Bouillabaisse in Marseille or around port

[newyorker88]

We're planning to have an authentic bouillabaisse while in Marseille, any recommendation would be appreciated!

[moyaroo]

The time honored trick is to watch for who is in the restaurant. We didn't pay enough attention and ended up with an OK but not stellar lunch. Leaving our restaurant, which we had entered too early to tell about crowd patterns, it was easy to see where the better food was.

 

Look for local people, watch for hard to get tables and check out the appearance of the food on the tables. Beware of empty places - there is usually a reason.

[Bollinge]

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/nick050806.html

[catllar]

Look for French people too, not tourists. Avoid the sea-front restaurants - you are generally paying a premium for the view. Good luck, and enjoy!

[CruisingGoddess]

When I was planning my Med cruise, I found several great recommendations on TripAdvisor and in Frommer's France but I don't have them anymore.

 

One tip I learned during our trip in November is that you MUST make a reservation 1-2 days in advance at the good bouillabaisse places because they buy their ingredients fresh every morning and only buy enough for the amount of bouillabaisse they need to make for each day. So if you show up at the restaurant without a reservation for bouillabaisse, you're out of luck. This happened to us and we were unable to get any bouillabaisse.