There are some ways of spending wet Wednesdays that are nicer than others. This particular Wednesday worked out very nicely indeed. Woodford Byrne had invited me to a wine tasting in the Adam Suite of the Shelbourne, the sort of thing I tend to enjoy. I said yes, and was grateful that I had, because like I said, it was a wet day and tasting wine is a fine indoor activity. I was, I thought, rather disciplined, confining myself to wines that were priced at under ten pounds, which would become wines at under twenty pounds on a restaurant list. I only allowed myself one exception, a Clos de Tart Premier Cru Monopole 1991 which I really couldn't resist, and anyway, at £100 a bottle I figured I wouldn't get too many opportunities to try it again. Curiously, this was the only wine I didn't spit out after tasting.

Synchronicity raised it head once more, when after the tasting I was sitting in the bar downstairs and who should I meet but Gilbey's premier wine man, Paul Harvey, who introduced me to M. Trimbach, the maker of the Alsatian wines. With all the talk and all the taste of wine, and dinner time fast approaching I was in the mood to swallow some, rather than spitting out any more.

Since I was now in Dublin and my wife was in Wicklow and unwilling to drive into the city centre, we decided that somewhere between us would give her less of a drive. Bistro One in Foxrock village seemed a good solution, so the decision was made. I don't know why it had never occurred to me that Foxrock would be a good place for a restaurant, after all it's one of Dublin's more affluent leafy suburbs. When you consider how many there are in the Dalkey area it's a surprise there aren't more in Foxrock. The restaurant can be found on the first floor of a fifties style building just off the cross-roads of the village.

Quite why my wife chose this night to be punctual for the first time in her life is a still unresolved mystery. On the dot of nine she arrived to find me waiting, umbrella in hand, ready to escort her in. Upstairs is a largish dining room with a dozen or so tables; a dark, wooden ceiling with wine racks; three large fans; simple square tables with red and white check gingham table cloths and a few paintings on the walls. There's a carpeted floor and from the windows the glades of Foxrock gardens can be seen. A large counter gives the place a bistro feel.

The first thing I looked at was the wine list, which is on the back of the menu. It's short, it's simple and it's perfect for a bistro. Twenty-four wines, twelve red and twelve white with not one over £20 except for a champagne, and half a dozen half-bottles. After my afternoon's sacrifice of drinking only wines that fall into this price range here was my vindication - a whole wine list at prices that you can afford. It's split roughly half French and half New World, which is pretty much how I'd do it myself. The mark up, as you'd expect, is modest. I chose the Lawson's Dry Hills Sauvignon Blanc 1997 from New Zealand at £17.95.

The menu is also priced at Bistro prices: starters range between £2.95 and £6.75, and include seared marinated salmon strips, salad of smoked mackerel, vine tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella, honey-glazed black pudding and Bistro One salad with croutons and crispy bacon. There are several pastas which can be ordered as either a starter or a main course. The main courses themselves are priced between £11.25 and £15.75 and include veal Milanese, lambs' liver, chicken with lemon grass and roast crispy duck, and they come with vegetables and potatoes. There is also a blackboard with the day's specials.

Susie chose the seared strips of salmon to start and I chose the Bistro One salad. My salad was a simple enough affair with a mix of different lettuces and a dressing in which I could detect a nut oil - good, but not exceptional. Susie's choice was much the better, the seared strips presented nicely on a mashed potato and chive bed with a creamy dill sauce to accompany it. A very good dish.

Between courses several things occurred to me. The first was that although the restaurant was busy, there were enough people serving to ensure that there were no long waits. This really ought to be a given, but I can think of plenty of places where it isn't the case. The result was efficient and pleasant service, which made the evening more enjoyable. The second thing is something I'm noticing increasingly: the number of tables that are made up of females only and the number of menus that have goats' cheese as a starter. I wondered are the two connected? Is the goats' cheese there for the female customers, or are they there for the cheese? I think we should be told.

Susie had chosen Malaysian chicken for her main course, which was served with noodles, while I went emigre Italian and had fish and chips. Susie's chicken was tasty and so well cooked that you could cut it with the edge of a fork. My fish and chips consisted of two deep-fried fillets of cod with a tartare sauce that was so good I had to ask for more to dip my chips into, which incidentally, were more like French frites than chips.

As is so often the case we had but one dessert between us and Susie chose the Pavlova served with creme fraiche and a red berry sauce. We differed on the tartness of the sauce, Susie liking it and me not so much. No espressos were available, so we ended our meal by finishing the excellent New Zealand wine, which unusually for a Sauvignon, hadn't even a hint of cat's pee in the bouquet.

Our meal, including a 10pc service charge, came to £67.55, or just over £40 for the food, which is exactly right for a bistro. Considering that we'd had two of the most expensive starters and two of the most expensive main courses, Bistro One gave us value for money.