My wife and daughter had spent the day doing the Pony Club thing. I have to admit that when talk turns to horse-boxes my first reaction is to absent myself as far as possible. This is based on past experience when I have been roped in and have found myself in a field full of fierce women with Stentorian voices that can be heard several furlongs away. They shout at you a lot, like one might at a ill-behaved spaniel. 'Move that car. Don't stand there. Take me roughly from behind.' Well, maybe not, but for a timid types like me they can be quite quelling.

Anyway Susie and Isabella had come home happy and tired and hungry. 'Let's all go out to eat,' I suggested and they agreed. 'I'm not going to Dublin,' said my wife. 'What about the Wicklow Arms?' said my daughter. So that was it; off to Delgany to try out the restaurant, recently under new management.

The Wicklow Arms is a big place with a massive car park. I liked the walk from the car park through the little garden into the restaurant. There had just been a splash of rain and the smell of the warm, wet earth mingled with the smell of chips made me think of faraway places, God knows why. We walked into a packed restaurant where there was just one table for three left, which I felt was a Good Omen. The room had changed since I was last there, it's been done over by an interior designer, you can tell. It's in the style of the new minimalism, lots of plain wood, interesting lighting, abstract art on the walls, but I did feel that the hotelpattern carpet was a little incongruous. There are big soft sofas to sit on arrayed around the tables as well as rockhard chairs designed more for looks than comfort - and I should know, I sat on one.

The service was friendly and prompt and while we studied the wine list and menu we got a big bottle of Ballygowan. The wine list and menu are on either side of a laminate and the wine list has to be one of the best value for money lists I've seen in a restaurant. It's short, maybe twenty or so wines, and there are no vintages listed. I know some reviewers get hot under the collar about this, but when I'm looking at wines intended for early drinking - and many of them on this list are New World - vintages are not that important. Hands up who can tell me if a '96 is better than a '97 from the Hunter Valley? If someone tried to slip me a '72 instead of a '70 from the Bordeaux I'd complain bitterly, but young, New World wines just don't have that sort of variation. And at these prices it would be churlish to quibble. No wine is over £20, you can buy a Salice Salentino for less than £12 or a Rosemount Chardonnay for the same money and the cheapest wines listed are under a tenner. I splashed out £14.95 and went for the Oxford Landing Viognier, a varietal that brings out all the subtle flavours of this Rhone Valley grape. The menu is the sort of menu that Coopers do: breaded mushrooms with garlic, deepfried Brie, Caesar salad, filled baguettes, buffalo wings - all in and around £3. Main course include pastas, steaks, lamb cutlets, quite a few fishy things and four chicken dishes - nearly all under a tenner.

It took a while for the girls to make up their minds. 'I'll have the goats' cheese salad,' said Susie. 'You had that last week,' I reminded her. 'I could compare them,' she said hopefully. 'Why not try something else?' Eventually she settled on the sea-food chowder with pan-fried tiger prawns to follow and my daughter - who thought one course would be plenty - chose the pasta al pesto. I decided to choose comfort food and had the deep-fried brie followed by a sirloin steak and chips.

The pastas are definitely not traditional. The Carbonara is described as served with chicken, mushrooms, garlic, peas, cream and white wine and Isabella's pesto came with shrimps, basil, white wine and cream. These are both a very long way from the classic versions of the dishes, so far away in fact, that they might usefully be given some other name in the interests of culinary veracity. When Isabella got hers I was dying to taste it. Actually she got no shrimps, but large, succulent tiger prawns instead. Once she'd announced that she didn't like the prawns I tried to spear one with my fork. 'Dad, stop. You're so embarrassing.' 'That's what parents are supposed to do: our sole purpose is to cause you mortal embarrassment,' I said, while spearing another delicious prawn. Eventually, under duress, she let me taste the pasta, which was a little under-salted and had no great taste of basil.

I got a big slice of deep-fried Brie which I thoroughly enjoyed and Susie really liked her chowder. A good steak with good chips doesn't need a description, so you won't get one, and Susie's pan-fried prawns were also good. After we'd finished our main courses the girls decided to visit the loo and were gone a while. It seemed they had trouble at the entrance, alternately pushing and pulling mightily on a door that wouldn't budge. They were saved by a lady who arrived and showed them how to slide it across. Susie wondered briefly why passing staff hadn't told her, but I suspect that the door is a great source of merriment to those who know it.

Isabella noticed the next table getting desserts and her appetite returned at the sight of a Pavlova, so she had one, and I asked for an espresso. Oddly, you can get a capuccino, but not an espresso, so I had a cognac instead by way of a digestif. It was Susie who noticed that although there were lots of people smoking in the room, there was no smoke in the atmosphere. Obviously an efficient air extraction system is in place and I wish it were a more common event. The technology exists to let smokers and non-smokers coexist, so why don't other places use it?

My bill came to a modest £57.05 which I thought was remarkable value for money. No wonder the place is packed. I can't think of many places where three people can have two courses each, a bottle of wine, mineral water and after dinner drinks for that kind of money. Good, honest, decent food and excellent service made this a very pleasant night out.