Just Open: Buvette French bistro at Hotel Realm, Canberra

Buvette is the new French bistro at Hotel Realm.

The eatery, which takes its name from the French term for "watering hole", replaces the old Konoba restaurant as the hotel's in-house dining.

It's an elegant but comfortable dining room in black, white and muted gold tones, sectioned off into a couple of smaller spaces with intimate banquettes and cosy chairs. One wall is panelled in French white, there are tall spare cabinets filled with glassware and a separate nook where breakfast buffets will be laid out.

A couple of steps lead up to a mezzanine area that can be used for private dining, with a wide communal table at one end. There's more private dining upstairs.

Tall windows can be opened up to a shady outdoor area that wraps around the restaurant.

The hotel's executive chef, Fabien Wagnon, has come up with a menu of lighter-style French classics, such as bouillabaisse with blue eye trevally, scampi and scallops, and beef bourguignon with shimeji mushrooms and wagyu tri-tip.

"It's classical French but with a modern lighter touch," he says. "I'm not into heavy French stuff. French cooking has an image of heaviness, the cream, the butter and all that. I'm on the lighter side."

But, he jokes, he still uses duck fat ("just not in cakes"). The approach is pretty simple for Wagnon - "things I like to eat I cook, things I don't, I don't cook."

There are also steaks from the grill and if you want something big to share, there's a chateaubriand for two - 600g of grass fed eye fillet on a timber board.

Desserts include a chocolate assiette, a crisp apple tart with salted caramel and a classic rum baba with mascarpone mousse and mango, pineapple and ginger sorbet. Manager Thomas Craigie says it's not your typical French restaurant. "We're still keeping the casual feel of everything, keeping with French cuisine and the classical way of cooking and also of serving it as well, lots of larger dishes and shared plates," he says.

"You could come in for a coffee and a cake or a beer and charcuterie or a five course degustation dinner."

Sommelier Tristan Tomlinson has put together a list of 150 wines, with an emphasis on France and Australasia and promises some rare pleasures that can't be found anywhere else in Canberra.

It's open for breakfast seven days, with lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday.

Buvette is at Hotel Realm, 18 National Circuit, Barton, hotelrealm.com.au/dining

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