Pop in for the comfy seating, light Scandinavian-style bistro meals, games consoles for the kids to borrow and funky tunes on Friday and Saturday nights.

Sprint for a two-hour flight, with no time to grab anything, and be handed a "bistro meal" on your way onto the plane, or be informed that you will be served "a light snack."

In 1959, Paul Gineste de Saurs established a restaurant in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, near Porte Maillot, offering but one main dish: the traditional French bistro meal of steak-frites, or steak-and-chips.

IF you have time for only one bistro meal in Paris, A la Tour de Montlhery should be it.

I would happily trade one of his $45 dinners for two of those $30 bistro meals recently reviewed in these columns.

American served a bistro meal in coach on a roughly three-hour leg from Dallas to Burbank, Calif., recently.

The menu has sandwiches, salads and bistro meals as well as a good-value lunch special ( Bokwurst, chips and a beer for R50).

D Map Locals eat at the Katherine Country Club, overlooking the nine-hole golf course, Rely on inexpensive and satisfying bistro meals such as steak, schnitzel and barra, and kids are welcome.

Smoked herring fillets with potato salad, followed by skate wing in brown butter sauce, add up to a time-honored bistro meal.

Van Gogh slept in a modest room, and for a pension of 3.5 francs a day, took his simple bistro meals at the Auberge Ravoux on the building's main floor.