Eamonn O'Reilly was one of the first restaurateurs in Dublin to understand just how hard 2009 was going to be. Last autumn he introduced a three-course lunch special for €19.95. Originally intended as a temporary offer in the run-up to Christmas, it is now set to continue indefinitely (as are his fixed-price evening menus) – for, he says, "as long as it continues to be popular and catches the imagination of my customers and suppliers". Many of the other better restaurants around the city centre are now offering similar deals and their establishments are packed too. And why wouldn't they be? It's win-win – the punters get a decent feed at a fair price and the restaurants hang on to their staff and have the satisfaction of seeing their rooms full. It's good for morale on both sides of the pass. And it's the kind of thing that perhaps we should have had more of during the good years, instead of allowing ourselves to be ripped off so comprehensively for so long.

Thursday lunchtime and the place is hopping. Every table is occupied. There are men in suits talking business, a couple celebrating an anniversary, a gang of friends marking a birthday, two sisters catching up on gossip. One Pico is an unobtrusive restaurant, low-key décor-wise, comfortable and unthreatening. It's the kind of place that wouldn't scare the horses.

The lunch offering is more than impressive for the price. There's a choice of six starters, five mains and five puddings. The menu does not read cheap, and there are no corners cut in the delivery of the food. Smoked haddock brulée, cucumber pickle, melba toast was what I would have ordered but one of my guests got there first and liked it so much that no one else got a taste. I will just take her word for it that it was "absolutely delicious". Crab risotto, sweet peas and saffron, bisque foam also went down very well (and very quickly – no taste of that for me either). My beetroot and goat's cheese mousse, candied walnuts was good if unremarkable – thin slivers of beetroot sandwiching balls of dense mousse.

Pheasant breast, chestnut and bacon stuffing, cep and truffle cream was a terrific winter dish for a cold day. Crisp pork belly, apple and clove, black pudding hash, braised shallots was seriously good – the pork far less obviously fatty than this sometimes risky cut can be. It was literally melt-in-the-mouth wonderful. The only disappointment was the shoulder of lamb, potato and parsnip purée, root vegetables, mint bearnaise which for some reason that I don't understand attracted a supplement of €3.95. Shoulder is not an expensive cut – quite the contrary. The meat had been compressed into a timbale and the texture wasn't pleasant.

A decent portion of Cashel Blue with quince was in perfect condition. The vanilla and amaretti cheesecake mousse, red fruits earned the accolade of "quite possibly the nicest dessert I have ever eaten". Walnut and date ice cream, sticky toffee doughnuts gave a meaningful sugar fix and insured that at least one of us would be dropping off at her desk come mid-afternoon.

With a bottle of mineral water, a side of green beans, three very good coffees and a single glass of Australian Blue Pyrenees, cabernet sauvignon – shiraz, our bill for three came to €94.05, to which we added €15 for friendly and efficient service. If you stuck rigidly to the three-course menu, drank tap water, had the coffee back in the office and still left a reasonable tip, you could get out of One Pico for less than €25 a head – great value for food of this quality.

One Pico

5-6 Molesworth Place,

Schoolhouse Lane, Dublin 2

Tel: 01 676 0300

Rating: 4/5