It was the week that chaos reigned at the airports as various sections of Aer Lingus went on strike. I made one of the conversational gambits - you know, you've just read a bit of news and then you talk about it. I turned to my guest who I'd met in Finnegan's in Dalkey and said, 'I see the pilots are going to work to rule. That puzzles me. Shouldn't they be working to rule all the time? Does threatening to work to rule mean that they're breaking rules as a matter of course?' I wish I hadn't been so flippant. My guest, Sally Ann Flannagan, spent twenty years working in Aer Lingus. 'As it happens...' she began, and went on to tell me about things that made me question would I ever sit in an aeroplane again. You'll know me from now on in a plane; I'll be the one with the sweaty face and white knuckles gripping the arms of my seat and saying things like 'Is that engine supposed to make that noise?' and 'The captain does know where we're going, doesn't he?'

Now she runs the charity called Cairde, which raises money for children with HIV. It needs lots of organisational skills to fund raise, so I was happy to leave the organisation of the evening to her. She chose Duzy's, a restaurant in Glasthule where Morels once was, and since I'd always meant to get there in its previous incarnation, I was happy to visit it in its new one. It's unusual name, it transpired, doesn't come from the old Duisenberg and thence to a real Doozy, but rather from the two surnames of the owners, Couzy and Dunne. 'Conne' mightn't have the right ring for the French. It's upstairs over a pub, but it has its own entrance.

We walked into a large bar area filled with sofas and armchairs and with polished wooden floors. Low coffee tables are arranged between the sofas and chairs, which give it an easy, comfortable feel. The decor is modern and bright with lots of windows and I began to feel a sense of deja vu. Along the road from Blackrock to Glasthule I seem to have eaten in upstairs restaurants with much the same feel. Odells is upstairs and so is Blueberries. Was this a pattern? I wondered. Idly I picked up a leaflet that was on the table telling me about Duzy's, which included information on its 'sister restaurant', Blueberries in Blackrock. Puzzle solved.

We ordered a couple of mineral waters and started with the menus. The first few lines in the starters tells you at once what sort of food to expect. Parma ham, ciabatta and aged balsamic vinegar make an early entrance and are followed by roast wood pigeon salad with pancetta, basil creme fraiche, Duzy's Caesar salad, prawn satay with rice noodles, warm peppered smoked salmon with Guinness bread, grilled goats cheese with figs, and rocket salad with roasted peppers and artichoke hearts. Notice that all the ingredients for 'mod med' cuisine are here, from the roasted vegetables to the rocket salad as well as the ubiquitous grilled goats cheese. Most of these starters were in the £5-£6 bracket.

Main courses had a little less 'med' influence and included a herb risotto with wilted rocket, seared chicken supreme with cous cous, crispy duck confit with bak choi, Wicklow venison, pan-seared veal escalope, char-grilled beef fillet or sirloin, catch of the day, fillets of lemon sole tempura, escalope of salmon and char-grilled swordfish. These were priced between £11.50 and £14.25, which doesn't include vegetables. They come separately as side orders at £2. Sally Ann had chosen the pigeon breast salad to start and then had her heart set on the swordfish to follow. Unfortunately, even with Cavistons just across the road, there was none on the night, so she chose the fish of the day. It was scallops, so she was happy with that. I chose the prawn satay and followed with the venison.

Despite her fish choice, Sally Ann preferred red wine, so I began to scan the list. It's on the back of the menu which comes as a laminated sheet and there are about fifty wines listed. It begins with the house wines, which come in two price ranges - £11.50 and £16.50. In the £16.50 range there were a couple of good whites, a Viognier and a Pinot Grigio, but red was what I was looking for. The list moves on to two Spanish reds, both unknown to me and both at over £30. Then there were two Italian reds, one I didn't know plus a Valpolicella at £20.50, which seemed a little steep; a New Zealand red (I prefer their whites), and then the French reds. The cheapest of these was a Cotes de Blaye at £17 and from there it jumped to £24.50, so I looked no further amongst the French. Back then to the £16.50 part of the list where I found a Navarre red from Spain which I picked. It turned out to be a good choice - it was a big well-rounded red with lots of body and a long aftertaste. But it was a lucky choice: this is a list with a lot of unusual wines on it, many of them quite pricy, so making a choice based on value for money isn't so easy.

We were called to our table where we sat by a window overlooking the road below. The starters came and Sally Ann's pigeon salad looked more like a main course than a starter. Thinly sliced and nicely cooked pigeon breasts were fanned across her plate. My prawns came on a wooden skewer and were rather more cooked than I would have liked, but I was able to trade a couple for the pigeon, which was very good. The Navarre red was opening up nicely and it went perfectly with these two dishes.

Main courses arrived and Sally Ann had a plate of plump and well-cooked scallops while my venison was thinly sliced haunch with a traditional accompaniment of red cabbage. Again, I liked what I had, but I preferred Sally Ann's scallops. 'They're delicious,' she said, 'like marsh mallows from the sea.'

On the dessert menu there was a dark chocolate and rum terrine, home made ice-cream, baked banana tart, Irish and French cheeses and a citrus creme brulee with chocolate chip cookies. Cheese for me and a tasty chocolate terrine for Sally Ann finished the meal. The bill came to £70.90, which included two espressos.