Very nice décor and a more extensive and adventurous menu than I had allowed myself to hope for, so a pleasant surprise.

The atmosphere felt somewhat authentic, from the closer table placement, but not so much as to trade authenticity for comfort, glass doors, and overall aesthetic of the place felt very comforting. The only miss was maybe the music - having some authentic French music as it would be playing in the cafes today, or maybe going nostalgic with some 30s warblers. That would have really tied it all together - depending on the conversation, you might even have forgotten what continent you were on.

The waiter was gentlemanly with an air of the French authenticity. The service was typical, very good.

French onion soup: decent, good effort on the broth taste and the cheese was well prepared. The consistency of the onion and some interaction with the broth - unsure which was the cause, meant that the onion did not behave or travel through the soup as you would expect - not a detriment to the taste, but perhaps a bit to the texture. Otherwise good balance of sweetness and savory and upon desire... a glop of fat (cheese) to reset. I would not order again, but I would recommend it to someone there for the first time.

Next, the deviled eggs with white fish caviar: 4 half-eggs with a little bit too hard egg yolk, descent hollandaise-like sauce and topped with... roe, not caviar. This was overly bland, probably let down by the bland sauce and lack of a salty punch from the roe. Absolutely not memorable and would not order nor recommend. As an aside, I know very little about caviar, but my understanding is that roe and caviar are very well defined and distinct things. I am fairly certain that what I was served was roe, but happy to be corrected and educated. If however I am correct, I think it would be a little uncouth to not correct the menu (and while at it, kick the sauce up a notch :)

Lastly, the beef tartare: I was very excited to see this on the menu, as I had never had the chance to have it before, even though I have travelled through France a few times. Trusted the place, cleanliness/etc, so jumped on the chance. The avocado-sized tartare was plated crisps. Nothing special about the crisps, unsure if you were supposed to use them as a scoop? I did not. Never having tartare before, no idea how it is "supposed" to be, but the overall texture was fine/nothing off-putting about it, almost like a slightly textured cheescake that melted in your mouth? Off-putting description maybe, but trust me(?) it was actually quite nice. The flavour was heavy on the spice and fermented hit from some of the chopped veg and a very slight hint of onion - this was a little surprising as I was expecting heavy use of large chopped red onion which would have added a crunch and zest to cover the raw-ness of the meat. That not being the case may have been why I was so pleasantly eased in to the texture and flavour profile. Overall it did come together as a very pleasant and mellow pate - that was seeming to miss something... perhaps the salty kick of the crisps I foolishly did not combine?

So overall a really good experience and one that I would both return to and recommend to others. In a land full of big flavours and spectacles, it reminds us of the fun in subtle flavour diversity.