Chef Gérald Passedat’s family founded this hotel-restaurant on a craggy stone point sticking out into the Mediterranean in 1917, and since he took over in 1985, he’s made it into one of the world’s best seafood restaurants. The dining room with white tablecloths has sweeping views over the sea, and the menu changes according to what the fishing boats bring in every day. Passedat’s minimalist cooking style showcases fresh fish and shellfish in dishes like carpaccio of sea bream with caviar and bottarga, sea anemone beignets with seaweed sauce, and sea bass in an herb bouillon with chopped tomatoes.

Bouillabaisse, the fish stew made with locally caught rockfish, potatoes, tomatoes, saffron, and other ingredients, is arguably the dish that Marseille is most famous for. You’ll find it on menus all over town, but this family-run restaurant, in business since 1946, is where the locals come. Here it’s served as a two-course meal — first the rich brick-colored fish soup with croutons and garnishes of aioli and rouille, and then a platter of the fish and shellfish that have been cooked in the soup. Service can be a bit stiff, but the bouillabaisse always delivers.

After cooking at several Alain Ducasse restaurants in Paris, chef Paul Langlère moved to Marseille and set up shop in a charming bungalow surrounded by a garden with great views over the city. His brief lunch menu changes daily, and his dinner menu every few weeks, so that he can follow the seasons and cook with the best local produce. Past dishes have included oysters from the nearby Camargue with apple, mint, and ginger; gravlax with passionfruit and citrus; duck with Jerusalem artichoke puree, roasted salsify, hazelnuts, and dates; and roasted lamb shoulder with oyster mushrooms en persillade. 

After creating several of the best cocktail bars in Paris, the talented bar team behind CopperBay set up shop in Marseille just a few minutes from Le Vieux Port, the city’s historic harbor. In a nod to the city’s favorite spirit, they pour a variety of pastises as well as a number of inventive craft cocktails. Try a Tahini Sour, which is made with tahini and pisco, a perfect reflection of the city’s diversity. There are bar snacks, too, including pickled mussels, duck rillettes, and burrata.

After cooking at Semilla, a popular modern bistro in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, chef Matthieu Roche moved to Marseille and opened this intimate bistro with co-owner Camille Fromont near Le Vieux Port in the heart of the city. A native of Aix-en-Provence, Roche says he returned to the south because he missed the high quality of the produce available there and also the energy of Provence’s largest city. A low-key dining room with cement floors is the backdrop for dishes like carpaccio of black mullet smoked over fennel stalks with a salad of cucumbers marinated in turmeric and horseradish; gnocchi with a sauce of ramps and baby broccoli; and a passionfruit tart with a lime-meringue topping and lemon sorbet.

Before opening his snug bistro with a back garden terrace, chef Éric Maillet was sous chef to Gérald Passedat, the dean of Marseille cooking, at his excellent seafood restaurant Le Petit Nice. The pedigree shows up in the precise creative bistro dishes on Maillet’s regularly changing chalkboard menu. Seafood and vegetables are the stars, including a recent starter salad of string beans, peas, snow peas, cherries, and pine nuts in an earthy vinaigrette; and sea bream and grilled baby potatoes with a sauce vierge (chopped tomatoes and basil in olive oil).

Sisters Louise and Julia Toche’s new downtown Mediterranean comfort-food bistro, between Le Vieux Port and the trendy Noailles district, serves an original menu of delicious dishes like Swiss chard tourte; mussels with leche de tigre, roasted tomatoes, and parsley oil; and braised beef with baby leeks, mushrooms, and mostarda. Set in an old cafe, with a colorfully tiled bar, the friendly and festive environment is also great for people-watching and taking the pulse of the city. The kitchen’s commitment to using fresh, seasonal, locally sourced produce is the holy grail in Marseille right now.

British chef Harry Cummins and Quebecois sommelier Laura Vidal met while working together at Frenchie in Paris, and opened this market-menu bistro with an open kitchen in an old sewing shop in the Noailles district last spring. It’s been playing to a full house ever since. Book a seat at the long repurposed wood bar to watch the chefs at work, or grab a table and dig into dishes like a saute of razor clams with shallots and ham; gnocchi with lamb and black olive ragout; grilled line-caught turbot with artichokes, spinach, and young garlic; and rice pudding flavored with fig leaves and strawberries. The menu evolves constantly, and the wine list includes great selections by the glass. In nice weather, the small terrace outside is the place to be.

No city in France has a more intimate relationship with the cooking of North Africa. That’s clear at this simple Tunisian restaurant in one of the busiest market streets in town, which constantly serves dishes atop fluorescent green placemats to diners seated in metal chairs. Try the lablabi, a cumin-spiced chickpea soup with garlic and homemade harissa; spicy egg kafteji in tomato sauce; and juicy grilled merguez sausages served with an assortment of salads. The lamb couscous on Fridays and the grouper couscous on Sundays are excellent.

Former food writer Julia Sammut — whose mother and sister run the respected La Fenière restaurant in the tiny nearby village of Cadenet — opened her “ideal grocery store” (as the name translates) in the Noailles quarter. Here she sells a personally curated selection of the foods she loves most, including cheese, charcuterie, condiments, olives, pasta, and other high-quality goods. At noon, these foodstuffs star in a short, regularly changing menu that’s served at a wooden tables in the shop and on the sidewalk outside. Recent preparations included lamb shoulder baked with pomegranate molasses, chickpeas with braised octopus, a zucchini tart with smoked Sardinian ricotta, and almond and orange blossom ice cream.

In Provence, bubo means “to remember,” and this is what chef Fabien Torrente does. The contemporary tasting menus recall the traditional flavors of this sunny stretch of France, but reinterpreted in a modern way. For lunch, Torrente serves bento boxes that include a starter, a main course, and a dessert, and then offers a more elaborate menu at dinner. The dishes change often but tend toward umami, like a deconstructed vitello tonnato (chopped veal with capers and creamy tuna sauce) or roast lamb with zucchini stuffed with braised beef cheeks. For dessert, there’s a creamy chocolate mousse with orange and rhubarb ice cream.

Chef Julien Diaz’s approach in the kitchen is as clean and contemporary as the decor of his restaurant. Here he prizes seasonal Mediterranean produce on a menu that evolves regularly, but tends toward dishes like oven-roasted Corsican brocciu cheese with thinly sliced radishes, fresh peas, cucumbers, and pickled radish; saffron risotto with cypress oil, Corsican honey, and grated pinecone; and John Dory roasted in seaweed butter with peas and an earthy-green crab broth. The well-dressed crowd receives suave service and a great selection of local wines poured by the glass.

Before you head into this very popular fish house for a meal, do what the regulars do and eyeball the catch of the day at the adjacent fish market that’s owned by the restaurant. Owner Fabien Rugi’s nautically themed decor of ropes, fishnets, and buoys is amusingly tongue-in-cheek, but the cooking here is seriously good, including a regularly changing roster of dishes like fresh sea urchins in season, razor clams from Sète with fresh cilantro and lemon, grilled rouget (red mullet), and fried baby squid. Finish up with a slice of fiadone, Corsican cheesecake. Reservations are essential.

Tucked away in Marseille’s Egyptian Cultural Center, this casual restaurant with brightly colored cushions and painted wood furniture serves dishes like kochari, a traditional street food made from rice, pasta, lentils, and chickpeas, garnished with tomato sauce and fried onions. There’s also ful, falafel sandwiches, and Egyptian flan, in addition to two different daily main course specials. The non-alcoholic drinks list includes helba, an infusion of fenugreek, and mint tea.

In under a year, chef Sarah Chougnet-Strudel and former wine merchant Lucien Salomon’s alluringly low-key retro bistro has become a much-loved institution among Marseille’s creative types. The childhood friends have outfitted the space with a big chestnut-paneled zinc-topped bar, varnished terracotta tile floor, and anthracite-gray wainscotting. Chougnet-Strudel previously cooked with Pascal Barbot at L’Astrance, Anne-Sophie Pic, and Hélène Darroze, and at the Greenhouse in London, followed by a stint in Singapore, while Salomon previously worked at La Cave de Belleville in Paris. Their impressive pedigrees inform the excellent regularly changing menu and wine list here, where modern comfort food includes pork belly with beets and mussel cream; udon with a sabayon of white miso, turnips, and ricotta salata; and soy-lacquered cauliflower with grilled polenta and grated ewe’s milk cheese. 

Just steps from the spectacular Napoleon III-vintage Palais Longchamp, this laidback street-corner bistro with a big raw-wood bar has developed a loyal crowd of regulars, who come for chef Noémie Lebocey. Her culinary style showcases and accentuates the natural flavors of produce, especially in the carefully chosen garnishes on dishes, like the ricotta beignets, fennel, and roasted tomatoes that accompany her fish soup. Lebocey’s menu evolves regularly, but consistently surprises with original dishes like an onion tart with whipped cream seasoned with smoked oregano, arugula, and buckwheat, or an apricot tart with smoked rosemary ice cream.