Le Golfe chez Marius — Restaurant in Marseille

Empty for a Reason — Avoid This Restaurant

We recently dined at this restaurant and, unfortunately, had a very disappointing experience. We ordered two entrecôtes, but the meat tasted off and was completely inedible for us. We informed the waiter to return the dishes and we ordered two different dishes instead. The waiter was not unfriendly and handled the situation politely. He assured us that the meat had been ordered that morning and had passed quality control, but this did not change our impression.

When the replacement dishes arrived, they were acceptable but nothing special — overall, the food was quite average.

What was most disappointing was that, despite not eating the entrecôtes and ordering alternative dishes, we were still charged for them and no refund or compensation was offered. In situations like this, good restaurants usually provide a refund or some form of goodwill gesture, such as a complimentary dessert or discount, especially when the customer clearly did not enjoy (or could not eat) their meal. Unfortunately, this was not the case here.

To make matters worse, when we received the bill, we noticed that there were too many items included. After paying, we had to go back and point out the mistake ourselves, which added further frustration to an already negative experience.

Another important point: when we arrived, we did not realize the restaurant was completely empty, as we came right at opening time. Later, we noticed that nearby restaurants were all crowded while this one remained empty — something that, in hindsight, should have been a clear warning sign.

Overall, we found both the food quality and the overall management of the experience to be severely lacking. We left feeling very dissatisfied and would not recommend this...

Le Golfe is a great restaurant with an amazing chef, that's been in kitchens around the world and can cook anything from a mean burger to amazing pastas. If you have specific culinary restrictions they'll cater to your desires. When the pizza oven is turned on, watch out. The pizzas are just fantastic, and they're not stingy on the toppings either. The prices are fair, and they have special offers for lunch and dinner. Make sure you call in advance to make sure the restaurant's open, though (France is famous for weird opening hours for lunch and dinner, and restaurants usually have a day when they're closed during the week). After significant renovations the restaurant and the terrace look great (they looked nice before, but it looks a lot nicer now) with a great view of the new port and the sea. The whole area is undergoing a "relooking" as they say in France, and once that's done the whole block will look just like "the South of France" in your mind (Don't worry, it doesn't look like a giant work site, they're finishing up the road right now) We go regularly whenever we're in town, and we're never disappointed, and the locals that make it a part of their weekly (or even daily) rituals agree. Highly...

This may have been a one-off bad experience (benefit of the doubt), but a completely tired and disapointing experience all the same. Tired food, tired staff, tired regime. Although the waitress was exceptional. Bravo. The food was NOT "fait maison". Tired brown salad out of a bag, fish soup (20€), so obviously from a jar. The Pasta (ordered as a recurring mistake in France by myself, and despite their proximity to Italy, hoping they might get it right), was not "al-dente", as requested, mush, served (again), with a sauce from a jar. To top it off, 38€ for a bottle of basic local Rosé wine. Abusive. Enjoy. A review from someone who doesn't normally wright reviews - it was so poor and symptomatic of French cuisine generally these days. The Thai restaurant next...