Marseille Boston — Restaurant in Boston

Laid-back bistro that specializes in Southern French cuisine.

Recently came across their 1-year anniversary menu and decided to try it out for Sunday dinner. Although I love French restaurants, the restaurant’s low ratings have always stopped me from giving them a try. It appeared that most of their bad reputation was related to service issues. However, everything seemed fine during our visit for an early Sunday dinner.

As the name suggests, Chef Fathman draws inspiration from Marseille, a Southern port city that serves as a culinary crossroads of several Mediterranean countries. Consequently, the menu at this restaurant offers a somewhat unique twist, as it distinguishes from the typical French bistro fare found at PRB’s two other restaurants.

In addition to trying the anniversary menu, we chose two of our staple starters at French restaurants: Liver Mousse and Beef Tartare. The tartare was solid, but the mousse didn't hit the mark. It was thicker than I usually prefer, and the accompanying crostini was overly seasoned, which overwhelmed the mousse rather than complementing it. Fortunately, the other two appetizers from the course menu were excellent. Both were fried yet lightly seasoned, allowing the flavors to shine through. They came with Espelette Aioli, which added a briny and subtly spicy kick that really enhanced the overall taste of the dishes.

For our entrées, we chose the Trout Almandine and the Poulet Rotisserie. Although neither dish was particularly outstanding, the chicken was enjoyable as it was very juicy and tender. The trout, on the other hand, was slightly overcooked, but this was somewhat mitigated by a generous coating of melted brown butter that added a richer flavor.

The finale of our meal were a Marseille Profiterole and Vanilla Bean Crème Brulée. As expected from a restaurant group that also owns PRB Boulangerie, both desserts were exceptional. The Crème Brulée was creamy with an exquisitely light consistency that melted delightfully on the palate, and the Profiterole was also excellent.

Overall, Marseille provided a better experience than we initially anticipated. While it might not serve the best French/Mediterranean food in the city, it still offers a pleasant and relaxing dining atmosphere. Given that the anniversary deal is only available until the end of this month, I recommend visiting soon to take advantage...

We waited 25 mins before we were even served. The restaurant wasn’t busy and there was no apology or acknowledgment of how long we had waited. By the time the starter arrived our bottle of wine still hadn’t been served. It wasn’t until our starter was almost finished that the waiter finally brought the bottle. He didn’t offer for us to taste the wine. The mains were tasty but my steak came with the source poured all over it which, to say the least is unusual. Luckily, the source was nice. The side of fries that my wife ordered we’re loop warm. We won’t be attending again. I believe the restaurant is relatively new and our experience testified to that. The manager past us serval times throughout the night and never seemed to notice how long we had waited. Nor did anyone ask how the meal was going during or when...

Wow! What a disappointing Thanksgiving meal! We preordered takeout and we were more than willing to pay a premium for someone else to cook for us. For $35 per person we were super underwhelmed with both the portions but more importantly the quality of the food. The good…turkey (the small amount we got) was flavorful as was the gravy (but I had to season it) cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. The bad…portions were super small and the haricot verts had zero seasoning (and were way undercooked) and the mashed potatoes and gravy were extremely dry and tasteless. The potatoes seemed like they had been boiled and then mashed without anything (butter, salt, milk) in them. I’m wishing we had cooked. I have not actually eaten at Marseille before but based on this experience I...