Bleu Bistro, Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

Bleu Bistro is situated on Dawson Street, a short stroll from St. Stephens Green, right in the middle of Dublin's restaurant district. The food is French bistro fare, with the emphasis on value and quality. Careful attention is paid to sourcing the best ingredients, and they grow their own produce in a small farm in Kilternan. Paolo is a longtime fan.

Very occasionally I leave a restaurant with a feeling that borders on elation. That's something that the dining-out experience can generate in me, if all goes well. It's what's supposed to happen, but frequently doesn't. It all harks back to the French word 'restaurer', which means 'to refresh'. A restaurateur's job description then, isn't just to feed you - snout in the trough style - but to refresh you. The object is to leave you feeling better than when you went in; the <it>weltschmertz gone, a sense of well-being established, you leave with a trip to the step and a song in the heart. No small task, but it can be done.

Eamonn O'Reilly seems to have pulled off the near impossible, he's now got three restaurants up and running in Dublin: One Pico, Bleu and now The Box Tree in Stepaside. Eamonn O'Reilly is a grafter. His original One Pico was in the less fashionable end of Camden Street, but like Ross Lewis in Chapter One, he never let the location stop him from making fine food, relying on that old principle 'build a better mouse-trap and they'll beat a path to your door'.

People have beaten a path to his doors; his move to Schoolhouse Lane with One Pico has been a success,

Inside Bleu, was filled with Dublin's bright young things, who seemed sparklier than ever in the spare, modernist interior. The dining room is essentially a square, with lots of glass, lots of wood and much attention to detail. This is the first room that I've seen that makes the wheelchair access into a feature. A long, gently raked ramp runs up the dining room leading to the loos, acting as a visual break in a square room and separating two levels of tables. It also serves as the main walkway from the kitchen, of which I had an unimpeded view.

There's something compelling about restaurant kitchens, maybe because we've seen them so often on TV. I couldn't stop watching the young chefs at work with their panoply of brand new stainless steel catering stuff all around them; calm, collected and composed. That same sense of competence was in the front of house as well, two restaurant managers worked the floor ceaselessly, with waiting staff that were clearly on the ball.

Bleu describes itself as a bistro, which is largely exact. It has the casual informality of a bistro, bistro prices and the sense of speed that bistro meals engender, but there the similarities end. The menu listings include some unusual and interesting dishes which you might expect to find in a more traditional up-market restaurant. It's clear that this menu's pedigree is coming from an inventive and innovative chef.

But the most remarkable thing about this restaurant is the price. Here in the very centre of the capital, with high rates and rents, you can eat some of Dublin’s best food at prices that just shouldn’t be allowed.. When I think of some of the mediocre meals I've eaten for more money than this, I'm convinced that Bleu really has found a winning formula.