Marseille's food is rougher and more rewarding than the cuisine of Provence's tourist towns. The city's two signature dishes are both fish: bouillabaisse, a slow-cooked fish stew with rouille and toasted bread, traditionally made from the scrappy rockfish caught off the Calanques; and bourride, a milder garlic-and-aioli fish soup. A real bouillabaisse needs to be ordered ahead and costs a fortune — Chez Fonfon and Le Miramar are the historic addresses for the proper version.
For everyday eating, the Cours Julien and the streets around it have a good cross-section of bistros, Algerian, Tunisian and Comorian places that reflect the city's communities. The Panier has small bistros and a couple of standout addresses (Limmat, Lokum). The Noailles market in front of the Cours Belsunce — full of Maghrebi spice shops, fish stalls and street food carts — is the best place to taste the city's North African side; grab a chichi frégi (fried doughnut) and a brik for under five euros.
Other specialities to track down: panisses (chickpea-flour fritters), traditionally sold from neighbourhood stalls in l'Estaque; pieds-paquets (lamb tripe parcels), a hearty winter dish; and the orange-flower-scented navettes biscuits, made since 1781 at the Four des Navettes opposite the Abbaye Saint-Victor.
Reservations are essential at the Vieux-Port restaurants in summer.