If this reads a little ponderously this week, forgive me. It's been two days since a major Wicklow party and I'm sitting here trying to force my brain to work against its own best advice of 'Forget it; go to bed. Sleeeeep.' Two days have passed and full recovery still seems a way off, which tells you what a great party it was. What this gathering of the clans also meant was that friends from London that I hadn't seen for a while arrived to make a long weekend of it. That gave me a chance to catch up with them both at the party and beforehand in Dublin, as well as helping to extend the party weekend to three days - hence the need for bed-rest.

Anyway, back to those clear-headed days of last week. I set off to meet Sonia Thornton, the soubrette of MTV, and Michael and Gaynor Watt, one-time residents of Wicklow. We arranged to meet in the Horseshoe and I took that opportunity to get more tips from Charles behind the bar - a galloping gourmet if ever there was one - for future places to review. I had a clear idea in mind for this evening, though, I wanted to go to QV2. When I suggested it, Sonia said 'Isn't the owner a friend of yours?' It happens that Johnny McCormack is a friend of mine; we went to an English boarding school together and TCD together, and have both ended up in catering business - although these days all I do is write about it. 'Doesn't that make for ethical and moral problems?' asked Sonia. But I'd already been thinking about that and had an answer ready. 'Just because he's a friend of mine doesn't mean he can't have a good restaurant,' I replied definitively, and I thought rather cleverly, if slightly casuistically.

So with that established off we went, with James, son of Michael and Gaynor accompanying us. QV2 has been a restaurant for ten years, which in these days of rapidly passing fads already says plenty. I meant to ask Johnny for confirmation and forgot, but I think it occupies the premises of the once Quo Vadis, hence QV2. It's got two recently redecorated rooms on the ground floor, the first on entry the smaller of the two, the other which leads off it, somewhat larger. It's high-ceilinged and nicely lit, busy and bustling, but with enough room between the tables not to feel oppressed by your neighbours. I discovered later that the paintings on the wall, including one of a favourite wine of mine, Badia a Coltibuono, were all by Johnny's wife Sylvia. Michael was feeling expansive and as soon as we'd sat down he ordered a bottle of Bollinger Grande Annee 1992 for us, the price of which I'll subtract from the bill, otherwise you'll get a skewed idea of the price of the meal.

The wine list begins with a new addition; pichets. A pichet, to quote Johnny, is a poncey French name for a carafe, or wine on tap, and in QV2 these are wines that arrive from France in 20 litre stainless steel tanks before being poured into the ceramic pichets of 50 and 75cl. These are definitely wines for quaffing, and there will never be a possibility of getting corked wine. After the pichets there are four house wines of both red and white at £14.50, plus 4 halves, and plenty of listings under £20, as well as few well-chosen wines for special occasions. One of my favourite Navarre wines, the Ochoa Reserva was listed, so we had a bottle of that to follow the Bolly, as well as a half bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne for the ladies.

Starters range in price from £5-£7 and include dishes like flaked salmon, spring rolls, spinach noodles, mussels with garlic cream sauce and sesame crab cake. Main courses are mostly in the £12-£17 range, with some interesting-looking dishes like tagliatelle with chicken and avocado, pork tenderloin with maple mustard sauce, Thai spiced chicken breast, salmon and monkfish parcels, pan-fried hake fillet with salmon risotto, grilled swordfish, Barbary duck breasts, beef medallions and stuffed aubergines. Side orders vary from £2-£2.50.

Between the five of us we managed four starters and four main courses, as well as a few bottles of mineral water, which comes at a fair price of £2.75 a bottle. We began with two bowls of mussels, a crabcake and the duck spring rolls for me, all of which were praised, and all of which were finished in their entirety. I was trying not to be obvious about it, but Michael's business takes him from London to New York and to Australia, plus he enjoys good food in good restaurants, so I was watching out for his reactions.

For main courses we had two hake fillets, done simply but very tastily, and served on a bed of risotto that was perhaps the only dull note of the night. Sonia had chosen the tagliatelle, and having just returned from Italy felt inclined to remark, 'as good as any I had there'. Both Michael and Gaynor, who had the hake, were pleased with their choice, and my tenderloin of pork, although very large, was very good and flavoured well. I was glad that my companions had eaten well, it makes it easier for me to say 'my friend runs a good restaurant.'

We had no desserts, but enjoyed some after dinner drinks as well as cappuccinos and espressos while we lingered, with only the vaguest of intimations running through our minds of what the weekend was to hold. If I subtract the bottle of Bolly, the bill for the five of us, including a couple of beers for James, came to £133.80, which is good value, especially since the food was good. I look forward to a return visit to try out the poncey pichets next time.