Le Marché Français

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

This is a popular deli and café by day with a large window full of croissants and baguettes, but come evening, the window is devoid of patisserie and you have to peer past the shelves of tins and jars of French produce to the back of the shop to see candle-lit tables set up for evening meals. It is a pretty safe bet that the charcuterie and cheese will be freshly cut from the deli counter, so the provenance of many of the dishes is clear, such as roasted mixed peppers topped with grilled goat's cheese and the cured meat and pâté plate. Portions are generous and dishes have a real home-made look and taste about them; boeuf bourguignon is a very well flavoured slow-cooked beef stew and gutsy duck legs nestle in a bed of prunes and Armagnac. A good slug of Grand Marnier in the crème brûlée jolts this ubiquitous custard dessert out of complacency. There's also a good range of hot sandwiches, coffees, soup and snacks from early morning to early evening. The wine list is best accessed by browsing the shop shelves, rather than looking at the blackboard on the wall.

• High point: Good, down-to-earth French cooking
• Low point: Bright overhead lighting spoils what could be an intimate ambience after dark