If you've read this column before, you'll know I go on a bit about seafood -- in particular, why it's so readily available on the south and west coasts and so rare on the east coast.

For an island nation, we're unusual in our limited consumption of fish, as most island dwellers make fish the staple of their diet. With nutritionists telling us constantly about the importance of fish in the diet, maybe things will change.

But there's another part to not enjoying eating fish and it's this: unless fish is cooked well, it can be rather unpleasant. I know plenty of people who've been put off fish for life by what they were given at school. But for those of us who like eating it and for those who might like to give it a try, things are looking up. That old family name of Beshoff can now be found over a new venture in Howth and it's very good.

The main road end of the pier where Beshoff's has always been, has now been completely re-vamped. The shop has now become a very smart seafood emporium, nicely laid out and containing an oyster bar, a fresh fish counter, organic vegetables, wines and gourmet foods. Right next door they've built a brand new restaurant named Ivan's after a Beshoff forebear.

I arrived outside the new place with Stephen McAllister, a chef you might know from his appearances in the kitchen of RTE's The Restaurant. Ivan's looked inviting from outside, the windows allowing us a clear view of the bright interior. Just inside the door we bumped into one of Ireland's best-known restaurant reviewers and another arrived shortly afterwards -- you'd swear it was planned.

Actually, Ivan's had nothing to fear from this influx of reviewers; they do a very satisfying job. A good front of house staff is as important as a good kitchen, because the front of house sets the tone. Their job is to greet you, seat you and make your evening go as smoothly as possible. In Ivan's, you're met by Aidan Meyler -- who cut his teeth in L'Ecrivain and, more recently in The Mill -- a consummate professional. Couple this with the good food that I'm about to describe and you have a winning combination.

Now, if you're sitting in a room that's called an 'oyster bar and grill', you really have to try the oysters. So Stephen and I began with a couple of oyster shots -- you get three for €7.50. They make an interesting change from oysters au naturel, which would be my usual choice, and let me encourage you to try the 'ponzu' -- truly delicious.

And so to the menu. The starters are mostly seafood as you'd expect, running from €6 for the fish soup to €14 for shavings of pata negra, the very best Spanish cured ham. Scallops, peppered squid, gravadlax, mussels and crab cakes are all listed and Stephen chose the scallops to start. I chose a starter portion of bouillabaisse, one of the main courses.

There are 11 main courses to choose from, three of them meat based. We were both keen to try fish straight from the sea so Stephen chose the whole black sole at €36 and I chose the skate wing at €21.

The wine list runs to about 50 wines and there are some very good ones on it with a fair mark-up. Red wine drinkers aren't disadvantaged either, as there's an even spread to choose from. We settled on the Albarino, a pleasingly spicy wine from Spain's Galicia, which was listed at €29. Three bottles of sparkling water completed the drinks order.

The starters were good. Stephen had perfectly-cooked scallops, which came with a parsnip puree, and boned-out chicken wings. My bouillabaisse was not like a soup or stew, which is how you'd get it in Marseilles or Provence, but four varieties of fish served in neat pieces standing in a fish stock. Not traditional, but very good.

The main courses were a triumph of simplicity. It may seem counter-intuitive, but cooking simply is, in many ways, harder than cooking with a multiplicity of ingredients. When you've reduced a dish to its bare essentials, you have nowhere to hide if things go wrong. It takes great skill and some courage to produce a dish as simple and as perfect as what was placed before us. Stephen's black sole was presented on the bone and deftly filleted at the table. It was cooked to perfection, moist and firm, and served with nothing more than beurre noisette -- butter with hazelnut flour. My skate wing came with beurre noir, or black butter, not actually black, but browned in a pan with a dash of lemon and capers. We had a couple of side orders to go with these dishes, a rocket salad and green beans, but we needn't have bothered. There was an immensely generous amount of fish on both of our plates and we finished what we had with some difficulty.

It's been a long time since I had seafood as good as this. Not just really fresh, but so well cooked. It was encouraging that my chef dining companion felt the same way as I did, both about the quality of the cooking and the simplicity of the presentation. Later, after coffee, all three of us reviewers and our companions ended up at a table together comparing notes. Whatever was ordered was a success -- not a complaint between us. A bill for €135 without service seemed good value for a meal as good as this.

Ivan's Oyster Bar and Grill, 17-18 West Pier, Howth, Co Dublin. Tel: 01-839 0285

Emails to paolo@foodandwine.net

read paolo at www.tasteofireland.com

- Paulo Tullio