When visiting Marseille, Limmat is a necessary destination if you can get a reservation. Recommended to me by a friend that met the chef at a food convention in Mallorca, Limmat’s executive chef Lilian Gadola turns out pescatarian dishes made from locally caught fish. The constantly evolving menu often reflects classic French dishes with a creative twist. The natural wine selection is short and sweet (a red, an orange, and a white), and well chosen to accompany her menu.
Marseille has not had an outstanding reputation for good food in the past, especially compared to Paris. This has created a lower barrier of entry for young chefs, making Marseille ripe for experimentation. Cheaper rents, a gritty city, access to beaches, and a lively art and contemporary dance scene have made Marseille a destination for the curious. My partner calls it Berlin by the sea.
Limmat is situated halfway up a long stairwell covered in loud graffiti that leads to Cours Julien, a destination neighborhood for nightlife. The restaurant occupies two floors of an old building, and in the warmer months all the windows hang open and the party spills out on the small terrace in front at tables pulled together of groups talking, smoking, eating, and drinking for long stretches of time. As you sit for a meal, a parade of the most fashionable and hottest young things you’ve ever seen ascend and descend these stairs all night long. And the view of the city center from the stairs at sunset is incredible.
Inside, the small kitchen is entirely open, and the furniture is a bric-a-brac mashup, nothing matching, and every water glass, chair, plate, and pitcher is different. It is casual and unfussy. You feel like you’ve been invited to a dinner party at a friend’s house that happens to be a very good cook. The menu is scrawled on a little chalkboard and you snap a picture with your phone before going to your table.
But then, the food arrives. And that is what makes this place most worth mentioning.
A standout dish for me is the perfectly fried white fish coated in sesame seeds served with labneh, green sauce, coriander cucumber salad, and green beans. The crunchy fish really hit when paired with the creamy tang of the labneh and the acidity of the greens. Another favorite was the sweet potato tarte tatin with caraway, green baby salad, and caramel. This was a surprising banger. We chose to have orange wine with our meal, and the one they served was a perfectly juicy glou glou.
Despite the hype of Limmat and the scarcity of available reservations, the prices of these small plates are extremely reasonable, ranging from the lower end of 10 to 18 euros. Your party could certainly try everything on the menu and not break the bank, making this an economical, painfully hip place to hang out for a long dinner.
