My week started with a really excellent meal in The Westin hotel's 'Exchange' restaurant, which was hosted by Taittainger champagne. Taittainger were launching their new 'Nocturne', a 'sec' as opposed to a 'brut'. The difference is that the 'sec' has marginally more sweetness than the 'brut', making it much easier to drink late at night - hence its name. Apart from the excellent champagnes on show that night, I won't forget the starter that began our meal - a scallop served with a lobster risotto. I can honestly say it was probably the most delicious plateful that has ever been put before me. Everything about this dish, from its conception to its execution was perfection. I feel a visit to the Westin's Exchange restaurant coming on.

But it was back to Wicklow for the review meal in Bray. Bray was built in the same mould as the English seaside 'Bs', Blackpool, Brighton and Bognor Regis. The glory days of the seaside holiday was a century ago and Bray evolved to serve that market. It seems unlikely that those days will ever return; today's holiday makers go by plane to somewhere sunny. Yet Bray is definitely going through a revival; every street is gradually becoming smarter, the shops are getting better, and property prices are rising relentlessly. The arrival of the Dart made commuting easier and that brought many new inhabitants to Bray.

All those new people need services and for the most part they're being supplied. Where Bray seems slightly behind the curve is when it comes to restaurants. Considering the number of people living there now you'd expect more restaurants than there are. Still, it's been a few years since I was last dining in Bray, so I was happy to go there again to meet my friend Michael Lowsley. He lives in Bray, had visited 'Ah Ha' a few times, and thought I should try it with him.

'Ah Ha' is where 'The Cape' used to be. Behind Bray's main street is a large car park, and 'Ah Ha' is happily placed right beside it at the top end of The Village Arcade, which makes getting there wonderfully easy by car. The building sits astride the arch of the arcade, so it's shaped like an upside down 'U'. We went up the main stairs, found the main dining room fairly full, so went down the back stairs to the overflow area at the ground floor on the other side. It was a little cold there, so the waiter brought over a Super Ser gas fire, which kept us warm.

The menu is very straightforward, it's a long card one side of which is the food and on the other side the wines. The food is broken down into main headings, like starters, pasta, chicken, seafood, grills and steaks, each section containing a couple of entries. Michael started with the goat's cheese salad and followed with the 12 oz ribeye steak, which he'd had before and enjoyed. I chose the soup of the day, which was tomato and basil that night, and then I had a struggle. I don't choose pastas unless I know the chef, I don't choose chicken unless I know it's free-range, the same holds true of salmon and seabass and I couldn't really have a steak if Michael was having one. That left me with either lamb cutlets, surf 'n' turf, or an 8 oz burger, so I picked the burger.

The wine list is short and sweet - there's fourteen whites, sixteen reds and a few sparklers to choose from and the cheapest wine listed was a very reasonable €14.95. The vast majority of the wines were under €22 and had a low mark-up - really nice to see. There were a few interesting spellings on the list - I really liked the Montepulicanco and the Rijoa. It was the Rijoa (Rioja) that we chose, the Baron de Barbon at €22.90, which turned out to be very good, soft and supple and a good match to Michael's steak.

The starters were good, the goats' cheese salad in front of Michael was generous in size; a good thing, since Michael is very tall and wide and needs sustenance for his frame. My soup was good and warming with just enough basil in it add interest. When the main courses came a very large piece of meat was set down before Michael, along with a big bowl of onion rings in batter and a Greek salad. I suspected that all of that may have been too much even for such a big man. While he enjoyed his first mouthfuls with immense pleasure I stared unhappily at a carbonised burger on my plate.

I don't think I've ever encountered such a burnt piece of meat. I do understand that these days restaurants are required to make sure that burgers are cooked through to ensure that no e-coli survive, but this burger was carbonised to black. While I can understand that a few moments distraction can overcook meat to the point of spoiling, I can't understand a chef who looks at it and then sends it out on a plate. Our waiter was quick enough to spot the mistake and they did change it for me and brought me another, but sadly it was only slightly less cremated than the first.

Between the bits of burger that I did eat, the bacon that came with it, some of Michael's salad and onion rings, I did end up with enough to eat, but I couldn't help envying Michael's choices. By the time we'd finished our main courses we decided to move on to Michael's house and called for the bill, which came to €79.40 excluding service.