Freia, Modern French restaurant in central Nantes, France.
Freia is a modern French restaurant housed in a transparent greenhouse dining room on a rooftop opposite the train station. The glass structure offers views across Nantes while dining, and the on-site vegetable garden sits alongside the space.
Sarah Mainguy opened this restaurant in 2024 as her second establishment following the earlier success of Vacarme. The rooftop location and garden concept emerged from her vision to expand her cooking philosophy within ecological gastronomy.
The restaurant brings together French cooking and ecological thinking through an on-site rooftop garden managed by market gardener Alice Ménard. Visitors can see how vegetables grow and are used directly in the kitchen.
The restaurant operates Tuesday through Friday and works best if you arrive while daylight lingers to enjoy the rooftop views. Visitors should head toward the train station area and look for the glass structure on the opposite side of the platform.
The kitchen emphasizes raw preparations and plant-based dishes while using fermentation techniques and avoiding imported ingredients like chocolate and spices. This approach turns each meal into an exploration of local resources and traditional preservation methods.
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