There's no doubt that living in the heart of the Wicklow Hills has much to recommend it. It must do, or I wouldn't still be here. But as the weather gets better and the county looks more and more beautiful, there are downsides to contend with. Driving into Dublin these days has become something of an obstacle course. It's not the tourists in their hired cars meandering along looking over the hedges that cause me grief, it's the cyclists. I seem to remember as a kid getting into trouble with policemen for riding two abreast. Obviously the invention of stretch Lycra has changed all that. The rule now seems to be that if you're wearing a Lycra suit and a hat that looks as though you've got five fat fingers strapped to top of your head, then you can ride six abreast and take up the whole road. Which is why I was late and suffering from bike-rage when I arrived at the Shelbourne to meet my guest.

My guest for the evening was Sonia Thornton, one of those young, lissom ladies whose photograph is apt to turn up in social diaries. 'How should I describe you?' I asked. 'Not by my job,' she replied, 'just say that I have talent for friendship.' Done. A few weeks ago I had lunch with the illustrious Jonathan Philbin Bowman who chose Brunos in Temple Bar as our rendezvous. We had a good lunch, some good conversation, and a remarkably good espresso to finish with. I decided then that this was a restaurant I wanted to return to and review, and since Sonia liked it too, the decision was made.

She had booked a table for nine o'clock, so we had some time to kill. We had a drink in the Horseshoe, where you can get a really good Virgin Mary, and since it was a rather fine and sunny evening we decided to walk around the corner to the Merrion Hotel and sit outside on the terrace. This is a very pleasant place to sit, but sadly it doesn't get the evening sun. Although the sun blazed on the far side of the hotel, it became just cool enough to make the indoor bar a more attractive proposition. One more Virgin Mary, and then a leisurely walk to Temple Bar.

Brunos is on a corner and has plenty of windows. You can look out at the passing throng of humanity on two streets; the odd drunk, the occasional junkie, hawkers, tourists, Big Issue vendors and thousands of people under twenty. Brunos has a fairly large dining room, made into an 'L' shape by a serving area and counter in one corner. It has high ceilings, big arched windows, off-white walls, one mirrored wall, wooden tables and fairly comfortable high-backed chairs. As is so often the case these days, the majority of the customers were women in all-female groups.
The wine list in Brunos is a little uneven. I like to find a good choice of wines in the £10-20 range, which for most us, is what we're likely to spend. They do have reasonably priced house wines, but if you want something a little better than that you have to look hard. I settled eventually on a Chianti Classico at £17.50, but after a brief moment our waiter returned to tell me it was out of stock. There were a few French wines in the price range I wanted, but none that I particularly liked. Eventually I chose a Rioja Reserva at £16.50, which unusually enough came in a Burgundy-shaped bottle rather than the more normal Bordelaise.

The menu has some interesting dishes: Tartare of fresh salmon with ginger butter and potato chips, Spring Rolls of black and white pudding with vanilla and apple sauce, salad of saddle of rabbit with parmesan, Smoked chicken and celeriac soup. Without quoting the whole menu, that's a fair representation of the sort of dishes you'll find. Starters are priced from £4 to £7, main courses £9 to £14. Many of these dishes can be had as either a starter or main course, the price being roughly double for a main course. After a lot of humming and hawing I chose the tartare of salmon and Sonia chose the prawn salad for starters. To follow Sonia chose the sirloin steak with four peppercorn sauce and I went on the game - Breast of Guinea Fowl with flageolet beans and a Madeira sauce.

Our starters arrived on generously-sized plates, mine being not the tartare of salmon that I'd ordered, but rather the bruschetta of smoked salmon. It was beautifully presented and was topped with lambs' lettuce which I love, so I didn't say a thing to the waiter other than thanks, I just demolished it. Sonia's salad was very much to her liking, being served in a pyramid shape of mixed salads surrounded with prawns and strips of bacon and an orange dressing. She encouraged me to try it and I did, but not being very fond of the taste of coriander leaf, I can't say that I liked it. The important thing is that Sonia did, since it was, after all, her starter and not mine.

The main courses were very good, although when I saw the size of the steak arriving on Sonia's plate I realised that a large chunk of it would inevitably end up on my plate - there's a limit to how much red meat lissom ladies can eat. The Guinea fowl was nicely done; a faint gamey taste and a good combination of flavours with the Madeira sauce and the bed of beans. We had a platter of vegetables set between us which although simple, complimented our main courses well, and a dish of small roast potatoes which were exactly to my taste. I'd finished my Guinea Fowl, when in one quick, deft movement a large piece of steak came across the table and onto my plate. Entirely in the interests of food sampling rather than greed, I ate it. It was tender and I liked the peppercorn sauce.

The dessert list has some nice things on it all priced at £3.75; chocolate marquise, nougat glace, mille feuille and a bavarois. The mille feuille de crepes looked interesting, being filled layers of cold pancakes with an orange sauce, so we chose that between the two of us. Not surprisingly Sonia ate little of it, being replete from her main course. Remembering the near-perfect espresso I'd had the last time I ordered another. Since we were sitting beside the espresso machine it seemed apt. A good coffee arrived, but not as good as the last time for some unfathomable reason. Last of all we were presented with two Armagnacs on the house as an apology for not having the wine of our choice, which I thought was a generous gesture. A bill of £59.45 excluding service was more than fair.