Café dela Poste is the newest addition to Nan Luoguxiang, a long and busy hutong where tourist-laden pedicabs jostle with taxis, bicycles and pedestrians for space in a part of old Beijing that is fast becoming a new drinking and dining hot spot.

A compact restaurant of no more than 100 sqm, Café dela Poste has a petit bar with high chairs, solid wooden tables, and a semi-open kitchen. The restaurant is tastefully decorated with black and white photographs and several old French posters. In the background, the voice of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, flows out from the speakers. The menu is written neatly in French on the blackboard, but don’t worry if your Francaise isn’t up to scratch--an English menu is also available in a booklet with clear descriptions of the dishes.

Yannick Gauthier, the 26-year-old chef-cum-owner, says his café de la Poste takes its name from the small bistros or tratorrias you find in almost every French village, town, and city—the sort of places where people come for a cup of coffee, a beer or just a simple family meal.

The cold sausage salad with pan-fried potatoes (58RMB) is novel and worth trying. The pan-fried potatoes come golden crispy and moist. The sausage served in this dish is not a whole link sausage, but rather a thinly sliced cold-cut mixed with onions in a light dressing.

The freshly baked quiche (35RMB) is a must. This classic French dish is served very hot and comes with a large piece of lettuce and a slice of ripe tomatoe sprinkled with parsley. Added to this was a dab of extra virgin olive oil and a little salt. It was filled with leek, onion, eggs and bacon, with a small amount of cheese sprinkled on top. This delightful quiche is unlike the normal ones that are all egg. “Only 3 eggs are used,” says Yannick, ‘and the crust is made with margarine.’ As a result it’s light and not at all greasy.

Other dishes worth trying are the marinated beefsteak served with lemon herb vinaigrette (Le Carpaccio de boeuf) 18RMB, fine slices of steak (L’Emince au poivre) 45RMB, a 400grams steak (Le L’Entrecote) 78RMB, and raw steak tartare (Le Tartare) 65RMB.

All the wines are from the south of France and the pick of the bunch is the Vin au Vevre, the house wine that sells for 25RMB a glass an incredibly modest price for such a good smooth wine.

The La Banana flambé (20RMB) came to the table still aflame, caramelizing the sugar. It was a good dessert with no heavy carbohydrates: simply banana with a bit of a rum kick. For 10RMB you can get a decent cup of piping hot coffee. It’s hard to believe that it came from a small machine on the bar counter.

This dining experience was flawless, and proved that French dining need not always be a formal affair. Café de la Poste is a place where you can experience French cuisine without feeling intimidated, but simply enlightened and joyful.

32 Nan Luogu xiang, Dongcheng district (tel 6404 9356) Open 9:30am-late, closed on Mondays. Meal for two with drinks 200RMB.

朝阳区枣营路29号 好运街 B5&C5