You've heard of the 'Curse of Hello' - you know, the one when a celebrity couple invite the magazine into their celebrity homes and then, beaming goodwill and bonhomie, they tell the world through the text and the pictures that their marriage is forever. And then six months later they file for divorce. It's a hideous curse, as bad as Tutankhamun's revenge on Carter and his grave-robbers over the years. But I've discovered a worse one: I can now count five restaurants that I've praised which have closed down. Needless to say the ones that disappointed me are still trading, but then that's life. It's a heavy responsibility; if I like a place and say so, it'll probably be gone in six months.

I was in Dublin to meet Marie-Claire Sweeney, the lady who turned St. Patrick's Day into St. Patrick's Festival. Thanks to her, instead of a parade of double-glazing floats, we now have a festival that's truly international and goes on for days. She's out of it this year, and is busy instead organising the 'Beckett on Film Festival' which will hit the city in May. I'd had this vague plan to go to Malahide (watch this space) but time pressures meant we had to find a city centre restaurant. I'm a big fan of Japanese food, and thankfully so is she, so Aya, which can be found at the back of Brown Thomas's, is where we went.

We turned up without a reservation, because I was sure that a mid-week night in January was hardly likely to be over-booked. The gods must have been smiling, as there was only one table left when we arrived. It's an oblong room with a high ceiling that's decorated in a modernist style, even down to the necessary piping at ceiling level being painted and made a feature of. A wall of mirror and good lighting give a sense of space. Just inside the door, which rather satisfyingly slides open automatically, is the Sushi bar with stools all around it, where the chefs stand in the middle making little sushi delights and putting them onto a conveyor belt that takes them all around the bar, past the seated customers, who can then pick what they want as it passes. Plain wooden tables are surrounded by plain wooden chairs and there are padded banquettes around the sides for the lucky ones. Maybe one day I'll get to sit looking at the restaurant.

There are two menus: and a la carte and a set dinner for £23.90. I won't list the many choices on the a la carte, but the set dinner menu starts with a choice of soups, then for starters there's a choice of Yakitori chicken, Ebi Frai, which is deep-fried tiger prawn fish cakes, Asian fish cakes, a six-piece sushi selection, Aya salad and a combination plate for two with a taste of everything. Main courses listed fillet steak, salmon or chicken Teriyaki, Aya duck, spicy chicken and prawn, a sushi and Norimaki combination and a selection of tempura. A small choice of desserts ended the menu. I though that one of us should choose from the set menu, so I did, and left Marie-Claire to choose from the longer a la carte. It's a bit of a surprise to see chips listed as a side order - I was imagining plates of sushi and chips until I realised that they could equally well go with the fillet steak.

While this process was in progress I looked through the wine list. It's not a long list, fourteen whites and sixteen reds, but it's well chosen and the mark up is moderate with most wines under £20. There are also four house reds and four house whites all priced between £15-£16. Most of the list proper is non-French - only two French reds and two whites - so the bulk of the list is the Rest of the World. A couple of the reds caught my eye, the Rubesco di Torgiano from Umbria, which is not as ubiquitous as once it was, and the Meerlust Rubicon, a fine wine from the RSA. The white listing started with a Viognier from the Domaine de la Bastide, a fine Rhone valley white listed at £16, so I looked no further. It's a wine that more often than not is to be found at the expensive end of wine lists, so it was a treat to find it at the same price as the house wines.

Marie-Claire had ordered the beef Tataki, which was thin slices of fillet cooked on the blue side of very rare, and it was served daintily with a spicy sauce. It was, said Marie-Claire, perfectly delicious. I'd ordered the Sushi starter and even felt sufficiently confident to eat it with my chop sticks. A little pot of Soy sauce is on every table, so a little of that mixed with the green Wasabi mustard makes a fine dip for the Sushi morsels. Both well satisfied with our starters, we ordered a bottle of mineral water while we waited for the main courses.

I'd chosen the Tempura selection, which was prawns and vegetables deep-fried in a light Tempura batter. Marie-Claire had chosen the fourteen piece main course Sushi selection, and was presented with a plate that might have kept a starving army at bay. I'm always surprised and delighted at the artistry that goes into Sushi. Perfect little parcels of fish and sticky rice, some bound delicately with Norimaki sea weed, it's a delight for the eye as well as the palate. Thoughtfully, we were provided with standard cutlery as well as chop sticks for the main courses.

By the time we'd finished our main courses neither of us could be tempted to a dessert, so we finished our meal with two really excellent espressos. We sat and talked for a while, enjoying that feeling of satiety coupled with lightness which Japanese food engenders. The restaurant was emptying quickly and it was time to leave. I asked for the bill, which came to £76.50 including service. There's an unusual service charge policy here: they add a 'suggested' 12 1/2 %, which presumably means you could choose not to accept it, but as the service had been seamless and impeccable it seemed just right.

You don't have to eat big meals in Aya, it's designed for lunchtime tastes of sushi and other categories, so if you want to dip your toes into the water of Japanese cuisine, it's a good place to start. I really hope that despite my enjoyment of the food that it stays open.