Comptoirs de France Bakery is a welcome arrival in a city long dominated by coffee shop chains and hotels that serve bland pastries and bad coffee. This French-managed café serves a variety of excellent desserts and coffees in a small, but pleasant shop, with a contemporary look, made all the more alluring by the wonderful array of cakes, tarts, cookies and other desserts in the well-lit display cases.

Unfortunately, the menu isn’t in English, and the French and Chinese explanations don’t fully convey what's available. Le Minceur -which means “slim” in French (24RMB), for example, is simply described as a “low fat” sandwich in Chinese. The real thing is much more interesting: toasted whole wheat bread layered with thin sliced smoked turkey, lettuce and tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil—delicious and healthy.

Another good sandwich is Le Fermier (RMB22), or the farmer's sandwich, filled with thick slices of Swiss cheese and saucisson (French sausage) and a dab of mustard. Le Pain Bagnat (28RMB) is a round roll stuffed with tuna, thin slices of boiled egg, green and yellow peppers, radishes, lettuce and tomatoes, and dressed in vinaigrette and mayonnaise. This sandwich has a lot of personality—hot and spicy with a kick.

Comptoirs' has a choice of interesting hot chocolates, including banana and Rhum Vieux, and orange cointreau. Sichuan peppercorns float in the Sichuan peppercorn hot chocolate, giving it a pleasant peppery aroma, though it came lukewarm rather than hot (all 28RMB). They also offer standard coffees such as espresso (15RMB), Americano (18RMB), cappuccino (25RMB) and latte (24RMB). And unlike one popular American chain, the lattes and cappuccinos here have a real caffeine kick and do not just taste like milk with a little coffee added.

Just as important is the fact this coffee shop has a wide selection of tarts and cakes as well as hand-made chocolates and gelato. The chocolate, caramel and lemon tarts were all fresh and in regular (16RMB) and petite sizes (5RMB). The crust is made with quality butter--the key to making good pastries. The lemon tarts are decorated with a squirt of meringue, creating a pretty lace-like ring around the edge. It tastes lemony and creamy, and perfectly sweet with a little bit of tartness. The chocolate tart can be summed up in a single word: Wow! It's rich and creamy, but not too sweet.

French-run Comptoirs has a long history dating back to 1855, when the Devos family flour mill began supplying all sorts of flour to the people in Fontainbleau, some 100 km southeast of Paris. Benjamin Devos, the 28-year-old owner, has also set up a factory here in Beijing to provide restaurants and bakeries with quality flour.

Baguettes (12RMB), walnut bread (28RMB), English bread (18RMB), oatmeal bread (22RMB), are available here, baked fresh every morning. However, the bread seems to be lacking something. The crust was not crispy enough, nor was the inside soft and chewy. We’ll blame it on Beijing’s inhospitable, dry climate rather than fault the bakery, which stands out on many fronts and is one of the best we’ve been in a long while.

Comptoirs de France Bakery China Central Place, Building 15, N 102, 89 Jianguo Road (just northeast of Xiandai Soho) (tel 6530 5480) Open 7am-9pm daily. Meal for two with drinks 150RMB.

法派 华贸中心15号楼建国路89号

China Central Place, Building 15, N 102, 89 Jianguo Road (just northeast of Xiandai Soho) (tel 6530 5480) Open 7am-9pm daily. Meal for two with drinks 150RMB. East Lake Villa, 35 Dongzhimenwai Dajie, Dongcheng district (tel 6461 1525)

法派 朝阳区建国路89号 华贸中心15号楼

东城区东直门外大街35号东湖别墅1层