The story
In 2014, two chefs met in a Melbourne kitchen. Clément came from luxury hotels, Maxime from fine dining. They decided to open their own place in Nantes, near Place Viarme. The result is Meraki – a Greek word that means “doing something with love, passion, and creativity.” That spirit runs through everything here.
The space is deliberately unpretentious and welcoming. The kitchen focuses on creative modern cuisine, changing with the seasons. An organic wine list is carefully chosen to match the food. At lunch, you can choose two or three courses (21€ and 25€). In the evening, a four-course (48€) or five-course (56€) menu lets you taste more of the team’s work.
The current lunch menu shows the style: a starter of fish rillettes with cucumber and buckwheat crackers; a choice of barley risotto with green curry and feta, or line-caught fish with roasted carrot and satay sauce; and a dessert of floating island with verbena and rhubarb. Dinner menus are built around the same seasonal, ingredient-led approach – always with a nod to the chefs’ global influences.
Meraki has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which rewards restaurants that serve good quality, good value cooking. The award fits perfectly with the bistro’s philosophy: thoughtful, creative food in a relaxed setting, without the formal price tag. It’s a place where two friends turned their passion into a real, everyday restaurant.
Recognition
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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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