I'm currently in the middle of recording another series of The Restaurant, the reality TV show that puts a celebrity into the kitchen and gets them cooking for twenty-five diners, including the critics. It's great fun and it's given me an interesting insight into what people, other than cooking professionals, think is important and good when it comes to food. Overall the food has been remarkably good, a testament to the skills of the celebrity cook, but also helped by the skills of the resident kitchen team, whose job is to compliment the chosen menu. The result of all this is that I've now eaten dinners prepared by Stephen and Damien - the resident chefs - a lot of times now, but each time it's been a menu chosen by someone else. I took the opportunity this week to change that and eat a dinner both chosen and prepared by Damien.

Ryan's in Parkgate Street is one of Dublin's venerable institutions. When I first came across it, it was know affectionately as 'Bongo Ryan's' and it's layout harks back to earlier times. A large horseshoe-shaped bar takes up the centre of the ground floor and there are still two snugs at either end of the counter. It has a welcoming air to it, and I remember it best as lunchtime meeting place with my publisher, where we talked books over a pint. This time I was meeting Gary Flood, one of producers of the TV show, and I found him nursing a pint in one of the snugs. The bar is just as it's always been, but upstairs the restaurant has a new lease of life, and of course, a new chef.

We went upstairs and found the restaurant, a simple rectangular room with plain tables and chairs and with a simple, uncluttered décor. We were greeted and seated by the glamorous restaurant manager and started reading the menus and wine lists. There are two wine lists, a short simple one that lists no wine over €20. Already that put me in a good mood, since the mark-up on these wines was far less than you usually find. As well as that, there was a list of bin ends, and if you're interested in wines there are some wonderful things to be had. Two prices are alongside each wine, the one you'd normally pay and the price you pay in the restaurant. An example: a Chablis by Faiveley (one of Chablis' best shippers) was €20, with €30 as the normal price. Actually I've seen it listed at more than that, so €20 really is remarkable value. I could also have picked Frescobaldi's excellent Pomino, which instead of €38 was listed at €25. I was beginning to hop on my chair with excitement.

The manageress was standing beside us. 'There are more bin-ends over there', she said, pointing to a display just inside the door. I went over to investigate and found myself looking at more bargains. Then I saw it - a bottle of Clos des Mouches 2000, one of Burgundy's great wines with a €30 price tag. Now I make it a habit never to spend more that €25 on a bottle in a restaurant, but Clos des Mouches? I doubt you'd get it in an offie at that price. I had to have it.

With the wine choice sorted it was time to examine the menu. There's a fairly short one-page menu, but there are also plenty of daily specials to add to that on blackboards arranged around the room. A loaf-tin arrived with a selection of very good breads, which we snacked on while deciding. I found myself in the unusual position of wanting to taste many of the dishes on offer, but for my starter I chose on the basis of lightness and picked the salad of baby leaves, toasted walnuts, crispy bacon and egg. Gary picked the chicken special, which was served with puy lentils and a star anise emulsion, and while we waited we sipped the wine, which got better and better as it chambred.

Before we got our starters, an amuse bouche arrived, a little cone of Parma ham with a rocket sprig atop, looking just like a palm tree. Very tasty, there was a drizzling of delicious pesto to accompany it. The starters arrived next and both were delicious, I particularly enjoyed my salad, the walnuts providing a satisfying crunch to the dish.

For main courses Gary had picked the beef fillet, which came with a slice of confit pork, mushrooms and a cep cream. He enjoyed it a lot, allowing me a small mouthful for tasting purposes, but he became quite rapturous when he ate the mushrooms, claiming he's never had them so good. I'd picked the slow-cooked braised pork belly, which came on a bed of mash flavoured with apricot. I still have an Italian aversion to fruit with meat, so I didn't combine forkfuls of mash with the pork, but I did enjoy the melt-soft pork.

All this left us with no appetite for desserts, but we still had the remains of the Clos des Mouches to sip with our coffees. What was clear after this meal is that you get good food in Ryan's at reasonable money. Starters, and some of them are quite substantial, are priced around €8, while main courses run from €13 for a pizza up to €23 for the fillet steak. The service was very good, the background music was mostly Spanish, and I liked that. But what really stands out in my memory is the quite staggering value of the bin ends. It really is a wonderful thing to be able to dine out and drink fine wine without the sensation of being unmercifully ripped off. If only other restaurants would follow Ryan's lead.