The evening crowd tends to be a little more racy than the lunchtime business types, but it's consistently enjoyable at any time. The Ivy is a great place for a gossip, and I can sit in there for hours watching who comes in. It's good for me because as a writer I live a rather solitary life, so when I go out I like to imagine I'm involved in the world. Thankfully, for a posh restaurant it doesn't oppress you with formality or any hideously trendy atmosphere. When I went there recently with my girlfriend we had black squid, which was extraordinary.

Delicious, despite being rather black and tentacley, a bit like eating spiders in machine oil. We also had Champagne and oysters, and chocolate mousse - The Ivy's version is definitely to die for. After a meal like that I can begin to understand those people who eat out all the time.The other restaurant that gets me out of the house is the Ta-Krai (100 North End Road, London W14, 0171 386 1874). It's a great Thai restaurant and it's just around the corner from my house. With a new baby in tow, you can begin to feel as though you haven't seen the outside world in months So when we feel that way we all go out to the Ta-Krai They cuddle the baby and whisk him off into the kitchen He comes back happy and smiling and smelling like a noodle.

Meanwhile, we tuck into green curry with prawns and deep-fried bean curd, topped with curry sauce and long beans.If you add good conversation and a relaxed atmosphere to good food, you have a good eating-out experience, in my book. Basically, you want to be at home but without having to do the washing up That, to me, is what it's all about. Is my home like The Ivy? No, it's more like a roadside caff .... l There are still a few tables left for next week's gourmet meals at Heathcote's Brasserie (01772 252732) in Preston (1 September) and Simply Heathcote's (0161 835 3536) in Manchester (2 September) - being held to celebrate the publication of Rhubarb & Black Pudding (Fourth Estate, pounds 20), the new book of Paul Heathcote recipes. Lunches cost pounds 50 for two and dinners pounds 70 for two, and include a signed copy of the book. l After a spell working for his pal Marco Pierre White at Les Saveurs and MPW Canary Wharf, chef Garry Hollihead is out to make his own culinary mark again.

Hollihead (who won acclaim and his Michelin star in the mid- Nineties at L'Escargot) is to lead the kitchens at Morton's, The Restaurant (0171 493 7171), which opens in London's Berkeley Square on 14 September. As it is situated in the building which houses Morton's club, this will be the first time in 200 years that non-members have been allowed through the door. l Hungry holidaymakers and surf dudes in Cornwall should check out Oceans Beach Bar and Grill (01326 250 251) which sits right next to Maenporth beach, near Falmouth. It is a new taverna-style establishment in the same building as the county's only Michelin-starred restaurant, Pennypots, and it shares the same chef, Kevin Viner. His delightful fresh fish dishes are on offer for just pounds 7.50 - something to bring a smile to everyone's face, even when the tide is low.. IT IS NEAR mid-winter in a Dublin restaurant. Our party, having eaten and drank for five hours, turns its attention to matters of philosophy Of mortality, to be exact Nothing reminds us more of mortality than winter. A fact is floated out, like an exotic fruit: people in Crete regularly live to 100 and beyond Pull the other one, we say.