Is it just me or is it always raining in Wicklow? And always a few degrees colder than everywhere else? Sure as eggs is eggs, the weather was glorious in Kilmacanogue – a clear crisp winter's day – but by the time we reached Roundwood (claim to fame: the highest village in Ireland) it was bucketing down. It had been a while since we'd eaten at the Roundwood Inn but inside nothing had changed. There is a dark, rather lugubrious room off the bar in which there are refectory-style tables, pew seating, fake Tudor beams, multi-coloured leaded lights and a collection of dull hunting prints. The windows are leaded too, with diamond-shaped panes. A fire blazes in the grate. Not a cent has been spent on the décor in the last 20 years. I'm not convinced that this is laudable.

There was no sign of any of the local celebrities (Paddy Moloney and Daniel Day Lewis both live nearby) who are known to frequent the Inn. In fact, there was no sign of anyone much. A few sombre pint-drinkers sat up at the bar and in the dining room the departure of a solitary luncher coincided with our arrival. We remained on our own for the entire Wednesday lunchtime that we spent there.

A glance through the menu indicated that we hadn't missed any major developments in the intervening years. In fact, it read exactly as we remembered it from the rainy summer (ha!) afternoons when we used to pile the kids in through the doors for a feed of chicken in the basket and excellent chips to warm them up after a trip to Clara Lara or a trudge around Glendalough.

This being a review and as we were, on this occasion, free of children, we opted for some of the more sophisticated (and expensive) dishes on offer. We started with a half dozen native oysters (€16.50) which were excellent and a prawn cocktail (€18.50), a perfectly judged array of about eight good-sized Dublin Bay prawns accompanied by a fine marie-rose sauce. This was a generous portion, and utterly delicious. The only downer was the slices of pre-buttered (except that it wasn't butter but some awful spread-type substance instead) bread out of a packet that accompanied these otherwise flawless starters. I wish restaurants wouldn't do this.

For mains we went for the venison ragout and pheasant casserole (€16.50 each), both accompanied by boiled potatoes and good red cabbage. Truth be told there was little to distinguish one dish from the other – the sauces were very similar – but they were both the kind of good, earthy, flavoursome, warming dishes that the wholesome folk who go hillwalking in this neck of the woods appreciate when they come in out of the rain. As we had undertaken no such physical activity, we passed on pudding.

With four glasses of wine (decent shiraz and pinot grigio) our bill totalled €93, to which we added €15 for pleasant service. Although the food was good and the dishes well-executed the ambience of the Roundwood Inn is rather gloomy. It's probably somewhere best visited with a gang, lest the atmosphere overwhelm.

Milo (12) has just visited my desk and asked me where I was reviewing this week. When I told him he sighed and said, "Do you remember the chicken in a basket? And the chips? I think they might be the best chips I've ever eaten. I wish we could go back some day."

The Roundwood Inn

Roundwood, Co. Wicklow

Tel: 01 281 8107

Rating: 3/5