The pair had dined in Shanahan's the previous evening at an apparently very boozy client dinner. Both were hungover and then some. And then some more.

I felt bad for SR, so I offered to pop over to the nearby Octagon Bar at the Clarence Hotel and pick up the Bloody Mary there.

"Oh God. Please. Yes." came the breathy reply. Staff at The Clarence felt my dining partner's pain and happily allowed me to bring a reportedly "bloody fantastic" Bloody Mary across the road to my patient.

Once the blood transfusion had been taken care of, we settled into a snug-like corner of the bar. The Purty is more gastro pub than restaurant, which suited my dining companions just fine. It has been a south Co Dublin stalwart since it opened its doors as the Dunleary Inn in 1728. This, its sister establishment, is a little younger than that having opened earlier this year. The website heralding its opening reads, "Having firmly established itself as the jewel in the crown of the Monkstown set, under the successful stewardship of proprietor Conor Martin for the last number of years, Conor has recently added the old Bad Bob's to his growing portfolio of fine food and drinking establishments." In less flowery prose: you may be familiar with the location, it used to be Bad Bob's, Temple Bar. Monkstown set indeed.

To start, I had the Purty crabcakes which, although a degree or six less than tepid, still warmed the cockles of the heart. As I had guessed, many of the dishes on the Purty menu were 'comfort' driven, the kind of food that feels like a duvet day for your mouth. SR's Purty prawn cocktail was a tasty, relish-imbued version of the 1980s classic and MG's coconut prawns were a totally tropical smash, the best of three rather good starters.

As we were in a gastro pub, this first course was accompanied by a couple of pints of creamy Kilkenny for the lads and the lady continued to sip her Bloody Mary, colour slowly but surely returning to her greenish gills.

The mains consisted of the beef burger for SR; surf and turf for MG and the cheekily named (or not) tackle box for me. The tackle box was just perfect, for winter, and in my mind a little expensive at 20.50.

Again, it was classic comfort food: various fruits of the sea suspended in an eggy, almost quiche-like bind, topped with a puff pastry 'lid', the perfect meal for a salty sea dog, Aaarh! MG's surf and turf did what it said it would: provided him with meats from the surf and turf: chubby prawns and a succulent steak, nothing illformed or poor to report.

The beef burger was fine, although it didn't seem to be disappearing too fast.

Poor SR.

Diligently sticking with the gastro pub ethos, MG and SR each had a Bailey's coffee for dessert, I had a plain old espresso. The alco-coffees seemed to have a miraculous effect on both of them, they actually began to put sentences together without knitting their brow so much that they looked like Beethoven in labour.

I am not a fan of Temple Bar at night or in the height of summer, the tourists, the noise and the vomit do not a happy diner make. On a quiet day out of tourist season though, it can be a fabulous place to wander around and grab a bite. It has a lot to recommend it, apart from the super pubs and the tacky souvenir shops.

The market in Meeting House Square on a Saturday, if you can ignore the organic hemp underpants brigade is a pleasant stroll.

The Gallery of Photography is an essential city resource. The IFI is one of the best cinemas in the country and the design conscious stores along Cow's Lane are each special places. I am also partial to a visit to the Cultivate Sustainable Living Centre, for all my green needs. So although fashionable, it is unfair to write the area off as a tourist trap only worthy of the Victorias and Davids from Wigan on their pre-nuptial party outings.

And so too the Purty Kitchen, take it for what it is: a gastro pub in the country's most popular tourist quarter.

The food is great, it is not a rip-off, compared to some of the honey traps surrounding it and the staff are friendly too.

If they had tomato juice, it would be the perfect destination for the morning after the night before. Just make sure the night before was spent somewhere entirely different.

Purty Kitchen
Temple Bar Dublin 2
Tel: (01) 474 3942

THE BILL

Purty Crabcakes 10.50
Coconut Prawns 12.95
Purty Prawn Cocktail 10.95
Beef Burger 14.95
Surf & Turf 19.95
Tackle Box 20.50
Coffee 2.20
2 x Baileys Coffee 10.40
2 x Pints Kilkenny 9.60
TOTAL 112.00