Chez Fonfon — Restaurant in Marseille

This place is A MUST in Marseille! We tried going without a reservation, but they politely told us that they are full and that we need to reserve. We reserved a table for 2 days later, and quite frankly, I am so happy we did!! Chez Fonfon does the true authentic Bouillabaisse, which is the famous dish of Marseille. We learned from a local friend that it takes 48 hours to cook the bouillon (the soup part). That's why it makes sense that they only take people with reservations. Once we got there, we ordered "Bouillabaisse du pêcheur", and the "Panier du pêcheur à la plancha". The food was fantastic!!!! They first served us an appetizer (for free- we didn't ordered it) which was a piece of Salmon on top of something yellow that was delicious. Then they brought us another appetizer (that we also got for free) which consisted of mashed olives and bread. Soon after that, the waiter came and showed us the fish that they are going to cook for us in the Bouillabaisse. Such a nice way of presenting the food! Not long after that, the food started arriving. We were blown away by the taste! Each fish tastes differently and are cooked in a way that extracts the taste in the best possible way! The waiters were very hospitable and nice and explained to us how best to eat the Bouillabaisse. I highly recommend this place! You...

I have to admit I am not an expert on bouillabaisse so cannot comment on how good Chez Fonfon’s version is but it was a rich fish broth with good flavour but nothing exceptional. The fish was also fresh but prepared in the simplest way so it was really about quality of ingredients more than execution. I understand why some complained about the service but in my case it was due to the fact that the server didn’t really speak English (nor should we expect them to in France) and I didn’t really do my homework and over relied on google translate. As a result, I definitely ordered too much. For 2 ppl we had 1 serving of the soup (which comes with fish) and another dish plate. We were 2 small-med women and I think this could have easily fed 3-4 ppl. I wish the server could have at least warned us even with the language gap. Total bill with 2 glasses of wine was about €140 euro which is fair for all the fish (against my benchmark living in London) but as I said we could have had half of it which would have been a much more enjoyable meal as we walked away feeling much too full. I would have to say service was not friendly nor attentive but not rude either which for France is ok. I would not go back again but wouldn’t recommend against it to someone else. Just be prepared if you don’t speak...

I'm American, so this is very much from that perspective. We'd been in France for a week now and had been received everywhere with warmth, grace, and understanding of our lack of French vocabulary. However, we were met with indignity at this establishment. The service was severely lacking and those serving us did nothing to make us feel welcome despite their mastery of the English language. We had received wonderful service elsewhere where the servers spoke very little English, so it had nothing to do with the language barrier at all, it was very much the tone and body language along with some choice words that came across very rude. The food was good but not excellent, my wife enjoyed her scallops very much. I had built up bouillabaisse very much after reading about it extensively and had gone out of my way to come this restaurant to have it based on reviews and research. Unfortunately I did not find it to be as amazing as I had hoped. It was good, but I'm unsure if it was $55 good. Yes the helping was large and filling, but flavor wise it was lacking. For other travellers, I'd also like to let you know that the dress is casual, as in jeans and a polo kind of casual. The view from the restaurant is wonderful and was probably the best thing...