The restaurant industry has already suffered two body-blows this year. The death of Jean-Claude Vrinat, the legend behind the acclaimed Taillevent and arguably the greatest restaurateur in Paris, was followed a few weeks later by that of Bill Baker of Reid Wines, at the age of 53.

Both played an extremely influential role in the industry. Vrinat was not a chef but the internationally revered owner of Taillevent and a constant inspirational presence in the dining room. Taillevent’s attentive and egalitarian service was admired and imitated by other owners around the world, including Danny Meyer, owner of the Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café in New York.

Baker, who combined unparalleled knowledge of both food and wine with a staggering appetite (he was 23 stone and required 10 pallbearers to carry his coffin in and out of Wells Cathedral), was responsible for writing many of the UK’s best wine lists. His legacy can still be enjoyed at the numerous restaurants he consulted for in London or when eating at Monachyle Mhor or Boath House in Scotland or Gravetye Manor in Sussex. Baker’s role was important because wine sales provide the most accurate barometer of the business.

When individuals and corporations are feeling flush, wine not only generates significant profits but also the necessary cash-flow that allows the restaurateur to reinvest in his cellar and his dining room. When times get tough, however, wine sales are the first to suffer, as the young Burgundian sommelier at Taillevent reported when I ate there recently. “Business is still good,” he explained as he poured a 2005 Vouvray Sec from Domaine Huet he had chosen as an apéritif, “but we are quieter at the beginning of the week and I hear exactly the same from the sommeliers in the city’s other top restaurants when we meet at wine tastings.”

On the recent Friday night we visited, Taillevent was packed and justifiably so. The business, which includes the nearby L’Angle du Faubourg restaurant in Paris, one in Tokyo and the wine business, Les Caves de Taillevent, is now run by Jean-Claude’s capable daughter Valérie. She has chosen to leave the restaurant to the team her father trained, led by maître d’ Jean-Marie Ancher who has worked here for the past 34 years. In fact, if anything, the waiting staff seemed as effective as ever and possibly more composed and relaxed than when Vrinat would hover anxiously over them.

The kitchen under Alain Solivérès produced some delicious and finely judged food. There are only two types of bread, white and brown, but there is no need for more variety when each is so good. A thin tart dotted with frogs’ legs and a garlic mousse provided a colourful display as did the array of new season’s turnips surrounding three rolled fillets of duck breast from the Dombes while a blood orange sauce supplied precisely the right acidic balance to a pastilla of pigeon. Innovative as these dishes may be, traditionalists have no grounds for concern either.

The food at Le Comptoir du Relais Saint-Germain on the Left Bank offers the same reassurance, albeit in much less comfort but at a fraction of the price. Our excellent lunch for four with two bottles of wine – a lively Happy Hours Jurançon Sec 2006 and a G. Descombes Brouilly 2005 – came to €200 (£150), which seemed a bargain considering the quality of the food. It ended with a surprising revelation.

Le Comptoir is owned by Yves Camdeborde, the chef who had made such a success of his bistro La Régalade a decade ago. But when Madame decided that she preferred the role of hotelier to maîtresse d’, he obliged by buying the Relais Saint-Germain hotel and converted what was the Bar Monaco next door into this remarkably good, if remarkably tiny, bistro.

Le Comptoir opens from midday to 6pm every day and takes no reservations. But its excellent value and great location at l’Odéon in the 6th have managed to disprove the long-held view that Parisians will lunch only between noon and 2pm.

When we arrived at 2.15pm, the place was packed and there was a queue of a dozen waiting on the pavement, all under the beady eye of one woman who acts as manager of the queue, seater and greeter, order-taker and waitress as well as credit card processor. Someone best not to cross, I would guess.

When four of us finally sat down it was to an exceptionally long menu where the brevity of each dish’s description only seemed to add to our anticipated pleasure. Certainly 12 dishes later, nothing had disappointed.

The oeufs mayonnaise, a dish so simple that it is perhaps the most accurate test of any bistro, were first class, the yolks and mayonnaise a deep yellow. So too were a much more intricate terrine of foie gras and pear and a chestnut soup with more foie gras. A boudin blanc with creamy mashed potato; a thick slice of onglet, hanger steak and two slowly cooked lamb dishes were equally good and it was an unexpected pleasure to have them all served with different, well-cooked vegetables. The rum baba was full of Armagnac and the ice creams, particularly the caramel sea salt and the chocolate enlivened with Espelette peppers, were exceptional.

As for the revelation, it came right at the end of our meal. I had noticed that all the dishes were carried up a winding staircase from the basement by someone who was definitely not French (and who told me that he made the trip up and down about 100 times a day). When I followed him down – on my way to the lavatory – I noticed that there was a window into the kitchen to which I promptly gravitated.

There were only two very busy chefs, Tamil by origin as was the kitchen porter. As my Parisian restaurateur friend whom we were lunching with commented on the news: “You buy well and then train your staff as precisely as Camdeborde does. After that, anybody can do it.”

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Pampered in Paris

Le Comptoir du Relais Saint-Germain,5. carrefour de l’Odéon, 75006 Paris
Relais SaintGermain, www.hotelparisrelaissaintgermain.com
Taillevent, www.taillevent.com