Funny thing," I said to my son, Ian (aged 14), in Toscana, the new Italian restaurant and pizzeria. "I remember sitting in exactly this spot on an equally wild, wet, windy night many years ago when the car ferry to Holyhead was cancelled due to bad weather". It was then a restaurant called Hatters and we were the only two who had ventured out that night in a howling gale. My better half had known the waitress's ex-lover and so we got the whole sorry tale for the night, ending up with her sitting down and laying into our vino.

In the fine three story house on the Dun Laoghaire seafront close to Teddy's ice cream shop, the best table is, of course, in the bay window. Hatters went on to be Digby's, and had a couple of other incarnations. Now Toscana, it has come alive again bright, airy and buzzy.

Toscana's menu is similar to many other Italian restaurants, but the standard of food and preparation was, on the whole, pretty good. starters generally seemed to be under a fiver and included Minestrone Soup, Insalata Caprese, croquettes of Mozzarella cheese in rice and that old ubiquitous "Italian" stalwart Spicy Chicken Wings, which, piece for piece, will soon catch up with the now stratospherically expensive Monkfish.

Both premises and location are good, and what I would really like to see on their Anti pasti is perhaps Insalata di Frutti di Mare or a plate of prosciutto and Italian salami with olives, figs, peppers, artichokes even the old tinned variety would do me how difficult is that?

Ian had Garlic Bread (€2.35) and Chicken Wings (€4.13) three of which came with salad and a lot of tomatoey sauce making them sloppy to eat with one's fingers but the man in question said "they were delicious".

I asked for a half portion of Tagliatelle simply done just butter and Parmesan or some such. What I got was a sizeable half portion and it was perfectly cooked and simply anointed. As I look at the bill again, I see they don't seem to have charged me for it. I also had Crostini with mozzarella and anchovy (€4.13) scrummy but sans the billed black olives.

Main courses included pasta done every way from penne marinara to Spaghetti Primavera priced between €8.70 to €12.00. There were four chicken dishes, plus fillet and sirloin steaks at €16.44 and €15.81, a Scallop pinialla Sienna at €17.08 an Irish homemade burger at €9.21, Crab Claws or Tiger Prawns panfried in garlic and olive oil.

To follow,.Ian had the Pizza du Chef (€10.09) salami, ham, mushroom, peppers with an additional topping of pineapple (€1.14) and, to my eye, it looked smashing and Ian said it tasted likewise. I had the Pollo Diavolo (€11.36) which was breast of chicken opened out and flattened, marinated in lemon then cooked over a charcoal grill served with acopious amount of salad with red onion rings and a baked potato.

Ian progressed to a selection of ice creams (€4.44) in a big sundae dish with strawberry and chocolate sauce, while I had an espresso (€1.65). With two cokes (€3.43) and a half bottle of Castellani Chianti (€9.21) our total bill including optional service came to €58.28. Good value and very pleasant and we'll certainly be back.