Browsing idly through these reviews over the past few months, it struck me that I'd never reviewed anywhere on the West side of Dublin. I pulled out one of my restaurant guides and looked through the listings checking places like Leixslip, Palmerston, Castleknock and Lucan. Here it was that I found Brenda's of Lucan. In the listing the food was described as French/Traditional, but that was all the information I had. It was one of those rare sunny evenings and I suggested to my wife that a drive over the Sally Gap to Lucan followed by a meal might make a pleasant evening. 'I'll come if you don't describe me as your wife,' she said. 'How, then? As someone else?' 'No, why don't you describe me like you describe your other guests?'

O.K. My guest this evening was the water-colourist Susan Morley, whose work adorns the walls of the Great and the Good. I picked her up at my house and after settling some money upon her children, drove her as planned over Sally Gap where, as we approached Kippure, the sun broke out of thin, low cloud and like a huge orange ball hung in the sky framed between Kippure and Duff Hill, reflecting off the nascent Liffey, picking it out like a thread of gold. We stopped for a while to watch, but a chilly wind put us back in the car. Thanks to the M50 we were in Lucan within an hour. We've both been to Lucan often enough, Susan to Luttrelstown to paint, and me to the Italian Embassy, but neither of us had come across Brenda's before.

It's in a modern building just off Lucan's main street and it's a plain, rectangular room. There's a counter just inside the door, and one side of the dining room has a raised section with one row of small tables. And they are just that - small tables. They're not for the clumsy as I discovered. You have to place everything quite carefully to get it to fit, and if you move a plate or glass hastily you'll get a domino effect of table-top catastrophes. They are also quite low, even for people like me of vertically challenged status. Still, it does force you to keep your more expansive gestures to a minimum, which may be as well. My guest, Susan Morley the painter, found the lighting very diffuse and so did I. We needed the candle on the table to read the menu, but the upside of this, as I've said before, is the kindness of the light. The room itself is painted in a brick red and there are paintings all around which are for sale.

Most of the other diners were young. As I looked through the wine list and the menus it became apparent why: this is a reasonably priced restaurant with very reasonably priced wines. There were two menus on the night; a special menu celebrating the gastronomy of the Burgundy and the normal dinner menu. The Burgundian menu comprised two dishes for each course; gammon timbale in parsley jelly and roast pigeon breast both priced at £4.50; entrecote Villefranche with foie gras and girolle mushrooms, and trout Saonnaise which is river trout baked in a cartouche of paper. These were priced at £13.75 and £11.75 respectively, and the two desserts, a goats' cheese souffle and a Grand Marnier cake cost £4 and £4.75 respectively. The main menu carries starters like salmon terrine, Greek salad and vegetable soup that range from £3 to £5, as well as four pastas which can be had as starters or main courses, costing around £4.75 and £9.50 respectively. The main courses include baked salmon, Wiener Schnitzel, duckling in an aromatic sauce and sirloin steak. Most of the main courses are priced at under £10, which these days is becoming something of a rarity. Vegetables are priced at £1.50 with a selection available at £1.95.

The wine list is very reasonable with nearly all the wines listed at under £20. There are eighteen reds and sixteen whites and they cover most wine-producing countries. In addition there were two specials to go with the Burgundian menu, a Macon Lugny at £16 and a Moulin a Vent at £18. Susie was adamant that white wine was a better mid-week choice so we had the Rosemount Chardonnay at £16.

She had chosen the pigeon breast as a starter and I had the penne in a sea-food sauce. I have to tell you that the sauce on my penne was one of the best that I've ever eaten, better even than restaurants on the Tyrrhennian coast that specialise in little else. It was close to perfection and would have reached it had the pasta itself not been marginally overcooked. Once Susie had tasted it, it was no longer my starter. Deftly she handed me her pigeon breast while removing the pasta from under my nose over to her side of the table. 'I'd come back here again just for this,' she said. The main courses arrived and Susie's trout made a bit of a theatrical appearance. Our waiter, who I suspect may have been the proprietor, opened the cartouche before her and the cooked-in aroma of the flavourings of herbs broke free.

Very dramatic. My entrecote was less excitingly presented but cooked to my liking, the accompanying foie gras was good and the girolles exquisite. The selection of vegetables was varied and generous; carrots, mange-tout, Dutch cabbage and a potato gratin. This super-abundance of good food had the effect of loosening my purse strings. I felt that we needed a half bottle of something to honour the occasion. We thought about some white Burgundy, but decided instead that we'd both have a dessert and would have a half bottle of Halliday's Botrytis Semillon '96 from Australia to go with them. This is a very tasty pudding wine that is unusually low in alcohol - just over ten degrees and is listed at £11. Desserts were all priced between £3-5 and we both chose the chocolate mousse, which arrived on large, white plates decorated with three different coloured sauces, in the centre of which was a musical clef made of chocolate sauce - 'very artistic' remarked my guest.

We finished with a rather nondescript coffee and felt well fed and well pleased. The bill for the food came to £45.75, which for once included two desserts. I felt it was good value for the quality of food that we'd eaten and I can't finish without remarking on the courtesy and professionalism of the man who had served us. As I drove my guest back to my house under a starlit sky we decided it had been well worth the visit.