The story
Meraki is a bistro at 2 rue Menou in Nantes, near Place Viarme, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2026. The modern cuisine here comes from two friends who met in a Melbourne kitchen in 2014.
Maxime Bocquier cooks, and Clément Richard runs the dining room. One came from luxury hotels, the other from gastronomic restaurants, and they opened Meraki in Nantes together. Le Fooding lists the address for 2026 and notes that, in barely two years, it won over local food lovers in the neighborhood. The name is Greek and means something done with love, passion and creativity.
Dinner is a four- or five-course tasting menu, at 48 and 56 euros. Le Fooding described a five-course evening that opened with iceberg lettuce, lettuce heart jus and onion jam. It went on to a squid ink sponge cake with goose neck barnacles and clams, then meagre with braised fennel and lemony tzatziki. Dessert was poached rhubarb with beetroot and mint cream.
The midday menu is a shorter bistro format at 21 or 25 euros. A recent card listed fish rillette with cucumber and buckwheat crackers, barley risotto with green curry and feta, and a floating island with verbena and rhubarb. Le Fooding describes blue tones with wood and stone touches, and the wine list leans organic. There is outdoor seating too.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
good quality, good value cooking
Blue tones, plus plenty of wood and stone touches… Welcome to this bistro run by two friends who met in Melbourne – Maxime Bocquier in the kitchen (Lamaccotte, La Mare aux Oiseaux) and Clément Richard in the dining room – who, in barely two years, have won over the local foodies in the Place Viarme neighborhood. The night we went, the menu took us on a flavor-packed five-course journey, which began with an enigmatic stroll through the garden – tender iceberg lettuce, a lettuce heart jus and onion jam; before taking to the open seas with an incredible squid ink sponge cake, goose neck barnacles, clams and a squid ink tuile; followed by some delightful meagre with braised fennel and lemony tzatziki; surprising siphoned sheep’s milk cheese and a sunflower seed praliné center; before poached rhubarb, grated beetroot, thyme sugar tuile, mint cream and rhubarb sorbet for the impressive dessert. Total meraki (“something done with love, passion, creativity” in Greek)! // Catherine Jamon
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