Five Dish Cult venues in National Geographic top 10 list

In second place is Pilgrim’s – a deceptively simple restaurant. The menus here change daily, featuring the best local produce the kitchen can get their hands on. Dishes on the set menus might include a light but agreeably autumnal pork belly served with apple, blackberry and pickled beetroot, or albacore tuna pinging with tomatoes and crispy kale.

Following Pilgrim’s in third place is The Muddlers Club in Belfast. Located in the buzzy Cathedral Quarter, chef Gareth McCaughey’s Muddlers Club is like a gourmet geocache hidden in its backstreets. Named after a secret society that met here over 200 years ago, it’s a social space with a post-industrial feel softened by lovely ceramics, big windows and a small cocktail bar. The open kitchen, meanwhile, serves up a slick balance of confident, Michelin starred cuisine that never feels overbearing — think Mourne lamb with aubergine and dukka, for example, or duck with charred carrot, miso and almond (you’ll be asking how they cook those chips, too).

Fourth on the list is The Olde Glen, a cosy bar and restaurant that sits at both a foodie and an actual crossroads — to which Donegal native Ciarán Sweeney returned from Forest & Marcy in Dublin. The room is a former dancehall; the pub right next door; and the chef elevates ingredients like house-smoked Atlantic salmon, oysters or market fish — for example, fillet of Greencastle cod or hake paired with cauliflower and coconut, crab fregola and a light curry velouté.

MacNean House in Co. Cavan sits at number seven on the list. Neven Maguire is one of Ireland’s best-known chefs, with plenty of TV shows and cookery books to his name, but remains disarmingly enthusiastic. The dining room is a formal affair, layered in white linen, while the ‘Prestige Menu’ is an Irish classic skilfully anchored in French technique — from a ‘Study of Shellfish’ marrying seared scallop, prawn kataifi and crab ravioli to the braised short rib sliding in jus.

The final entry on the list is mae in Dublin. Service at mae’s starts with three elevated snacks — a rich, pillowy piece of chicken thigh on a skewer with surprising discs of cornichon, or a crumbed taste bomb mixing lamb, date and gruyere. Irish produce like Durrus cheese and Abernethy Butter take pride of place, and dishes are brought to life by chefs who may add a spoon of sauce (or sweet Calvados syrup for head chef Gráinne O’Keefe’s signature tart tatin).

Topping the list was another Dublin-based restaurant – Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen. For three decades, Chapter One has wowed food lovers while tickling the tummies of well-heeled regulars, and a recent reboot under chef Mickael Viljanen moves the dial deliciously. He’s a Finn who knows Irish food inside out, a technical wizard who composes like an artist, and madly ambitious (many expect this will be Ireland’s first three-Michelin star restaurant).