I rarely pass Gee's in Banbury Road without wishing I were inside, fork in one hand, champagne flute in the other. Glimpsed through the gleaming glass, the buzz of activity at this very popular restaurant has a special pull of its own. Well-dressed patrons are clearly about the business of enjoying themselves, as staff labour to ensure they do. This is a place where people go to see other people and to be seen. How fortunate, then, that its design so perfectly assists in this process.

I cannot afford to submit to my compulsion very often, for Gee's is certainly not cheap at any rate in the evening. There is an attractive express lunch, though, costing £12.95 for two courses and £14.95 for three. Chef Michael Wright's current offering is potato and leek soup with goat's cheese and chives, potted smoked salmon, melba toast or risotto with spinach, sorrel and mushrooms, followed by grilled pollock with charlotte potato and leek salad, parsley butter, open roast beef sandwich with watercress and horseradish cream or friss salad with purple sprouting, poached egg, shaved fennel and toasted almonds, with coffee ice cream chocolate brownie or Montgomery cheddar to finish. At night, you can pay significantly more just for a starter as we did a couple of Saturdays ago, the last occasion I gave into temptation.

After watching Oxford United romp to victory over Peterborough (don't mention last week's game!) and listening to Tim Mowl's witty discourse on William Kent during the Oxford Literary Festival, I was anxious that the day should end on a similarly high note. And if you are thinking that I couldn't have known that we would win the match, or that the talk would be enjoyable, when I booked the table as, of course, you must here you are absolutely right. I just felt good about the prospect, though.

Restaurateur Jeremy Mogford was similarly optimistic when, 22 years ago, he took over the elegant conservatory that had been built to Harry Wilkinson Moore's design in 1896 as a home for Gee's plant and flower shop. When the business closed in the early 1980s, the future of the building looked uncertain until Jeremy came up with his restaurant plan. I remember, as if it were yesterday, standing with him in in the shell of the empty building in December 1983 as he outlined his ideas. Seven months later, the 90-seat restaurant opened. Writing about it in The Oxford Times, I quoted the then Oxford conservation officer, John Ashdown, who said of this gem of Victorian architecture: "If this new use had not been found, I am sure it would have just rotted away or been demolished."

For a period the place was in other hands. Raymond Blanc owned it for a while, when his chef John Burton Race first began to make his name. But it was not long before Jeremy bought it back as an ornament to a group of quality establishments that also came to include the Old Bank and Old Parsonage hotels.

Regular readers may guess that dinner at a restaurant so close to my favourite pub, the Rose and Crown in North Parade, will inevitably have been preceded by a 'sharpener' there. I chose it as the obvious place to meet Rosemarie, who had passed on both football and festival to devote herself to a pile of marking. She was ready for a glass of French sauvignon blanc as was I. There could be no lingering, though, as the clock was ticking fast towards our 9.30pm booking. (This was the earliest we could be fitted in when I had phoned that morning. We were called back later I suppose to ensure this would not be a 'no-show'.) In the faultless way of well-run establishments, we arrived at Gee's and found ourselves enveloped in a cocoon of care. The welcome, the checking of details, the spiriting away of coats and brollies, seemed to happen all at once, after which were were wafted towards a table in the middle of the room. Like all the others it boasted a pot of growing greenery. "What is it?" Rosemarie asked waitress Katie, she being more interested in this sort of thing than I. "Lots of people ask that." Katie said. "It has got a foreign name I can't remember, but unfortunately it translates as 'Mind Your Own Business'. The other day I found someone chopping bits on to his plate at the start of his meal, thinking it was a new way of serving salad." (This is understandable since the plant, a menace in lawns, looks rather like cress.) We kept our hunger pangs at bay rather more conventionally with a bowl of anchovies and chopped shallots with crostini (£3.50) one of the four appetisers available while we waited for our dinner to be served. We also enjoyed the first sips of our wine, Sauvignon Blanc 2005 Casa Rivas from Chile's Maipo Valley (£16.95).

Rosemarie, who wanted a starter of scallops, was disappointed to be told at the ordering stage (it ought to have been made clear earlier) that none were available. Instead, she made a speedy substitution to pan-fried foie gras with fig and toasted brioche (£13.50). When it arrived runnily red, she wished she had asked for it rather better cooked. She would also prefer not to have had the chewy veins left in the liver.

I had a plate of smoked salmon (£12) its high price explained by the fact that it came from Frank Hederman's Cork smokery and is reckoned by many to be the best in the world. Truly, it was delicious with freshly baked bread and unsalted butter but, then, all smoked salmon tastes wonderful to me.

Having looked at an on-line menu earlier in the day, I had intended my main course to be grilled lemon sole. This was not on the menu we were given, for reasons I can easily imagine to do with supply. Misleading the customer in such matters is something that will increasingly happen in these internet times. Can anything be done? Instead, I had a more than adequate substitute in grilled fillet of bass (£21) with lemon sauce and purple sprouting, one of the true joys of spring.

Rosemarie had a very refined cheeseburger (£12.95) made with meat from the Angus herd reared at Jeremy Mogford's Rofford estate, Cornish yarg and hand-cut chips. Understanding of the word 'medium' appears to be different in Gee's kitchen than elsewhere, however, since most of the meat was red raw.

I finished with vanilla rice pudding with poached pear (£5), which was excellent, while Rosemarie had a small but very rich chocolate pot (£4.50).