One Pico, Dublin

old fashioned virtues abounded with pleasant efficient staff who managed to arrive just as you were running out of (tap) water to re-fill your glass. prices are fantastic for lunch - €19.95 for 3 large courses - 2 courses for €18.

First thing we were offered was bread - a choice of walnut, brown with seeds, apricot and curry, white, parmesan and raisen and hazelnut. All breads were warm and crusty with good aeration for the whites and proper nutty earthy brown with seeds. They offered bread when we sat and then returned to offer it with the starter so we sampled all six breads and the parmesan twice.

For our wine by the glass I ordered Languedoc Picpoul de Pinet for 6.50 which was light, crisp and fragrant - possibly a little light for the foie but perfect with the fish. C had a glass of Barbera d'Asti for 7.50 which was perfect with her ham and good enough with her fish.

For starter C ordered the ham hock terrine with mustard and tarragon mayonnaise which was very meaty and solid and wrapped in savoy cabbage. a good thick 12-15mm slice of very tasty terrine - not subtle but ham hock should never be subtle in my view - an added bonus was some lovely delicate girolles tasting of anise and of themselves. these are usually a chewy mushroom but he managed to get them delicate and almost melt in the mouth.

I ordered the Foie Gras parfait, pear and vanilla puree, brioche toast. 2 slices of perfect brioche, again a 12-15mm thick slice of parfait - half this size would have been more than generous. The parfait was perfectly smooth and light while also rich with lots of foie gras flavour. The pear puree and tiny cubes of pear were perfect - not too sweet but enough to counter the fat of the foie.

For main we both ordered fish - C had the hake, butter roasted spices, peking duck, puy lentils. the duck was little pieces of crispy duck dotted around the fish. Fish was still nice and flaky but with a perfectly crisp skin (which I ate most of) - wish I had a grill that good. the hake was light and the duck and sauce added asian touches but not in an intrusive way.

I ordered the Sea Bream, Black Bacon, Vermouth, Peas and Broad Beans. The bacon was very meaty and worked with the slight oiliness of the sea bream. The broad beans, peas and pea shoots worked well but perhaps the vermouth and fish stock sauce was a little heavy for the fish. still a very good dish however.

For dessert C had white chocolate mousse with blackberry doughnut - the white cohocolate mousse was light and tasted of good quality white chocolate and came with a perfect blackberry filled doughnut the size of a golf ball plus a blackberry sorbet with a blackcurrant sauce. C. never orders dessert and is fairly devoid of a sweet tooth but this was too tempting and she practically licked her plate.

I had a double espresso - lots of crema, properly made, with 6 truffles - all perfect. little white chocolate with pistaccio and dried fruit, coffee flavoured truffle, praline square, chocolate fondant truffle and a little shot glass of chocolate mousse.

We ordered one extra espresso for C, tipped 10 euro and got out for 67 euro. Best value lunch I have had since l'ecrivain used to have a 13.50 menu in around 1991!

Staff were smily, cleaned crumbs, folded napkins (when I went to the loo twice to write notes!), watched our water glasses, didnt try to sell us extra drinks, water or food, a very pleasant experience. Dining room was virtually full (just one empty table. Turlough O'Sullivan of IBEC was there with a colleague, Noel Whelan the political pundit and Ursula Halligan TV3's pol corr were having a casual lunch also - this was all I could recognise but some others there looked important too but no one was there for the pretension, simply for a top notch quality inexpensive lunch in a setting where you are well looked after.