3128 M St. NW (202) 338-3830 Hours of Operation and Prices Lunch: Daily 11-5; Entrees: $8-$12 Dinner: Sun-Th 5-3 am, F-Sat 5-4 am; Entrees: $9-$20 Pre-Theater & Late Night: Daily 5-7 pm and 10:30 pm-1 am, both $18 Other Information • All major credit cards • Reservations recommended • Dress: casual • Valet parking (fee) Fri.-Sat. • Handicapped accessible

It looks unmistakably French, even Parisian. But its service is hesitant and hardly continental. What has kept it going strong for decades is the menu - long and interesting, catering to the onion soup and minute steak crowd along with the giblet salad and marinated tuna crowd. It's got all the traditional dishes: pâtés, melon with port, coq au vin, steak tartare and its signature rotisserie chicken with tarragon. And it has an extensive array of more inventive daily specials, such as an appetizer of eggplant teamed with a zesty lamb sausage and pan-fried cakes of salmon mousse studded with scallops. If the cooking is not brilliant, it is certainly competent. For such ambitious French cooking, Bistro Francais is a bargain. Few restaurants in this price range serve such good bread and vary the vegetables with each entree. The real buys, though, are the fixed-price lunch and early-bird dinners, complete with a glass of wine, soup or a truly French salad, entree and a choice of dessert from a tray of French standards. Dover sole is priced here like fillet of flounder elsewhere. And Bistro Francais has matured well. As the sun goes down, the mirrors sparkle and the wood paneling gleams - and Bistro Francais begins to look romantic, even quite grown up.