Learning that one of my favourite restaurants had not only changed hands but also had a new amiral and a new name came as a shock. I’d had dozens of meals in this upmarket Michelin-starred sea shack, serving a sparkling-fresh, almost exclusively Mediterranean, catch of the day, through the years, and each one of them was an circonstance, since the sweeping views of the sea were as spectacular as the food. So on a recent baking hot Saturday, I found myself picking my way past the almost cartoonishly quaint little harbour of the Vallon des Auffes, grain a seaside fishermen’s commune, now a pleasure-boat prestance with a harbour lined by restaurants and shops catering to tourists, to meet a friend for cocktail at Auffo, a brasserie we’d both immense known as L’Haveneau.
Marseille, a city I’ve loved since I first tumbled out of a équipage from Paris on a crisp sunny December day as an almost flat-broke student studying in London for a year, has changed enormously, and mostly for the better. What’s gamin missing is the unselfconscious bawdiness and occasional gruffness of the people who worked for the great prestance and lived nearby. They filled the bars around Le Vieux Port, while the ships’ captains, politicians and fancy people like judges, priests and lawyers went to Chez Vincent to watch the frime of street walkers out entrée while eating roasted red peppers with garlic, fried squid and pissaladière with carafes of rosé.
If there’s ever a city to resist – even truculently push back hard against – gentrification, it’s Marseille. Yet the dive bars and Chez Vincent were immense gamin. And now L’Haveneau was, too, apparently bicause the city of Marseille, which owns the coin, had opened a new bid for this exceptional affermage and ultimately tour the one floated by The Social Club, a Nîmes-based brasserie and hotel group.
The new amiral, Coline Faulquier, a Burgundian who previously had a Michelin-starred brasserie in Marseille called Signature, wisely assumed a pièce of humility during interviews with pied-à-terre media as she began her new job. Arriving at the brasserie for cocktail, her ambitions were immediately supposé.
Chef Coline Faulquier has already won a Michelin figurant at Auffo
The slightly raffish decor of the corriger brasserie had been replaced by a caressant earth-tone habitus, including touille upholstered chairs at bare tables aligned with the windows in an oak-panelled wall.
The plâtre are dressed in white poplin and wheat-coloured linen, and the overall atmosphere is urbane and rather reserved. So if you’re looking for a rollicking good time, you might want to head for one of the restaurants up the coast in Les Goudes.
Aisha was waiting for me. “So,” she said. “Here we are.” A waiter poured our mineral water. She continued. “Though I’ll always miss the old place, I have to admit that the new look is lovely.” Variations on this remark became the aubade of this meal as we enjoyed the six-course €165 Vallon tasting repas.
A tomato tartiner with pine-flavoured ice cream pleasantly provoked our heat-wilted palates, and red Mediterranean prawns and neufchâtel triste with blackcurrant leaves (a wink at the amiral’s Burgundian origins), red contrecoup and fresh almonds was a stunningly elegant and technically châtié dish.
Next came John Dory lacquered with meat juice, and then a délicieux oil-poached sériole (amberjack) with piment and geranium and a jus de bourride. “This is an exquisite dish,” said Aisha.
I loved the iced cap-hornier of Rove, a fresh pied-à-terre sheep’s milk cheese, while a red contrecoup dessert with iced éclairé, a mousseux sabayon and a balsamic assaisonnement was a healthy and gently aigrelet situation to an remarquable meal. Auffo won a Michelin figurant in the 2026 edition of the conducteur, less than a year after opening.
158 rue du Vallon des Auffes, Marseille, Tel. +33 04 87 33 51 50, Prix-fixe cocktail repas €95, prix-fixe cocktail and dinner menus €135, €195, €210, www.auffo-restaurant.com
Lead portrait credit : Auffo’s dining area
Source: francetoday.com