I can finally answer those of you who have written or emailed to remind me that the world does not come to an end north of the Liffey. Actually I knew that, but when you start from the Wicklow hills crossing the entire city twice is not immediately appealing, even for a good meal. Still, sooner or later I knew I had to get to Howth to try one of the many restaurants that I've been told about.

My guest for night was Gay Brabazon the flower designer, and since she is of intrepid Whitworth stock, when I suggested an alternative means of transport she agreed at once. It was one of those rare evenings when the sun peeped out occasionally from behind the clouds giving the impression that summer might just be approaching. What I had in mind was a trip on the Dart. It meant meeting Gay early in Delgany and driving to Bray, and then allowing an hour and twenty minutes or so for the trip. It also meant booking an early table, since the last Dart from Howth to Bray leaves at ten to eleven and there's nothing worse than hurrying a good meal because of deadline.

Six pounds got us a round trip to Howth and back and it really does make a picturesque trip. The bay basked in the intermittent evening sun, Sorrento Terrace basked in its new-found value, people basked and even swam off Killiney beach. We arrived in Howth at half-past seven and had a tenminute walk from the station, past the harbour to the door of The King Sitric. We were shown upstairs where we were given menus and a wine list. There are large picture windows that afford great views over the harbour to Ireland's Eye and beyond that Lambay Island, of which both Gay and I have happy memories. The tide was coming in quickly, and the sea was as still as I've seen it in a while. If you look really hard through the menu you can find a meat dish: it's a sirloin steak. But this is a restaurant that specialises in fish, and given its position it couldn't really do anything else. It's always been a surprise to me that fish is so underrated in Ireland; on the Continent it's regarded as a real treat, much more so than meat, and people will travel significant distances to eat in a good fish restaurant. After nearly an hour and a half on the train I felt that I'd made a similar pilgrimage and inwardly hoped that the food would justify the travelling time.

The wine list in The King Sitric has won many awards and deservedly so. There are marginally more whites than reds as you might imagine, the mark-up is average and the choice is large: for example there's nearly a half page of Chablis divided into simple AC, Premier Cru and Grand Cru. The set price dinner is £28 per person, so I decided on a modestly priced wine, the reliable Macon Lugny from Louis Latour at £16.50. There is also an extensive a la carte menu, but a second look at the set dinner showed it to be very fairly priced since it included oysters as starters and a huge choice of fish dishes.

We ordered our meal from the table d'hote, drank a glass of wine and looked out the window. After a while we were escorted downstairs to our table in the dining room. It's a fairly formal room, tables are laid with starched linen and heavy cutlery, the chairs are padded and comfortable. A tray of good breads was on the table which got divided between Gay and myself on traditional sexist lines; she eating the brown wholemeal one and me smearing butter on the white. Sometimes I think if it wasn't for women there wouldn't be any brown bread.

Before our starters arrived we were presented with an amuse bouche of salmon mousse served with a dill and mustard sauce which was quite delicious. I was also just becoming aware of how good the service was; friendly and very professional waiters went about their business flawlessly and effortlessly. Thinking about it now I don't think I've had such good service for quite a while and it's irksome that this should be the case. It's so easy to spoil a good meal by bad service; nothing distracts so much from your enjoyment of a meal as to be permanently scanning the horizon in search of a waiter's eye.

I had chosen oysters as my starters and Gay had picked the sea-food gratin. My oysters were the big, fat, succulent Gigas oysters and Gay's gratin was stuffed with all manner of goodies, including squid, prawns, salmon, scallops, monkfish and white fish. Next Gay had chosen a crab bisque, while I had chosen the salade tiede, a warm salad with whiting. Of the two Gay's was the winner by a mile, the bisque was exquisitely made and absolutely delicious. The main courses we had chosen were ray's wing in black butter and monkfish piccata, which is small pieces of monkfish fried in a very light batter and served with courgette noodles.

The ray was superb, and Gay and I found ourselves reminiscing about fish that we'd caught, cooked and eaten in Mayo over the years. She is not only a cordon bleu cook with a diploma to prove it, but a good fisherwoman as well, so when she pronounced the ray to be very fine, I took her opinion seriously. My monkfish was also well-cooked and I enjoyed the noodles too. Throughout our meal our glasses were kept topped up with wine or water, ashtrays changed frequently, bread replenished - in short attentive service.

For dessert Gay had a creme caramel, and I had a chocolate terrine made with white and dark chocolate, both of which were good, and we finished with coffees. By most standards this was not a cheap meal, but the food was excellent, the service impeccable and the room a pleasant one to be in. When all these elements come together like they do in The King Sitric then you feel that you've had value for money - and that elusive thing, that sense of well-being that comes from a good meal, made the ride home in the Dart a happy one. It may be a while before I'm back in Howth, but The King Sitric made this a memorable evening for both my guest and me.