Hidden away in the backstreets of Cantonments, Le Tandem is about as French as Accra gets. The handwritten menu is crammed with bistro staples – onion soup, beef bourguignon, bouillabaisse, andouillette, escargots – and affable owner Laurent Bolac works the room himself, describing the daily specials with conspiratorial excitement.

His passion for full-blooded French food carries through to the kitchen, which puts out dishes that know their roots and refuse to prettify them. Up come rich, robust plates unafraid of butter, cream and salt. There are proper, deep stocks. There is offal. Next to tamer readings of French food – Le Magellan or Le Must, say, which rarely venture beyond grilled meat or fish and a selection of sides – it is a breath of fresh gallic air.

Take the choucroute, an Alsace dish that wears its German influences very firmly on its sleeve. Le Tandem’s enormous version comes decked with potatoes, pork shoulder – the fat shamefully good, like loose clotted cream – a proper, smoky frankfurter and a roundel of leberwurst. With a generous side of dijon mustard it is gorgeous, utterly sinful, and near impossible for one man to finish.

Equally excellent and equally fattening is the melting, crispy-skinned duck confit, a regular feature on the specials list.

The all-French wine ‘cellar’ is kept in a conditioned room just off the dining area, but there is no printed list; since it changes based on what Laurent is able to import, there would be little point. Instead he’ll talk you through available bottles, taking you into the cellar yourself if you prefer to browse.

Le Tandem isn’t cheap – with mains starting around 30 cedis, it is comparable to a mid-range restaurant in London or New York – but if you’re in the city on business or just want to splash out, it has an honesty and charm that put many of the city’s prestige restaurants to shame.