Marseille in your language
English-speaking restaurants in Marseille: where you will be understood, and how to order where you won't
Where English is spoken in Marseille restaurants by neighbourhood, how to recognise a tourist trap on the Vieux-Port, how bouillabaisse and the local classics actually work, the phrases that make ordering easy, and how to book a table without calling.
“Nobody spoke English” is the most common complaint in reviews of Marseille restaurants, and it is only half true. English is spoken exactly where the tourists are, which is also where the food is worst. The restaurants that make the city worth eating in are one street back, and they need three words of French and a bit of confidence. This page gives you both.
Where English is spoken
- Vieux-Port quays. Every menu is in English, most staff speak it, and the quality goes from decent to dreadful. The rule: the bigger the photos on the menu board and the more languages on it, the worse the kitchen.
- Vallon des Auffes and the Corniche. Seaside fish restaurants used to international visitors, from a pizzeria on the quay to Michelin-starred tables; English menus and staff, and prices to match the view.
- Le Panier. Small bistros and café-terraces on the squares; English works, menus often bilingual, quality variable but honest.
- La Joliette and the MuCEM. Museum and dock restaurants with bilingual staff; the rooftop table at the MuCEM is run by a three-starred chef.
- Noailles and the Cours Julien. The best value in the city, from the market’s North African canteens to the natural-wine bistros of the Cours Ju. English is patchy; menus are chalkboards; pointing and smiling work.
- Endoume, Malmousque, Les Goudes. Neighbourhood restaurants and fishermen’s tables. French, mostly. Worth it.
How to recognise a tourist trap
Photos on the menu; a person outside inviting you in; “bouillabaisse” for the price of a pizza; paella and moules-frites on the same board as the bouillabaisse; a “menu touristique”. None of these exist at good restaurants in Marseille. What good restaurants have: a short menu that changes, a chalkboard, locals at lunch, and a closing day.
The dishes, decoded
- Bouillabaisse. The saffron stew of rock fish, served in two courses (broth with rouille and croutons, then the fish). A dozen restaurants have signed the 1980 charter that fixes the recipe. Ordered in advance, for two or more, at a real price. At lunch, several charter restaurants offer a smaller version.
- Bourride. The white cousin, with monkfish and aioli.
- Aioli (Friday): garlic mayonnaise with poached cod, eggs and vegetables.
- Panisses: chickpea fritters, from L’Estaque, eaten with pastis.
- Pieds-paquets: lamb tripe parcels with trotters in tomato. Winter, and not for everyone.
- Pizza: Marseille’s own tradition, thin, half anchovy half cheese, from vans and 1950s pizzerias.
- Navettes: orange-blossom biscuits, at the Four des Navettes near Saint-Victor since 1781.
- Pastis: the anise apéritif, one part pastis to five parts water, before dinner.
Ordering without French
You need to open in French and can switch to English afterwards. Bonjour (or bonsoir after six), then une table pour deux, s’il vous plaît. Then: la carte, s’il vous plaît (the menu), le plat du jour (today’s special), une carafe d’eau (free tap water), l’addition, s’il vous plaît (the bill). Dietary needs: sans gluten, végétarien, je suis allergique aux fruits de mer. Service is included; rounding up is a kindness, not a duty.
Booking a table
The good places are small and full. Book by phone if you can say the sentence (je voudrais réserver une table pour deux ce soir à vingt heures), otherwise use the booking platforms most Marseille restaurants now list on, which have English interfaces, or send a message on the restaurant’s social media account; answers in English are common there even when the phone would not be.
Our honest short list, by situation
- First night, Vieux-Port view, English spoken: one of the charter bouillabaisse houses on the harbour, booked ahead, for the ceremony as much as the food.
- Apéritif with the best light in the city: the terraces of the Vallon des Auffes, pastis and panisses on the rocks (see the photo above).
- Lunch on a budget: the Noailles market canteens for couscous and pastries; the Cours Julien for a plat du jour.
- A seaside table worth the trip: Les Goudes or Malmousque, fish grilled with a view of the Île Maïre; French menus, warm welcome.
- Rooftop and cocktails: see our Marseille rooftop bars page.
For the rest of the city in your language, from museums to football, read Marseille for English speakers.
Frequently asked questions
Do restaurants in Marseille have English menus?
Around the Vieux-Port, at the Vallon des Auffes and in hotels, almost always. In Noailles, the Cours Julien, Endoume and the neighbourhoods, often not, but staff under forty usually manage basic English and pointing works. The daily specials on the chalkboard are rarely translated.
How do I order bouillabaisse properly?
Book a day ahead at a restaurant that follows the bouillabaisse charter, for at least two people. It is served in two courses, the broth first with rouille and croutons, then the fish filleted at the table. Expect a real price; anything cheap under that name is fish soup.
What time do restaurants serve in Marseille?
Lunch from 12:00 to 14:00, dinner from 19:30, often until 22:30 in summer. Between those times you will find bakeries, pizza vans and kebabs, not kitchens.
