AM par Alexandre Mazzia — Restaurant in Marseille

23rd in my 3 stars Michelin Marathon in France (follow me for reviews and updates)

The Jazzman

The usual 3 stars question, « What’s extraordinary here? » is simple to answer : Him I’ll focus on only 2 points otherwise It’s going to be flagged again as being too long to be true.

When I was doing my intense 3 stars tour in the south, this review was already done in my mind. Each chef had their trait, and he was this French chef, arriving from the African continent, straight to Marseille, with his spices, pepper and roasting, playing/experiencing with our senses. Until I met Chef Arnaud Donckele. I was quickly debriefing him of where I was in my tour, and about to start speaking of Alexandre Mazzia when he stopped me right there and said “He’s a Jazz player”. I was so happy, I could have hugged him! If I hadn’t been in a three stars, if it was not the second time I met him in my life, and if it hadn’t been for my education that prevents me to do so. Yes, of course, he’s a Jazz player. It’s not like Gagnaire with an universe and its satellites. Dishes are notes, with their own tempo, from which you jump to another chord, another small plate. Like a jazz player, he’s not in a classical register, he’s using structures and even notes, blue notes, that are reminiscent of another continents, of other times. He’s playing with the audience perception, anticipating its reaction, just like an astute jazz player. I’m a huge Mingus fan. One of Mingus quality as a Jazzman, was that he was able to make you go through a reflection by making you feel the thought process. Others are explaining you, or just able to share one single emotion. It’s a big difference. Here, he’s sharing a reflection. May be both on his life and his work, but finally by an ultimate mirror effect, by “reflection”, on the gastronomy. He’s not just a jazz player, he’s a Jazzman.

Ok, enough with the crazy review. What’s in it for me? You ll have fun, you’ll be surprised, you’ll be entertained.

The service and the atmosphere is of a 3 stars auteur. You’ll have some well rounded professional serving mainly foodies. The chef universe can be felt in every detail, and the chef does pay attention to detail…

It’s a top tiers 3 stars playing in its...

I'll start with the good; there are a few good things to say even though I give this 3 star Michelin restaurant 2 stars. The presentation of the food, and (most of) the service was fantastic at AM. The food looks like art, is seasonal and extremely creative. For the most part, the servers were friendly and warm even though they were frantically running around delivering hundreds of plates to the dozen tables.

Now the not so great...and there was a lot. First, the sommelier did not hide his contempt that we were not interested in a wine pairing; a Champagne pairing was strongly suggested. That set the tone for the rest of the evening. The many many dishes filling the table (at least 7-8 each time) were beautiful, but so many lacked any flavor or were just not good. The bread tasted like it had come from an economy class airline meal (think those chewy buns in plastic bags). Not what I expected for a over $500 each meal (and again, we only had a few drinks). Everyone has their own "goût" and lots of people clearly love this place, but to me flavour and taste are paramount.

The part that was distressing, but we could only laugh at that point given the cost (the joke was on us after all) was that there is only one toilet, and it was not working for at least 2 hours! My partner had to go to the bathroom and was told that he would be alerted when it was free. However, no one came. We waited. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, finally after 45 minutes I asked. I was told that it was a "disaster" and they were working on it. Finally, after almost 2 hours they got it working. I would have expected someone to come see us 5 minutes after he tried to use the bathroom to tell us they were sorry but something was wrong and they were fixing it. Instead there was silence...and many filled bladders.

Finally, the pièce de résistance for me was the dessert drink menu. Only one espresso option: 16 EUR for a single drink.

We went the next day to Villa Madie (another 3 star Michelin) in Cassis, which was so so lovely and the opposite of AM. I guess that's...

I think it's a bit overrated on Google Reviews. Overall, it was a good experience, but there’s room for improvement.

First of all, service-wise, I think they're understaffed. Since each course has multiple plates with different presentations, the server had to come and go several times for a single course. Because of this, they lacked attention to detail in their service. We had to wait for our wine to be served when our glasses were empty, which I don't think reflects a three-star service in general.

Additionally, they lacked detailed orientation. One of our group members mentioned that they cannot eat clams. While it’s not an allergy, it’s a preference. Despite mentioning this in advance when confirming the reservation and again at the start of dinner, they still served razor clams and a dish with both mackerel and clams. This shouldn’t have been overlooked.

Taste-wise, it was experimental and seemed to cater to an acquired taste. Perhaps for some people, it felt fresh, but for us, it just seemed like a 'hodgepodge' of different cultures rather than a cohesive story. For instance, they served a miso soup-inspired dish, which was just salty miso soup.

Overall, some dishes were good, while others were too spicy or heavily seasoned. We had a full course, and it was a sufficient amount of food. We could see that a lot of effort went into its creation and presentation. The staff were nice and helpful, which we...