If you're not a drinker or a party goer you probably won't know what it means to feel fragile. The kind of fragility I'm thinking of is most often associated in my mind with a clear early morning light that hurts the eyeballs, a dull ache somewhere in the lower reaches of consciousness and an increased sensitivity to aggression in all its forms. The night that set me off on this stony path one more time was one like many others, it just happened to last longer and be more fun. My wife Susan Morley and I had gone into Dublin for a major party bash on a Sunday night and we'd arranged to spend the night with friends in Ely Place, just round the corner from the party. Seemed like a great idea not having to get back to Wicklow afterwards, but there was a tiny oversight in the planning. Just because I'd have happily slept until midday - given we hadn't actually gone to bed till after 5 - didn't mean the clampers were not at work, so getting up at seven to feed a meter wasn't so terrific. Still once you're up and coffee has been sipped you might just as well begin the day and look forward to an early night. By the time lunchtime had come around we were still in the city centre and some reviving food was called for.

I've been wanting to go to Browne's Brasserie for a while, but anytime I'd tried to go it was full, which seemed to be a good omen. This sunny Monday seemed like a good opportunity to try once again and this time there was no problem, we got a table at once. Apart from the fact that I'd heard good reports of Browne's, there was another reason that I wanted go: it's in the old Friendly Brothers building and my late father-in-law was a member, so I knew the building of old and was keen to see what had been done with it. Like many of the buildings surrounding Stephens Green it's early Georgian and it had a rather fine staircase and good plaster work. Modern by-laws, fire and health regulations mean that turning an old building into a restaurant can be difficult, especially if you want retain original features and treat the interior with sensitivity. Brownes has done it rather well.

Go up the imposing granite steps and through a fine old mahogany door and you're in a vestibule that houses the reception for both the restaurant and the rooms. In front lies the hall and the stairs and to the left there's an elegant sitting room with a fine marble fireplace whose windows look over the Green. A wood and glass partition separates this from the dining room, which is on two levels, a result of making two original rooms into one.

There are big, linen-covered tables and comfortable, upholstered chairs. The ceiling has had to be modified a little to accommodate the air-conditioning, a major plus on a hot day and a boon to non-smokers. Above the picture rail there's a neo-classical frieze which is beautifully painted, and we found ourselves sitting under a reworking of Manet's painting of a bar interior, changed to represent the interior of Brownes itself. The cool air and the quietly understated elegance of the interior was exactly what we needed on this particular lunchtime. A bottle of mineral water started us off while we looked through the bills of fare. For once my perusal of the wine list was more for information than for actually picking a wine, since neither of us were overly keen on drinking more wine. Still, it's an interesting list with a good spread of shippers over the regions. More wines are in the higher price brackets than the lower ones, but for the most part they're well-chosen. In the end I couldn't resist a half bottle of Gewurztraminer from Dopff which was listed at £14.95. That's expensive for a Gewurztraminer, but it's a really fine wine and since we were just sipping rather than drinking with abandon it made a perfect accompaniment to our meal.

The menu is not long, but there were enough choices to make us pause and discuss. Susie was keen on the idea of fish, so she picked the salmon as a starter and followed it with fish cakes. I was equally convinced that meat would have a restorative effect on me, so I chose a salad of noisette of lamb and followed it with a confit of leg of duck. Most of the starters are priced between £5 and £7 and the main courses between £10 and £13. With the meal ordered we were able to begin the process of relaxing into our surroundings. The level of professionalism in the waiting staff is impressive, they know the menu and the wines, and have that skill of being unobtrusive yet very attentive. It prompted Susie to remark that that's something you take for granted on the continent where waiting is a noble profession, but somehow it always a little surprising when you find it here.

The crockery, the cutlery and the tableware are, like the room, understated and elegant. The starters arrived on large, white plates plain except for 'Brownes' written in lower case on the edge. Susie's starter was a marinated salmon - something akin to a gravadlax - it was served on a tomato bread and was accompanied by a dill sauce. My lamb salad was slices of pink lamb layered with an aubergine puree; an unusual combination and a very good one. The main courses were also good; Susie's fish cake came on a bed of noodles and had enough variety of fish in it to make it more interesting than most fish cakes. My duck leg confit was classically presented and I enjoyed it.

By this stage we'd drunk a lot of water, but the wine remained largely untouched. I thought a dessert would help us finish it, so we ordered a chocolate fondant which turned out to be one of those chocolately things that you just know will have your liver complaining. Death by chocolate is a good name for this delicious dessert. A couple of fair espressos finished the meal and the bill came to £60.60 not including service.

As we walked out into the hot, sunny afternoon I had that feeling of well-being that comes from a good meal in very pleasing surroundings. Brownes did for us that day just what a restaurant ought: it revived two flagging people enough to make the drive home more painless than it might otherwise have been.