The Old Glen Bar is named in The Sunday Times’ definitive Top Ten restaurants

The Old Glen Bar and Restaurant has made The Sunday Times’ definitive Top Ten restaurants as part of its annual 100 Best Restaurants list sponsored by Cully and Sully - the ultimate guide to eating out in Ireland.

The Old Glen, based in Glen village, Carrigart, is number six and is ranked the highest in the country outside of Dublin and Cork.

The Sunday Times describe it as: "Ciarán's food feeds something deep down in your soul," a renowned Cork chef told us once. It's true. Ciaran Sweeney is a gifted chef, one of the very best of his generation. But it's the emotional impact that eating his cooking at the Olde Glen delivers that makes his food transcendent.

“Returning to his native Donegal after working in the capital has simply added further depth to the unique terroir based food Sweeney cooks - Burtonport crab with sesame and pear, Mulroy Bay scallops with bagna cauda, Gortahork cabbage with his much-imitated fermented potato bread, the classic Olde Glen Bar tiramisu. Sweeney weaves magic from these ingredients, using sauces as a counterpoint, and finding endless depths of flavour in things like cep custard, or duck liver and heart tartlet, or romesco with pickled seaweed. This is some of the finest cooking in Ireland, expressive of its place, and pure joy to eat.”

The top five is made up of Uno Mas, Dublin; Goldie, Co. Cork; Allta, Dublin; Kicky’s, Dublin; and Dede at the Customs House, Co Cork.

A county-by-county guide was also published, with Fisk, in nearby Downings, receiving a thumbs up.

“Tony Davidson cooks like an angel. For more than five years, since he and his partner, Lina Reppert, opened this wee room at the Harbour Bar, up the hill at Downings, Davidson has shown that he has few peers when it comes to cooking fish and shellfish,” they say.

“He is a true maestro, alive to the nuances of the day's catch and artfully creative in getting the seafood to be its best. He can do fish and chips to perfection, and his chowder with cream sauce and fresh herbs is second to none. But it's when Davidson starts roaming around the oceans that you see the real spark of his creativity, so banh mi are made with prawns and a kimchi slaw, and his fish tacos are what you might eat in Baja. The Fisk fish curry would be a wowzer in Goa, and the prawn dumplings would be celebrated in Zhoushan. Go to Downings and you sail the globe."

Compiled by renowned food critics John and Sally McKenna, this is their fourth decade covering the 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland and their eighth edition with The Sunday Times. The Top Ten and the full list of the 100 Best Restaurants is available online.

Irish restaurants offer a unique and distinctive cultural experience which is captured in each of the restaurants featured in the Top 100, while the Top Ten celebrates the very best of Irish dining, with the experience being as exciting as the food on the plate.