Every era in London has its dominant restaurant trends and nobody ever quite knows why. It was not so long ago that burgers were all the rage, or Neapolitan pizzas, or ramen, or small-plates natural wine bars. There is rarely any plan to these crazes. It's as though restaurateurs are responding to something in the atmosphere, which means men and women with a similar caste of mind all decide to open an izakaya, say, at exactly the same time. Cast your eye over the capital today, however, and all you see is that most ancient of formats, the bistro. London is going back to the future, via classic French cooking, served in smallish rooms, with lashings of drinkable red and maybe a glass of La Vieille Prune to finish.

Of course there have been bistros along as there have been French — or Francophile — chefs in London, which is to say as long as there have been restaurants. Soho and Kensington are thick with the ghosts of chequered tablecloths, drippy candles and baguette wiped through the remnants of a coq au vin. Poule Au Pot, by Sloane Square, has been the ideal restaurant for an affair since the 60s. In the early 1990s the spot was The French House, that tiny idiosyncratic pub on Dean St, where a young Fergus Henderson got his start before opening St John. Even Casse-Croute, once a whippersnapper, has been dishing up classics on Bermondsey Street for over decade.

The new wave feels more substantial. It started with Bouchon Racine, Henry Harris' Farringdon revival for his much-loved Racine. The previous iteration in Kensington had closed in 2015, the victim of rising rents and a phenomenon known as 'Lights Out London', in which previously residential areas were hollowed out by absentee owners. Reopening in 2022 in two small rooms above a pub in Faringdon with a Lyonnais 'Bouchon' angle, Harris has won nothing but raves for his beautifully executed rabbit in mustard sauce, bayonne ham with celeriac remoulade, steak tartare and chocolate mousse. Since the Racine opening, it has been non-stop bistros, as if a response to some deep longing in diners for comfort, familiarity and value: Bistro Freddie, Paulette, Josephine Bouchon, Henri, Bistro Bleu and Socca, among others.

"While humanity looks for endless efficiencies and innovation, there is something grounding, maybe even transportative about a bistro," says Dom Hamdy, whose Bistro Freddie, in Shoreditch, recently celebrated its first birthday — with steak-frites, green salad and gallons of red, naturally. "Some things don't need to change, some things aren't broken and don't benefit from disruption. We are all craving connection, familiarity and a friend. A bistro can be your best friend. It's ultimately a familiar vessel for having a good old analogue time with some delicious mouthfuls along the way."

Racine are not the only ones going down the 'Bouchon' route. Claude Bosi is better known as a master of Michelin, thanks to much garlanded — and well named — Bibendum in South Kensington and his new restaurant atop the Peninsula Hotel at Hyde Park Corner, Brooklands, which went straight from zero to two stars in the most recent Michelin Guide. But a greater passion project, for him and his wife Lucy, who runs the front of house, is Josephine, a "neighbourhood bistro" on the Fulham Road. Rather than award-worthy haute cuisine, here Bosi is free to indulge the simpler dishes of his childhood — including five different preparations of potato — in Lyon in a warm elegant room. Like Racine, the formula has proved ragingly popular.

"We've been thrilled by the response, and the number of guests who have become regulars," says Lucy Bosi. "They tell us they love the ambience and the authenticity of the space. We hope it has a family feel and Claude and I are both often here. The menu has also been a hit, with the way we charge the house wine by the ruler still popular, and I still love our potato menu. The dishes are comforting and the whole approach is casual. By definition a bouchon is unfussy and rooted in tradition, so perhaps it is more resilient to trends."

Perhaps. Equally, there is evidently a hunger for still more of this kind of eating. Josephine has been so successful that the Bosis are planning to open a second branch, in Marylebone, next year. The Bistroification of London may have only just begun.