Hours of Operation and Prices Open: M-Th 11:30-10:30 pm, F-Sat 11:30-11 pm Closed: Sun Entrees: $5.75-$19.50 Other Information • Credit Cards: All major • Reservations: Recommended • Dress: Casual • Parking: Free after 6 • Handicapped accessible

Those who know their way around start with a modestly priced and well-chosen wine from France or Virginia, and pick their dinner not from the printed menu but from the long, typed list of specials. There might be six seasonal soups in addition to the three regulars. Appetizers are likely to include such seldom encountered and very French dishes as brains in vinaigrette. Entrees follow in seasons, and in winter tend to be rich and homey concoctions such as bouillabaisse, cassoulet or puff pastry filled with seafood and perhaps sweetbreads in a creamy, aromatic wine sauce. In summer, a myriad of meat and seafood salads appear, though richness is not totally left behind: Amidst the updated composed salads you'll also find rich and nostalgic dishes such as airy, creamy quenelles. Desserts are home-style French classics.

Perfect? No. I've had tired pâtés and pastries. And Le Gaulois is too busy a place for the welcome to exhibit much warmth. Still, it is efficient, and often enough the real welcome is in the cooking.