"Having a house near Josselin in Brittany, the Portsmouth to St. Malo crossing is the most convenient for us. The MV Bretagne has been on this route for many years and is an old friend. On the outbound overnight crossing we always dine in the Les Abers Restaurant, it's the time when you can relax and enjoy your visit to France.The food and service is invariably of the highest order. It offers both a la carte and table d'hote menus. We usually choose the table d'hote because of the superb buffet choices for starters and desserts. I think it used to be priced at about £24.00 for starter buffet, main course, dessert buffet and cheese. This season, however, there has been a change to the choice of menu. You can now choose the number of courses: either main course + glass of wine at £14.30; the 2 buffets at £17.40; starter buffet + main at £19.50 or all 3 courses at £25.70.We decided to go with the 2 buffets choice, as in the past we've always been too full with all 3!First we had an aperitif, to get us in the mood, of Kir Royale at £2.00 each, excellent! We also selected a bottle of Sancerre to accompany our meal at £19.50, top value for a top wine.There was as usual a good selection of starters, including, crevettes, prawns, smoked salmon, side of salmon, ham, artichoke hearts, tuna stuffed tomatoes, olives, pate, etc. I'm afraid I always make two calls to the starter buffet, starting with a full plate of prawns (well, you need a large plate to accommodate the peelings, excellent, juicy fresh prawns. The main courses on this occasion, although we did not have one, were saddle of lamb with ratatouille (dish of the day); tournedos of beef in pepper sauce; vegetable and sardine tian with black olive tapenade or vegetable stuffed conchigliani (vegetarian option). Then we proceeded to the dessert buffet, again plenty of choice, although for me, there are too many "cakey" choices - plus raspberry flan, raspberry fool, salt caramel cheesecake and creme caramel. We went for the cheesecake and the creme caramel, my favourite, both were delicious. Then to the cheese! Being a French ship there are some great choices, blue, goats, soft, hard all with a choice of crackers and fruits.Overall the food is of a high standard and the service is very good, you are greeted on entry by a maitre d, who shows you to your seat (on quiet crossings you are usually separated from neighbours by at least one setting, though on busy crossings, you will be seated more "cosily". He will introduce to your waiter, who will give you your menus and take any aperitif order you wish, coming back later to take your order as you take your aperitif at leisure.All the staff are bi-lingual, speaking at least French and English and are very attentive. On the whole I would recommend eating at this restaurant on board rather than the self service restaurant, which has equally good food, but doesn't have that relaxing atmosphere, which helps you get into your holiday mood!As a further point the Les Abers offers a breakfast option as you near your destination port. The continental option is priced at £7.50 and again is served as a buffet option, offering a large selection of pastries, meats, cheeses, conserves, grapefruit and fresh fruits. 3 choices of fruit juice, spring water, fresh coffee or tea. As an additional bonus, if you are a regular traveller and a member of Club Voyager, you have this breakfast included in your ferry ticket.All in all - Great Ship, Great Food, Great Service!"
