It's been said to me more than once; 'God, that must me be a hard job, going around eating good food every week.' Well obviously it needs stamina and a bottomless appetite, but for the moment I'm equipped with both of those. But perhaps one of best things about it is that when you ask people to join you for a good meal, they tend to say 'yes', unlike for instance reviewing a karaoke night down at the local where you might get the odd refusal. My guest this evening has always said 'I'd love to review a restaurant with you' but she being something of a globe-trotter, it's been difficult to find an evening when we were both free. Perseverance, however, was definitely worth it because she is the sort of lady that could make more than a few men envious of me. She was the singer, the actress and the song-writer Marianne Faithfull, someone whose music has been with me since my earliest years of buying vinyl.

Marianne was a neighbour of mine in Wicklow for much of last year, but is now a confirmed urbanite living happily in Dublin. Gallantly I left the choice of restaurant to her, and she picked Kites in Ballsbridge, as she is a fan of Chinese cooking. I was lucky to have her as a dinner guest, because she is currently at work on a new album and had only a few days in Dublin before going off to record some more, and then on to do some more concerts in Germany. Before we went to eat she played me a few demo tracks, and if they're anything to go by, it's going be a great record since all kinds of musical luminaries have written songs especially for her. I was rather flattered to see a copy of my book on her sofa open at page 58; nice to think that while I'm enjoying her music she might be enjoying my book.

It was a fine evening - well, it wasn't raining - so we decided to walk to Kites, building up a little appetite as we did so. Evidently she is well-known there as we were shown to what I was told was Ms. Faithfull's favourite table. It's a pleasantly furnished room with large, comfortable chairs and well-spaced tables with linen tablecloths and napkins. Even though the restaurant was busy that night there was no sense that the tables intruded upon one another, and I'm happy to report that it also has plenty of efficient waiting staff, so the service is excellent.

One the best things about the Chinese way of eating is that the food that comes to the table is not specifically for one person; it's set down for all to share and taste. This is exactly the way that Marianne and I did it - we both tasted everything. Since she seemed entirely at home with both the place and the menu I left the ordering of the food to her while I studied the wine list. It's a very reasonably priced list with plenty of good wines for well under £20. I knew that Marianne likes the chardonnay grape, so I chose the Santa Rita Chilean Chardonnay at £14.50 which is a far better wine than its price would lead you to believe. I also ordered a bottle of mineral water, which turned out to a large two-litre bottle.

The food that she had chosen can't strictly be described as starters and main courses - we simply had tastes of quite a few different dishes. The first ones to arrive at the table were deep-fried sea-weed, steamed fish dumplings and spicy scallops on a skewer. It seems Marianne often has the deep-fried sea-weed so I tasted it to see why. It has an interesting texture and it tastes like - well, fried seaweed. I don't think I'm going to be a convert. The dumplings came in one of those little bamboo dishes for steaming food in and like many Chinese dishes these are designed to be dipped - in this case into a hot chilli oil. And when I say hot, it was certainly hot, making our two-litre bottle of water look like a really good idea. The skewered scallops were exactly as described and were pleasantly spicy rather than hot - nicely cooked and tender.

We had a small hiatus at this point in order to drink water and let our palates recover from the fiery chilli heat before moving on, while a large table of French people at the next table reminded us that the Tour de France was about to have its first leg in a day or two. The next dishes to arrive were vegetarian spring rolls, beef Satay, a bowl of fried rice and a dish of mixed vegetables which included the black-skinned Chinese mushrooms which were delicious. I guess these are something of a rarity because although really tasty they were in the bowl in a small quantity, making me wonder if these might be the Chinese equivalent of ceps. The beef Satay was especially good; slightly underdone it arrived on a steel flat sizzling with residual heat - a rather theatrical presentation. The fried rice was moist enough that it needed no sauce and when combined with the beef the flavours and textures blended well. The crispy vegetarian spring rolls were just that; a good casing that was crisp and light with a tasty filling.

Maybe this doesn't sound like a lot of food, but the portions in Kites are generous and although we had spread the eating over quite a long time, neither of us was hungry enough to eat any desserts. Marianne finished with a cup of Chinese tea, served in one of those dainty handleless cups, while I remained staunchly European and finished with coffee. With the tea and coffee our waiter came over and insisted that Ms. Faithfull should have an after dinner drink. She refused at least three times, but eventually conceded since he looked so hurt and two cognacs were set before us courtesy of Kites. There's definitely something to be said for dining with celebrities.

Considering I felt well-fed and contented, the bill when it arrived seemed inordinately reasonable: £57 including a 10pc service charge. In part this is due to their wine list, where good wines can be got without spending big money. I can think of few meals in the past few months that have ended up costing less than £60 for two, so Kites represents very good value.