L'Effet Mer Frioul — Restaurant in Marseille

Tourist trap with a nice waterfront view but poor service, dirty tables, and a manager/owner who delayed letting me pay while he asked for a review.

[EDIT: The cafe response does more to demonstrate what this man is like than my review ever could - quite creepy and aggressive stuff. I don't often make reviews, certainly not bad ones but I stand by doing this. I hope this might help someone choose where to go when they read my review and his response.] We were greeted by a friendly but stressed waitress as we sat down at one of the empty but dirty tables. She hurriedly wiped at the table in one ineffective swipe, not doing much to clean it. We didn't mind too much - Poor woman was alone on the floor with about ten of the tables filled with guests - and the view was nice.

We were served quickly but told the milkshake/smoothie machine was broken so ordered a café crème and a hot chocolate. They were okay.

I went to use the bathroom. Inside the bar was completely covered with dozens of dirty glasses.

The waitress making drinks was quite hostile as I tried to walk past to the toilets, she stopped me and I tried to tell her I wanted to use the toilet in my broken french. She didn't seem to believe I was a customer. Luckily the friendly waitress bustled in and (had to) insist three times that I was.

Afterwards, I wanted to pay by card, and the friendly waitress outside directed me back inside. I asked the hostile waitress if I could pay by card. She seemed irritated but said yes but then just walked off. After an awkward few minutes, a man who seemed to be the manager/owner, came over to ask her if she would help me pay. She refused, and (I think) said I wasn't one of her customers.

He then helped me but I found it very awkward as he made a big display of being friendly and chatty and at first it seemed nice but then I slowly noticed that he kept sort of holding back the card machine, and it turned out he was demanding a review. I found it very uncomfortable.

[EDIT: I would have happily paid with cash, had I have known it was a problem or inconvenience - it seems weird to me that the first time I am hearing about this was in the response to my review. We also arrived there in the afternoon - we had had lunch hours earlier at one of the other open restaurants before going on our walk (and had received much better service). There were also plenty of empty tables when we arrived, we did ask the nice waitress if it was okay to sit where we sat and it was fine and we certainly had not been rude to anyone...

The worst experience I've had at any restaurant ever. The worst place in all of Merseille & Islands without a doubt. I've had better service from the homeless lying around the city.

We had 2 people take our order; one for drinks and the other for food. The 2nd had no idea the 1st took our order for drinks and openly complained about it. He sighed and said "tell me what you want then". I ordered a crepè, and the menu described it as strawberries on top. Little did I know it was haribo strawberries. Absolutely appauled, and have never been so disappointed to be served food. Best part of it was the waiter saying "we don"t have fresh strawberries here." when I asked what they had just put in front of me. Took it upon myself after to walk 50ft down the pier and buy some fresh strawberries since they couldn't be bothered. We waited 30 minutes for something a 7 year old could make it in under 2 minutes. The whole thing tasted shop bought. No flavour, no life, just like the food and staff.

Another group arrived 10 minutes after we did were served food before us. The place was empty so it's not like the kitchen was under pressure. 6 people were eating on our arrival. Furthermore, we had to stand and wait to pay. I almost walked away because I've NEVER been told to wait to pay anywhere, and there was even a queue forming which is insanity. Only the owner can take payments and is done dodgily on his personal phone. He was too busy doing something else more important though than taking interest in customers.

The cutlery given was mismatched, with my fork being different to my wife's one (and also dirty, with food debris on it). We were given steak knives for ice cream. I asked the waiter if he could swap the fork for a clean one, and he did (thank you). About 5 minutes later, a different waiter got the fork that was taken from me, flicked off the food debris and HANDED IT TO A CUSTOMER

Before you reply: I get to pick the restaurant. I get the freedom to tell you that your food is dogwater and utterly revolting. I also reserve the right to inform others to not waste their time.

Given the replies to all the real reviews on here, the owner likely has anger issues and lacks the ability to take...

Amazing place, beautiful location. Thank you to Elma for great service as well, and for showing me the best place to take pictures 🌟📸 they turned out awesome. I've never seen cocktails quite like these before. Order came really quick, I got the desperiña which was a desperado bottle served in a glass that was filled with oranges and strawberries, something quite out of this world and tasted amazing. I'd love to be back one day to try all the cocktails 😍 We chose this place originally due to the pictures of the drinks and they did not disappoint. We also ordered the pizza Victoria which was a perfect combo and is probably the best lunch we've had in our travels to France so far....