Not a word of a lie: I spent more time thinking about what I was going to wear for this review than where we were going to eat. Suddenly I realised what that angst was that my wife has suffered all these years. Shall I wear my suit? What about a tie? Or perhaps casual, or then again maybe very country - you know, cords, tweeds, brogues. It was agony; clothes strewn all over the bedroom, tried on and then discarded as anxiety mounted in my breast. And why this sudden sartorial stress? Because if, like me, you're about to spend the evening in the company of Robert O'Byrne you have to try. How can you sit down with one of Ireland's most fashionable and fashion-conscious men looking like last night's dog's dinner? Unthinkable. So in the end it was my dark blue suit and a white shirt that made my statement.

It was a Thursday night and we had arranged to meet in the Shelbourne. I'm going to have to get it into my head that there's no such thing any more as quiet mid-week nights, every night seems to be party night these days. Robert found me in a very crowded bar and we made our hasty escape to his double-parked car outside. Being a shamelessly exploitative sort of person, I got Robert to drive because he doesn't drink, and since I now had a driver I was able to say 'Howthwards, Robert.' I'd had the conversation earlier in the day with my wife. 'You should take Robert somewhere nice,' she suggested, 'maybe a Thai restaurant.' 'You mean formal?' I said, with a flash of rapier wit. 'No, Thai as in Thailand,' she explained patiently - which is why we were off to the Pad-Thai in Howth, named after Thailand's staple dish.

It's amazing, even his car is stylish, so I was grateful that my elderly motor was nowhere to be seen. We took the coast road as it was a sunlit evening and found the Pad Thai easily enough on the harbour wall overlooking the boats. It's not a big room, maybe a fifty-seater, and there's nothing in the first impressions that says 'Thailand.' It took a while before we noticed a small bronze Buddha sitting floodlit on a shelf which made the necessary ethnic connections. This is a hard-edged room; wooden ceiling, stone floor, wooden tables and chairs. This also makes it quite a noisy room with nothing soft to absorb sounds. With background music playing loudly enough to be renamed foreground music there were times I was straining to hear Robert. It was also very brightly lit - small halogen bulbs lighting the paintings on the walls threw a lot of spill into the room.

The menu and wine list are all in one, the first page being the wine list, so I started with that. There are twenty-four wines, four half bottles and a couple of sparklers plus a selection of beers. The wines are banded in price between £11.95 and £20, with only one, a Premier Cru Chablis costing more at £28, which would be good value if you weren't on a budget. About half the wines are French, the rest New World. With Robert not drinking I decided in the end on beer, which goes rather well with Thai food.

The first page of the menu is not Thai; its mostly fish. Given the restaurant's location on the harbour wall it's not surprising. Apart from confit of duck there's smoked salmon, scallops, monkfish, salmon or cod, all in and around £10. After that the menu becomes Thai, with a good range of dishes on offer: three soups, ten starters, five salads, three curries and meat dishes divided by type. There's moo, which isn't cow but pork, gai which is chicken and nua which is beef. There are also sea-food dishes. My eye fell on the Pad-Thai breakfast menu - four sausages, two rashers, black and white pudding, tomatoes, toast, tea or coffee - reminiscent, I thought, of an Irish breakfast.

Robert chose the moo ping for his starter, which is thin slivers of pork on a skewer and it was served crunchy, rather like crispy bacon. I chose the prawn tempura and both of our starters came with a chilli dip. Robert's pork was definitely for people with their own teeth, and although my prawns were fresh and good, the tempura batter was soft rather than crisp. For our main courses Robert had chosen a yellow Thai curry and I'd picked the nua tod krapow, which was a beef dish. The curry came in a deep plate with green beans and Robert had a separate dish of plain boiled rice, while I had chosen fried rice. Having tasted both we agreed that the beef dish, which came topped with deep-fried basil leaves, was superb - wonderfully spiced thin slivers of beef with something sweet caramelised on the surface. The curry was good too, but it's the beef that I'll remember from this meal.

When it was time to look at the sugar Thai menu, or the desserts, Robert chose a fruit and custard dessert while I couldn't resist the gateau that had the words 'double chocolate' in its description. When Robert got his, his face took on a puzzled air. 'Well?' I asked. 'Do you think it's supposed to fizz in your mouth?' he wondered. It wasn't a question that I could answer so he asked the waitress. She went off with it and came back with a freshly made one, explaining that the chef thought there may have been a reaction between the custard and the fruit making the fruit start to ferment. While this was happening I was picking at my gateau, which was a little heavy on the gelatine, but nice enough.

A man who subsequently identified himself as the owner arrived and as soon as he came in he dimmed the lights and turned the music down a bit, bringing sighs of pleasure from both Robert and myself. In the newly created relaxed atmosphere Robert had a herbal tea and I had an espresso to finish our meal.

When I asked for the bill it came to just a bit more than £40. The cost of Robert's dessert was not on the bill, plus the owner came over and offered us a drink on the house as well. I felt that it was a generous gesture, although hardly necessary. It's so easy to make amends to customers when things aren't quite as they might be, it's a wonder to me more restaurants can't do it. The Pad-Thai may not be very Thai, but it's very good value for money.