The comment "I'm really full" is great to hear when dessert's tucked away and an espresso is slowly seeping through the cracks, but not so good when the server has only just cleared away the starters, or premières assiettes, as they call them at Bistrot Bistro. Make that Bistrot Bustro, because owners Laurent and Valérie Devin greet and feed you with the gusto of a French grandmother.

Where to begin? The room, the food, the energy; there's so much to like about this place, especially on steamy nights when they roll up the glass garage doors to frame the West 4th streetscape. No Eiffel Towers, no Toulouse-Lautrec posters, no Edith Piaf; nothing about the room says French bistro, but it's the kind of mom-and-pop place you come across often in Nice or Toulouse.

The paintwork is leaf green and poppy red, tea lights arranged on little shelves twinkle with bonhomie, and round white-framed mirrors look down on comfy upholstered banquettes, graphite-coloured chairs, wooden tables, and a slate floor. Smart and modern, oui, but unpretentious. The place was jammed the night I visited: couples, families, tanned and bare-armed older women, and a solo man who made his way through an impressive three courses.

If you don't want Evian (we'll get into all the environmental ramifications of bottled water at some future date), eau de robinet de Vancouver comes chilled in a stoppered glass bottle. Very bistro. I was a bit miffed that baguette chunks didn't show up while we mulled over the menu, but, in hindsight, stoking up on pain would have been stupid.

Bistrot Bistro has the informality of West Van's La Régalade and a similar take on food, which means it's simple, satisfying, driven by flavour not fashion, and bountiful. The chèvre salad, a French staple, travels well, the warm, softened, tangy goat cheese contrasting with the crunch of toasted baguette. A smoked-duck-and-caramelized-onion tart was sin on a plate–or, rather, on very buttery pastry. Smothered with chopped green onions, a little ramekin of chicken-liver fondant was incredibly light, heady with port, and came with cornichons and toasted baguette to spread it on.

"Can you make that?" asked my bloke, who Skyped a friend in France the next morning to tell him about it. Yes, that good.

Presentation was straightforward. Secondes assiettes are brought to the table in red casseroles or pans, so the beef bourguignon or rabbit with tomatoes and olives stays staggeringly hot.

As in France, multiculti flavours show up once in a while, here in a pork tenderloin with "island spice" and banana. Lamb navarin was two persons' worth of big chunks you could cut with a spoon, bathed in deep, soulful sauce, with large pieces of citrus fruit for balance. Vegetables come separately, $3 or $4 apiece, enough for two. A one-pound Chateaubriand for two, or an eight-ounce New York steak with pommes allumettes; the double caloric bomb of chicken with mushrooms, cream, and calvados paired with gratin dauphinois; a more ascetic pairing of halibut, watercress emulsion, and salad with carrots and pine nuts; you can play mix-and-match all night.

The Devins don't call it bouillabaisse, but their fisherman's stew, complete with toast and rouille, is a small shiny bucket of broth that exhales fennel and saffron, chock-a-block with scallops, prawns, clams; and the rest disappeared too fast for me to see and they don't open till 5 so I can't phone and I'm on deadline so you'll just have to go there and try it. As I will the chocolate mousse and profiteroles. Wonder if we can persuade them to do a tarte au citron? And mussels with Pernod, orange, and herbs. And steak tartare…

Mains are bistro-priced: mostly under $20 and terrific value once you realize they're sharable. Two average and one greedy eater put away three premières, two secondes, and two side dishes (couscous with raisins, and ratatouille), and wobbled home to lie like beached whales. The good Gallic-biased wine list has scads by the glass. A bottle of Château Guiot Costière de Nîmes rosé put the bill (which, nice touch, arrives in an envelope) at $105 before add-ons.