Café François

The younger sibling of Maison François in St James's, Café François plays the cheeky barrow boy to its suited-and-booted older bruv. Extending over two floors in Borough Yard, it has a deli counter, show kitchen and ground-floor rotisserie, while upstairs, under the brick railway arches, you sit at long wooden benches, elbows in, amid the jolly jostle. Digging deep into the roots of French canteen cooking, the kitchen produces moreish gougère puffs filled with Comté cheese, crispy frogs' legs with ravigote dip, and escargots lathered in garlic and parsley butter. There are one or two excursions into other territories (although pumpkin with freekeh and labneh could still have come from some backstreet Montmartre bistro), while the bacon and egg muffin, partnered with a positive slab of foie gras, takes its inspiration from French-Canadian Joe Beef in Montreal. The French-Viet bánh mì baguette filled with soft-shell crab looks good too. If rotisserie cooking still strikes you as a bit Abigail's Party , try the herb-scented chicken portions (with optional merguez sausage) or prime rib in red wine jus, and be converted. Other main dishes take in a monkfish and mussel vadouvan curry, and the all-important quiche du jour with green salad. Dessert offers up a clutch of éclairs, including our luscious pecan and vanilla version, as well as the likes of tarte au citron and hazelnut Paris-Brest. ‘The language of wine is truly international,’ begins the list, articulating a sentiment that would have caused a fit of the vapeurs in France a generation ago, but the selection soon romps off round Europe and into the New World. House selections from a biodynamic Bordeaux vineyard (in all three colours) start at £9 a small glass.