Every now and then someone sends me an email along these lines: 'We had a horrible meal last week in such-and-such a restaurant. Bad food, bad service and very expensive. You should go there and review it.' My reply is pretty much the same each time. I don't willingly go in search of a bad meal. If I suspect a restaurant serves poor food and is bad value, I simply won't go to it. It comes down to this; I believe my job is to try and find the good restaurants and then tell you about them. After all, each year I'll be listing my favourite restaurants in a dining guide, I won't be compiling a list of Ireland's worst restaurants.

Given this, a trip to Kerry and Parknasilla is exactly the sort of thing I like. Parknasilla is like a grand old lady; she has a fascinating history, she embodies an ethos of other times, she is elegant, charming, unmistakably nineteenth-century and shows just a little faded grandeur. I rather prefer that to the crisp, minimalist, sharp-edged style of many new hotels. A long drive through manicured parkland leads you to Parknasilla's front door and to a long view down Kenmare Bay to the open ocean. A small cove just under the hotel hosts the hotel's day-cruiser, which was bobbing gently on a calm sea.

I've always maintained that a warm greeting is worth more than anything else in the hospitality business. Here, the welcome is warm, genuine and friendly, and in those few moments of arrival, the public face of the hotel, Sonny Looney the concierge, puts everyone instantly at their ease. He is quite the most accomplished concierge I've met anywhere in the world and I have no doubt that in most people's memories Sonny and the hotel are inexorably entwined.

I got there in the afternoon with a few hours to go before dinner. I was joined there by Marian Kenny, which was as well, because she was able to try out the spa and the massage therapies, while I did much more butch things like shooting clay pigeons. There was even time before dinner to do one of the walks in the hotel's grounds, which took us around the coast and onto a couple of small islands which have been joined together by bridges. For outdoor types there's plenty to do here; archery, petanque, pony trekking, golf, fishing and trips around the coast in the cruiser. The leisure centre holds a pool with a view across the bay, a hot tub, hydrotherapy booths and a Jacuzzi. There's also a games room downstairs with table tennis and billiards, so I suspect it would be difficult to be bored here.

Marian got back from her massage session looking glowing - 'I feel all loose and relaxed', she said - which is a good way to feel after a hard week's work in the office. So after a quick pre-prandial aperitif in the lounge, we went to the dining room. It's a big room, running almost the whole side of the house that faces the sea. It's in three discrete sections, one of them being a huge bay, which is where we sat overlooking the sea. The hotel was originally purpose-built back in the late nineteenth century, so the dining room is a perfect example of Victorian grandeur, high-ceilinged and nicely proportioned.

There are two menus, an a la carte and a set dinner and Marian and I chose from the table d'hote, which was priced at €38. The starters included roast quail stuffed with foie gras mousse, baked goats' cheese, carpaccio of beef, a tian of crabmeat, a duo of salmon and an avocado and shrimp salad. Marian chose the goats' cheese, and I chose the carpaccio. There were two soups and then main courses included fillet of brill, poached lemon sole, roast duckling, roast pork loin, medallions of Angus beef, and a vegetable and nut stir fry. Marian chose the duck and I chose the pork.

I was impressed by the wine list, carefully chosen from several suppliers and given the grandeur of the surrounding, it came with a modest mark-up, much less than has become the Dublin norm. I chose an Alsace Riesling, which being a 2002 was rather thin and tart and therefore didn't convert Marian to the great grape. Thankfully they also list a lot of half-bottles, so a half bottle of Macon Lugny kept her happy, while I manfully persisted with the Riesling. Fair enough, I'd picked it.

Our starters were very good, so we relaxed into the evening. Here water glasses are constantly topped up with good iced water, so there's no need to order mineral waters. Next I had the sweet onion soup, which was really good. Our main courses came, Marian's duckling was served as slivers of breast arranged around a mash and finished with a port and orange sauce. My pork was also well-presented and I enjoyed the pistachio stuffing and the Calvados reduction sauce that added the traditional taste of apples.

By this stage we'd both eaten very well, but we did manage one dessert between us, the brandy snap basket. Not a great brandy snap, but we finished it anyway. A couple of coffees ended the meal, which I thought good value given our luxurious surroundings. Two set dinners, a bottle of Riesling and a half bottle of Maconnais came to €119, which is less than £100 in old money.

But the fact is a trip to Parknasilla isn't just about the food, it's the whole experience of being pampered by the excellent staff. Maybe it's the old ethos of service to the gentry that still obtains, maybe it's simply the warmth of a Kerry welcome, but whatever the cause, the effect is one of pure indulgence in a place of extraordinary natural beauty. If you can arrange a weekend in Parnasilla, I think you'll be well pleased.