Wadja, tucked away in a little side street in Montparnasse, is located next door to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a famous studio attended by the great artists of Post-Impressionism’s heyday. In the 1920s, the neighborhood, then home to dingy hotels and cheap restaurants, was frequented at night by both the rich and the artistic poor of the capital.

Today, it is still one of the city’s main entertainment areas, and the names of those erstwhile artist-infested eateries are still up in lights: La Coupole, Le Dôme, La Rotonde, Le Sélect. You’ll get an interesting Parisian experience at all of them, with excellent food at Le Dôme and La Rotonde, and plenty of atmosphere at La Coupole. Le Sélect is where people go to see and be seen and to be ill-treated by the staff.

For a more authentic neighborhood eating experience, turn off the main drag and try Wadja, which will acquaint you with specialties from the Basque country. Its regular menu has many creditable standards on it, all made with best-quality ingredients (including fine, flavorful Salers beef), but you’d be well-advised to opt for the day’s specials.

The day I was there, we were offered a fricassee of chanterelle mushrooms à la bordelaise (cooked with shallots and parsley), and Basque red peppers stuffed with eggplant caviar. Both were excellent. They were followed by roast squab on red cabbage and grilled sole, both of which were perfectly – and I do not use the word lightly – cooked, without any artifice whatsoever. We washed it down with a bottle of a red Côtes du Rhône: a chewy, fruity and satisfying Beaumes de Venise.

The atmosphere here is extremely friendly, diners have plenty of space, and the charming owner’s English is adequate to the needs of the non-French speaking visitor. In fact, my dining companion, whose French does not go very far beyond “bonjour” and “merci,” was able to make the reservation for us by phone.

On the evening we ate at Wadja, there was nary a smoker in sight, even among the small crowd that gathered at the bar after the meal and (presumably) continued to explore the very interesting and honestly priced wine list, which Patricia Wells called a “revelation” in a piece on Wadja a couple of years ago.

This pretty little gem of a neighborhood wine bar/bistro, whose walls are decorated with commissioned Beaujolais Nouveau posters, would certainly have pleased the impecunious artists who once frequented the neighborhood.

Wadja: 10, Rue de la Grande Chaumière: 75006 Paris. Métro: Vavin. Tel.: 01 46 33 02 02. Closed Sunday and Monday lunch and the week of August 15 (also closed Saturday lunchtime in September 2006). Fixed-price menus: €15.50 or €25. A la carte: around €35.

Richard Hesse

© 2006 Paris Update