I've had letters and emails from people who seem to think that there's a wilful perversity in me that makes me stay away from Dublin's North County and city. Let me tell you now there isn't, and I'll prove it. There are fewer restaurants in the North city than in the South - if you like statistics here's one: the new Bushmills 'Dining in Ireland 2000' lists 74 restaurants in Dublin Central - 68 south of the Liffey, 6 north of it. That's pretty much in line with what I've always thought, the vast majority of the restaurants in Dublin city are on the southside. Despite that, this will be my fourteenth review of a restaurant on the northside, which in fact makes it rather overrepresented as against the 75 I've done in the south city and the 40 outside of the city.

What I have noticed, though, is a pattern. With a couple of exceptions, the restaurants on the northside tend to be more expensive than the southside equivalent. I'm not an economist, but it seems to me that this is a direct result of my contention in the opening paragraph; namely that there are fewer restaurants and that therefore the price-dampening effect of competition is less in evidence. This effect appears to be more noticeable the further you move from the centre city.

Right, with my self-justification out the way, I can tell you about my latest foray northwards. My friend Susan Hunter was born and bred in Sutton, so when we arranged to review a restaurant together, she suggested somewhere in her own hinterland. The newly opened Aqua in Howth suited the bill nicely, so she booked us a table there. I met Susan in Sutton after she'd finished a hard day's work in the music business and we drove to the pier in Howth. Aqua is in the building that used to house the Howth Yacht Club; a neoclassical stone building that has a modern extension attached to its seawards sides. The front of the building looks across the harbour to the new home of the Yacht Club, which from where I stood looked like a candyfloss-striped fairground stand, and somewhere between the bobbing masts, Susan assured me, you could see the new King Sitric.

Much of the geography became clearer once we'd gone inside. The restaurant is on the first floor and we walked into the bar that also overlooks the harbour. It's a big, comfortable room that's nicely decorated in a style beloved of Italians in the seventies: lots of leather and chrome. Even the cushions that I sat on in the window bays are made of suede. While we looked at the menus and wine list and sipped some mineral water Susan pointed out some of Howth's more prominent features to me.

The wine list is short enough, but well chosen. House wines are four and are priced at £12.50 and £14.50. There are a some decent French white wines like a Gewurztraminer at £17, a Sancerre at £22, a Chablis at £24; a few French reds like Cote de Ventoux and a Guigal Cotes de Rhone; and some New World listings like the Errazuriz red and white and the Australian Coonawarra. The list ends with 6 half-bottles. We settled on the Sancerre, which suited me well since I was determined to make this a night of fish. Well, if your looking at where the fishing boats land it seems churlish not to.

The menu was, as you'd expect, heavy on the fish. Starters included seafood chowder, sweet potato soup, deep-fried goats cheese, Asian scented beef, gurnard, calamari, smoked salmon, mussels and clams, gnocchi and a roulade of pasta. Mostly the starters were pitched between the £6 and £8 mark. Main courses included dishes like a medley of seafood in beurre blanc, seared tuna, monkfish with artichoke risotto and meats as well, like wasabi chicken, duck breast and fillet of beef, which were priced around the £16-£18 mark and included vegetables. You can have side orders of champ with basil, rosemary and garlic potatoes, snow peas or a green salad, all priced at £1.95.

After we'd ordered and chosen our wine we were led into the dining room, which overlooks the sea. And overlooks is a good word here: the modern extension that I'd seen from outside is nearly all glass, so that the 'L' shaped dining room has glass walls on three sides. We sat beside the window and twenty feet below us the waves lapped gently on the rocks as the sun began to set in a golden ball somewhere over Malahide. The view up the coast is impressive: as the night wore on and darkness began to fall we could see the lights of Baldoyle, Malahide, Donabate and Rush stretching away into the Northern distance. The effect after dark of the neon blue outside lighting on the sea was quite remarkable. Inside, the dining room is spacious with big, wooden tables. The centre of the space is taken up with the glass-walled kitchen area where you can watch the chefs going about their, and ultimately your, business. The only slightly odd effect is the ceiling which looks something like an inverted egg-box, but it does help, I suspect, to deaden sounds.

Our starters arrived and Susan was delighted with her goats cheese, cooked well and all the way through, and she was kind enough to give me a taste. I'd chosen the mussels and clams which were plentiful, fresh and well cooked. They arrived with a finger bowl, so I was able to indulge my taste for finger eating. Next came salmon for Susan and monkfish for me. Both of these fish dishes were well cooked, the fish still firm and not overcooked, but my accompanying risotto wasn't a success. I suspect that pickled artichoke hearts had been used and the sharpness of the vinegar did nothing to improve the taste of the monkfish tails.

One dessert - a tian of strawberries - between us, finished the meal. In comfort and over an espresso for me and a Bailey's coffee for Susan, we looked over the sea as a huge black rain cloud descended on Malahide and decided that the view from Aqua really does live up to its name. The bill came to £81.05, not including service.