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WHEN YOU WALK into a restaurant and the first thing you see are little bottles of the lovely Brancaia estate extra virgin olive oil on every table, you know you’re likely to be in good hands. And then, when you see things like “Connemara air-dried meats” and “Donard pak choi” and “Bunclody rose veal” you breathe a sigh of relief. Well, if you’re like me, you do.

First impressions in restaurants are important. I have never eaten decent food in a restaurant that greets you with the hideous scent of air-freshener. Equally, I’ve never had a bad meal in a restaurant that assails your nostrils with the curious amalgam of sensory stimuli that amount to the smell – the reek, almost – of good cooking.