Most of the time I try to get into restaurants without making a booking. Occasionally, if the restaurant is a long way away, or I suspect it might be very busy, I get my dining companion to make the booking in their name. That way when I turn up I know I'm likely to receive the same treatment as any one else. Otherwise I turn up on a mid-week night and take my chances that there'll be a table.

This system has served me well over the years, but just occasionally it doesn't. This week I had a plan to visit a Grafton Street restaurant. I arrived there with my newly married friends Hugo and Roz Jellett early enough, I thought, to get a table. I was wrong. At seven-thirty all the tables were taken and there was no room for us. We stood outside on the pavement and re-assessed. Now what? Thankfully Hugo had an idea. 'We'll go to Brasserie Sixty6.' He phoned them up, they had a table, off we went to Georges Street.

Our timing was impeccable. If we'd got there ten minutes later there wouldn't have been a table there either. Whatever autumnal dip restaurants may have been experiencing, it seems that the Christmas rush has begun. Sixty6 isn't wide, but it is very long, running from Georges Street right back to the high walls of Dublin Castle. The kitchen is towards the back end where the room widens somewhat and is open-fronted, so you can watch the chefs at work. We got what appeared to be the last table just opposite the kitchen.

There are a few notable features in the room; there's a wall just inside the door covered with a collection of plates, each differently painted that makes for an interesting display and at the back end, near where we were sat, there's a splendid chandelier made from empty bottles hanging from the high part of the ceiling. Very striking.

The menu reminded me a little of the fare on offer across the road at L'Geuleton. It's an interesting mix of new dishes and classics with a twist. For example, among the starters you can find mussels and clams in garlic lemon and herbs, a prawn cocktail with a horseradish dipping sauce, meatballs with a tomato ragout and two dishes that were new to me - roasted marrowbone served with an oxtail marmalade and pieces of lamb served on a brochette served with harissa crème fraiche. All the starters are priced under €10.

It's not a long menu; there are five main courses, four seafood dishes and three variants of sausage and mash, but the dishes all read well on the menu. Among the shared platters, one took my fancy. For a party of eight or more you can pre-order a roast suckling pig, which would make a very fine banquet for €295. There's a decent wine list as well, about sixty wines from around the world, the vast majority under €30. There's a little section headed 'treat yourself' for both the red and the whites, which lists fine wines in the €40 to €60 range. As both Roz and Hugo were drinking Tiger beer, I joined them on the beer.

From the starters, Roz chose the lamb chunks, Hugo had the marrow bones and I had the mussels and clams. When they arrived all the dishes looked good, especially my mussels and clams, which were served in a black skillet. They were really delicious, so much so that we had to ask for spoons to get at the last of the sauce. Oddly, the principle flavouring in the sauce was capers, which wasn't listed in its description. Roz's lamb chunks were very successful, nicely flavoured and cooked just so. Hugo wasn't quite so sure about his marrowbones, which despite the description was just one piece of bone, sawn into a section about an inch thick. The idea is to dig out the marrow and spread it on the brioche. I rather liked its quirky taste, but Hugo decided he wouldn't order it again.

For the main courses Roz had picked the Sixty6 rotisserie half chicken, one of the signature dishes. Very good it was too, crisp, tender and tasting of the rotisserie. Hugo had chosen the veal liver, which was pan-fried and served with gnocchi and roasted onions flavoured with Balsamic vinegar. This too was a good dish, but a little spoiled because the liver was somewhat overcooked. I'd picked the sausage and mash option, where there was a choice of Cajun sausage, chive sausage or Italian sausage. Naturally I'd picked the Italian one, which was flavoured with the anisette taste of fennel. The sausages came on a bed of mash, and although a simple dish, I enjoyed I enormously.

Neither Hugo nor I were up for dessert, the mash potato having rather defeated me, but Roz was keen to try the amaretto crumble, which like all the desserts was priced at €6.50. While Roz enjoyed her crumble Hugo and I settled on espressos which were good enough.

If Brasserie Sixty6 is the shape of things to come, I'm in favour. It's long overdue that medium-priced eating places that serve good, simple food arrived on the Dublin scene. It's what's been lacking for a long time. It can't be a coincidence that it's so busy, it's obviously doing something that people want. Our bill for the night was just under €90, or €30 a head including our drinks, which these days has to be considered value for money.