Picture this: a terrace in a village in Italy with a view that stretches for twenty-five miles; from where you can see five hill-top villages, some of the higher mountains in the Apennine range, foot-hills covered in olive groves and vineyards stretching off into the horizon, baking under the hottest summer sun that anyone can remember. It's where I've just come back from, and where, many years ago, my dinner companion stood admiring a sunset when her husband to be proposed marriage to her.

My companion this evening was Susan Fitzgerald, the Irish Independent's Actress of the Year. All those years ago she, her husband, my wife and I were unmarried students and we spent a few weeks at my family's house in the Abbruzzi mountains during one of those interminably long summer holidays that universities so kindly give their alumni. Oddly enough, a few years later, we were married with a week of one another. Not surprisingly one of the topics of conversation over dinner was that sunny summer many years ago.

We'd been planning this for a while, with Susan having all kinds of good ideas about far-off places where we could go and eat - I vetoed Paris and New Orleans on grounds of cost - but in the end mid-week nights and school runs to follow in the morning meant that somewhere local seemed like a far more intelligent option. I'd been introduced to Popjoys by Paul Harvey, Gilbey's premier wine man last July when we'd had a good set lunch for reasonable money - less than £13 as I recall. At the time I felt it was a restaurant that I wanted to return to and it being close to Susan's home, it seemed an ideal opportunity.

If you like muted pastel shades you'll like Popjoys dining room. There are salmon pink Georgian stripe walls, a russet carpet, blue upholstered chairs and white woodwork which matches the crisp white of the linen tablecloths. The tables are set far enough apart that the conversations at other peoples' tables don't intrude. As soon as we walked in we were greeted and shown to a corner table where Susan had a great view of the room and I had a great view of Susan. Menus and a wine list arrived promptly along with a tray of assorted home-made breads of which the bacon rolls were my favourite. I began by studying the wine list. There a four pages listing some sixty wines; three house wines at £11 - a red, a white and a rose, and eight house specials at £12. The rest of the list covers most of the main wine producing countries and areas. There's ten or so Bordeaux, which range from petits chateaux at under £20 to a premier cru Ch. Latour '95 at £200. There were no bargains to be had among the French red wines, which these days seem over-priced to me when compared to similar Australian, South African, Italian or Spanish reds. I was tempted by the Faustino 1 and the Wolf Blass President's selection, but settled eventually for the Marques de Murrieta Reserva 1993 at £17.95 and a half bottle of the Louis Latour Macon Lugny at £8, both good, reliable wines at reasonable prices - which also demonstrate this to be a wine list with a standard, acceptable 100 pc mark-up.

The menu is a la carte only and consists of nine appetisers, and eight main courses. The appetisers range in price from £3 for the green pea soup to £8.95 for the seared scallops. The choice also included lambs' kidneys, Caesar salad, baked smoked haddock, brie in filou pastry and wood-pigeon and bacon salad. After some lengthy discussion of who was going to have what, we decided on the brie for Susan and the kidneys for me. The main courses run from £12-18, and include fillet of beef, shank of spring lamb, baked cod fillets, roast breast of chicken bourgignon, aubergine schnitzels, pan-fried fillets of sea-bream and a night's special of char-grilled blue marlin marinated in lemon grass and olive oil. We chose the shank of lamb and the bream. Vegetables are priced separately: £1.95 for each kind or £2.95 for a selection.

Our starters arrived on large, plain white plates and were beautifully presented. Susan's brie was in a delicate pastry shell which when cut open oozed warm, runny brie in a mouthwatering way. I had to fight to get her to swap some of this for a taste of my kidneys which had been cooked exactly as I had ordered them - pinkly rare. They came in a little puff pastry shell which was also perfectly cooked, and dutifully I passed Susan her share. When we'd finished our starters and our half of white, we had a moment to contemplate our surroundings and take stock. I've noticed this before; actresses are rather good at assessing who's in a room and what they're doing. It must be because studying people is how you get to be good as an actor. Anyway, Susan decided that the tables present were all regular customers, which she said, is a Good Sign. We also agreed that the service had been exemplary and friendly. We both liked the fact that there was no background music to distract. The only time I like it is when I choose it myself.

The main courses arrived on the same generously-sized plates - Susan's bream in three fillets laid across a tomato and black olive compote surrounded with roasted hazel nuts, and my lamb shank on a bed of puy lentils and garlic. I'm glad we took our waiter's advice not to order vegetables separately, but to have just one vegetable selection between us, because the table was covered with white ovenware dishes bearing courgettes and carrots, new potatoes, pan-fried cabbage cut in strips, pureed potatoes and a cauliflower gratin done with Emmenthal.

As usual I found myself arriving at dessert without much of an appetite, but Susan found room for one and chose the pear and almond tart, which, when it arrived, I found irresistible and felt compelled to share. It was served with rum and raisin ice-cream and the plate was decorated with a red coulis and creme anglaise - a really good dessert. We finished our meal with two espressos and the bill came to £76.51, which included a 10 pc service charge.

This puts the price at the upper mid-range, but for your money you get a prettily decorated room, superb service and food of a quality that some Michelin-starred restaurants might do well to emulate.