Sebastian Masi has worked under Guillame Le Brun in Guilbauds and held the reins in The Common's in it's heyday. This means we are talking pretty serious food from a chef who knows a thing or two about preparing and serving French food.

Combine Sebastian's talent with the front of house team led by partner Kirsten Batt and you have one of Dublin's finest restaurants.

The rooms consist of simple white walls combined with some impressive modern paintings and exposed brick work . A fire fills the restaurant with a quintessentially Irish aroma of burning peat.The staff have found a charming balance between attentiveness and conviviality without being intrusive. Paolo discovered Pearl over dinner in with the delectable Gayle Killilea (otherwise known as Buffy!)and has since included it in his Top 100.

Meanwhile breads had arrived with a tomato based dip and we had the excellent Sauvigon and a bottle of mineral water to occupy us. A couple took up position at the next table and it slowly dawned on me that it was Chris Heaney, who also writes about restaurants, but in another place. I looked around the room; half of the tables were occupied by food critics. This thought was interrupted by the arrival of our starters; a crab bisque for Buffy and the quail for me. The bisque was good and flavourful and unthickened with cream. 'I could easily get a craving for this,' said Buffy. My quail had been expertly de-boned and was cooked perfectly - very slightly underdone. I began to think that almost by accident we'd stumbled upon an expert kitchen.

Buffy had ordered the seared scallops for her main course and I'd picked the Toulouse sausage; a long, thick, Priapic-looking thing, that reminded of me of Mrs. Miggins of Blackadder fame, who thought them to be 'horses' willies'. The scallops were cooked exactly as they ought to have been and my sausage had all the rugged, chunky flavours of a dish designed and eaten by Gallic peasantry. No doubt, we were being fed by a chef who knew his onions. I even enjoyed the lentils which accompanied my saucisse, a pulse I more often ignore than enjoy.

The dessert menu made its appearance and we did what I fear is becoming a habit; we had one between us. For a moment we were tempted by the day's special of crème brulee with banana, but in the end we settled on a chocolate thingy that broke every dietary rule and was perfectly delicious. The fire that we'd spotted earlier in the bar area was subliminally summoning us, so we answered its call and chose to have our coffees sitting in front of it.

A couple of Armagnacs seemed meet and proper to end this fine meal along with another couple of espressos. The food was excellent, and if you'd sampled Sebastian's food in his past life in The Commons, you'd have paid a great deal more.