I'm going to waste a really good word telling you this story. I've been holding this word back, waiting to use it at exactly the right moment and then look very erudite indeed. I got it from my crossword fanatic friend Gordon and it's a peach of a word. A real honey. It's a word that needed a home, a place in an article where it would have fitted as neatly as a jewel in a crown. I wanted it to be perfect; to just slip it into a sentence casually, as though I used it all the time. All I needed was to find a basement restaurant and I could use my new word.

'Where are we going?' asked my guest, Susan Leonard, who is herself a writer. 'We're going to a downstairs restaurant,' I said, 'so that I can use the word chthonic.' I spelt it out for her. 'And that's English?' she asked incredulously. 'Yep, and it means 'of or pertaining to the underworld'. If we go to a basement restaurant, I can use it.' Of course the basement restaurant I wanted to go to was booked out on this particular Friday, so first I had to find another restaurant, and second I had to find a way to use the word anyway, since it was burning a hole in my vocabulary.

I'd arranged to meet Sue for a pre-dinner drink in the Horseshoe. You may recall that this was a Friday night, so the Horseshoe was impenetrable with people. I stood in the lobby and as soon as Sue came in, I whisked her off to The Merrion where we found a table, got a bowl of nuts and olives, and were served our drinks as we sat in big comfy armchairs in front of a log fire. Why didn't I think of that in the first place?

I've noticed something about myself over the years - I often behave like a mule when prodded. I dig in my heels and refuse to budge. I'm a bit like that with restaurants too; if I get a lot of people telling me to go somewhere, I put it at the bottom of the list. Perverse, I know. Now lots of people had told me I should go to Bellissimo, an Italian restaurant in Wicklow Street, so naturally I'd put it off. With no basement restaurant to go to and the clock moving relentlessly towards eight o'clock it was time to decide, and a walk to Wicklow Street was the decision.

Most of the time I don't think of myself as hard to please. I make allowances, I look for the good bits and try not to focus on the mediocre or bad. Possibly the only time I get critical is with Italian food. That's probably because I know how good it can be, so I tend to judge Italian restaurants more critically than others.

Now 'Bellissimo' is what Italians would call a trattoria. Small tables close together, bentwood chairs, paper napkins and paper tablecloths put it firmly in that category. Simple décor, but pleasing. It's not really a place for a long, lingering dinner, and anyway, the hard chairs make certain that you can't linger for too long. But both Sue and I were hungry, so we chose from the menu as though we were in a restaurant proper - starters, main courses and a dessert.

Before I tell you about the good bits, I have to say that the wine list is one of least attractive I've come across. It lists only six whites, starting with the Greco di Tufo at £33, working downwards to Chardonnay at £19 and Frascati at £15. I can tell you nothing about either the shippers or the vintage, since that information is not on the list. Neither is it there for the reds - nine of them, beginning with a Brunello at £45, a Barbera at £28 and going down to a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo at £16. For a restaurant to take itself seriously it needs a better list than this and the mark up should be considerably less.

Starters are traditional; bresaola, crostini, stuffed mushroom, Caprese salad and bruschetta all priced at £5.50. Then there are pastas with a variety of sauces - boscaiola, putanesca, amatriciana, carbonara, Napolitana, arabbiata and Bolognese - all at £7.50. Main courses range from £12.50 to £17.50, including steak, ostrich, five veal dishes and four chicken dishes at £9.50. They also do pizzas, priced between £6.50 to £9. All the traditional ones are there, plus a few idiosyncratic ones including my pet hate - pizza with pineapple. This may be a sop to local demand, but I'd rank it down there with sweetcorn as a pizza topping. So we ordered a salad tricolore for Sue and a tagliatelle carbonara for me. We followed with fillet of beef with Cognac sauce for Sue and saltimbocca alla Romana for me. A bottle of mineral water and a Chianti Riserva made up the drink order.

Sue's salad, which had tomatoes, avocado and mozzarella, thus making up the three colours of the Italian flag, had a major defect. The chopped iceberg lettuce that formed the backdrop to the ingredients I've listed was entirely undressed. It's rare enough to find that these days, but in an Italian restaurant it's surprising to say the least. I'd picked the carbonara not only because I like it, but because even though it's a simple dish it's also a simple one to get wrong. What I got was very good: well flavoured and with a sauce of a perfect creamy consistency.

Our main courses were also good, a tender piece of beef for Sue, although the Cognac sauce didn't taste strongly of Cognac. My saltimbocca was not only good, but generous enough to make me wonder if I could finish it. It came with a side salad, which I was pleased to see had been dressed. By now we'd eaten plenty and dessert seemed a little de trop. However Sue was tempted by the tiramisu and we decided to share one. Tiramisu means pick-me-up in Italian, but this was a rather stodgy one that didn't quite live up to its name. Two good coffees ended the meal.

I suspect that 'Bellissimo' works best as a trattoria, a place where you could go in for a quick pizza or a bowl of pasta and be out again without spending very much. As it was the bill came to £73.50, which seemed a little more than I might have expected, despite the excellent service.