Boulogne's seafood is the reason to eat here. The city's restaurants make full use of the day's catch and the local herring, mussel, and oyster fisheries. The best value and the most genuine cooking is in the lower town, around the harbour and the streets leading up to the Haute Ville. The restaurants along the waterfront are slightly tourist-oriented but the quality is generally good — the fish is always fresh.
Look for moules-frites (mussels and chips, the northern French staple), herring marinaded in oil and vinegar, and plateaux de fruits de mer piled with crab, oysters, shrimp, and whelks. For a simple lunch, the fish stalls around Place Dalton sell ready-to-eat preparations for very little money.