It's a sunny-ish Wednesday lunchtime and there's a birthday to be celebrated somewhere in Wicklow, so it's an ideal opportunity to try out The Conservatory Tea House Restaurant in Laragh which has been on my radar for a while – I've heard good things.

First things first – this is an attractive spot, no doubt about it. The conservatory in which the main dining room is located is tacked onto the side of the old schoolhouse. It's one of the posh, pricey ones, with the woodwork painted in chic Farrow & Ball shades, the furniture and tsotchkes channelling Provence via Avoca and Cath Kidston. You know the look.

The conservatory leads onto the kitchen of the house and another couple of rooms, which have additional tables that can be put into service as overflow space when things gets hectic. Apparently the kitchen table alongside the cream Aga is the most requested.

We're booked in for two o'clock – which turns out to be a mistake as by the time the three of us are settled into our table, the restaurant has – horror of horrors – run out of white wine. We think our waitress is joking when she imparts this news, but no.

In the face of such adversity we do what any sensible trio with an occasion to mark would do and order a bottle of champagne. It's Moet & Chandon NV and it's €55, which is more than we would have spent on wine (the list chalked on the blackboard of the wines that they have sold out of is short but interesting, with all bottles in the €25-€30 range) but not a bad price for what it is.

And so on to the food. There's no printed menu so there's a certain amount of neck-craning as we attempt to see what's written on the board that's propped against one wall. There's a soup (potato and leek) and two salads for starters. The salads are prawn with avocado and crayfish with mango. So we order one of each.

The soup (€4.50) is good – though a wintry choice for a summer's day – full of flavour and made on proper stock.

The salads (€6.50 and €7.50) are more than a little similar to each other. There's mango in both and the crayfish version has papaya as well. The prawns don't taste of anything much and the crayfish are dull too (why do I always forget this and keep on ordering them?) but we like the compilation of interesting leaves on which they sit. The dressing, which is common to both salads and has some fruity element to it, is more-ish – demanding to be mopped up by the excellent home-made bread. (We particularly like the brown seeded loaf.)

For mains, they've run out of a couple of the options (and later we realise that they've forgotten to tell us about another) so the choice is limited.

Rachel opts for a main course portion of the prawn salad (€13), Melanie goes for the lamb stew (€14.95) and I choose the chickpea curry (€12.50).

We'd asked for more detail on the lamb when ordering. "Is that an Irish lamb stew?" was the specific question, answered in the affirmative. What turns up on the plate is more akin to a Moroccan tagine. We think that it's good, with the proper depth of flavour and well-judged spicing, but it isn't quite what we had been led to expect.

The chickpea curry is fine – it's one of those dishes that is worthy and good for you but ultimately disappointing for its single note.

When it comes to pudding, the choice is again limited. The pastry chef was out sick, we were told, so it's either rhubarb crumble or rhubarb and strawberry crumble. Hmmm. We go for a portion of the latter (€5.80), with cream and excellent vanilla ice cream, between three. The portion is huge – not too sweet, great crunchy crumble, terrific.

With three decent coffees, our bill – including that bottle of champagne – comes to €127.10 before service.

Ah yes. Service. It's entirely pleasant but quite distracted. Perhaps we hit it on a bad day but we thought The Conservatory could do with another pair of hands to help out.

And the menu could be less repetitious and better thought-out. The Conservatory is a restaurant with its heart in the right place that, with better organisation, could be very good indeed.

The Conservatory Tea House Restaurant, Laragh, Co Wicklow. Ph: (0404) 45302. Rating: 3/5