. It may even be very quiet if you do not plan to go there right in the middle of the day.