Let's celebrate: Nine top restaurants for your next special occasion
51 Cornmarket
51 Cornmarket Street, Cork; 083-0102321,
51cornmarket.ie
David Devereaux and Anne Zagar, 51 Cornmarket, Cork. Photograph: Corinna Hardgrave
Situated on Cork's historic Cornmarket, David Devereaux and Anne Zagar's small restaurant has become known in the city for exacting classic cooking executed with local ingredients on a seasonal menu that changes weekly. Start with Anne's home-made brown bread and burned onion butter, followed by unctuous duck liver parfait with spring Cork asparagus, anchovy and crispy egg followed by monkfish grilled on the bone finished with 'nduja cream.
Joanne Cronin
Bastible
111 South Circular Road, Dublin 8; 01-4737409,
bastible.com
Bastible, on Dublin's South Circular Road. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Bastible continues to stand proud on
Dublin's
Leonard's Corner, serving its unique Irish take on Nordic-style cuisine. Under owner Barry Fitzgerald and chef Killian Walsh, the clean, crisp cooking is sprinkled with rich notes. Think crab tartlet with fermented sweetcorn and tart grape juice, grilled sika deer with the glossiest port jus or a creamy mushroom custard made with mushrooms grown right across the road.
Read our full review
here
.
JC
Campagne
5 The Arches, 5 Gas House Lane, Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny; 056-7772858,
campagne.ie
Campagne in Kilkenny, where Garrett Byrne's food is rooted in the classics
When most
Michelin
-starred places are heading for three figures before you've ordered a drink, this one still turns out three courses at lunch and early-bird for €50. Garrett Byrne's food is rooted in the classics – ravioli of hand-dived scallop with fennel butter sauce, pancetta royale of Challans duck with spiced greengage purée, grilled octopus with braised chickpeas, Hereford beef with ox cheek croquette and green peppercorn salsa. Great ingredients, great cooking, great value.
Corinna Hardgrave
Everett's
22 High Street, Waterford; 051-325174,
everetts.ie
You don't expect one of the country's best set menus to come out of a 15th-century building in Waterford, but Peter Everett cooks with precision and care. Lunch is €38, pre-theatre €41, dinner €55 – for proper dishes like soft-boiled free-range egg with toasted brioche and cheese and onion cream, Wexford scallops with lentils and garlic sausage, and fillet of hake with smoked bacon, cabbage and potato. Eight outdoor seats sit under an awning, with heaters primed for Irish summers.
CH
READ MORE
Lignum
Slatefort House, Bullaun, Co Galway;
lignum.ie
Lignum's Molly Keane and Danny Africano. Photograph: Tristan Hutchinson
At Lignum, Danny Africano leads a kitchen where every plate passes over kiln-dried birch, ash and oak, threading smoke through some of the country's most precise cooking, while his wife, Molly Keane, runs front of house. The €145, 10-course tasting menu has included Killary Fjord mussel and sea urchin flan, red mullet and gambero rosso pasta, and wild venison just barely kissed by flame. A €70 five-course lunch runs at weekends. The
Michelin star finally landed in 2025
– three years later than it should have.
Read our full review
here
.
CH
Ox
1 Oxford Street, Belfast BT1 3LA; +44 28-90314121,
oxbelfast.com
Alain Kerloc'h at Ox, Belfast. Photograph: Stephen Davison
Big windows flood Ox with light, but the real draw is Stephen Toman's cooking – precise, inventive, and rooted in the seasons. Refurbished in 2023, the calm, understated room sets the stage for a kitchen quietly recognised as one of the sharpest on the island. Expect dishes like smoked Ballywalter veal with black garlic, or lobster brightened with broad beans and lemon grass, while Alain Kerloc'h's smart wine pairings pull it all together.
CH
Parrilla
7-9 Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6; 01-4970122,
parrillaranelagh.com
In case the name hasn't already given the game away, a parrilla grill sits at the heart of this Ranelagh restaurant. From restaurateur Jules Mak and head chef Hector Ochoa, charcoal flavour is infused into as many dishes as possible, from grilled half chicken in arbol and habanero sauce to caramelised pineapple with pickled onion and tangy tajin. The margarita menu is absolutely banging, especially the Verdita.
JC
Sister 7 at Fidelity
Fidelity Studio, 79 Queen Street, Dublin 7; 091-637530,
fidelitybar.ie
Sister 7 at Fidelity, Smithfield, Dublin.
Photograph: Laura Hutton
Fidelity Studio connects to Fidelity Bar through a slick interior door, making it easy to move between beers and bao. Sister 7 – a Big Fan collaboration – serves Chinese-style tapas using Irish produce and ingredients repurposed from Whiplash Beer's brewing waste. The dumplings and bao are solid, but the 'lip sticks' – fried cakes of fermented rice, yam, tofu and celeriac – are the move. Don't miss the Sichuan-style Irish lamb with cumin, chilli, sesame and curried chickpea popcorn. DJs keep the place buzzing.
Read our full review
here
.
CH
The Morrison Room
Carton House, Carton Demesne, Maynooth, Co Kildare; 01-5052000,
cartonhouse.com
Carton House chef Adam Nevin is modest and immensely talented
Laser sharp classical cooking, intense glossy sauces and innovative flavours all combined this year to land
a first Michelin Star for the beautiful Morrison Room
. It has been achieved under the leadership of local man Adam Nevin, who learned his craft at spots such as The Hand and Flowers in Buckinghamshire and The Grill at the Dorchester in London. Expect much, much more from this modest, immensely talented chef.
Read our full review
here
.
JC
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Notions Address : 74 Francis St, The Liberties, Dublin 8, D08 KA43. Telephone : N/A Cuisine : Modern International Website : Cost : €€€ It's called Notions – which tells you everything and nothing. Once an insidious put-down designed to keep you in your place, it's now tossed around half-laughing by the same people who used to mean it. Oh, notions! – as if ambition were something to be embarrassed about. It's an interesting name for a restaurant – either dry wit with a flick of the fringe, or a quiet middle finger with polite defiance. Possibly both. Notions is what happens after Two Pups cafe on Francis Street, Dublin 8 , closes for the day and flips from flat whites to fermented funk. It's the evening shift – a hybrid wine bar and restaurant with no minimum spend. You can drop in for a glass and a couple of snacks, or do as we do: rifle through most of the menu, which runs on a spine of nibbles, snacks, and plates (small and large). The wine is natural – of course it is – organic or biodynamic, probably foot-stomped in a 200-year-old stone trough for Percheron horses. Everything's by the glass, arranged not by grape or region but by natty wine taxonomy – Go-To, Elegant & Playful, Lil' Funky, Mad Funky – a spectrum from 'you'll like this' to 'you might not, but at least it's interesting'. [ Summer 2025: 100 great places to eat around Ireland Opens in new window ] The staff are charming and quick with tasters. A few natty heads linger outside, but most – including two high-profile influencers – are just here for a good glass and a bite. We steer clear of the funkier stuff and go for a bottle of Château Coupe Roses (€48) – crunchy red fruit, bursts of bramble, a vin vivant – which throws off a reassuring amount of debris. READ MORE We start with sourdough (€6), baked that morning in Bold Boy, the in-house bakery. It's topped with whipped cod's roe and chives chopped with the kind of precision that would earn full marks from @ratemychives on Instagram. A Connemara oyster (€4) with jalapeño granita leaves my mouth tingling, the oyster's brine a prominent note against the heat of the granita. Notions, Francis Street, Dublin 8. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times And then on to the snacks, at €9 each. Radishes are piled on top of romesco sauce and dusted with hazelnuts. The romesco delivers a rich, peppery depth, lifted with a splash of wild garlic oil. Ham hock croquettes are made with a light hand – hot, loose, and smoky with Gubbeen, with an assertive mustard mayo. If you're a little croquetas-jaded, these will restore your faith. And the tempura of purple sprouting broccoli, dappled in filaments of a light crunchy batter, is glossed with gochujang mayo and dusted with nori powder. The small plates section is where the chef starts speaking in ingredient haiku: oyster mushroom, shimeji, black garlic, tarragon (€12). It is a great dish. The oyster mushroom and shimeji have an earthy, roasted edge, the black garlic smoulders, and the tarragon adds a bit of punch. Notions: From left, radish, romesco, chive oil and hazelnuts; asparagus, guanciale, gnocchi, Parmesan and cavolo nero; Connemara oyster with jalapeño granita; caramelised white chocolate, strawberries and buckwheat sponge. Photograph: Alan Betson Ham hock croquettes, mustard aioli with smoked Gubbeen. Photograph: Alan Betson Sommelier Finn Lowney and chef Andrew Kelly. Photograph: Alan Betson Crispy purple potato, greens, anchovy dressing (€14) turns out to be the dish of the evening. The Ballymakenny potatoes are smashed, cooked in their skins, and just this side of charred. The greens are a mix of rocket, kale and roasted spring onions, and the anchovy dressing is sharp, with a smoky finish pulling the whole thing together. On to the large plates and asparagus, guanciale, gnocchi, Parmesan, kale (€18) is smaller than expected – but the price reflects it. Pan-fried spears of asparagus are nestled alongside gnocchi and crispy cavolo nero in a Parmesan cream, with crispy guanciale adding a punch of salty umami. Iberico pork cheek, nduja, butter bean cassoulet, salsa verde (€26) is a satisfying dish. The meat is tender without falling into 'melts in the mouth' territory; the cassoulet is loose, thick, and rich with nduja heat; and the salsa verde is snappy, vivid with acidity, bringing a welcome counterpoint. For dessert, there's just one option – caramelised white chocolate, raspberries, and buckwheat sponge (€10), an unfussy end. The raspberries are sharp, the sponge is light and nutty, and the white chocolate comes in just enough to soften the edges. An unfussy end: Caramelised white chocolate, raspberries, and buckwheat sponge. Photograph: Alan Betson Andrew Kelly, who heads up the kitchen, has an impressive background – Ballymaloe, Noma , Bastible , Potager – and it shows. The food is intelligent, modern and deeply considered, but never overwrought. The kitchen works with a precision that quietly outclasses the influencer glow in the diningroom. There's technique, sure, but also restraint – the rarest thing in a city still impressed by edible flowers and truffle oil. There's no plate pile-up. No ceremony. The pacing just works. And Notions? For all the irony, all the shrugging cool, here's the joke: it's not style over substance. It's quite simply, substance, styled well. Dinner for three with a bottle of wine was €165. The Verdict: Small plates, natural wine, and no minimum spend. Food provenance: Crowe's Farm, Ballymakenny Farm, McNally Farm, La Rousse and Caterway. Vegetarian options: The menu is primarily vegetarian. Wheelchair access: Accessible room with no accessible toilet. Music: Soul, jazz and reggae.
