“Dinner in a French restaurant” is sentence not too hard to deliver. But often, for some at least, it comes with fear of an impatient waiter, a menu where few words on the menu are known as an edible item or a look of derision when a poor combination of food and wine is chosen. And then, even if a booking is possible, the food will not quite meet expectations and as inexperienced diners in France, we leave, thankful the ordeal is over and the bill settled.

But what if, down a narrowing and sloping street in Angers, you come across a Bistro that seems quietly confident of its ability to welcome, provide and satisfy those looking for a menu that covers most tastes, but does it with excellence?

This little place is tucked between restaurants far louder in appearance, but it’s conservative approach to decor serves only to prepare diners for a comfortably ‘proper’ French experience but without the stresses that go with it. Arrive at 7pm and you may get one of the last tables available, and with a smile. By 7.30 you’ll be hoping someone is going to be rushing their dinner in the hope of a second sitting. In reality, they won’t though. They’ll want to keep their table for the evening.

With more of their relaxed confidence, bread, aperitifs and water arrive along with menus. Then it’s time to settle back, not to plough through line after line of dishes too fanciful to decipher, but simply to decide which will satisfy the pallet this evening.

With quiet efficiency and professionalism, courses will appear and be cleared in such a way that only when you leave will you realise what ‘attentive’ service is all about. But additionally, the little extras that come with dinner do not detract or seem to persuade you that it is a good place to spend the evening, but rather they come across as genuine ‘thankyous’ for entrusting the staff with your evening.

By the time you ready this, our menu choices may have changed as summer gives way to autumn. But the beef was prepared wonderfully. The prawns and pasta satisfied the most critical of diners. Entree’s in themselves were so good, perhaps a main course too was simply greedy. Deserts were rather special too; the retention of flavours in mouses and sorbets startling.

In many British restaurants, perhaps what is lacking in quality (often) is made up with quantity. Here, in this narrow street in Angers, the quality is so good, you have to slow down, prolong the courses just to savour the tastes and textures on the plate. It seems like dinner lasts an eternity and the plates enormous. But no. Sensibly sizes plates deliver flavours in such a way that quantity is very much not required.

Oh, and the cost including a good bottle of wine? How does less than €30 per person sound?

Just don’t tell everyone.