A couple of reports in the press this week gave me food for thought. The first was a breakdown of tourism across the country. In broad terms tourism hasn't been evenly spread across the country. The east coast and the south coast have improved on previous years, but west of the Shannon things have been less rosy.

Mention this in casual conversation and you're likely to get the response 'Well what do you expect? Ireland has become a rip-off for tourists.' If that is indeed the answer, then it's hard to explain, given the other report. That one tells us that on average prices for hotels and restaurants are 20% less west of the Shannon. If tourists coming to Ireland are subject to price sensitivity, then you'd expect them to be making a bee-line for the west coast. But strangely, even though it's cheaper, that's not where they end up.

You could speculate for hours on why this is so, but this week I took a trip to Galway and despite new roads and by-passes, it took me just over four and a half hours for the 150 miles. That's just over 30 mph on average. That's still a better average speed than I got driving to Westport a couple of weeks ago, but when you compare it to Continental motoring it looks laughable. On the continent a trip of 220 kilometres between two cities is a two hour trip. The fact that the trip takes double that time in Ireland is certainly not helping tourism in the West.

Anyway, grumbles about traffic jams apart, I enjoyed the drive. I've always had a soft spot for Galway, it's such a handy-sized city. Certainly the tiger economy is in full swing there, half the city centre seemed to be rebuilt with smart new buildings - except of course for Eyre Square, which has come to standstill for the foreseeable future. I was there to try the dining room in the Radisson Hotel, a smart new structure on a rise overlooking Galway Bay.

I met my friend Alan Crowley in the bar and then we moved to 'Marinas', which is what the restaurant is called. The name gives you the clue: this is a fish restaurant. I've been convinced for a long time that the best seafood in Ireland is on the west and south coasts, so I was hoping Marinas would prove my point. Alan and I were sat by a window with a view over the bay in what was a smart dining room in the hotel style. Looking down the menu, the first page is the starters and they're all seafood. The next page lists warm starters, and once again they're mostly fish-based. Then there's a page of fish main courses, then at last, a page for carnivores. That makes a lot of choices, but in the end we narrowed it down to the Tiger prawns in garlic for Alan and the moules Mariniere for me, followed by char-grilled scallops on a skewer for Alan and a daily special, pan-fried turbot for me.

The wine list runs to nine pages and unusually for a hotel list, doesn't carry a massive mark-up. There are plenty of decent listed €22 and €30, but the median price is around the mid thirties. With an entirely fish choice between us, white wine was the choice and we settled on the excellent New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Joe Babich, which was listed at €28.

Before our starters arrived we were presented with an amuse bouche, a wild mushroom cappuccino. This was one of the best mushroom soups that has ever crossed my lips, a real stunner, and it made me think if the amuse bouche was this good, we must be in for a good meal.

The starters confirmed the suspicion - the king prawns that Alan had were simple, but very good. Cooked perfectly so that the prawns had a firm bite, the garlic flavour was expertly judged to go with lime dressing on the accompanying salad. My mussels were in the classic Mariniere, a white wine and cream sauce that was so good I was dipping my bread into it.

The main courses were equally successful. The skewered scallops that Alan had were good, but I hit lucky with the daily special. No doubt it was a rich dish, plenty of butter and cream in it, but the turbot was cooked just right and the cream reduction sauce was properly reduced, something that rarely happens. The result was a very good dish that left me very happy. We finished our meal with a chocolate timbale between us, which came with a berry compote. Straight from the oven, it oozed thick, rich chocolate as we cut into it, both of us entirely oblivious to its probable future effects on our waistlines.

Like many people I know, I suffer from a long-held prejudice against hotel dining rooms, especially those belonging to large chains. Yet in the past couple of years I've found that prejudice hard to maintain, as I've now eaten well in several Radisson restaurants. The fact that as a group they take their dining rooms as seriously as they take the rest of their hospitality is making me change my views. What we had in Galway's Radisson was a very well made meal with excellent service throughout. The bill came to €118.