Buvette Bistro and Wine Bar

Walking into Buvette for dinner you almost feel like you should be wearing a smart black dress, red lipstick and a little hat at a coquettish angle, like an actress in a noir film.

There's a nicely grown-up vibe at this new French bistro, which opened in December at Hotel Realm in Barton, replacing Konoba and Mavi. It's elegantly black-and-white, panelled walls and marble, tall windows that swivel open on warm days, and slim display cabinets filled with gleaming glassware.

The outdoor terrace is filled with a mix of little round tables and high backed, comfy padded booths, or you could lean moodily on the bar at the far end of the room and sip a Lillet cocktail.

Tonight it's deliciously intimate, lamps on each table casting a little conversational pool of light. Perfect to slip into a table for four in a corner and catch up for dinner with a Parliamentary Triangular friend. "It's hard to believe that public servants used to queue over there for their kebabs from Mavi on Friday nights after drinks," he quips, gazing around the room.

Chef Fabien Wagnon has put together a menu that's resolutely trad French - plates of escargot, bouillabaisse, a selection of steaks with a chateaubriand for two as its centrepiece. There's even French onion soup, which we can't help ordering just for kicks and turns out to be as comforting as a hug from Maman, stuffed with long curls of caramelised onion and golden croutons.

Elsewhere, the duck parfait ($20) is rich and smooth with dabs of pear puree and rounds of toasted brioche. A fresh fig and jamon salad ($20) is delicate - lots of feathery jamon strips, and soft cushiony wedges of fig.

The best thing about a good cheese souffle must surely be the way it manages to be rich while also fluffy and light and this one ($29) has that requisite mix of creamy, smooth and light. A butter lettuce and pine nut salad is a suitable accompaniment.

The sirloin steak ($35) is a little chewy with a sort of cold smoke edge that I don't prefer but is nicely red inside and is suited to the kind of business lunches that must be stock in trade in the triangle, with a generous serve of chips and salad on the side.

Perhaps the outstanding dish is the lamb belly and shoulder ($36), with big swirls of a pumpkin sauce around a slab of utterly soft slow cooked shoulder. It's hard to keep away from this one, despite the pull of the cheese souffle, there's so much tenderness on the plate. The lamb belly poised opposite the shoulder is grill heavy.

It's all washed down with a carafe of 2013 Delas Freres grenache blend from the Cote du Rhone - soft and easy drinking, but sommelier Tristan Tomkinson's big and bold wine list ranges from the stars of the Canberra region (who laudably get their own showcase in the list) to big-ticket-celebration Ruinart to the eclectic Thousand Candles 2012 pinot, shiraz, sauv blanc field blend.

Service is discreet when you're holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes, charmingly sassy when you're a little group of friends, and conversational when you're a hotel guest dining solo.

There's a touch of kitsch in the bombe alaska on the dessert menu. But we take the apple tart ($17) with house made vanilla ice-cream and salted caramel - it's beautifully decorative, fanned slices of fruit tucked into a circle of super crisp pastry and framed in thin drizzles of salted caramel. It cuts with a brisk snap, there's plenty of bite in the apple to match the vanilla melting in between the slices.

Or finish with the glammed up chocolate assiette ($17) three ways - a geometric collection of gold leaf pyramid, spheres of pale pink cherry sorbet, chocolate mousse and an oblong choc and caramel cake. It's all very grown up, bittersweet chocolate flavours and so rich it might be best shared.

High notes in the food, a Parisian style setting, easy access from your government department - this eatery is slick with a touch of old world, like red lipstick with a smart black dress.