If you want to eat shellfish in Marseille, Toinou has been the place to go for over half a century, a cherished local institution just off the Canebière a few steps from the Old Port.
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Bad news for shellfish fans in Marseille: this branch of Toinou closed in March 2020.
The owner is in search of larger premises with parking space, as Toinou depends heaviliy on takeaway business.
A second branch of Toinou in Aix en Provence remains open and Toinou's renowned seafood stall remains in place in Marseille just in front of where the restaurant used to be. Meanwhile we're leaving our original review in place.
Toinou started life as a street stall and a large, luscious display of marine delicacies to take away, pictured below, both as it is now and back in times past, is still found right in front of the entrance.
Inside, you can eat much the same range in what claims to be the largest shellfish restaurant in France.
The restaurant at Toinou reopened in autumn 2013, after closing for refurbishment throughout the summer. And the format has changed. Gone is the waiting staff: now it's self-service.
While starters and desserts are picked up at the counter, you order up your main course and wait for the staff to appear with it, calling out your number. This can get a bit chaotic at times but it mostly seems to work.
There are small plates of fish and shellfish as starters, such as salmon tartare (with optional portions of soy sauce, ginger and wasabi for Japanese diners) or sardines en escabèche (in a sharp vinegar marinade).
The seriously hungry will find a small self-service selection of traditional desserts such as lemon tart.
In terms of main courses, the restaurant still offers moules marinières: mussels with chips (good, chunky chips, by the way, not French fries).
And here's a welcome change: whereas before there was no cooked fish option, Toinou now has a small selection of fresh fish (sea-bream, cod, salmon, etc.) prepared en papillote (in an envelope of alumunium foil).
There's no plat du jour, though since the menu is presented on a LCD television screen, the line-up clearly varies to some extent according to the season.
It's still all in French only, but staff are around to help you out. As before, Toinou doesn't do bouillabaisse.
But its crowning glory remains its shellfish: oysters of all categories, mussels, prawns, lobster, whelks, crab, clams, scallops, and all sorts of other goodies, depending on the time of year.
These come as the restaurant's trademark large ceremonial combination platters of seafood on crushed ice accompanied by half lemons and various dips and condiments (you can either compose your own platter or leave it up to the restaurant team to choose for you).
Curiously, despite the Marseillais' voracious appetite for seafood, this strip of the Mediterranean is itself not especially rich in shellfish, apart from its celebrated sea urchins (and even these are declining in quantity).
Toinou's produce is sourced mainly from elsewhere in France, though there might also be mussels from Holland or lobster from North America.
Modestly priced house wine is available by the glass or carafe to wash it all down or there are posh bottles if you want to splash out.
Toinou's other big bonus point is that it's open 365 days of the year, from late morning to late evening, at least until 11pm.
And the kitchen remains open throughout the afternoon (still all too rare at good French restaurants) apart from on Sundays, when Toinou closes for the day at the end of the lunchtime service. It also offers - rather expensive - home deliveries and more recently opened a sister outlet in Aix en Provence.
The restaurant is busier than ever, but there is plenty of seating inside on multiple levels and you're unlikely to have to wait long. Expect a mixed clientele of locals and tourists.
Visited November 2012 and September 2013
Where: Toinou, 3 cours Saint Louis, 13001 Marseille; 58 avenue Henri Malacrida, 13100 Aix en Provence. Website for Toinou
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