Although little appears to have changed with the unprepossessing visuals – artwork that looks as if it derives from the Athena catalogue circa 1976, frumpy etched glass panelling dividing the restaurant from the shop floor, a less than scintillating prospect of desultory customers perusing the offerings of the home ware department – and truly terrible acoustics, Domini and Peaches Kemp's takeover of the Restaurant at Brown Thomas has given it a much-needed culinary boot up the proverbial.

As tends to be the way with department store restaurants, the clientele of the Restaurant at Brown Thomas is 90% female (of which, on the day we visited, about 10% were solo women reading copies of Hello! magazine). It is the kind of place you might come with your mother or a girlfriend, or the type of man who enjoys being surrounded by women. Between 1pm and 2pm each day it is hard to get a table and there is a constant queue – it'd be worth arriving 15 minutes early if you are tight for time as they don't take reservations.

The menu has clearly been designed with an eye to female preferences, and dishes are labelled variously gluten free, healthy, vegetarian, dairy free and low-carb – no doubt in order to assist women on a mission to fit into the covetable clothes on the first and second floors. If that all sounds a bit joyless, fret not – there is plenty here to tempt the foodie, as you would expect from someone with the Misses Kemp's impeccable credentials (they are the force behind the successful 'itsa' restaurant and bagel operations and also run Table at Brown Thomas, Cork).

Ours was to be a speedy working lunch and the service is tailored to facilitate the quick in-and-out required by the majority of customers – it is not, perhaps, somewhere that one would choose to linger for an afternoon.

We ordered a Seafood Chowder (gluten free, €8.90) to share followed by three main courses. The Chowder was seriously good – also seriously rich and seriously not for the dieter – creamy and intensely flavoured in the way that derives only from proper stock, chock-a-block with smoked haddock, salmon, and mussels although, sadly, none of the advertised prawns. Brown bread from Declan Ryan's Arbutus Bakery was excellent.

Claire's Caesar Salad (€15.50) was entirely inauthentic – grilled free range chicken, roast pumpkin seeds and crisp bacon were all involved, anchovies were not – and very delicious. Fin's BT Burger (€15.90) – organic beef (interestingly spiced with cumin) - came with smoked bacon, farm-house cheddar, a whole vine of roasted cherry tomatoes, a mountain of decadent crispy onions plus shoestring fries with aioli (phew!). It was a monumental plate of food, and the only bad thing to be said about it was that somehow it didn't qualify for either the healthy option or low-carb labels.

Goody two shoes here opted for the seared black pepper tuna with a nicoise vinaigrette and mixed leaves (at €18.50 the most expensive dish on the menu) – gluten free, dairy free and a healthy option. Truth be told it was no hardship – top quality fish atop an impeccable salad of potatoes, tomatoes and leaves in a perfect dressing generous with the capers.

Selflessly (and safe in the knowledge that, whatever else, the See by Chloë pumps beckoning from the Shoe Rooms would fit regardless) we ordered a couple of puddings to share.

A dense chocolate and almond flourless cake (€7.50, gluten free), served with a strawberry and mandarin compote and honeycomb ice-cream was excellent. We felt that the Raw Energy Fruit Salad (€8.50), incorporating pineapple, melon, mango, grapes, mandarins and strawberries in an agave syrup, was good but over-priced – like something that you would get across the road in Marks and Spencer on a 'buy one get one half price' deal.

With a couple of good coffees, the bill for three came to €88.35 to which we added €10 for efficient and pleasant service. The Restaurant is not cheap, but as a department store eaterie with terrific food it is ideally located for the ladies who lunch.

A minor quibble is that you have to go up to the till to pay the bill – at these prices this kind of hangover from the ancien regime jars.

The Restaurant At Brown Thomas
88–95 Grafton Street,
Dublin 2
Telephone: 01 6056666
Rating: 4/5