Hartley's, located in what was the Brasserie na Mara beside the Dart station in Dun Laoghaire, has been a runaway success ever since it opened over a year ago. It was always a great room – high ceilings, plenty of light – but in the past the ambience verged on staid. The place has had a simple, chic makeover and now it hops. So much so that the acoustics could do with some attention – the noise level doesn't bother me, but I have heard friends moan.

I've eaten in Hartley's half a dozen or more times over the past year, but I checked out their website for the first time ahead of this review visit. A set lunch and dinner seemed good value – how come I had never been offered either? A phone call revealed that these are only available for parties of 15 and more – something that might come as a surprise to anyone arriving at Hartley's for the first time.

It was Saturday night and we were four. We had a drink in the bar while we waited for our table, suffering the commonplace irritations of first being ignored, then being told that our table was being set and it would only be another minute, then ignored again. People who had arrived later than us were whisked to theirs (or was it ours?).

When we did eventually make it to the table, I was disappointed that the menu on this occasion was the same as it had been the last four times that we were there – at least since the beginning of the summer. I'm bored with it now – there aren't enough specials to make up for it – and it doesn't augur well for diners in search of confident cooking that's responsive to the seasons.

For starters we had a rocket and parmesan salad (€5), hot and spicy wings, celery and roquefort dip (€10), and two orders of the hot buttered crab claw bruschetta with garlic, chilli, lemon and parsley (€14). The crab is a crowd-pleaser of a dish – oozing
butter and intensely flavoursome. I'd defy anyone not to like it. And if you can cope with the health ramifications, the deep-fried wings are delicious – although probably best avoided by the over-20s who plan on making it to the bus-pass stage.

For mains, two had the pan-fried sea bass with ratatouille and salsa verde (€25) – not a good dish. It was a misguided combination – the ratatouille overpowering the fish and jarring with the salsa verde – evidence of a heavy hand in the kitchen, and over-priced for farmed fish. I ordered seared tuna with roast sweet potato, coriander, lychee, lime and chilli (€23). It was only when it arrived that I remembered that I'd had it before. During the summer one of the children had ordered it and was so disappointed that I had swapped it for my burger, in the interests of keeping the peace. It wasn't any better second time around – another misconceived combination of ingredients that do not sit easy with each other. These mains came with a side of crushed new potatoes with lemon, herbs and olive oil. A 10oz rib-eye (€26) was superb and came with great fries, an excellent béarnaise, mushroom and onion lyonnaise, rocket and parmesan salad. That's what I'll be having on my next visit.

With two simple (but no less good for that) crushed raspberry and meringue fools (€7) and an exemplary sticky toffee pudding (€7), two bottles of albarino and a gigonda from a list that is clearly laid out in terms of style and weight of wines, coffees and water, the bill came to €316.80 for the four of us including 10% discretionary service.

Once we got to the table, service was efficient and charming. Perhaps the successful trajectory of Hartley's has allowed a touch of laziness and complacency to creep in to the kitchen. There's still plenty to like, but a menu re-vamp is sorely needed.

Hartley's

1 Harbour Road, Dun Laoghaire,

Co Dublin; www.hartleys.ie

Tel: 01 280 6767

Rating: 3/5