I don't know much about Finland. I remember the Monty Python song, 'Finland, Finland, Finland, the country where I'd quite like to be…' I know that it's up north, that they have reindeer, lots of snow, lots of fjords, lots of forests and they have vowels that we can't replicate at all, even with pebbles in our mouths. I know this much because I have a Finnish friend called Tapsa. Well, actually his name isn't Tapsa, it's something far more complicated than that, but that's about as close as we can approximate to his real name over here. From him I also learned that Finns are an orderly and industrious race - stands to reason really that they have to be, or they couldn't survive six months of winter every year. Outside of Finland they are known for their rally driving and their design. Finns are the ultimate supercool of minimalist design.

That particular generalisation was conformed for me again this week when Isobel Smith persuaded me to join her for a party in 2CoolDesign, two shops in Temple Bar run by two supercool, very sleek, very blonde Finnish girls called Ulla Enkvist and Titta Isokuortti. Everything on display had that perfection of form that comes from designing for the task in hand, from water taps to coffee cups. We picked on the smoked reindeer and washed it down with good vodka, enjoying the evening until two realisations came to me. One, I was hungry and two, it was hard to look as good as everything and everyone around me.

From Temple Bar to Georges Street is no distance, so to keep up the Finnish momentum we headed for the newly opened Indigo Yard, whose interior was designed by the aforementioned Ulla. Isobel, Gayle Killilea, James McHale and me made up the advance party, our task to get a table and hold it for whoever else might join us later. The room is very long and narrow, at the front you have a long counter and there's just room for tables for two along the left side opposite the bar. Beyond the counter it widens out a little and runs back another sixty feet or so, which is where we got our table for six.

The first thing I picked up was the wine list. It's a long piece of card folded in two and has maybe thirty wines listed. What was extraordinary about this list was that any one of these wines can be ordered by the glass, a service that I suspect can't last too long. The next thing that I noticed were the prices; they were low. Not just normal mark-up low, really low. You can buy a bottle of Frascati for €11. Yes, I know that Frascati's not an amazing wine, but when did you last see a bottle of anything listed at €11? Not being a cheap-skate I didn't order that one, I really pushed out the boat and ordered the Cousino Macul, a Chilean Merlot which you can find on many a wine list. In Indigo Yard you can buy it for €15.56 and I defy you to find it cheaper on a wine list anywhere. There was another pleasure in the drinks department as well, a jug of sparkling mineral water costs €1.70. I know that there's no reason why it should cost any more than this, but it's so unusual not be paying between €4 and €8 a litre that it becomes a real delight to see water at a fair price.

Now I want to be clear about this, the food here is very good value. I'm not telling you it's haute cuisine, I'm saying it's great value for what it is. By the end of the evening people had joined our table and left, or joined our table and stayed. Over the course of the evening maybe a dozen people, so there was a bit of everything chosen and eaten. Initially I ordered two plates of antipasto, which came quickly and gave us stuff to nibble on while making up our minds about the rest of the meal. They were €10 each and had all the usual suspects, olives, cheeses, mortadella, prosciutto and so on.

Isobel and James both had the steak sandwich, in which a decent-sized piece of beef came in a sliced bread, looking pretty good. Even James with his appetite couldn't finish it, so that tells you something about the generous portions here. Gayle had a big pizza which was pretty good and which costs €10, while I chose the fish 'n' chips which came at €12. Around the table there were things like salad being ordered, again large generous platefuls charged at €9.

We all ate well and got charged not very much. Between the comings and the goings the whole bill ended up at €180, but I can't tell you with any certainty who had what, there were too many comings and goings. Still, to find a restaurant in Dublin where you don't need a mortgage to fund your meal is a real pleasure. I've been whinging on and off for years that it's hard to find somewhere that sits in the middle ground between posh food and fast food. Indigo Yard seems to have found that space and I really hope that they can continue to hold it. I've no doubt that the temptation will come to up the menu prices and the wine list prices, since this formula can only work with near maximum capacity on a regular basis, but I really hope that they can hold to this inspired and revolutionary idea that the Irish consumer doesn't have to be ripped off.