There are quite a few restaurants in Dublin that I have been meaning to try, because I like the menu, they offer a good value set menu, or I've heard good reports about it. Boulevard Café falls into the latter category, and a few of my friends and colleagues have tried it out. All have enthused about the good value and tasty food, so on a cold Monday evening I joined my good friend Ciara for some thing hot to warm and fill our empty bellies.

From the window outside, the room looks quite small. But they say looks can be deceiving and we sat in the middle of quite a long high ceiling-ed room with a large bar and coffee dock at the end. The kitchen, toilets and private party room are located downstairs. All the staff were male, and a pleasure to the eye! Beautiful fairy lights adorned parts of the ceiling and the windows, and the ornate decorations and cherubs were so very tastefully decorated in true Christmas fashion. Some very nice background music leant a very romantic atmosphere and I remarked to Ciara, 'if only…'!!

We forwent starters having spied the wicked dessert menu. The main courses included some very tasty red meat, chicken, fish and pasta dishes, but in the end, we both settled on pizza: a frutti di mare (8.27) for me and the bianco verde (8.27) for Ciara. A glass of house red (2.84) each washed it down. The 9" thin crust pizzas were very tasty. The mozzarella didn't quite reach the border; plenty of shrimp, baby prawns, anchovies, mussels and a few pieces of calamari leant a very tasty topping to my choice, although the saltiness was a bit over powering, especially for one that doesn't take salt on her food.

Ciara's pizza offered toasted cheery tomatoes, sour cream and I think some spinach. I had a taste and it was divine. Small but very, um, tasty! Onto the grande finale and it was the caramel and praline mousse for Ciara: a biscuit base with a very unusual tasting mousse cake. My double chocolate gateau consisted of a layer of chocolate biscuit base, a layer of white and then dark chocolate mousse, then a chocolate coating. Plus a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. It all sounds very rich, but I promise you, it couldn't have been lighter! Both were 3.95, good decent portions and sinfully delicious. A bill for 30.62 left us nicely sated. Perhaps pizza is not their specialty, but I would certainly return to sample other dishes, especially the Baileys cheesecake…and perhaps the cute barman too!

Tel. 01 679 2131