La Boîte à Sardine — Restaurant in Marseille

Dream seafood restaurant! We were quickly greeted by the owners who made us feel at ease by slipping into both english and spanish without fuss. Given a choice of shared table inside or outside, we plumped for the shade indoors amongst the vibrant maritime paraphernalia that covers the walls and ceiling and makes this place truly visually unique. The playful decor reflects the staff who are lively, cheerful and friendly, moving constantly between the tables. Soon Mr. Boîte was reading us the small daily menu (all of which simple, robust and thoroughly tempting), sourced from his friends, the local fishermen whose catch he buys each day. He joked with us in english, took our order and soon returned with our beautiful natural wine. We ordered 3/4 of the menu and it came quickly- fresh light and tender marinaded anchovies, little silver mackerel in a blanket of mustard sauce and divine sardine fritters with herby tomato salsa to accompany. All came with what i think was little potato fritters for mopping the copious and delicious juices from each dish (mopping is perhaps my greatest culinary pleasure). We demolished our beautiful food embarassingly quickly but ended up chatting with our table neighbour, fortuitously english speaking and friendly, who offered us her razor clams (also excellent) to try. Suddenly we were the last table there and it was time to pay. We left full, pleasantly tipsy and smiling. I hope to return and strongly advise anyone seeking unpretentious truly fresh seafood in a unique and intimate environment...

What a horrible experience! We are from NYC and had only a few hours stop in Marseille during our French road trip, so we decided to make a stop in this restaurant. crazy!, at start, the owner was kind enough to say that he would accommodate you even if busy so I thought, yay great start! But then when we got there, in addition to being in an unsafe area, struggling for parking, I found him to be verbally abusive and way too loud to his customers ( and I'm French speaking! ) if you dare not ordering as many dishes as the number of your party, you will be yelled at! Two american girls were yelled at and left upset without ordering. Secondly, I wanted to order sardines for my husband the reason we drove 1hr for, yelled that my hubby should be here to hear the orders (well i know what he wanted while he was parking!!) . Well guess what, after he took care of his regular guests and gave them what they needed, there were no sardines available for us. So we tried to compromise and order 3 other dishes for us 2 adults and 2 kids under 7. We were then being told it's not enough as an order! If you want people to order the dish the want, make them available, or better yet let us order them when we first did! We left without eating, wasted a trip to Marseille, a lunch and starving kids. I'm sure they are many places in MArseille with great seafood and someone who will not treat you like this! Huge disappointment!! This is not south hospitality I...

I'm going to give 5 stars because our starters were wonderful. Main courses were very good but not quite at the same level but the overall experience for our lunch was fantastic. The co-owner Fabian brought the menu boards to us and went through our options and described how he has 3 different fishermen who supply their catch to him. We settled on 6 oysters, the tuna tartare and a stuffed sardine type dish. All three were fantastic. I'm talking our minds were kind of blown as we ate the tuna tartare- best I've ever had. The mains were really good but we didn't love them quite as much. Their fish and chips were small fried fish that were partially filet'd and they came with a polenta like "chip" instead of French fries. We would definitely return for lunch again. I would suggest making reservations since their supplies of fish are limited to what is fresh. Oh and the light dessert was simple and flavorful- a sheep/ goat milk cheese that was very subtle with a strawberry sauce...