We Oxford oldies still remember these George Street premises as the Army surplus stores, though they have been occupied for more than ten years since by a link of the Caffé Uno 'Italian' restaurant chain. Now owners Paramount Restaurants have turned the place into an outpost of their French-style Brasserie Chez Gérard. This metaphorical crossing of the Alps has perhaps been performed in response to fierce competition in Oxford's corner of pseudo-Italy, where Ask, Zizzi and Bella Italia all vie for custom within a hundred yards or so of each other. But then I see from a quick web search that Paramount appears to be making the switch in other parts of the country too . . .

As you can see from Ed Nix's pictures, an appealing new look has been applied to the outside of the building as well as to the interior, with its succession of cosy interconnecting rooms. Centrepiece of the design, facing the main entrance and with an open-plan kitchen behind, is the Zinc Bar, from which is dispensed a tempting assortment of cocktails. I was impressed to see that the world's best gin, Hendrick's, was being used in the martinis. I might have ordered one had it not been for the fact that Rosemarie and I had a promotional voucher entitling us to free champagne.

As we pored over the menu, we enjoyed glasses of Bouché Père et Fils, a fizz of characterful biscuity taste. We were seated just inside the door in front of the bar. Pleasingly, the table that had been reserved for us was exactly the one I would have chosen for ourselves. It came with an added bonus of interest in fragments of overheard conversation from the only other table in our section. Delivered in a prim northern accent, the observations concerning some evidently licentious woman were reminiscent in their venom of Coronation Street's Ena Sharples in her heyday. I jotted some down as they were uttered: "She was flirty with all the firemen" !!, "She's his choice and that's the end of it" and "She is just a worthless object". The discourse reached a shuddering conclusion with "A slag - and feckless with it".

Wow! After this, our meal could hardly seem other than a bit dull. In fact, with one glaring exception, it provided much to keep us smiling, especially in the efficient attentions of the serving team - all of them (I think) French and all (certainly) women. I was told there was only one man "on the floor", which created a curious mental picture of vanquished masculinity.

Choice of food is attractively varied. Snails, stuffed mushrooms and baked Camembert are among the starters. For mains, there are salads, pasta dishes, fish and vegetarian choices, a big range of grills - including steak frites for which Chez Gérard is especially known - gourmet burgers, Moroccan-style tagines with cous cous or rice, and blackboard specials (tonight's were a seafood skewer and sliced liver).

The first thing we ate was bread, fresh pieces of baguette, with little packets of Normandy butter and a dish of heavenly anchovy butter - why don't I make this (or at any rate anchovy Benecol) at home? I continued with what the menu calls a "mini" (very mini) salmon and smoked haddock fish cake. Fortunately it made up in flavour what it lacked in size. It came with leaves of baby spinach and garlic mayonnaise. Rosemarie had traditional French onion soup - sweet and delicious but slightly marred by a Gruyère crouton (so called) that had no trace of crispness and seemed like tired leftover bread.

My main course of coq au vin was the big black mark of the meal. Since it was described as "Bressan", my impression was that it might contain best Bresse cockerel. What I was presented with was a bowl of what seemed like a thin red soup containing crunchy baby onions, two or three tiny pieces of bacon and chunks of grey-looking tasteless chicken, off the bone, that appeared to have had only a passing acquaintance with the winey liquid in which, classically, it is supposed to be cooked for much more than an hour. There was no sign of the button mushrooms mentioned on the menu. The "new potatoes" had surely been new once; now they were old and roasted - a neat way, perhaps, of using up yesterday's leftovers.

his rather disgusting dish came from a section not included in the sample menu I had picked up a day or two before our visit, or indeed in any of the menus I have since found on line. It also featured boeuf bourguignon, blanquette de veau and navarin of lamb. If it has been newly added to the list, it would be as well if Chez Gérard's chefs were taught how to make it properly. The cost, as you can see on the right, was an astronomic (for what it was) £14.95.

By contrast, Rosemarie's burger could not have been better - 240 grams of unadorned quality minced beef, cooked slightly pink and topped with a Roquefort and cream sauce. It came with loads of excellent thin frites.

With our main courses we drank large glasses of a Merlot vin de pays d'Oc, having previously tried the same company's (Le Caprice) Chardonnay with our starters.

To finish, Rosemarie ate a superb lemon tart, with crème fraiche, while I enjoyed a double espresso - pleased to see the bar tender 'drinking her mistake' after pouring one with caffeine.