Midweek dinner for seven tourists. Great spot along the marina. Food was very good. Excellent by US…read morestandards but may be lesser for locals. Good beers, house wines. Server spoke better English than our combined touristy French. General good traveling tip. Please don't ask for substitutions, is their this or that.

Comfortable second floor café with indoor seating as well as ample terrace space. The decor is…read morecontemporary but not overly modern. The food is pretty good- so far, I've tried their burger and fries as well as bites of my friends' ice creams. Everything was fresh, if slightly under-salted. Note for when you order: as is, the burger comes with cheese Minus one star for being a little pricy Also, one of the male waiters had a major attitude. I realize tourists trying to speak French isn't always a breeze, but 10 minutes to get a bit of mustard...?

While we originally planned on eating at a Moroccan restaurant in Theix (and had it reserved with…read moreconfirmation from the chef), it was closed upon arrival and we had to come up with another plan. It was coming on 1 pm and everyone in our party was pretty hungry. AT's sister decided to go to Vannes and after a bit of a parking fiasco, our group of eight assembled outside of Le Gavroche, ready to feast. Maybe I am just a novice to French dining, but every time I go to a new restaurant, I'm left feeling over-the-moon about it and this happened after having lunch here. Service was nice enough, though our server wasn't the warmest person I had ever encountered. We all looked over the menu and saw that there were combinations broken out into four different price levels (3 normal price levels for lunch or dinner and 1 weekday lunch formula). Knowing that I wouldn't see the tab because of the immense hospitality that AT's family showed me, I knew I would pick the least expensive option (which was part of the weekday lunch formula with the option to have either appetizer and entrée or entrée and dessert), no matter what. But as I looked over my options, I found exactly what I wanted in that section anyway. You see, I am kinda "American" when it comes to French food. I won't eat everything and I don't love gamey cold cuts, duck, foie gras, or pungent cheeses. Yeah... So I always declined anything that had these items and was sort of tame with what I ate. Here I ended up with a piece of beef with a peppercorn sauce (pièce de bœuf, sauce poivre) with mashed potatoes and a carrot purée. I ordered my steak medium but when it came out it looked to be medium rare. Being around carnivorous people who liked to eat beef as bloody as possible, I ate mine like a champ with perhaps just one wince. The smooth taters were quite good but what I really enjoyed was the slightly sweet carrot purée, which was entirely unlike mashed sweet potatoes and maybe better. As a side note, the peppercorn sauce was probably made with green peppercorns, which lent a slightly strange flavor to it, eliciting multiple comments from around my table (lots of us ordered this dish) that the sauce had subtle soap hints. If you are sensitive to "different" flavors, you may want to skip this dish and go on to the one I talk about next. AT got the Suprême de poulet à la basquaise (chicken basque) dish and when I got a bit of his, I actually envied him for his meal. It was spectacular. Normally, I pick chicken dishes and he goes for red meat but we switched it up and he made the better choice. He actually cooks this dish very well but we both decided that Le Gavroche's version was a strong contender. He got the Salade Landaise au foie gras as an appetizer and really enjoyed it, though I cannot comment on it. Next up! Since I skipped the appetizer, I was entitled to a dessert and everyone else at the table had theirs included too. AT went with the île flottante (meringue floating on crème anglaise, another thing that he prepares skillfully) and I got the riz au lait, caramel au beurre salé (rice pudding with salted butter caramel). We were pleased to end our afternoon meal with these well-done desserts, none of them too rich or sweet. If you are in Vannes, stop by to eat some traditional French cuisine at Le Gavroche.