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Revolutionary Soup looks like your average student joint. A bit grungy but cheerful, with a menu of comforting and, more important, cheap soups and sandwiches.

Besides the prices, there's nothing cheap about the food at Rev Soup, as the locals affectionately call it (108 Second St., 434-296-7687, revolutionarysoup.com). The tofu in the signature spicy Senegalese peanut soup is organic and local, made just 30 miles away in Louisa. The wheat for the homemade biscuits is grown in Virginia and ground at Byrd Mill in Ashland. And diners can pick from an impressive selection of wine bottles for sale at retail prices -- and then open and drink the wine at one of the cafeteria-style tables at no extra cost. "It hurts my margins," admits chef-owner Will Richey, who worked for five years as a sommelier around town. "But I love the idea of people drinking a nice Burgundy with a paper cup of really good soup."

That way of thinking is typical in Charlottesville. And that's why the food here is far better than it should be in a place with about 40,000 year-round residents and 20,000 college kids. True, college towns tend to have a disproportionate number of educated, affluent residents, but even by that standard Charlottesville's food scene stands out. On summer Saturdays, the farmers market is the city's food hub. But the year-round anchor is the Main Street Market, a former car dealership now home to a bakery, fishmonger, butcher, gourmet shop and cafe, chocolatier and cookware store.

Its first tenant was Albemarle Baking Co., a good first stop on a Charlottesville food tour. Company founder Gerry Newman is one of Charlottesville's food pioneers. He trained as a baker and pastry chef in California and moved to the area in 1991 "because even back then, San Francisco was an expensive place to live." For five years, he worked as pastry chef at the local Boar's Head Inn. Encouraged by a vocal group of university professors who tired of driving to Washington or New York for good bread, in 1995 he set out on his own

Albemarle turns out five kinds of bread daily, including a crusty baguette that won first place at last year's National Bread & Pastry Team Championship and would put many a Parisian baguette to shame (418 W. Main St., 434-293-6456, albemarlebakingco.com).

All the shops in the market are worth a look. In particular, I like perusing the Japanese seaweed and rice crackers at Seafood@West Main and picking up a box of Earl Grey truffles at Gearharts Fine Chocolates (416 W. Main St., 434-972-9100, gearhartschocolates.com).

But the shop I spent the most time at was Feast, a gallery of exquisite artisan food curated by wife-and-husband co-owners Kate Collier and Eric Gertner.

The shop's original emphasis was cheese and cured meats, but it has since expanded to include produce, organic oils, varietal vinegars, condiments and the inevitable but admittedly fabulous cupcakes. (Try the clementine with citrus cream.) Most of the products come from local producers, which keeps the quality high and the selection far more intriguing than what you find in the chain gourmet stores. 416 W. Main St., (434) 244-7800, www.feastvirginia.com.

Mas is a neighborhood tapas joint that is without a doubt my favorite Charlottesville restaurant. It has a slightly worn-in feel, with the requisite exposed brick walls and industrial pipes and a long, black bar. Though it's chic, it doesn't take itself too seriously. The napkins are paper and dispensed from diner-style chrome boxes. The night I visited, the line of cooks at the grill wore shirts that read, "Tapas, not Topless." 501 Monticello Road, (434) 979-0990, mastapas.com.

Back downtown on East Main, the town's pedestrian mall, I visited Ten, a tony sushi bar with soaring, mirrored ceilings and a poured concrete bar with fiber optics looped through so that it sparkles.

Even if it didn't look this good, Ten would be worth a visit. Chef Bryan Emperor, who will represent the United States at the international Sushi Awards competition in London this October, goes beyond the usual tuna and salmon. He offers more-intriguing selections such as escolar, Japanese snapper, ankimo (monkfish liver) and three kinds of shrimp. Emperor's signature tempura is the calamari: crisp batter outside, chewy inside, drizzled with a spicy sauce. The kushiyaki, or skewered items, were delightful, and the one bargain on the menu. 120B E. Main St., (434) 295-6691, www.ten-sushi.com.

Almost right across the street is Hamiltons' at First & Main, long a standard for its simple American food and attentive service. The menu offers nothing terribly surprising, but the generous portions are fresh and expertly prepared. 101 W. Main St., (434) 295-6649, hamiltonsrestaurant.com

Around the corner is Bang, an Asian tapas and martini bar. Not everything here is stellar, but boy, do these guys know how to fry. The rock shrimp tempura is stunning with its cool ginger slaw and is big enough to share. So are the Asian doughnuts. 213 Second St. SW, 434-984-2264.

Not everything in Charlottesville is upscale, and that's part of the charm. There are authentically retro diners, the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar (a hippie-esque tea salon) and, my favorite, Timberlake's Drug Store, whose lunch counter seems to have been frozen in time circa 1940. 322 E. Main St., (434) 295-9155.

Besides Revolutionary Soup, the best casual food I tried was a few minutes' drive from downtown, in the Barracks Road Shopping Center.

Aromas is a bright Moroccan-inspired cafe that opened here in February after eight years in an old cafeteria close to the university. The space, with its warm red walls and bright watercolors of Marrakech, is much improved, by all accounts, but the food remains as always: fast, fresh and undeniably good. Don't leave without tasting the falafel and the shawarma 1104 Emmet St. N., (434) 244-2486).

If you need to stock up for the journey home, head across the parking lot to HotCakes. This longtime ladies-who-lunch stop has a shockingly good selection of elegant salads, sandwiches and pastries. 1137 Emmet St. N., (434) 295-6037, hotcakes.biz.

Those eateries are just the beginning. Across the board, Charlottesville's food scene is inventive, diverse and brimming with talent. It's enough to give Monticello a run for its money.