For as long as I can remember people have asked me where I would go if I wanted to eat an Italian meal in Dublin. My answer had become completely routine: I wouldn't. The fact is that I can eat good Italian food at home, so there is little temptation to spend money in order to eat something mediocre or worse. The bald truth is that since Roberto Pons closed his 'Il Ristorante' in Dalkey there hasn't been a place that I would take Italian friends to and expect them to be impressed.

When it comes to their palates Italians are difficult to please and not shy about expressing an opinion on the food that they're presented with. This is perhaps the principal reason that the food is so good in Italy: it's expected to be good and even small lapses in standards are simply not tolerated. Given all of this I was intrigued when I heard that 'Il Posto' on St. Stephen's Green was Italian, from the owner, to the waiters, to the chef.

It's in a basement with a rather imposing mini Olympic flame flickering outside the entrance. Stone steps lead down to what looks exactly like a restaurant in Italy: square tables covered in linen, raffia-based wooden chairs with straight backs, a counter just inside the door displaying wines and the usual Italian attention to wall decorations - which is not a lot. I have no problem with this; after all, if you're into your food your attention should be on the plate, not on your surroundings. I felt instantly at home as I listened to my favourite Pino Daniele CD playing, bringing back memories of hot summers. My guests for the night were Michael Colgan, who hates being called an impresario, and Marian Kenny who hates being called a tax consultant. Both of them have spent holidays in Italy and are, at least in part, Italophiles. The menu is eclectic; there are dishes from all over the country, from the Emilia to the Campania and just like a menu in Italy it's divided into antipasti, soups, farinaceous, fish, meats, poultry and desserts. Neither of my guests were omnivores; one is a life-long vegetarian who can't eat cream, the other eats only tiny amounts. One drinks only red wine, the other only white. We studied the menu carefully.

The wine list has a broad selection of native wines with plenty to choose from at under £15 which makes a pleasant change. A brut Prosecco at £11.50 looked great value for a sparkler - assuming it was good - and it was. It's more usually a sweet sparkler that you mix with peach juice to make a Bellini - a nice way of spending sunny afternoons. The house wine, a Montepulciano from the Abbruzzi provided the red.

We chose two starters: the stuffed tomatoes and the gnocchetti al Gorgonzola. The tomatoes were excellent; ripe and sweet and stuffed with rice and diced vegetables. My gnocchetti were pasta grains about the size of haricot beans, with a sauce made of cream, butter and Gorgonzola - exactly right for my new regime of controlled calorie intake. Good, and very filling. Next we had ordered a plate of armoniche ai funghi, a sea-food fritto misto and chicken breast alla cacciatora. The armoniche, or harmonicas, are pasta shapes a bit like the grid of a mouth-organ - a perfect shape for holding sauce. The sauce was a mushroom one, intended to be with cream but for my guest served without. I've never been convinced that plain field mushrooms make much of a sauce and this dish didn't change my mind. I still believe that for a mushroom sauce you need fungi with a better flavour; ceps, chanterelles or even at a pinch commercially grown oysters. The chicken was nicely presented, fanned slices of breast covered in the sauce. I judged the sauce to be rather overcooked, making the flavour stronger than the chicken could take - an opinion shared by my guest. My sea-food mixed fry wasn't very mixed: it consisted of but two items, two large prawns and squid rings in a less than crisp batter. However it tasted good and I ate it all.

I had foolishly brought my mobile phone with me, and even more foolishly left it on the table. Now a mobile phone is to Michael Colgan like honey is to a bee; irresistible. Mercilessly running up my bill, he phoned all kinds of people and made all kinds of deals, before getting Marie Claire Sweeney - with whom he runs the St. Patrick's Festival - to join us for a drink. Nobody wanted to eat any more at this point, although the Prosecco was going down well. Dutifully I elected to have a dessert, a tiramisu, which was very good indeed. I said so to the waiter, who replied in Italian 'That's nice to hear, coming from an Italian', which sounded innocuous enough to me. Michael's Italian is better than I thought. He turned to me and said 'Does that mean he doesn't care what we think?'

Good conversation and convivial company goes a long way towards making a meal an enjoyable event and we remained at the table laughing and contented until late. We were even offered a glass of Sambuca on the house, which is always a nice touch. Our food bill, for the three of us who ate, came to £47.50 which doesn't seem a lot, but because of the way we'd chosen to eat it probably isn't very representative of what you could spend if you had hungry guests. I liked the feel of 'Il Posto'. I liked the way the tables were set; each setting has a large plate with a crocheted doily upon which the plated meals are served. I liked the music, I liked the service and I liked hearing Italian spoken. This was certainly one of the better Italian meals that I've had in Dublin. Yet, if I'm honest, I have to say that I can think of plenty of simple, unpretentious trattorias in Italy where I'd eat better. It depends by what standards the judgement is made. This is a restaurant that flaunts its Italianess, its properly Italian menu, even its use of language. By the standards of the mother country it's not top-drawer, but by Dublin standards it's as good as I've found.