The old adage that diversity is the spice of life is particularly true of restaurants - it's the difference between them that's makes for interest. I suppose that's why restaurants try to find an identity, one that differentiates them from the others. When you think about what makes one restaurant differ from another you can come up with a whole host of characteristics: price, type of food, ambience and service to name but four. I really thought that in forty years of eating out I'd seen them all - the good, the bad and the downright ugly. But then, that's one of the joys of life - there's always something new to discover.

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from an old friend, Don O'Connell, to ask me to join him for lunch with Maura Donovan, who runs the business end of Stewarts Hospital. Our meeting place was The Old Beehive restaurant, which is owned by the hospital. Before I go on to describe the place and the food, it's worth taking a moment to tell you about why the restaurant is there. Maura, who is a dynamo of energy, is convinced that giving her clients, as she calls them, something useful and purposeful to do is a major part of any rehabilitation program. She believes - and I'd agree - that a restaurant calls for a wide mix of skills, from doing work behind the scenes to meeting and serving the customers. Developing those skills is part of the program.

So a few years ago the hospital acquired a fine two-storey building of stone and brick, which was once an old stables - and, being less than a mile away, is an easy walk from the hospital itself. Downstairs in this building, weavers make beautiful pieces on their looms and you can watch them ply their art. Naturally all these creations are for sale. The restaurant is upstairs and runs most of the length of the building. The tables are comfortably spread and large half-moon windows, arched in brick, let in loads of light. As a result it's well lit and has a bright and airy feel. Around the walls there were what I thought were paintings, until closer examination showed them to be small tapestries. The room, our welcome and a look at the menu instantly dispelled my pre-conceptions that it mightn't be a proper restaurant - it is, and I'll tell you now, it's a good one.

If, like me, you not only enjoy good food but like it at a reasonable price, then The Old Beehive will win you over. The lunch menu (they only do lunch) is remarkably priced. Starters are £2.95 and all main courses are £5.95, except for the fillet of beef, which is £8.95. But while the prices are remarkable, what's on the menu is worthy of note as well. Inventive and imaginative dishes are here: millefeuille with lambs' kidneys and a sauce of roasted shallots, and a twin salmon Crannog on an avocado salsa are among the starters; seared veal escalope on a Thai prawn bisque and pan-fried monkfish on a pineapple and sweet chilli sauce are among the main courses. Enough to get the gastric juices flowing, I found. Wraps and baguettes complete the menu, if all you want is a one-course snack.

The wine list has some thirty wines, the most expensive being a Chablis and Fleurie at £16.95. If you've got used to some of Dublin's greedier wine lists, it's a delight to scan this one. The two French wines I've mentioned are the only French wines on the list, the rest is made up of New World, Spain and Italy. The last page carries not only six half-bottles, but six quarter-bottles as well for the more abstemious. From it I chose the Marques de Caceres Rioja at £12.50 as our red and the Rosemount Semillon/ Chardonnay blend for the white at £10.50. At these prices, good wine tastes even better.

Between the five of us - my wife and Orla Sutton made up the rest of the table - we were able to sample most of the menu. Two salmon Crannogs, two lambs' kidneys and one warm salad of black pudding made up our starters. They arrived presented as well as I've seen these dishes, and about then I noticed we were eating off good crockery with good cutlery. I also began to realise what a good idea of Don's it was to come here.

Main courses were equally impressive. Duck, veal and monkfish for the ladies, while Don and I, perhaps less adventurous, had the fillet steak which arrived in medallions and with a cracked peppercorn sauce. All of these were really good, well made and well presented. The service was attentive and thorough, wine was kept poured and water jugs replaced - an object lesson in good catering.

Clearly there was no way I was going to leave this table without a dessert. They're all priced at £2 and there was a blackberry crumble, a chocolate meringue gateau, a fruit salad and then one of my favourites, bread and butter pudding. No school dinner stodge, this, it was a dainty little dome of a thing and delicately flavoured. I finished every scrap. You also get very good espressos, which rounded off my meal.

There was something about this place that's difficult to describe without the risk of maudlin sentimentality, but I'll try anyway. Apart from its professionalism, there's a feeling of harmony, and dare I say it, love, that permeates it. It's almost palpable. The people here really care about what they do and they do it well. That commitment shines through every part of the meal, the service and the welcome. I only have one complaint, and that's the fact that Palmertown is an hour's drive from my house. If I lived nearby they might get used to the sight of me.