Seafood in Le Touquet: where to eat it, where to buy it, when to come

Where can you eat seafood in Le Touquet? Start with rue de Metz, home to the resort's most famous seafood house, a second renowned fishmonger and the covered market with its fish stalls. Add a few restaurants facing the beach and the seafood tables of the surrounding area, from Étaples to Merlimont, and you have enough for a seafood platter every day. This guide lists the addresses cited by food guides in 2025-2026, explains what really comes from the coast and gives the best season for each product.

Where does Le Touquet's seafood come from?

Le Touquet has no fishing port as such: its fishmongers mainly buy from Boulogne-sur-Mer, some forty kilometres away. The town bills itself as France's leading fishing port; more than 70 species of fish, crustaceans and cephalopods pass through its fish auction. Just across the Canche, Étaples keeps a fishing fleet and a long fishing tradition.

There are also a few bouchot mussel farms on the Opal Coast. Oysters, on the other hand, often come from Normandy or other oyster-growing areas: the Opal Coast is a land of mussels, flatfish and shellfish rather than oyster farming.

Pérard, the rue de Metz institution

You cannot talk about seafood in Le Touquet without Pérard. The house, at 67 rue de Metz, combines three businesses:

• the fishmonger, considered by Gault&Millau to be the resort's most famous: oysters, lobsters, scallops in season, locally landed fish and a wide range of seafood dishes to take away;
• the restaurant, with a dining room and a patio at the back, serving whole fish, sole meunière, grilled lobster and an all-you-can-eat fish soup included in the set menu;
• the oyster bar, for a quick seafood bite: oysters opened in front of you, homemade taramasalata, shrimp croquettes, herring with potatoes.

Pérard fish soup, sold in jars, is the speciality to take home: you will find it in the shop and well beyond Le Touquet. Serve it with croutons, rouille and grated cheese.

Other seafood restaurants in and around Le Touquet

In the resort

• Côté Sud, boulevard du Docteur Jules Pouget, facing the sea: traditional cooking with oysters and lobster, rated by Gault&Millau.
• La Table du West, the brasserie of the Hôtel Westminster: sole meunière, seasonal fish and well-executed brasserie classics.
• La Petite Charlotte, rue Saint-Jean: a family brasserie with moules marinières, seafood platters, fish soup and seafood choucroute.
• Le Pavillon, the Westminster's Michelin-starred restaurant, for a tasting menu starring lobster, langoustines and wild fish.

Less than 30 minutes away

• Aux Pêcheurs d'Étaples, on the quayside in Étaples: a seafood house run on a "from fisherman to diner" basis, with platters and Étaples-style bouillabaisse.
• Sur Mer, in Merlimont, Alexandre Gauthier's beach restaurant: cockles, clams, wood-fire grilled fish.

Meat, bistro and fine-dining addresses are covered in our guide where to eat in Le Touquet.

Buying seafood to cook yourself

With a fitted kitchen, a homemade platter is often the best value for pleasure. Three addresses are all you need:

1. Le Touquet's covered market (rue de Metz / rue Jean-Monnet), whose fish wing dates from 1960. Its stalls open on market days (Thursday and Saturday mornings all year round), but also on Friday and Sunday mornings, and every morning during the school holidays.
2. Pérard, for platters to order, cooked shellfish and the soup.
3. Poissonnerie Ramet, 117 rue de Metz: a fine display of freshly landed fish, bouchot mussels, crabs and plenty of ready-to-cook fillets.

Remember to order your platters the day before for a Saturday evening or a public holiday, and to ask for the oysters to be opened if you do not have a proper knife.

Charles's tip: for a platter for eight, place your order with the fishmonger in the morning, collect it in the late afternoon, and bring a large cool bag. The villa is only a few minutes' walk from rue de Metz: the ice has no time to melt.

The Opal Coast seafood calendar

Coming at the right time makes all the difference. General pointers, to be confirmed with your fishmonger:

In November, the neighbouring town of Étaples devotes a weekend every year to the Hareng Roi (King Herring) festival: tastings of grilled, smoked or marinated herring, sea shanties and events near the port. It is a good reason to come out of season; see our page on Le Touquet's highlights and our advice on choosing when to visit.

Seafood with family or friends

Seafood does not always appeal to children, and a platter for eight is hard to manage in a packed dining room. A few tips:

• Mix it up: moules-frites, shrimp croquettes and homemade breaded fish usually please the youngest, while the adults share oysters and shellfish.
• Go for lunch rather than dinner: at lunchtime, seafood restaurants are calmer, and you can enjoy the light on the terrace facing the beach.
• Split the order: a cold platter from the fishmonger, a big pot of mussels cooked at home, a fish soup to start. It is often more convivial than a restaurant.
• Mention allergies: flag them when booking, as seafood kitchens handle crustaceans and shellfish constantly.

Our two apartments each have a fitted kitchen and, booked together, form a duplex for eight people with a large table: everything you need for a proper seafood feast without leaving the villa.

A short glossary before you order

• Plateau: a cold assortment of shellfish and crustaceans (oysters, whelks, prawns, langoustines, brown crab) to share, often on crushed ice.
• Bouillabaisse étaploise: a fish soup from the Étaples area, the northern cousin of Marseille's bouillabaisse.
• Shrimp croquettes: a Belgian and northern French speciality made with brown shrimps, crisp outside and creamy inside.
• Bouchot mussels: mussels grown on wooden stakes driven into the foreshore, small and plump.
• Choucroute de la mer: sauerkraut served with fish and seafood instead of cured meats.

The meat dishes of northern France (welsh rarebit, carbonade, potjevleesch) are covered in our guide what to eat in Le Touquet.