For some inexplicable reason my pal Dillie Keane and Fascinating Aida were not playing Dublin as part of their 'Bare-faced Chic' tour. They'd left three 'B's' to the end of it, the three major cabaret capitals of the globe: Berlin, Birmingham and Belfast. Belfast, being the nearest, was the one we chose to go to and the offer of lodgings from Donnell Deeney for my wife, my daughter and I, clinched the deal. Since we were all in college together it was a great opportunity to meet up and, said Donnell, to sample some of Belfast's food.

Not completely out of character, I managed to make a bit of a mess of the arrangements. I'd just assumed that we'd eat after the show and arrived at Donnell's house about 6.15 to find we'd missed Dillie who had come for tea and had left, that the show started at 7.30 and that the restaurant was booked for quarter to six. After taking my punishment like a man we changed as fast as possible and went to Opus One with Donnell and his wife Alison, arriving at quarter to seven with just enough time to eat one course before leaving for the Opera House.

Opus One looks great from the outside, a striking building with a newly re-vamped facade and it looks just as good inside. It's almost art deco; geometric mouldings, some frescoes, a few statues of naked ladies and a dark blue and yellow colour scheme. A large maple table and big, upholstered chairs made us comfortable while we read the menu in a hurry. The wine list is as prettily presented as the menus, but is relatively short.

What's remarkable to eyes used to the Republic's lists are the prices. A premier cru Chablis, Les Clos, for £20 which we chose, is an example. Even allowing for sterling differentials food and wine is cheaper on the whole in the UK, although why this is so I'll need to have explained. It had been my intention to review Opus One, but it would hardly have been fair with only one course eaten. Between five of us we covered four main courses; grilled monkfish, saddle of rabbit in mustard sauce, a vegetable tempura and a special, corn-fed chicken served wrapped in Parma ham and with a pork jus. A selection of vegetables and colcannon accompanied the dishes. The food was excellent all round and it was a supreme effort of will to get up and go, so we decided that a lunch the next day would be the review.

After a wonderful concert in the Opera House we met up with Dillie and went back to Donnell's house where we drank more wine than anyone ought intellingently to do and sat up until very, very late. Bearing this in mind you can see why it was important that we should go to a good restaurant for lunch on the following day, since none of us would have coped very well with disappointment. The consensus choice, (that's the consensus of the Belfast residents) was Aero, a restaurant that's been open for a year or so and is building a good reputation for itself. It's in central Belfast, near the Ulster Hall, and is decorated in a very clean, modern idiom. 'Bold, contemporary design,' opined Donnell. One wall is lined with a long orangey tan leather bench with leather screening behind, the floor is parquet and an array of wooden aerofoil sections line the ceiling. The tables are of the same plain pale wood, the chairs are upholstered in Royal blue and a beautiful post-modern bar made of brushed zinc takes centre position. Some really extraordinary chairs make up a small seating area just inside the door. The walls are frosted glass which allow in a lot of light while ensuring privacy. Overall it has a comfortable and airy feel which I really liked. It did occur to me that both these restaurants had had a lot of money spent on their decoration, something that in the Republic is still something of a rarity. But then right now in our boom-time even mediocre restaurants offering little by way of quality, can still fill and charge high prices.

The wine list is two pages, one of reds and one of whites and from it I chose the Wolf Blass Chardonnay President's Reserve which was listed at £17.50. In fact there was a little opposition to having wine with the meal, but at just a glass each it seemed reasonable. No one was able for three courses either, some having a starter and main, some having main and pudding. Our three starters were a wild mushroom tart, a duck breast and chorizo salad and a sea-food sausage. The sausage was both unusual and very good - a skinless sausage of sea-food with a pleasing texture and the mushroom tart that was my choice was really fine. All these dishes were under £5.

All five of us had main courses, Alison having the starter of spring rolls as a main course. The others were a risotto, a chicken breast with prawns, a shrimp and squid stir-fry with noodles and a lemon sole. Only the chicken dish was over £10, which by republic standards makes this verge on the cheap. The only dish I didn't taste was Susie's sole, but she thought it extremely good and all the other dishes, which I did try, were excellent.

Only two desserts between us, the oddly named 'muille fuille', which turned out to be a mille feuille and a trio of brulees which arrived in small, plain pots and which overcame my daughter's previous prejudice against creme brulee. We finished with a passable espresso and lingered at length, so much at length in fact that I picked up a parking ticket.

Two restaurants isn't much of a sample to base any general observations on, I know, but I'm going to anyway. There's something slightly heroic about serious restaurateurs who choose to ply their trade in a city where they have to close for a week in July for the marching season, plus the fact that people have got out of the habit of going to the city centre since it's been curfewed for so long. Yet here are two of Belfast's lesser known restaurants going about their business and being very good at it.

A bill for £92.30 for the five of (and that included a lot of mineral water) wasn't a lot for the quality of the food - but then I'm used to Dublin prices.