Comme Ca Restaurant

When you crave the honest gutsy charm of traditional French cooking, this whitewashed Georgian inn with blue shutters near Chichester's Festival Theatre looks a dead ringer for a French country auberge. Chef-patron Michel Navet crossed the Channel from his native Normandy 20 years ago to create a corner of England that is forever France; knowledgeable staff are French, and his heart has never strayed from its Gallic roots in culinary matters. A staunch local following keeps the place buzzing - they know what is on the bilingual menu: old-school French country cooking that takes its cue from the varied regional cuisines of l'hexagone. A warm tartlet of smoked haddock and leeks on a bed of watercress makes a flavoursome starter; next up, the Mediterranean warmth of lemon and olive oil, pimento and chorizo vinaigrette suffuses main-course sea bass on crushed new potatoes, while game fans could be transported to la France profonde by the earthy peasant flavours of hare roulade teamed with forest mushrooms, game farce and port and lavender jus. To wind up, what else but a classic crême brûlée with a caramel top that shatters with the lightest touch of a spoon.