My job was simple: I would go to Dublin and meet Susan Morley after she'd been to the cinema with two friends, wine her and dine her, and then take her home. In the spirit of imbibing culture and art the three of them had gone to see 'Romance', an intensely artistic film that just happened to feature the amazingly well-endowed Rocco Siffredi showing off his prowess to a largely female audience. Obviously that was not the reason the three of them had gone; the philosophical French dialogue was the real draw. Anyway, it occurred to me that after such a culture-fest perhaps a romantic meal a deux might fit the bill. We were at this stage in Mountjoy Square and I remembered that I'd seen an Italian restaurant on the Drumcondra Road, not too far away, called Sala Antica.

After a short drive we walked through the door unannounced and without a booking, and were immediately greeted warmly and shown to a table where we got the menus. It's such a simple thing, greeting people as they arrive and making them feel at home. Why is it so rare that I find myself remarking on it? We sat and I looked around for a while, taking in my surroundings. The name Sala Antica means 'old room' and the decor is clearly intended to reflect the name. It's decorated with assorted bric-a-brac and it works well, mainly because it hasn't been overdone. There are a few good oils hanging on the peach-coloured walls, some interesting prints, a few shelves with half-bound books, a miniature penny-farthing hanging from the ceiling, brass bits and bobs and rather gentle lighting. The chairs were soft enough to keep me happy and the tables were set with starched linen. Once again I found myself to be the only man dining in a restaurant peopled entirely with women. There has to be an explanation for this sociological skewing of restaurant demographics, but as yet it eludes me.

Anyway, there was a basket of really good bread on the table and a ramekin of black olive tapinade, both of which disappeared very quickly. Our attentive waitress spotted it and brought us more of both. A nice touch, that makes you feel that bread isn't being portion-controlled. The menu was typically Italian: there were starters like Caprese salad, melon and Parma ham, bresaola, carpaccio, crostini and bruschetta - the sort of classics you'd expect to find. They were pitched in price around the £5 mark. Main courses were equally unsurprising: there was sirloin steak and fillet steak offered in a variety of ways; some veal dishes like saltimbocca alla Romana or cooked simply with lemon; costolette alla Romana; chicken dishes like cacciatora or cooked with mushrooms; fish dishes like frittura di mare and sole, and lastly a blackboard had a few daily specials including pasta with prawns. A listing of pasta dishes included Bolognese, Neapolitan, Amatriciana and Toscana sauces, plus gnocchi al forno. None of the pasta dishes looked tempting to us, as there was nothing we hadn't had a thousand times, so instead we both chose a starter and main course. Susie started with fresh marinated sardines, which was a special, with the deep-fried squid rings to follow. I had the veal kidneys as a starter and followed them with veal in a lemon sauce.

I turned to the wine list, which is brief enough, but with a good cross-section of Italian and French wines and it's very reasonably priced. Like the menu it has lots of old favourites like Chianti, Valpolicella, Frascati, Gavi, Corvo and Pinot Grigio, all pitched between £13 and £15, plus some very good wines, like a Pio Cesare Barolo at £38 or an Amarone at £28. The Corvo Salaparuta at £15 looked like a bargain. A few French petits chateaus completed the reds. Since Susie was more or less determined to drink no wine, I was forced to consider the half bottles which were only white - Muscadet or Chablis. I'm too old to enjoy the tart acidity of Muscadet so it had to be Chablis. Unfortunately it was out of stock, so a half bottle of the house white was our final choice, which was good enough.

Time passed pleasantly as Susie told me more about 'Romance', and our starters arrived looking just fine. The fresh sardines had been marinated - or perhaps that should be pickled, since there was a lot of vinegar in the marinade - and were served filleted and skinned with good olive oil. The mixture of flavours was very good, a fine balance of tastes that made an excellent dish. I had been given a very generous portion of veal kidneys which I really enjoyed. We began to think that perhaps we had found ourselves that rare thing, a restaurant that surprises. Good service, pleasing surroundings and good food. But then, that's the way of it, isn't it? Just when you think it's all going brilliantly, it doesn't. We did consider sending back Susie's squid, which had been cooked in oil that needed changing, but they weren't so much bad as just plain chewy, so in the end we didn't. And my veal, too, was not in any way bad, just not very well done. A sauce that needed more reduction and more lemon to balance it properly came with three tender pieces of veal, but nothing else. Main courses in Sala Antica come with nothing at all, if you want a potato or a vegetable then you have to have a side order. This turns what seems to be reasonably priced main courses into expensive main courses. Once you've added the service charge you can easily get near to £20.

We decided to share a dessert and Susie picked the cheesecake, which tasted very nice, but it had all the hallmarks of an Italian pudding, tasty but unsubtle. An espresso for me finished the meal and I asked for the bill. Now this is where minor irritation becomes major annoyance. I was surprised to find my bill had come to £63.31. How? With only a half bottle of house wine and one dessert? Well here's how. Mineral water in Sala Antica has the distinction of being the most expensive I've ever come across - £3 for a half litre, or about ten times the price of petrol once you add in the 10% service charge. Think about it, £6.60 a litre for water - that verges on theft. Two small side salads at £2.50 each and the 10% service charge was how the bill got to over £60. I paid by credit card and was further enraged to see a space for a 'gratuity'. What? As well as the 10%? I won't be in a hurry to return.