The affection with which devotees regard this family-run bistro is understandable: in an area teeming with expensive and underwhelming restaurants, anywhere serving two courses of quality French food for £16.90 is worth getting to know well.
There’s a ramshackle feel to the interior, the two floors decorated with bawdy wall drawings and bills for West End musicals, the clutter of closely packed tables managing to suit both riotous groups and romantic one-on-ones.
Warm sliced baguette was served before a chicken liver starter that was generous, tender and perfectly pink on the inside; beef bourguignon featured an intensely stormy sauce and an abundance of melting meat, while a lean rib-eye steak was cooked to order and came with a stack of creamy potatoes dauphinoise. Staff are friendly and enthusiastic about the food they serve.