A couple of weeks of unseasonably good weather had us out exploring the Southern reaches of Co. Wicklow. I never tire of driving through the hills and finding places that are new to me, especially when the sun shines and the Rites of Spring are about to begin. The hedgerows are full of that pent-up energy of newly emerging life, the buds are eager to explode, the trees are about to break into leaf. There's a sense that the life-force, so long dormant, is ending its hibernation with each day of rising sap. No doubt, it's manna for the bucolic soul.

We were passing through Rathdrum on the way home in the early evening. It's a quiet little town, whose main claim to fame is its annual cartoon festival, when cartoonists come from all over to display their skills. Not surprisingly, as a result of this, one of the pubs in the main square has re-named itself 'The Cartoon Pub'. I'd guess that once upon a time it was an old coaching inn, because alongside it is an arch with double doors which was the entrance to the mews. I have a photograph taken many years ago right here, looking through the arch to the green fields and the Avonmore river in the valley below. It's changed since then. Look down that same archway now and you see a laneway with a taste of yesteryear. It has a definite feel of a film set, a touch of the Johnny Fox's. It's all new and all old at the same time; butter churns and country impedimenta line the sides.

You walk down this lane to get to 'The Stone Restaurant', which is on the right, in what seems to be a venerable stone cottage. Inside the illusion continues; a flagged stone floor that slopes gently downhill to the fireplace, the walls have the uneven look of plastered stone and brick, the ceiling is panelled in old-fashioned, painted tongue and groove. A fire blazes welcomingly in the dog-grate with peat and logs, a rocking chair, a crane and fanners sit alongside. Bric-a-brac adorns the mantel, prints and copper pots adorn the walls. Linen-covered tables are surrounded by Windsor chairs with Bainin cushions. One thing's for sure, you know you're in Ireland. There's something quite endearing about that - when all over the country there are restaurants opening with chic, modern, international décor, here's a place that's unrelentingly retro.

The menu is simple in the sense that there's a lot of dishes that are fairly fail-safe; deep-fried brie, smoked chicken salad, smoked salmon and chicken liver pate are some of the starters: main courses, which are somewhat more imaginative, include fillet steak, sirloin steak, a chicken dish stuffed with smoked salmon, a seafood platter, scampi, a venison steak and a brace of quail. As has been the case frequently of late, I was a little surprised at the prices. Starters are all around £5, which is fair enough, but the main courses go up to £16.95 for both the venison and the fillet of beef. Also the mineral water doesn't come cheap; only quarter-litre bottles are available and they cost £1.50 each.

The wine list is short: it starts with house wines at £11.50 and there's a Beaujolais, a Muscadet, Campo Viejo, Cullenborg Pinotage, a Chenin Blanc from the RSA, Oxford Landing both red and white, an Australian Shiraz, two Chilean wines - all under £16, and a couple of Champagnes at £40. Very simple, but reasonably priced. Susie wanted to drink white, so I picked a 1998 Chilean Chardonnay Reserve at £15.95, which was fine, but a little out of balance.

While we waited for our starters we enjoyed the room. There were the ubiquitous night-lights, but there were also real candles all around the room and on the tables casting their welcoming light. I felt really comfortable in this snug, warm little place. When I first encountered Rathdrum twenty-five years ago, the idea that it might one day have such a restaurant would have seemed absurd - and yet here we were in one of the more original dining rooms in Wicklow.

Susie had ordered a crab and sea-weed terrine as her starter and I'd ordered the deep-fried Brie. Both of these came with a garnish of salad, which had been dressed with some good olive oil. My Brie was just what you'd expect, and Susie's terrine had a subtlety of flavour and an interesting look - it was slice though a terrine which had been rolled in Norimake sea-weed - so it looked like a mini Swiss roll.

For main courses Susie had chosen the sea-food platter and I'd picked the quail. If we'd chosen the other way around I could have cracked the old joke when ordering 'I'm on the fish and my wife is on the game,' but thankfully I couldn't. Susie's platter was huge; on it were all manner of fruits de mer: a prawn roll, whiting, mussels, shrimps, sea-trout, cod, salmon and two little ramekins of dips - a sauce Aurore and a sauce Tartare. I had two perfectly cooked and boned quail, and a flat of vegetables, some boiled new potatoes and some roast potatoes accompanied them. These last were roasted with herbs and garlic and were so good that between us we finished all but one, which was left politely on the dish.

As ever, after so large a meal, a shared dessert was all that our flagging appetites could manage. All were priced at £3.25 and they included apple pie, toffee apple cake, strawberry and rhubarb crumble, chocolate fudge cake and pecan pie. I rather weakly made a plea for the pecan pie, but Susie was adamant; we'd have the chocolate fudge cake. It was good but filling, so we weren't able to finish it. A small niggle here: I don't like to see place settings with only a spoon for dessert - it looks like a nursery setting - and anyway, I prefer to use a fork. And talking of little niggles I don't like unwrapping my butter either. Little foil wraps are fine for canteens, but not for restaurants.

We finished with a couple of well-made espressos. It was good to see 'espresso' spelt with an 's' on the menu, although I wasn't too sure about the 'capachino'. Sipping our coffee and lingering a while, we agreed that this was just what we needed: a decent restaurant with character deep in the Wicklow hills. The bill came to £66.70, not including a service charge.