Food & Wine Ireland, the go-to for quality cuisine, has released The 101 Great Irish Restaurants guide for 2024.
Sponsored by Nespresso Professional, the award-winning food magazine’s prestigious list featured several top-notch restaurants, including 12 from Northern Ireland that “serve up delicious food, offer wonderful service and are well worth a visit”.
Here are the 12 best places to eat in NI, according to the 101 Great Irish Restaurants guide:
Deane’s at Queen’s, Belfast
Visit Deane’s for one of the most peaceful dining room experiences. A go-to for family celebrations, head chef Chris Fearon offers one of the best roasted crisp, perfectly moist and firm John Dory you will ever have. Other signature meals include the salad with whipped St Tola and breadcrumbed Korean chicken with wasabi aioli.
Ox, Belfast
With chef Stevie Toman in charge, this prestigious restaurant offers the best delicacy paired with some of the best wine and unparalleled cocktails. The vegetable-based dishes are outstanding. Chef-owner Stephen Toman has a uniquely enthusiastic approach to seasonal produce and the menu in general, while the Co-owner Alain Kerloc’h’s extensive experience as a sommelier and restaurant manager allows him to produce a drinks list featuring impressive local microbreweries and interesting winemakers. This explains why the restaurant was awarded one star in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain & Ireland 2023, the best restaurant (in Northern Ireland) at the National Restaurant Awards 2022, and several impressive titles.
Roam, Belfast
Located in the heart of Belfast, the restaurant is helmed by self-taught chef Ryan Jenkins. The talented footballer and chef creates mouthwatering food and snacks, including the highly recommended crushed roast potatoes, guaranteed to make you a return guest. The tasty food is served in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.
Stove, Belfast
This popular restaurant has a delighful menu featuring amuse bouches of Comté fritters and oysters served with apple, potato and onion soup with buttery croutons and Toons Bridge mozzarella with fancy tomatoes, watercress and pesto. The restaurant has some of the best staff in town.
The Muddlers Club, Belfast
Chef patron and tattooed biker Gareth McCaughey has created a unique, exciting blend of atmosphere and quality that makes guests feel cool immediately after they enter the place. The food is ever-changing and exciting, with dishes like the unforgettable blackened Mourne lamb, rainbow trout and “punk rock venison”. The open kitchen allows the diner to watch as ingredients are transformed into a food experience. You get carefully considered menus, a wine list, and an extensive cocktail list. The Club was awarded a one-star in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain & Ireland 2023 and has received several accredited awards.
Waterman, Belfast
Opened by Niall Mckenna and his team in June 2022, the restaurant offers a simple dining experience. It serves a local, seasonal menu paired with a short wine list, with local gins and beers changing monthly. The kitchen is headed up by head chef Aaron McNeice, who creates beautiful dishes worth every penny. The restaurant was awarded a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain & Ireland 2023.
See Also: Inside Orisha, A Belfast Bar With Good Music
Artis, Derry
Opened by Chef Phelim O’Hagan (Great British Menu Northern Ireland Finalist 2021) in December 2021, Artis (Latin for ‘Craft’) offers a high-end Michelin-recommended dining experience. Using the best quality local Irish ingredients, Phelim and his team prepare unique dishes along with an award-winning wine list and exceptionally high-quality service. The magazine recommends Chef Phelim O’Hagan’s Derry Salad.
Browns Bonds Hill, Derry
Chef Ian Orr delivers some of the best-quality dishes in the city, including the turf-smoked beef tartare, tarragon and grilled sourdough, new-season lamb rump, braised shoulder, lamb fat potato terrine with confit tomato, and the banging Sri Lankan curry cod dish. The restaurant also offers vegan and vegetarian options. It is renowned for its numerous accolades, innovative menus, and impeccable service.
Lir, Coleraine
Stevie McCarry heads the kitchen here and makes intriguing monkfish sausage rolls. Other recommendations include fish and exceptional chips with a historic homemade tartare and a Greencastle hake kiev with the lightest, butteriest chopped hispi.
Noble, Holywood
During COVID-19, this tiny restaurant turned to Noble At Home boxes for survival. Now, the restaurant is back and thriving, along with those popular boxes. Noble offers legendary Sunday lunches with baseball glove-sized Yorkies, as well as steak tartare with Bloody Mary dressing and sourdough fried in beef dripping. Be sure to check out the charming restaurant’s daily specials listed on the chalkboard.
Wine & Brine, Moira
After 20 years in London, chef Chris McGowan has returned home with his wife, Davina, to transform a fine Georgian house into a bright modern restaurant. With an open kitchen in the main restaurant and x2 private dining rooms, the restaurant offers great meals, including the crispy olives to the twice-baked cheese souffle and blood orange baba with rum and raisins. The restaurant was awarded a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain & Ireland 2023.
28 At The Hollow, Enniskillen
Helmed by husband-and-wife team Glen Wheeler and Zara McHugh, this restaurant offers delicious classic dishes, including seafood risotto, confit of duck, pan-fried hake with red pepper orzo, confit fennel, and Romanesco.
For the full 2024 guide, see here
