Like a serious tourist, when I went to New York I bought lots of maps. Maps give you that comforting sensation that you know precisely where you are, even when you haven't a clue. Holding a map in your hands makes the immediate world understandable, you can have a mental picture of it, just like a bird's-eye view. And once you think that's memorised, you can start learning the place-names, which also makes you feel less like a stranger. They're big on abbreviations in Manhattan; they have areas like SoHo, NoHo and TriBeCa, which all translate into something more understandable when you have a map. TriBeCa is the Triangle Below Canal Street and it's in the Southern tip of Manhattan where it houses some fine restaurants, including Nobu and Il Giglio.

Now there's a TriBeCa in Dublin, specifically in Ranelagh; with the help of a map you'll see it's near a canal and there's a triangular block quite close, so it's aptly named. It's a new restaurant and I went there with my friend Hugo Jellett, who spent two years working in a New York publishing house, so with these vague New York associations I thought I could make him homesick for the Big Apple.

We got there on a busy Friday night and were told it would be a half-hour or so until there would be a free table. The young man at the door suggested that we could go for a drink, and if the table became free earlier, he would give us a call on the mobile, which I thought was a nice touch. We wandered off down the Ranelagh road and found one of those pubs that fills shelves with books by the yard. Water for me and a pint of plain for Hugo filled the half hour nicely and a table was waiting for us on our return to TriBeCa. Settling in and reading the menu, we started to get a feel for this place. Wooden floors, tables and walls make for a high decibel level. The tables are also fairly closely spaced so you tend to end up in conversation with the people whose elbows you encounter occasionally. It's busy and buzzy, packed with young people and exudes the energy of somewhere that's brand new and happening.

The menu is unlike any other I've seen. It's a four-page laminate broken down into sections. It starts with appetisers, then salads, sandwiches, omelettes, burgers, noodles, entrees and side dishes. You can see from this that you could come here for simply a sandwich, a burger or just a plate of noodles. There's a brunch menu as well, so it's a restaurant and a menu that cater to a wide range of needs. Since both Hugo and I were hungry we decided to treat it like a restaurant and not a snackery by ordering an appetiser and then an entree each, which on this menu has the American meaning of a main course.

The wine list was a two-pager with most of the listed wines under £20. Actually, considering the sort of menu it accompanies, the wine list is better than you'd expect. Mostly New World and with a reasonable mark up, I settled on the Spanish Gulbenzu from Navarre at £15.95. A half-litre bottle of mineral water at £2.50 completed the drinks order.

There were a few starters that took my fancy; tiger prawn rice paper rolls and a tempura of chicken with a lime-chilli mayonnaise, but in the end Hugo chose the deep-fried Thai fish cakes and I had the spicy fried calamari. Most of the starters are around £5. The sandwiches are not as you might suppose; I saw a few going to tables around us. They're big and come with garlic and rosemary chips - a little unusual. They're priced between £7 and £9. There's a choice of nine omelettes, ranging in price from £5 for a plain one to £8.25 for a smoked salmon one. These also come with chips. Eight burgers are listed between £7 and £9 and they're made of eight ounces of organic beef, so they're not for the faint-hearted. I was briefly tempted by 'The Italian Stallion', which comes with mozzarella and red peppers, but moved on to the main courses.

The main courses are equally eclectic. Lemon and rosemary chicken breast or with lime and coriander, Thai stir-fried chicken, a T-bone steak, a rib-eye steak, salmon, plaice and chips, and three pasta dishes, ranging from the £9 mark for pastas up to £17 for the T-bone. Hugo chose the chicken with lemon and rosemary and out of deference to the American character of the room I picked the rib-eye, which I suspect is what the English call rump steak and the Irish call round steak.

What became clear as we got our starters was that they give you large plates of food here. All around us waiters and waitresses were carrying enormous plates laden with food. My calamari came on a huge bed of lettuce in a deep bowl, prompting Hugo to remark that it was his habit when ordering prawn cocktail to say he was allergic to lettuce. This, he assured me, meant that you got significantly more prawns, since five prawns with no lettuce to support them don't present very well. Anyway, good calamari and interesting fish cakes, which came with a couple of dips.

Hugo's chicken dish was good, but it was the mash that had him enthusing and making little noises of pleasure. My steak was cooked just as I'd asked for and was tender, so between the two of us we were well served. The size of my portions had left me unable to finish my main course, and even Hugo, who's a big lad, slowed almost to the point of stopping. We finished up with four good espressos and asked for the bill. This isn't a restaurant for lingering in; it's designed for those who want to eat and run. The hard chairs and the sheer volume of the place will make any thought of remaining for long evaporate. Thankfully Hugo had a plan. Since it's his job to market and publicise The Gaiety, he suggested we should go and explore the late-night bars there that are open until 4am. No shirker from pleasure, me, I agreed at once to this plan. We settled the bill of £62.00 and set off for King Street and a night that went on rather longer than I'd planned.