Dunne and Crescenzi,14, South Frederick Street, Dublin 2.
Tel. 01 677 3815
Bar Italia, Exchange Street, Dublin 2. Tel. 01 679 5128

There have been continuous murmurs over the past few years suggesting that Dublin has a 'Cafe Society.' I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I know what it doesn't mean. Dublin doesn't have cafes and cakes like they do in Austria and Germany, it doesn't have the cafe-bar so beloved of French and Italians, and more importantly there aren't enough warm days to make much of a feature of sitting at tables on city pavements watching the world stroll by. What is true is that a decent espresso can be found now and that the sort of food that you can find in Italian bars can also be found here. Twice this week I've ended up in the nearest thing I've seen to a Italian cafe in Dublin.

Before I describe them to you I'm going to be a pedagogue. Cut this bit out and keep it safe somewhere, because I'm going to tell you how to pronounce those menu-Italian words correctly - menus will never hold the same fear again and you can impress your friends with your grasp of Romance languages. Bruschetta, (bruce-kay-ta) Foccaccia, (foh-catch-ah) Gnocchi, (nyockey) Tagliatelle, (tal-ya-tellay) Bolognese, (bollon-yay-say) Prosciutto, (pro-shoot-oh) Fettucine, (fetoo-chee-nay) Lasagne, (lassan-yay). If anyone tries to correct this pronunciation just look them firmly in the eye and say that you read it here.

My first stop this week was in Dunne and Crescenzi (cresh-enzee) with my wife for a quick snack before a book launch in the International Book Shop next door. It has a very busy, yet at the same time comfortable feel to it - there's a big sofa with a low table just inside the door that adds to this impression. The walls are lined with bottles of wine just like an Italian enoteca, pastas of varying kinds are on display as well, and there's a smell of freshly made coffee in the air. The tables and chairs are simple wood and the menu is short. I did try a while ago to eat here with my daughter, but she wanted a greater variety of food than is on the menu here. What this place is designed for is the one-plate snack or just a good coffee.

Service is brisk and courteous and from the menu we ordered a vegetarian antipasto for Susie, a bresaola for me, a half-litre of mineral water and a glass of Cannonau - the Sardinian red - for Susie. Simple wooden platters serve as plates and a very good mixed antipasto arrived for Susie, with mozzarella that tasted like it should. I got a very generous plateful of bresaola (bress-ow-la) which was served on top of crostini. Both of us were well pleased with what we got, the flavours were just like those you'd find at an Italian road-side paninoteca (a place that specialises in panini and snacks). A bill for just over €20 made this particular stop seem like value for money, especially the mineral water.

Italians do tend to stick together when abroad and I'd been told more than once about the Bar Italia near Essex Quay. This time I set off with my wife and daughter specifically to find it. It's in one of those modern buildings that hasn't weathered very well, and as a result it looks very much like a lot of bars in my part of Italy where badly weathered new buildings is the norm. There are tables and chairs set up outside in a long triangular space between two converging roads - Essex Quay and Exchange Street - where a few very hardy souls braved the chilly wind and sat outside. My wife and daughter are made of less hardy stuff and we sat inside, which given the chilly wind outside, was very full. Thankfully we got a table for three and made ourselves comfortable. The Bar Italia doesn't just look Italian, it is Italian. The young waiting staff are all Italian and that's the language you'll hear them use to one another. Italian music plays on the stereo, the coffee machine hisses steam and makes that inimitable noise when steaming the milk for cappuccinos. A counter display has a huge mortadella and a variety of cheese, all of which you can have in sandwiches.

We decided to be more adventurous than that and began with an antipasto. Just one, and we said we'd share it. In fact they did the division for us, three side-plates arrived with the antipasto already divided into three. Really good prosciutto, mortadella, salami, mild provolone, artichoke hearts, cubes of mozzarella and olives. If your appetite was anything less than strong, you could have quit after this. But we went on; a pasta of the day for Isabella, which was tagliatelle with a salmon sauce, gnocchi alla Sorrentina for me and salad for Susie. These were all dishes that reeked of the Italic shores; the tastes were genuinely authentic. I've been unhappy more than once with the quality of ingredients here that pass themselves off here as Italian, but in the Bar Italia the ingredients must have been right because the tastes were right.

To go with our food I chose the white Sardinian Vermentino from Sella e Mosca, one of Italy's oldest wine merchants. Crisp and clean in taste it makes an excellent lunchtime wine. The wine list here is short, but it's all Italian and it's fairly priced. Being very close to the Dublin Civic Offices Bar Italia does get very busy at lunch time, so you might find yourself more cramped than you'd like inside, or more cold than you'd like outside, but either way it's the sort of place that worth making a detour for. Good food and a real Italian atmosphere means that I'll be going back. Our bill for three of us was €52.95.