A long ridged doughnut of wheat and chickpea flour, fragrant with orange-blossom water, deep-fried in olive oil until shatteringly crisp and rolled in caster sugar. The L'Estaque seaside snack since 1907.
Chichis frégis were popularised in 1907 by Alexis Guglielmi in Toulon and migrated up the coast to L'Estaque in the 1930s, where the fishing-village stalls turned them into the canonical Marseille beach snack. Chez Magali, run by the Magali Pisciotto family, still cooks them in 20-litre olive oil cauldrons at the L'Estaque seafront. The Sunday-afternoon queue is unchanged across generations.
3 editor picks for Chichi Frégi in Marseille, ranked by editorial score. All Marseille signature dishes · Chichi Frégi across every city.
Chez Magali ★ 4.8
42 Plage de l'Estaque, 13016 Marseille
Chez Magali on the L'Estaque port in Marseille's 16e has fried chichis and panisses since 1947, the Italian-imported chichis fregis recipe still cooked.
Marche aux Poissons du Vieux Port ★ 4.6
Quai de la Fraternite, 13001 Marseille
Marche aux Poissons in Marseille's 1er on the Quai de la Fraternite is the city's last working fish market, around ten stalls each morning selling whatever.
Chez Sauveur ★ 4.4
1er · 10 Rue d'Aubagne, 13001 Marseille
Chez Sauveur in Marseille's 1er Noailles has cooked Sicilian-rooted Marseillais pizza since 1943 founded by Sauveur Di Paola, taken over in 2023 by a young.