On a chilly winter’s evening, the twinkling lights of the La Peniche barge seemed particularly inviting. The warmth of the welcome further banished any winter chill, and the interior was as cosy as it gets.

Plush red cushions, homely faux gas lamps, highly varnished wood and quaint portholes are combined with smooth background jazz to create an atmosphere of old-fashioned but uncluttered charm.

My Thursday night visit coincided with a cruise up and down the canal, which meant arriving punctually at 7.30pm for an 8pm departure. I was with a fellow ‘food professional’ - the politically correct word to describe those in the catering industry. She works in Dublin’s luxurious five-star Merrion Hotel, so her standards are pretty high.

The wine list has about 20 wines from across Europe, small but perfectly formed and offering something for all tastes priced from €22.50 to €40.My companion settled on a bottle of modestly-priced white Bordeaux, Entre-Deux-Mers, Chateau Sainte Marie 2005 (€22.50), which delivered all the stylish promise its name suggests.

The menu is simple but classic, offering some real treats as well as old-fashioned favourites.

The chicken and leek soup with tarragon scent (€6.50) looked tempting, as did the half-dozen Galway Bay oysters with brown bread and lemon (€9.50).

Seasonal favourites came in the form of baked black pudding and sauteed apples in a red wine jus (€9.50). A lighter buffalo mozzarella with roasted vine tomatoes (€9.50) is also on offer.

My companion had the smoked salmon with blinis and dill cream (€9.50). This was beautifully presented, but not overly fussy, with a sprinkling of orange salmon roe and a feather of green dill. The blinis were properly warm, and the quality salmon was matched by a real zing of dill. A classically superb starter.

I had the baked mussels in garlic butter and tomato sauce (€8.50). These were served out of their shells in a snail dish, so each mussel had its own little crevice. Interestingly, this delivered the same highly pungent concentration of flavours you often get with snails.

The garlic and tomatoes had transmogrified into an intense combination of sharp and sweet notes, well matched with the deeper notes of the shellfish achieved by this method of cooking. No complaints here for a great whack of wintry flavour as a starter.

Two dishes are also on offer as starter or main course: a vol-au-vent of mushrooms (starter €9.50, main €17.50) cooked in white wine with a mesclun salad; and a mixed charcuterie platter (starter €9.50,main €17.50) of duck rillettes (which seemed to be all the rage now), country pate, cured ham and bread. Foie gras can be added for €6.50.

For the main course, I had baked Toulouse sausage served with basil pesto champ and thyme jus (€17.50). This is a perennial favourite, difficult to get wrong and rarely innovative.

However, a stylish touch with this dish lifted it from the ordinary, as the sausage had been sliced into three for presentation purposes and the punchy basil mash added an extra strong note to the highly-flavoured sausage and deeply-flavoured jus.

A whole roasted tomato and a sprig of chervil completed the rustic symphony of flavours.

This was a real humdinger of a dish that radiated quality with every gorgeous mouthful.

My companion had the roast baby chicken (€19) with roast potatoes and garlic butter.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

But this is a risk for less competent chefs with cheap ingredients.

Crispy skin revealed moist meat married simply with garlic and all sorts of crispy bits and wedges of potatoes that would make you weep.

We thought they had been cooked in goose fat, but they had simply been roasted with strong olive oil and seasoning.

Faultless.

Other main courses included slow-cooked lamb shank, couscous, tomato and marinated peppers (€19.50); confit of duck leg, pomme puree and cassis jus (€18.50); and salmon and smoked fish fie with a white wine sauce and mashed potato (€19.50).

The chef and proprietor here, Eric Tydgadt, is unashamedly Gallic, or perhaps I should say continental (he’s from Belgium).

He is also immensely practical.

Some items are organic, such as the superb Blazing Salads baker’s bread, and others are simply sourced for their quality, such as the sausages from Toulouse and the French cheese from Gavin Matthews.

But the simple menu also hides some real professionalism. The confined kitchen space restricts the dishes on offer, but Tydgadt uses this to his advantage, concentrating on dishes which work well by being prepped in advance.

For dessert, my companion had bread and butter pudding (€6.50) which disappeared in a flash and was declared delicious.

I had a five-cheese platter (€9) of mature artisan cheeses, all French.

It might have been better chambreed, but was pretty good nonetheless. The cheese was especially tasty with my glass of Coteaux de Layon 2002 (€9.60), which I can never resist, as I went to the university near there.

Including a faultless kir royale (€12), mineral water (€4.50) and a €10 supplement for the cruise, the bill came to €144.10.

This works out at €72.05 each, which reflects our desire to try everything rather than high prices. Superb food, lovely service and a great location - it looks like La Peniche is cruising for success.

La Peniche: Floating Bistro & Wine Bar, Grand Canal, Mespil Road, Dublin 4. Tel: 087–7900077.