With Cork about to become the European City of Culture, it seemed a good time to visit the nation's second city. It was my last restaurant visit of 2004 and Christmas was close, so the city was bedecked with fairy lights, white-bearded Santas and baubled Christmas trees. It's been a few years since I was in Cork and I was struck by the numbers of civic works in progress. The city does seem to be taking its cultural status seriously.

My friend Alan and I were staying in one of Cork's fine hotels, the Maryborough in Douglas, which manages to combine a comfortable and modern wing with the old-world gentility of the original house, a fine mansion that was once a summer retreat for the Perrier family. Happily for me, an aficionado of the old, I was staying in one of the beautifully proportioned rooms of the old house, with views across the gardens. And the gardens are spectacular, even in winter. The specimen trees and shrubs are a horticulturist's heaven and even though we were in the depths of winter the lawn was covered, rather optimistically, with tables and chairs.

We'd decided on dinner in Jacob's on the Mall and we'd arranged to meet Mary Carmody there. It's an imposing dining room, a high ceilinged room with roof lights that was once Turkish baths. It's a big room, on the left a long bar, the centre filled with tables and the opposite side more tables at a slightly raised level. We took our table under the Christmas tree and l looked through the menu, a sense of the Yuletide season increasingly pervading us.

Jacob's on the Mall has a reputation for crisp flavours in a mod/med fusion and the menu backed up that reputation. Starters were all priced around €10 except for the mushroom soup with truffle oil at €3.95, and included a baked goats' cheese, marinated squid, crisp pork belly, polenta and oysters with a ginger and lime relish. Main courses ran from €16.80 for linguini with leeks, peas, tomato, blue cheese and Parmesan, to €30 for a traditional sirloin steak with onions, mushrooms and potatoes gratin. Between these prices there were six main courses at the mid-twenties mark, including roast cod, pan-fried John Dory, roast lamb and a seasonal roast pheasant.

The wine list is well-chosen and long enough to satisfy even the most pernickety diner, and since there's a full license, there's also beers and spirits. Nice to see a large bottle of mineral water priced at a reasonable €4.80. There are over 100 wines listed, including ten or so half-bottles. The majority of the list is priced between €20 and €30, but for the deep of pocket there are also plenty of good clarets, as well as New World superstars, like Opus One, Grange, Cloudy Bay and Almaviva. We began with a Pinto Grigio from Bolla at €21, and then moved to the Bonterra Cabernet Sauvignon at €30.

We been careful to spread ourselves a little around the menu, so our starters were polenta, spring rolls and crispy pork belly. Mary got her crisp spring rolls, Alan got his pork belly, and I got my polenta, which came with purple sprouting broccoli, Parmesan, pesto and Parma ham. We exchanged tastes and I found all these dishes to be well-made and tasty. I really liked the pork belly, which I thought was the star starter.

Mary had the roast lamb as a main course, which came with basmati rice and an aubergine compote, Alan had the monkfish and I had sea bream, which was the fish of the day. Once again, the dishes were well made and I enjoyed the flavours. We finished our meal with a plate of cheese between us, which we accompanied with a glass each of Black Muscat dessert wine. Good service, even with a Christmas rush, meant that I enjoyed my meal in Jacob's on the Mall. The bill for the night came to €233.28.

After a leisurely breakfast in the Maryborough and a soak in the Jacuzzi, thoughts turned to lunch. Alan had discovered that Greene's restaurant was doing a Christmas lunch that included being serenaded by Cork's own Three Tenors. Sounded like a great way to finish the year, so off we went to MacCurtain Street. You walk down a short lane where you find a small cliff face some thirty feet high cascading with water. This impressive water feature dominates one end of the dining room, and we sat looking out at the gushing, splashing water.

There was a short, but well-chosen Christmas lunch menu; three starters, four main courses and four desserts at a modest €25. Smoked salmon followed by a pan-fried escalope of turkey for Alan, and a goats' cheese tartlet followed by a minute steak for me made a good lunch whilst the Three Tenors serenaded us with Italian opera arias, Irish classics and songs from musicals. We had a bottle of Babich Sauvignon Blanc at €26.95 and two bottles of mineral water at €4.50. How come you can get water in Cork at reasonable money, but not in Dublin?

We didn't take a dessert or coffee and were pleased to see that we were charged €19 each for lunch, instead of €25. That brought the bill to €77.75, which for good food and good music made for a great lead-in to Christmas. With luck, I'll be back in Cork soon to enjoy its new-found status as City of Culture in 2005.