Providing the Common touch

What would bone fide French folk make of the no-smoking policy at Mini Mundus? A French restaurant without a thick, heady layer of post-steak-frites cigarette smoke doesn't seem quite 'authentique'. But this isn't gay Paris, it's family-friendly SW17, where all loyalty to chain-smoking compatriots goes out the window.

The area around Wandsworth Common is baby central, populated by maternity fashion boutiques and stylish crèches, where a three-wheeler pushchair is a fashion necessity. Mini Mundus has adapted to its environment and the smoke-free policy is the start of a range of family-friendly features (both waitresses were pregnant at the time of our visit though this was surely just a coincidence and not a cynical marketing ploy).

Opened in April 2005 by young French couple Stephanie and Pablo Gallego, the restaurant aims to recreate well-loved and reasonably-priced French dishes without fuss or frills.

The intimate room is light and airy thanks to a conservatory-style roof, beige tiled flooring and simple pale wooden tables. Wall-to-wall mirrors give a further sense of space on one side of the room, while vibrant paintings add a splash of colour on the other. A country-style kitchen table and dresser occupy the corner of the room and toys are piled all around.

It's a laid back, informal atmosphere - seemingly designed to feel like you've wandered into someone's front room - and is the perfect place to linger on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The menu changes monthly and has been kept simple with just five choices for each course and daily specials on offer. Most of the dishes, such as assiette de charcuterie and filet de boeuf en croute, fit the French theme whilst others, such as pan-fried tiger prawns and seabass with rice and spinach, could belong to any modern-day menu.

A gallon of lentil soup arrived for our starter; a seemingly never-ending mixture of well-pureed lentils, parsley and cream served with excellent crusty bread and tasty French butter. The mushroom tourte was light, well-glazed and piping hot, bursting with mushrooms and a creamy béchamel sauce.

For main course, a full-flavoured light spinach tart was served with nicely crunchy green beans and a peppery, buttery mound of rice, which was tasty but might have felt more at home sitting next to a chicken korma and a slice of naan bread.

The fillet of beef en croute was wrapped in a thin pastry casing, perfectly pink in the middle and served was a rich bordelaise sauce. The only let down with this dish proved to be the vegetables, which had been diced into tiny cubes and seemed a little too fussy for the dish. A few potatoes wouldn't have gone amiss either, but that was something we only had ourselves to blame for - a little note at the bottom of the menu says 'side dishes available'. Unfortunately we spotted it too late.

With hindsight it was wise to lay off the mash as the generous portion sizes continued with a plate-sized portion of creme brulee that was mercifully light. Our second choice of warm chocolate pudding arrived swimming in a pool of cream and broke open to reveal a gooey chocolate filling, made all the more satisfying by the accompaniment of an excellent red dessert wine that complemented the rich chocolatey taste.