Les Halles thrives as one of the most accomplished French restaurants in town, despite its unlikely location, squeezed into the most frenetic block of rue Crescent. Despite the prices, this isn't an "event" establishment, draped with brocade and glinting with Baccarat. Tables are close, service is correct but chummy, and animated conversations often start up between strangers -- all of which promote the idea (if not the reality) of a mainstream, not fancy, establishment. Alberta beef, Québec lamb, and such game dishes as red deer and guinea hen are stars on the menu, and simply prepared seafood, including sea bass and walleye, is also good. Ingredients are rarely exotic, yet the kitchen uses them in unexpected ways. All of it, appetizers to desserts, comes in hefty portions. The wine cellar has more than 10,000 bottles of 450 different wines.