I fear that I may be about to commit an act of foodie sacrilege. Whisper it, but we liked the food at The Cliff Town House better than we did the offering at Richard Corrigan's Bentley's, the restaurant which previously occupied the same smart premises on St Stephen's Green. Corrigan has been gone for some time now, although exactly how long it would be hard to say without a degree in the unravelling of subterfuge, hyperbole and media manipulation (550 points the last time that I looked). The chef is apparently back in London full-time with a new restaurant in Smithfield (their version, not ours) underway and all plans for a Dublin outpost put on indefinite hold.

On a Saturday night in early autumn, the restaurant at the Cliff Town House is buzzing pleasantly, with all the tables occupied. In physical terms, little has changed since Corrigan's tenure. The urbane Drew Flood is still here, meeting and greeting, working the room like the pro that he is. The walls are the same colour, the pretty, shell-shaped sconces remain and the banquettes are comfortable. I think some of the art may be different. The room is a tad bright, the ceiling lights could be dimmed a fraction ? but this is a minor quibble. This is one of the most handsome dining rooms in the city and it would be hard to wreck it.

The building is owned by Barry O'Callaghan, who has made the decision to twin it with his successful Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co Waterford - where chef Martijn Kajuiter last year secured a Michelin star. Kajuiter's influence on the menu created for The Cliff Town House by Seán Smith (formerly Corrigan's head chef at Bentley's and before that the Village at Lyons - keep up will you?) is evident and welcome - the offering is lighter and more modern and female-friendly than Corrigan's ever was.

There's a €40 for three courses set menu which runs all night, every night, plus a short list of signature dishes by way of alternative. We decided to try both options, although, unusually, it would have been no hardship to choose wholly from the table d'hote which includes organic chicken, rib-eye, Skeagh­anore duck and fish pie and evidences no stinting on prime ingredients. From the set menu, I chose Glenarm Organic Salmon - a fillet cured in beetroot juice and served with organic yellow beetroot and horseradish cream in a dome of oak smoke. The smell when the dome comes off is palate-tantalising and the flavour delivers in spades. I could happily eat a main course portion of this and have it again for breakfast the next morning. Felim's 'signature' Irish Seafood Cocktail 'Town House' (€19.90) was a fulsome portion of lobster, langoustine, prawn and crab in a classic Marie-rose sauce atop a bed of shredded lettuce. Impeccable.

For mains, I opted for the vegetarian choice from the set menu - Globe Artichoke, the leaves from which had been removed so that it acted as a base for a mushroom gratin served with polenta fries, ribbons of marinated organic carrots and Glebe Brehan cheese. I'm no veggie, but this is the kind of dish that makes me think that I could be. Felim chose the Black Sole 'signature' dish (€45) - the fish pan-fried and served simply with parsley potato, wild spinach and caramelised lemon in a brown butter vinaigrette. The last time I had black sole in Bentley's it had been an anorexic specimen - dried out and leaving me to wonder if it could perhaps have come out of the freezer. This time it was a fine, plump specimen, filleted expertly at the table, which could not be faulted.

From the set menu, we shared a Town House Fool - vanilla cream, rhubarb preserve, apple cider sabayon, caramelised pastry stick – recommended by our waiter as we couldn't make up our mind between the choices on offer, each one sounding as tempting as the next. It would have been hard to go wrong with those elements and this was an excellent pudding. There is, by the way, no surcharge for Irish farmhouse cheese on the set menu, which must be a first.

We drank a glass of prosecco each followed by a Picpoul de Pinet (€29) from a concise, well-chosen wine list that offers plentiful choices by the glass and 500ml carafe (including the aforementioned Picpoul). Our bill came to €148.90 before service, which was excellent throughout.

The Cliff Town House
St Stephen's Green,
Dublin 2
(01) 638 3939
5/5